Adoption Therapist Vanessa Hoogendoorn in Sioux Falls Community Based Services recently shared this story with us. It reminded us of one of the CHS Values: We are tenacious.

I have been working with a little boy for two years. He has been in therapy since he was placed in foster care at age three after he experienced a lot of trauma in his birth home. He was adopted at age four and is now seven years old.

Progress in therapy has been SO SLOW and tedious. He has been a possible candidate for residential treatment for about a year, teetering on the edge at home, struggling with managing emotions as well as physical aggression. 

Therapy seems to be hit and miss if he is engaged. It was a typical Thursday afternoon and he showed up for his therapy session. However there was something slightly different. He had a handmade blue construction paper heart as a “thank you.”

He talked more during that session than he’d ever talked, and it was one of the only times in five years that he’d talked about his birth family. As we were getting ready to meet his mom and dad in the lobby after our session he asked me if we could Facetime later so we could keep talking because he didn’t want therapy to end.

I had just discussed him in our therapist meeting — because I was stuck — I felt lost on how to help this little guy.

The very next day, he came to therapy with his heart in hand, and trusted me enough to hand it right over. Through time, patience and persistence, I have now earned his trust to hear the important words of his story that he has not yet shared.