Come Back by Claire Fontaine & Mia Fontaine

Author:Claire Fontaine & Mia Fontaine
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Family & Relationships, Personal Memoirs, Life Stages, Adolescence
ISBN: 9780060792169
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2006-04-15T07:00:00+00:00

17.

The seminar room’s easy to find. Waiting outside the doors are about forty of the most haggard, wary, nervous middle-aged people ever to grace a hotel hallway. There are several parents like myself as well, who are upbeat, excited to be sharing in our child’s treatment, however distant.

I’m more than upbeat; I’m still basking in the serenity of having forgiven Mia. I feel cleansed and tranquil. In fact, I feel positively seraphic.

The easels should have been the first clue.

Posters on the wall with slogans like “Nothing Can Change When You Are Comfortable” should have been the second.

Duane Smotherman is a handsome, six-foot-seven African American in his late forties. He struts, gesticulates, and captivates; he booms, whispers, and gets in our faces. He’s here to teach us about our beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and assumptions, ladies and gentlemen. About accountability and possibility, about consciousness.

“It’s no accident you are here, this did not happen overnight. Your children are not diseased, your children’s behavior is merely a symptom of a much deeper issue,” he says as he strolls down the side of the room. “They are reacting to a fundamental disconnect in the family system. So, they looked for connection in drugs, sex, gangs, alcohol.”

We’ve been asked to remain in open body position—legs uncrossed, palms on our thighs facing up. The room is fast dividing into wide-eyed guilt with upturned palms and testy muttering with legs and arms tightly crossed.

“They looked everywhere,” he stops in front of a muttering couple, “but to you, true? Do you get it?”

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