Therapist suddenly left practice (long)

Rink08

The psychologist that DS1 (Aspergers, CAPD,SPD dxs) sees is really great with him. We've been driving 45 minutes twice a week for an hour long appointment since he looks forward to going to see her (because they play checkers and chess (and she doesn't let him win) )and we think that she's been very helpful for our whole family.

I recieved a call this morning from the center and was told that Dr. X is no longer with the practice effective immediately and that we could choose another therapist in their center or they could give us recommendations for a therapist elsewhere if we'd prefer. They also stated that they had cancelled all of her scheduled appointments (DS1 should have had one tonight) and that we could look on their website to choose another doctor if we wanted to set up a different appointment. When I asked if she was going to another practice they said that at this time they did not have that information.

Since we were supposed to go tonight, I had to explain to DS1 that we weren't going to be going and he cried. (Tears but no sound or other crying gestures) When I tried to talk to him, he said "I do not want to talk about it right now. I do not have to talk about it right now." which is what he says whenever we bring up his grandpa passing away this summer (very unexpected, heart attack at 55) and asked if he could go play outside (which he did) and he hasn't said anything since.

I'm not sure what to do now. Do I look for a different therapist at that center, find one closer to us, or wait and find out where the therapist that he loves will be practicing?

I'm also really annoyed because we had been waiting on paperwork to be sent to the school after the break and I'm guessing that it wasn't sent yet so I'm worried that it's going to get lost in the shuffle now.

macchiatto

I'm so sorry. That really stinks.

Something somewhat similar happened with DS's early interventionist that we all really loved and would thought would be with him for 2 more years. We got very unexpected news that she was gone and we realized she wasn't allowed to contact us. It was so abrupt and I felt really bad for DS. We waited for a bit, tried a different EI at the same agency (though we never ended up actually meeting her in person) but eventually we ended up finding out through DS's other service providers which agency she was at now and switching to her at the new agency. For us that was the best choice and I'm really glad we stuck with the therapist we loved.

Rink08

Thank you both. I spent yesterday dealing with the paperwork issue and after signing another release form, we were able to have another therapist in the practice send the paperwork to the school.

DH will be home on a break tomorrow for a few days (this happened while he was away) and we are going to research therapists together then. We don't want to rush DS1 into seeing someone new and once we narrow things down, we plan to discuss the therapist options with him.

Auntie- I think that you're right about a male doctor. He had been (not so secretly) hoping for a male teacher (which he didn't get) this year and I think that it would be a selling point for him.