Before Highfields' Multisystemic Therapy team came along, Sandra and her son, Larry, didn’t know how to communicate without arguing. 

Last year, Sandra and her family moved to a new home in a new school district. This created a lot of stress for her oldest child, 15-year-old Larry. 

Sandra saw changes in him. He was hanging out with the wrong crowd, not focusing in school and making bad decisions. They argued constantly about power dynamics, such as who was in charge or who would have the final word. They didn’t know how to communicate with each other.

Stella and Paul were losing control of their adopted son, Charlie.

He was becoming violent and affecting the whole family. Luckily, they found a partner to work alongside them and keep their family together.

Stella and Paul have children ranging from age 37 to 12. Their two youngest, Brenda and Charlie, were adopted from foster care and have special needs.

“In our naiveté, we thought, we’re going to adopt these kids and bring them into a loving home. Then, they’d be just like the other kids we have,” said Stella. “But we didn’t realize that at a young age, there’s so much that they already picked up that we can’t change.”

A mom and two MST experts share their experiences on how MST works 

Think about how hopeless Michelle felt. Her daughter, Sam, was out of control, and Michelle was out of options. Or so she thought.

After trying many different services and suffering many disappointments, Michelle was doubtful that anything would work. Still, she gave Multisystemic Therapy (MST) a try.