Today when I took the four-year-old, “A” to her counseling session I got an unexpected surprise. The therapist who provides her counseling looked me in the eyes and said, “We need to talk.” I was a little apprehensive as I followed her into her office.

Then she said those dreaded words, the ones you hate to hear from a therapist if you have a special needs child. “I’m afraid that I’ve done all I can for “A,” so I’d like to close out her case.” My brain screamed, “WHAT, YIKES, ARE YOU SERIOUS?” I looked at her calmly and nodded.

She proceeded to explain her reasoning to me. Initially we had agreed upon a three-month period of therapy and this concluded our fourth month. In her opinion, the child had worked through her grief-loss issues and improved her interaction during play. In fact, she (the therapist) had not witnessed any inappropriate behavior during play therapy over the past several weeks. What had I been seeing at home with “A” and was I in agreement with closing the case.

I began listing the positive changes I had been noticing in A’s behavior. While she still threw temper tantrums almost daily, she no longer beat her head against the floor or wall during them. She had decreased blowing snot and spit bubbles during tantrums to about once a week instead of during every tantrum.

While she still hits the baby sometimes during play, she frequently offers to share her toys and readily returns the baby’s hugs. I haven’t heard her say that she killed her baby brother in months, nor does she talk about him everyday anymore. When she does talk about him, it is usually when she prays and she asks Jesus to take care of him.

Yes, she has made a lot of progress. I asked the therapist about the intake procedure if we should need to start therapy again. She indicated that the file would still be in the computer and we would only need to add a few sentences to update A’s case and begin therapy again. In the end, I agreed to stop therapy, at least for a little while.


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