Love and Sorrow (Small Town Secrets Book 5), стр. 19

“What exactly will that do?”

“If she doesn’t feel comfortable talking around you, we’ll remove that barrier.”

“What?  I’m her mother, for God’s sake.”

Rebecca remained calm.  “It’s too early to say for certain, but her behavior suggests something fairly serious.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t want to guess.  But if she’s scared of saying something in front of you, it would be more beneficial for her and me to be alone to talk.”

“You don’t think I’ve done anything, do you?  Because if that’s the case, I’d like to set the record straight right now.”

“No, no.  I don’t think that.  Sarah doesn’t act afraid of you.  I just think she’s hesitant about talking in front of you.  Have you tried talking to her about this before?”

“More times than I can count.”

“She’s holding something in.  I don’t know why yet.  But we’ll find out.  And I’m not saying I want you out of the sessions all the time.  Just until we discover the root cause.  Is that all right?”

I didn’t think I had much of a choice—but maybe she really was making headway with my daughter.  “Okay.”

“You seem uncertain about this.  Is there anything you need to tell me?”

My eyes widened as I wondered if this woman could read my every fear, psychoanalyze my every movement.  “No.  I’m just very concerned about Sarah.  Did you read in the paperwork that she set a fire in the girls’ bathroom trash earlier this week?”

“Yes, I did.  She’s acting out.”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“There’s something she’d holding inside that she wants to let out, but she doesn’t know how, because she’s overwhelmed by her emotions.  So she acts out—she can’t figure out other ways to deal with her feelings right now.  She copes with them through negative, destructive behaviors.  But, at the same time, she also appears to be depressed.  I’m tempted to talk with her pediatrician about prescribing an antidepressant, but I think that may be premature.  I want to talk to Sarah more first.”

“Can you help her?”

“I’m certain of it.  But we’ve got to do it my way.”

I nodded, pursing my lips.

“I’m going to spend this session and next just making Sarah comfortable and getting to know her.  While I don’t want to prolong discovery too long, I also don’t want to jeopardize establishing trust.  I’ll probably spend our next session doing standard things like word association, talking about dreams, that kind of thing.  I don’t expect these techniques to reveal anything, but they’ll make me appear more legitimate in Sarah’s eyes while taking the focus off herself long enough to feel more comfortable about me.  Those kinds of things are less direct than questions.  Then we’ll move into play therapy and that’s how I expect to get the answers we’re looking for.”

“Okay.”

“I’d like to meet for two sessions a week so we can keep up any momentum we gain.  Will that work for you?”

“It’ll have to.  I’ll need to make accommodations at work and school, but that’s okay.”

“My appointments are fairly flexible.  You can schedule the next one with my secretary before you leave.”

When we reentered the room, we found Sarah sitting in the same place she’d been when we’d left, her chin still buried in her chest.

The rest of the session continued as before, with Rebecca asking Sarah gentle but probing questions, promising they’d do something different in the next session.  While Sarah seemed apathetic, she was paying attention, giving the woman more eye contact than I’d had from her in a long time—which, actually, gave me hope that this might work.

As we were leaving, Rebecca said, “I promise I’ll help you, Sarah.  Your mother and I don’t want you to suffer anymore.”

Although the corners of Sarah’s mouth turned up slightly, I also didn’t miss the shadow that crossed over my child’s eyes—and I prayed that I hadn’t brought her here too late.