D. was aged 8 when referred to ESCAYP by her mother. Her most obvious problems related to her fear of dogs, but she also found it difficult to make friends with children in her age-group, and to keep friendships going. Her mother describes her as “having a sensitive nature, loving, kind-hearted, artistic, very intelligent”, but with no common sense and clumsy.
Her counsellor identified, as particular issues, for her anger, anxiety, bullying and self-esteem, and with a moderate risk of self-harm.
During the counselling sessions, she became more confident and upbeat about life in general, and by the end of the eight sessions, was able ignore dogs she passed. Her end of counselling assessment supported this, recording no, or only mild symptoms of these problems, with no risk of self-harm. She gave a score of 10 for “How well did we do?”
However, after about a month, the positive effect of counselling appeared to be diminishing, and five months later, her mother recognises that she “is slipping back to how she was before the counselling sessions”.