telling kids at work

Today, I decided to start telling some of the children who I see in therapy that I have cancer. I wanted to prepare them for changes that we might expect to happen, like more disruptions in their scheduled appointments and changes in my appearance.

The first girl I told is a teenager with lots of struggles with anxiety. I've worked with her for about 2 years and she has made enormous changes. I'm so proud of her efforts. Because she rarely misses sessions, I gave her the option of switching therapists to someone who would be there more consistently, but she said that she'd rather see me as often as we could. She seemed upset about my announcement; I felt bad in sharing. Being a therapist is hard.

Later, I told two siblings whom I've worked with for three years. The older brother said that he'd come in less often. He's doing great anyway, so I was trying to move him toward that kind of schedule already. His sister seemed engaged and matter-of-fact in the conversation. Apparently, she just learned about cancer at school, but she thought that everyone died from it, which lead to more weird conversations. She was very excited about me wearing a wig "because white ladies don't get to wear wigs that much".