The Plan

Evan is now totally ticked at the therapist. He is not speaking to Dr. Dan. So Dr. Dan asked to talk with me instead. He seemed a bit bewildered by the total turn-around in Evan's behavior toward him. I explained that Evan is now blaming Dr. Dan for the level system instead of blaming me or Don. Dr. Dan responded that this is not usually the way the level system works. Normally, parents would introduce the level system. Then the kid goes in to tell Dr. Dan about the crazy new thing the parents are doing. Dr. Dan can listen and offer sage advice to help the little darling begin to accept responsibility for their actions and see how their choices are leading to their consequences. That sets the parents up as the bad guy, but Dr. Dan is at least able to offer counsel. In this instance, the kiddie is ticked at Mom & Dad for enforcing the level system and at Dr. Dan because it his system.

Dr. Dan responded to my displeasure with the introduction of the level system by saying that he has never presented the level system to a kid himself before--- and our current situation is why. He did not apologize for painting any potential for failure of the plan as the fault of Don and I last week, but I am satisfied without an apology. The reason for Dr. Dan's presentation of the level system is because Evan had provided such a glowing version his life that it absolutely threw Dr. Dan to hear about what we have been dealing with at home. We are now wondering how much purpose there is to keeping the next appointment if Evan will not talk with Dr. Dan. I figure we will keep taking him to the appointments for a few weeks. If he still refuses to talk to Dr. Dan in 2-3 weeks we can revisit whether or not to continue. We will keep him on the level system as it is set right now.