Meet Johnny—two months ago.

  Frankly, he’s difficult to be around. For a five-year-old boy, his aggressive behavior of hitting his teacher and other kids, kicking, biting, swearing, spitting, throwing things, and not following rules have become a serious problem—so serious that Northern California Social Services contacts UC Davis for a PCIT (Parent Child Interaction Therapy) Provider in Orange County. The Child Guidance Center (CGC), being the largest provider of such services for children battling mental health issues or backgrounds of child abuse, welcomes the challenge of helping Johnny, just as they do with 950 other families per month.
Johnny and his great aunt meet with Lori Pack, a counselor employed by CGC, for an initial assessment. Pack finds Johnny to be noncompliant (not following directions) and somewhat detached from his aunt. He plays by himself and is aloof. Given the need for “relationship building” and the reports of aggressive behavior from school and at home, Pack deems PCIT to be a good fit.
From the above account, it’s very easy to dismiss Johnny as an unfortunate statistic—a “problem child” or just someone born predisposed to wreck havoc. But the truth is that Johnny is more a product of his childhood nuturing than anything else. Born into a household of neglect/substance abuse, Johnny has since been through three foster homes and is now in the process of being transferred into the custody of his great aunt.
But Johnny is a statistic in the sense that he is just one of approximately 100 child abuse related referrals the CGC receives each month. And this comes from a pool of 36,311 total reports (or the equivalent of over four an hour) the Orange County Child Abuse Registry receives each year. Johnny certainly isn’t alone. The frustration and desperation exhibited by him and his aunt are echoed widely in Orange County. The good news is their call is not only heard by people who want to help, but by people who can help.
The staff of the CGC is comprised of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, and marriage family therapists who are accessable on a 24/7 basis. Approximately half are bilingual (Spanish) with services also available in Korean.
“We help people find their internal resources to achieve their fullest potential,” says Hank Paris, the executive director of the CGC (and also a licensed clinical social worker). And by “people,” Paris isn’t just referring to children. Therapy often comes in the form of coaching caretakers to help their own children.
During Johnny’s PCIT therapy sessions, it may at first seem as if his aunt is left to her own devices with her nephew in the toy-filled playroom they are placed in. And it should appear that way to Johnny. But what he doesn’t know is that his aunt actually has a bug in her ear and both of them are being monitored by Pack behind a one-way mirror. She coaches the aunt to ignore Johnny’s minor misbehaviors such as whining and crying so they aren’t reinforced as a way to behave, and encourages expression associated with good behavior. In Johnny’s case, there has been a focus on conditioning him to the simple idea of sharing.
During a session, Johnny would try to grab whatever toy his aunt was playing with (this was also a problem for him in preschool). Repeating Pack’s whispered instructions, the aunt told Johnny, “When I am done playing with the truck in one minute I will share it with Johnny.” He responded by hitting her. With Pack coaching the aunt, she remained calm, moved away physically from the child, turned her face from him so as not to give him attention for his negative behavior, and said, “When Johnny plays nicely and keeps his hands to himself I can play with him.”
As soon as he played gently with the toys she turned around, praised him, and continued playing with her toy. One minute later she shared the toy with him. “I like to share with Johnny,” the aunt said. “It is so fun to play together and share our toys.” Eventually, something happened that at first might have seemed unthinkable to the aunt—Johnny told his aunt that he would share his favorite toy with her too, and it became a reciprocal process.
Today, Johnny has completed about half his therapy at the CGC and has about six to 10 more sessions to go. After six weeks, his aunt began to notice positive changes in his behavior and so did his teacher. He is even making more friends at school.
As difficult as it may seem to help children like Johnny, CGC does, and at an incredible rate. Because of the insight of therapists like Pack, less than one percent of the families who make 10 or more visits to the CGC Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment programs are referred back for abuse related reasons. And as a result of the fine administrative leadership displayed by executive director Paris and his staff, 98 percent of the clients seen by CGC pay no fee. The organization is almost entirely funded by the government, foundations such as the United Way, the fabulous Child Guidance Center Thrift Shop (which as thus far raised $625,000), and, of course, private donations.
On December 11th, 2005, the CGC will be throwing its 23rd annual Holiday Tree Fantasy luncheon. Orange County residents will have the opportunity to lunch in style, support the CGC, and maybe even win a raffle prize. There may be no better way to enter the holiday season.

—David Krissman