Troubled Youth Goes From Hating to Loving School
(For the sake of confidentiality, the client is called “Joe” in the story.)
Many times, the behaviors and circumstances surrounding cases referred to Multisystemic Therapy (MST) seem insurmountable. In Joe’s case, years of school refusal (since kindergarten), academic struggles and defiance made it seem as though finding the solution was akin to the proverbial needle in a haystack. However, the family, referral source and school had pinned their hopes on MST since it is designed to work with such intensive behavior. Despite the challenging task ahead of Catherine Cook, the MST therapist, she helped the family retrieve the missing needle that positively contributed to the family’s success of getting a 16-year-old boy back to a school and what’s more, a school where he has thrived academically and enjoyed attending.
