SUCCESS STORIES

Teresa's Story

Teresa* arrived at Hollygrove when she was just 5 years old, after being severely sexually abused from the age of two by her mother's boyfriend. At first, she was very aggressive, isolated, scared and mostly very sad. Our clinicians worked with her on basic social skills and very slowly they gained her trust. She even began to make connections with other Hollygrove kids. Gradually, with a lot of perseverance, she also made progress in her school work.

As Teresa's behavior improved and her personality became much more stable, a member of Hollygrove's Foster Family Agency (FFA) was assigned to help place her with one of our loving foster families. A comprehensive search produced a wonderful match. Teresa bonded strongly with them. She was excited at the prospect of going to live with a "real" family at last.

However, things did not run smoothly at first, as Teresa experienced difficulties adjusting to the new living situation. This caused Teresa's old aggressive and disruptive behavior patterns to resurface. But help was close at hand. Since Hollygrove's FFA staff provides a high level of supervision, involvement and support to every family, they arranged for one of our trained therapeutic behavior services (TBS) specialists to intervene. Teresa's TBS specialist provided intensive in-home therapy, sometimes spending 3-4 hours a day working with Teresa and her foster parents, modeling effective parenting skills, to which Teresa responded very positively. Her foster parents were grateful for the support that the whole family was given at home, on their schedule, without disrupting their daily routine.

With the dedication of her specialist, Teresa learned how to use healthy coping skills and how to manage her anger. Now, Teresa's foster mom is reporting that she is happy and respectful. "I feel better…in here" Teresa admitted, pointing to her chest. What an incredible achievement for this scared and aggressive little girl who walked through the gates of Hollygrove almost two years ago!

*The child's name has been changed to protect confidentiality.

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