Client Stories
Since 1951, ACGC has helped more than 160,000 children and teens living with social, emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges. Learn more about our clients and the types of care and treatment available to them and their families. Be inspired by their stories of courage, resilience and healing.
Learning Together
The director of a high-risk child development center served by Austin Child Guidance Center’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Project (IEC) contacted our IEC mental health consultant. The director was concerned about the well-being of Jackie, one of the toddlers in her service who had begun to display signs of aggression towards her peers. Jackie is the child of a low-income single mother. She had been in the child care center since just after her birth, and her sudden aggression was uncharacteristic of her usually mild temperament. The child care center director asked if the mental health consultant would come to the child care center to speak with Jackie’s mother.
Skills For Sam
Nine-year-old Sam was initially referred to Austin Child Guidance Center for individual therapy due to parental concerns over his difficulty relating to others, obsession with certain topics, sexual curiosity, oppositional behavior, and family conflict around his behavior. Sam’s mother, Ms. J, was distressed about her perceived inability to change Sam’s behaviors, especially the oppositional behavior she engendered.
Initially, individual therapy focused on parent-child relational issues. Ms. J considered Sam’s behavior oppositional, intentional, and primarily directed at her. Over time, the therapist began to suspect that Sam’s behavior might be influenced by behaviors associated with autism.
