With Therapist D today we did the two hand technique again.  It seems to be the most helpful with him.

We picked up where we left off last week with one big change.  Last week he was "holding" the thought "my parents weren't ready to be parents" in his right hand and "this is all my fault" in his left hand.

Therapist D wanted to change the thought of the right hand.  She said what we had talked about last week implied that if they had been given enough time they might have been able to become good parents.  She asked Younger Boy if we could change the thought to "my parents were not safe".  He agreed.

When he worked through this he got to a point of anger and then sadness.  Gone was the thought this is all his fault.

He had more questions.  What were his parents supposed to do that they didn't do?  We had to explain that while we didn't know for sure there are things that ALL PARENTS are supposed to do so those would have been on the list.

Therapist D told him she was VERY PROUD of him.  She complimented him on using his thinking brain to do grown-up problem solving.

We talked about two methods of problem solving.  One that works and one that doesn't.  You can pretend there is no problem OR you can say "I have a problem" and try to solve it.  If you can't do it on your own you can ask for help.  We talked about how pretending makes you feel better in the beginning, but in the end makes you feel yucky and how saying you have a problem feels a little yucky in the beginning, but feels great in the end.

He said without any prompt "I don't want to pretend anymore."

PRAISE GOD!!  I am so thankful for these sessions today.  I have been so frustrated with him lately and this is what I needed to hear him say today.  God knew.