66 The Explosive Child“How’s that?” asked the father.
“Well, it may give us some clues as to why Mitchell
might be struggling to live up to everyone’s expectations
in school,” the therapist said.
“We were told he had no learning problems,” the
mother said.
“I think that was probably inaccurate,” the therapist
said. He then explained the potential ramifications of
some of the evaluation findings. As they talked, it be-
came clearer that Mitchell was indeed struggling most
on tasks involving a lot of writing, problem solving, rapid
processing, and sustained effort. “That’s something we’re
going to have to take a closer look at,” the therapist said.
“Of course, he’s still very bright,” said the father.
“There are some areas in which he is clearly quite
bright,” the therapist said. “And some areas that may be
making it very hard for him to show how bright he is. My
bet is that he finds that disparity quite frustrating.”
“Oh, he’s frustrated, all right,” said the mother. “We
all are.”
After a while, Mitchell was invited to come into the
office. He refused to meet with the therapist alone, so his
parents remained in the room.
“I’m sick of mental health professionals,” Mitchell an-
nounced from the outset.
“How come?” the therapist asked.
“Never had much use for them... none of them has
ever done me any good,” Mitchell answered.