Christina learns to cope with troubling emotions*
Christina was an active six year old who lived with her parents, Wallace and Anita, on the outskirts of downtown Minneapolis. When not in school, Christina, who had been deaf since birth, enjoyed playing outside in the family’s fenced backyard on her new playground equipment and with the family’s dog, Cookie. Although the neighborhood was relatively quiet, there had been some recent gang activity in the area.
One crisp October morning, after Wallace had left early for work, Christina awoke, got ready for school, and began eating a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch at the kitchen table. Anita let Cookie out in the backyard like she did every morning. However, this morning the usually calm Cookie began to bark relentlessly. Anita stepped out the back door into the backyard to quiet the barking animal. Within seconds, Christina watched as her panic stricken mother rushed back into the house with the dog, and dialed her cell phone.
Christina wondered was going on, and peeped out the back door. That’s when she saw him. Lying on the grass near the edge of the fence was the motionless figure of a young man wearing bright white athletic shoes, his red shirt stained nearly black with blood. Christina froze.
Anita, now off the phone, was sobbing hysterically and embraced her daughter. Christina began to cry. Within minutes, the police arrived. The policeman with the clipboard spoke to Anita, while two other uniformed men lifted the young man from the ground to a stretcher and loaded him into an ambulance. Then they were gone.
After that, life went back to normal – sort of. Over the next few months, Christina refused to play outside and had nightmares. She was anxious, distracted and was doing poorly in school. She had difficulty explaining how she was feeling. Christina’s parents became concerned and sought out the help of therapist, Alexis Greeves, of Volunteers of America-Minnesota’s Mental Health Clinics, who specializes in providing play therapy and counseling services for deaf children using ASL (American Sign Language).
“During a play therapy session, I asked Christina to draw a picture,” reports Greeves. “She drew a picture of her family’s backyard and the body of the young man.” Then Greeves explains, “I hung the drawing on the wall and we talked about it. I asked Christina to describe her feelings about the picture, but she couldn’t. That’s when I threw a sticky Blobz ball at the drawing. It stuck for a few seconds and then dropped off. Christina’s expression was serious. Then I asked Christina if she wanted to throw the ball, but she didn’t want to throw it. So, I threw the ball at the drawing again. This time I said, ‘I am so mad that this happened to you Christina.’ Christina agreed and said, ‘Yes!’ I threw the ball again and said, ‘Things like this shouldn’t happen to little kids.’ Again, Christina said, ‘Yes!’ So, I threw the ball again and said, ‘You made Christina’s mom cry.’ The little girl said, ‘Yes!”’ Greeves says that Christina didn’t agree with all of her statements and if she said something that was not accurate, Christina would disagree and say, “No.”
During the next few weeks Christina and Greeves talked about feelings and how to describe them. She began to process her feelings about the backyard incident and started to be able to independently articulate her emotions. Over time, Christina began to refocus in class and her school performance improved. Her fears diminished and she started spending time with Cookie in the backyard again.
*We have changed the name of the subject and certain details to protect privacy and confidentiality. The individual in the photo is a model.