I saw 10-year-old John yesterday for the first time. He had two homes before going to his adoptive family 8 years ago and has more than the usual level of difficulties. He seemed brighter and happier when he left, and his mom, Julie, was very receptive to the therapy and home plan. Six hours later, I received this email (bolded text, mine throughout):
Dear Ruth,
John has seemed “terrific” today after his session with you. (His word). He is calmer, better able to understand jokes, and just generally happier and more loving. The latter is pretty giant, in his case. I am smiling, smiling, smiling as I write. He was kind of blabbering like a baby (loosely speaking) in the car, and I remember wishing I had a recording so I could share with you. It was very cute and innocent. I don’t see that much with him.
Later, she wrote again:
Here is a little more good news: we just had the BEST night together as a family in some time. At dinner, my husband was asking about our session. I started to respond with, “Ruth Murray is…” and John quickly inserted, “an amazing woman”. Ummmm…I am pretty sure I have never heard my child use those words in combination. Wow! Then later, all this information spontaneously started flowing out of John. He showed dad his “favorite part” of the session: the rocking you did (I would have thought it was the helmet). He told his dad how His bio mom’s grandma came up in session (had a hard time explaining how exactly…but was very focused on the relationship and how it impacted him. His eyes were lit up when I said that this issue was released.). And then he tried to show my husband how to muscle test. (My husband, the doctor, was totally perplexed!).
He just continued to become more animated all evening. Now he is in bed. We will see what happens after some sleep.
Thanks so much!
God Bless You,
Julie
I’m having a hard time envisioning the ultra-quiet, slow-to-verbally respond child that I saw this morning, interrupting and finishing his mom’s sentence. What a gift! This morning, Mom writes:
Good Morning! Just wanted to let you know that 1) John slept like rock last night…giant improvement (too scared to sleep well thru night usually) and 2) hives appeared this morning…assume it is his body detoxing. I think these are great signs.
God Bless!!!!!
She’s right: he’s no doubt throwing off toxins from his tissues as fast as his dear little body can manage it. Yea for living with fewer toxins, as well! This level of response is unusual, but what a wonderful lesson!