In a recent family therapy session, the parents of one of the
clients with whom I work commented on how quickly their son was
able to recognize and express the emotions that he was feeling
while working on his therapy assignment. This may not appear to
be much of an accomplishment to some, but for this client and
his family it means something wonderful. Looking back several
months ago to the beginning of this young man’s treatment at
Oxbow he was not able to recognize his emotions, and believed
that he did not ‘feel’. There are several things that can
attribute to this inability: lack of insight, unwillingness,
disability, and lack of emotional training. None of these appear
to be preventing him now. His resistance is lowered, he is
gaining insight into the ways in which his disability affects
him, and he has had some much needed emotional training. It is
not uncommon for the young men with whom we work to begin their
treatment at Oxbow with little emotional insight and few healthy
coping mechanisms to help t