Parents are not robots who can automatically deliver a menu of services to their child. They are human, with needs of their own. And when it comes to discussing their child’s diagnosis, something in their brain shuts down, making them unable to process the distressing information. As I continued to work with parents over many years, I saw that the different emotional states they passed through deeply impacted how they related to their children, the treatment decisions they made, and how their children fared.
