This is the transcript from Dr. Gutstein's video clip, "Moving Out of Crisis"
Before we even talk about guiding, because guiding is the last step, really, not the first.
The first thing is we have to help you, as a parent, move out of a state of crisis.
By definition and I actually wrote seminal work in crisis theory back in the mid/late-80s
So I know a little about crisis; and I spent my early life in it ..
I don't have much crisis in my life now ..
I'm not a crisis junkie, but I didn't have much control over it,
But I did study it a lot …
and the key is here...
What I mean by
a state of crisis,
is a pace where you're very narrow-focused,
you're desperate,
you're trying everything.
you can't reflect.
you're not able to evaluate and think things through
you're trying to find a solution everywhere
you're pushing every button.
you're tired,
you're physically exhausting yourself.
And it's a desperate, frantic, helpless, state
you're trying to put out fires.
The idea of thinking over the longer run,
of the longer term doesn't seem possible to you.
It's very hard to think, and get perspective.
All of the consultants have told me, that their perception is, that
about 95% of every family that walks in, the parents are still in a state of crisis,
even if it's been several years since the diagnosis.
They're still in that state of crisis.
They're still confused,
they're still acting desperate.
they're still searching for some immediate fix,
some rapid solution.
some people are more embedded in that than others.
some people are more ready to move out and can't wait to be told it's OK.
Now unfortunately, that state of crisis gets reinforced
by well-meaning professionals
who are ill-informed.
So we're still hearing many professionals tell parents of a newly diagnosed child
that there's this small window of opportunity for development
and if they don't do x y and z right now, at this level of intensity,
the brain, the child is going to miss out on it.
IT'S COMPLETELY UNTRUE AND
in fact it has the opposite consequence
because
the more desperate you are,
the more frantic you are,
the more that atmosphere is going to be communicated to the child
and the child is going to experience it and
it creates a disadvantage for them to be able to grow and develop.
It's actually going to make things worse.
Of course, people say that to parents with the best of intentions,
but it has the worst effect, this sense of rushing.
Children who have neurological vulnerabilities
and this would be true of any child with a neurological vulnerable condition,
respond very poorly, are very poor learners in frantic, intensive environments
where they're getting lots of therapies and lots of things.
That is the worst condition, the worst environment to put them in.
They need time to process.
They need time to consider.
They need to be carefully monitored so that they're not overloaded,
so they're not passing a threshold.
They need all that consideration,
all that respect,
all that awareness of who they are,
not because of the diagnosis.
But yet, almost always what we see is when we see parents
is just the opposite.
Somehow parents have felt frantic,
they felt they need to do everything.
They feel like their time is running out.
They're overloaded
The parents are overloaded
The child is feeling overloaded.
The whole system is overloaded and in crisis.
And often that will go on for years,
until there's a burnout.
And so what happens is, you get to a state–
that one of my old professors, Roy Baumeister,
talks about and that he's published papers on–
called "ego depletion."
Everyone feels so pressured,
they're just depleted.
Your personal resources don't feel like they're there.
So then we hear people say,
"I don't have time to do this RDI stuff, this guiding,"
OR: "I can't video tape this."
"It's too hard."
You know why?
Because you're already in such a state of depletion,
that there really are no resources you've left for growth and development.
So even things that we would think of as simple or easy,
seem overwhelming,
because you're right at the edge right now,
of what you can handle because of the way your daily life is occurring.
So that's why the first step in our program has to be
to help you move out of this crisis state.
There's nothing else we can do to help you, if we can't do that.
So before we can talk about engagement-based guiding…
to be a guide you have to have a state of mind
that allows you to have perspective,
to reflect,
to learn from your experience,
to be planful,
to prepare your mind,
to think on several levels.
They're all things within all of your capacity,
because we know how to teach them to you as parents.
but, not when you're in a state of crisis.
So at lot of times we'll hear parents say
"I can't do this,
it's too hard,
too much,"
And it's not necessarily because it really is too hard for you,
it's just you're so depleted right now,
that even these steps, that we can do in a very small step-by-step basis,
seem overwhelming to you … you're so depleted.
And that's why #1 is so critical.