An 8 year-old came into the office sans medication and excited about the fact that he didn’t have school looming over his head. The result was extra restlessness and energy. His eyes darted back and forth. I keep my office blinds drawn since there are beautiful trees outside, but this presents a problem for my clients who have trouble focusing. He pointed out the window and shouted, “SQUIRREL!” Perhaps too much stimulation, I wish those squirrels would find other trees to live in… I thought.

We made a feelings book together over the hour. He had to draw in the appropriate face for each feeling and give examples of times when he felt that way. He drew crazy purple hair and strange eyes on the face for embarrassed and said, “When we go to the zoo on a field trip and my dad comes and calls me peanut in front of all my friends.” For happy he drew a generic happy face and wrote down, “I would be happy if I was rich forever after inventing a machine that makes money”.

Amazingly he was able to focus and participate enough to complete the rest of the book. When it came time to staple them, his eyes got big and he asked if he could use the stapler. It seems that most of the boys I work with will jump at any opportunity to use the stapler or the motorized pencil sharpener. One client always asks to sharpen ALL the pencils I have at some point during his session. His reason? “I like them sharp.”

So my client stapled his book together, but wasn’t happy with one of the staples. He wanted to remove it. I took out my staple remover; he tried to grab it from my hand, probably drawn to it because of the shiny sharp ends. I showed him how to use it first and then let him have a try at it. After a few minutes of twisting and turning it finally came out. He was holding the remover triumphantly between his thumb and index finger, squeezing it together rapidly when I asked him to give it back. I started to caution him, “Be Care.. Ow!!!!” In the middle of the exchange he managed to clamp the sharp edges of the remover into the tip of my finger, which promptly started bleeding. Thankfully I spared him some rather choice words… it wouldn’t have been therapeutic. This is especially the case knowing that when I get hurt suddenly (ram my toe into the coffee table) or get scared (almost get sideswiped by someone on the freeway) I tend to use expletives. I shouted them in my mind but managed to keep my cool. One day later and my finger is healing nicely.