On another list I have found it very interesting to post a short client description, and ask people to suggest how they might intervene. Here is the current one:

Below is a therapist's description of a young client brought to him.

''A mother and a father brought their five-year-old son, Darryl, in for therapy, worried that he might be seriously mentally ill. In the weeks preceding their coming to see me, Darryl had been regularly snapping the necks of some ducklings nesting on the edge of a canal behind the family’s home. The parents had lectured him on the sanctity of life, had punished him, had banished him from the yard, had rewarded gentle behaviors, and so on, but the little birds kept turning up dead, and Darryl 'showed no remorse for his actions,' Indeed, he seemed to positively delight in the killing.''

How would you intervene with this family in order to stop the killing of the baby ducks?
(It can also be very useful to examine how you think of the boy, and how you think of the problem.)

Steve Andreas
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''Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.'' --Mark Twain

Steve Andreas, NLP author, trainer, developer, (http://www.steveandreas.com) and art collector: (http://www.charlespartridgeadams.com) 1221 Left Hand Canyon Dr. Boulder CO 80302 (303) 442-2902