Evaluation and treatment of the family of a twelve-year-old boy

Abstract

This article gives a detailed account of a twelve-year-old boy and his parents, seen from the perspective of both the child's and the couple's therapists, and then from that of visiting teachers and a commentator in the Continuous Training Course in Family and Couple Therapy carried out with The Beijing Zhi-Dao-Zhong-He Medical Institute, which is directed by our collaborator, Fang Xin. The referral concerns a twelve-year-old boy who we will call Haitao (not his real name), whose symptoms included compulsive hand washing, social isolation, difficulty making decisions, and hesitation in answering questions and in initiating actions. He was initially referred for individual therapy. After his individual therapist met with the family, she suggested parent therapy at the same time that she initiated weekly child therapy. There was instability in his therapy because when his first therapist became pregnant, he was referred to a second therapist who met twice with him before resigning and referring him to a third therapist, who then recommended that he return to his first therapist. We all noted from the outset that this therapeutic instability had a negative effect on the family's adaptation to Haitao's therapy. This case report details a consultation to two difficult therapies for a neuroatypical boy and his parents.