Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy must be applied consistently when a young one becomes fearful, however distressed they might be.

Father kept placing dead spiders on the wall we passed on our way to dinner. One on the stone I sat beside each morning. Another in my bed.

Each time I saw them I tried not to cry, though sometimes I did. The one on the stone, the one closest to me, startled me most, but that time I stayed silent. I knew why he was doing it, and I knew silence was the only way to make him stop. It worked. After a while everyone said I was over whatever this thing was. I pretended to agree.

But it wasn’t until I found that broken shard of mirror, held it between two of my eight spindly legs, and saw their faces reflected in my own that I finally grieved my lost friends.