Russ Colburn and Foster Cline

In the last post I listed four different categories of therapists or social workers as described by Foster Cline. I closed by promising to share Foster’s thoughts on how to differentiate between a good therapist who appears abusive and an abusive person who works as a therapist. Foster lists the following suggestions for assessing a therapist: • Assess the therapist’s home life and family. If they are married, is it a successful marriage? Do they have children, and if so, are they well-behaved? Of course, it might be difficult to have an opportunity to see these interactions, but some information can be gained during the course of therapy and conversation. Foster believes it will be difficult for a therapist to “take a patient beyond a… [more]

In this post I was discussing Foster Cline’s views about the types of individuals who work with abused children. Foster divides therapists and social workers into four categories: Abusive individuals who appear abusive: This is the most easily identified of the four types of individuals. According to Foster, these folks are honest about their pathology. They look weird or act weird and people take notice. They get their kids removed from their custody (but of course, after they have abused them …) Foster says, “One does not have to be a clinical wizard to know these folks have problems. They are bad, everyone knows they are bad, and no one has much problem deciding how to handle them.” Abusive individuals as therapists: Foster… [more]

Foster Cline was a pioneer in working with disturbed children. Last year I interviewed Foster and Russ Colburn and described their collective perspectives of how things have changed over the years. Foster will volunteer that he thinks some people in the attachment/adoption community view him more as a liability than an asset these days. I never have understood that. Foster would be the first to acknowledge that attachment therapy has evolved significantly since the early 1970’s when he worked with Zaslow and did “Z therapy”. The cardiac surgeons don’t feel a need to dismiss or downplay the evolution of heart surgery or heart transplants, or the implantation of a baboon heart into a child. Why must the attachment community… [more]

As Foster and I wrapped up our conversation, I reminded him that without his Love and Logic method, and without having been handed his book, Hope for High Risk and Rage-filled Children, my family and I would probably still be lost. Although I am still disgusted that I had to work so hard to get some answers, I am sure glad he didn’t hang up the attachment piece of his work before I learned about it. We again discussed the difficult climate in America today for families with extremely disturbed children, and Foster reiterated, I think that right now, if someone has a super-disturbed kid in America, it is unlikely that the child will receive adequate therapy from a psychological standpoint. It is much more… [more]

When Foster and I were talking about the impact he has had upon parents—both as a psychiatrist and as the co-founder of the Love and Logic Institute—I told him about my introduction to his books and his philosophies. I have a friend in Indiana who is a female walking, talking Foster Cline. She had adopted a sibling group of three, and they had really given her a run for her money. She was also a social worker! Somewhere along the way, she discovered Love and Logic, and by the time I met her in the early 90’s, she had it down pat. I can still hear her saying in a sing-song voice, “Bummer for you!” We moved to Kansas in 1994, and… [more]

(Seventh in a series) When I asked Foster about calling Russ Colburn for his comments as well, Foster was not sure Russ would want to be involved about articles in attachment anymore because... the issues around attachment therapy are easily criticized; angry, negative people are vocal, often adept at stirring things up, vilifying those they never even met—while those who are satisfied and have been helped get on with their quiet, effective, and functional lives. Foster travels the United States and the world writing and talking about Parenting with Love and Logic, which he first wrote about and founded with Jim Fay. He describes Love and Logic as... universally applicable, easy and extremely practical. The nice thing about Love and Logic is that it is so quickly… [more]

(Sixth in a series) At this point in our conversation, the topic turned to the politically difficult climate right now surrounding attachment therapy, attachment therapists, and therapeutic parenting. I mentioned some of the difficulties faced by the Attachment Disorder Network as we attempted to serve families with emotionally disturbed children. In the course of this conversation, the ATTACh organization was mentioned, and this was Foster’s perspective: ATTACh was started down in Florida and they didn’t have any money to start it with, and after that first meeting, it probably would have folded except that I gave a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars to the cause, so I sort of gave it the seed money that started the ATTACh organization. My philosophy is that we’re all… [more]

(Fifth in a series) As Foster and I continued our conversation about the origins of attachment therapy, I found the following comments and insight from Foster to be most descriptive of the conflict surrounding this approach. The teaching at the time was that underneath schizophrenia lay a massive amount of rage that wasn’t being expressed. Schizophrenics are flat and not very responsive. But there was supposed to be this tremendous amount of rage. Well, as a young therapist, I was like “Yeh yeh yeh” but I never saw it. Well, this young woman that I told you about, the young lady that Zaslow treated and had that session all day, she screamed her rage at her mom for about an hour and a half. Just absolutely—I never saw such raw rage as… [more]

(Fourth in a series) Two years later the young woman Zaslow had successfully treated for schizophrenia experienced a period of anorexia. Foster saw her and was shocked by how thin she was, but she was thoughtful, responsible and certainly not schizophrenic. Foster recalls being “shocked into silence by her appearance, but Zaslow simply chuckled lovingly and opened by saying, "You don't look so juicy, my dear.” Zaslow had come to see her in Foster’s office. Zaslow treated her using traditional sit-down sessions and according to Foster, “helped her immensely. Plus, he did home visits at meal time.” Foster continued to recall his experiences working with Zaslow: Probably Zaslow was the best therapist I have been around. He was controlling and obnoxious and egocentric… [more]

(Third in a series) Zaslow worked with this young lady, Foster’s patient, all day and she went home that night for the first time in many months… and she was talking sensibly! Foster recalled, “It was a harrowing experience because he was SO intrusive with this gal, but… 3 weeks later she went to Mexico with a bunch of kids and did well.” Foster talked 20 years later with one of the therapists who were also present, and asked this woman how she felt about that session. She said, “I had this turmoil of feelings — I’ve never been in such turmoil — I thought what was going on was so very intrusive, and yet I knew what was going on was obviously… [more]