Luke: Child at Heart

Luke is an imposing figure at 6’5” and over 200 lbs.  Normally he is as gentle as a lamb, but when confronted with a situation that invokes fear or a perceived injustice, he has a history of becoming explosive and destroying property.

His Life Skills Counselor has been working with Luke to express his emotions in a manner that allows him to make his point and seek to constructively resolve his issues without resorting to violence.  Recently, he experienced a situation where he was confronted with triggers that invoked fear and injustice.   Luke approached staff with his situation and he calmly related to staff what had happened and his feelings.

He walked away from the conversation with the belief that staff were blaming him for the situation and he came back later in the day to calmly express his feelings on the matter.   Luke appropriately engaged with staff, never once raising his voice and was able to let go of the notion that staff were blaming him.  He worked with staff on ways to resolve the situation and was able to compromise when necessary.   This situation had the potential for Luke to be taken away in handcuffs and had it not been for the time and education that has been afforded by the Life Skills Counselor, that certainly would have been Luke’s fate.