Thursday, December 29, 2022

 Thursday, December 29, 2022

    I slept well last night. I set my alarm for 6 am, planning to get up earlier than usual because we had driveway yoga at 7. Yvette canceled because she hadn't slept well. I got the message at 6:30 when Elsa and I were in the middle of our walk.

   I had an overwhelming schedule: eight students in one day, plus a therapy session with Shelly. Oh, boy. One after another, I had cancelations. Thinking I had double-booked at 10 am, I canceled the session with Mama K's crew. I signed in at 9:30 for my session with second-grade M. Her father texted to apologize for not contacting me sooner. Her maternal grandfather had taken both girls to visit cousins on the other side of the island. Ah! Fantastic.

   My appointment with Shelly was at 11, not 10 am. That gave me more time.   I told her what I had heard about trauma being passed on through epigenetics. My mother's traumas were the most prominent; she suffered many profound losses before my birth. My gene selector had plenty to choose from. I told Shelly for the first time that my mother wasn't just endlessly critical, which she was in spades; she also delivered her criticisms with sharp cries. When I demonstrated her outburst, everyone who heard it jumped. It was a cattle-prod-driven life.

    Adolescent D and I have been working on him coming to terms with having a disability. He may have to make peace with his condition without hating himself. I teach him he will be fine if he doesn't hide it. While it is true it's society's job to make things more accessible for the disabled; it is also the job of the disabled to make people comfortable with their condition. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is.

   We also worked on auditory recall. D can't hear his mother's voice in his head as he remembers her instructions. He still must orally repeat them to himself. I asked him if he could hear the words of a song in his head. Yes, on the left side. What!!!!??? This means he has auditory working memory. Why can't he use it to remember the human-speaking voice? Trauma. Maybe not his. Maybe something epigenetic. His mother told me his dad was abandoned as a child. When he was a teenager? I can't remember. How to work on epigenetic trauma without inducing trauma?. D is now fifteen years old. That makes it more difficult, not less. I can tell a story to a young child and evoke those emotions and resolve them. I can't do that so easily with a teenager.

  Ninth-grade K didn't sign on in time. I called his mom. She texted that they were helping move a friend. It's rude not to tell me beforehand, but I don't demand it. I'm at home for the most part. It makes little difference to me. An apology would be good. I sense contempt from K's mother. It may be toward me, a hireling. It may be toward herself for not having done something much sooner about her son. I did confront her on the seriousness of the problem. She agreed. I suspect she is overly protective of him. I can understand her sentiment. Unfortunately, this may not be the best thing to help prepare him for his adult life.