138 The Explosive Childinto the camp canteen so I’d have money to spend at camp. I
didn’t spend all of the money they put into the canteen.
NOW I WANT MY MONEY BACK!”
This sounded like a pretty specific concern, so the thera-
pist turned to the father and asked, “What do you think?”
The father replied, “Over my dead body.”
The therapist pondered what Plan “Over my dead body”
was. Having quickly concluded that the father was using
Plan A, the therapist tried to help the father articulate his
concern more specifically. “What’s your concern about that,
Mr. Tremblay?”
“My concern is that Kyle’s not getting his money back!”
said the father.
Kaboom. The next ten minutes were fairly unpleasant.
The therapist was finally able to convince the boy to leave
the office, whereupon she looked at the father and asked the
million-dollar question: “I’m assuming you meant to be do-
ing Plan A, yes?”
“What makes you think that?” the father responded, a
little puzzled.
“Well, if you had been doing Plan B, you would have
tried to work it out; and if you were tr ying to do Plan C, you
would have just given him the money,” the therapist said.
“You said ‘Over my dead body,’ which sounded ver y much
like a ‘no’ to me.”
“Oh, I don’t care if he gets the money,” the father replied.
“So what’s your concern?” asked the therapist.