We adopted DD (nearly 6) when she was 2.8. She's doing well at school and generally gets on well with her brothers ages 10 and 14. They are our biological children. The thing we struggle with is her nagging sense of dissatisfaction with many aspects of life. It's as if her default mechanism is to complain or to look for something she hasn't got and to say it's not fair. I know that this is a normal part of growing up to some degree but she takes it a lot further than many children and it is wearing us down. She hates being on her own even for a few minutes and she talks incessantly, as if she's scared to not have our attention. Bedtimes are tricky - so many fears. She also has cystic fibrosis which has quite serious long-term implications for her, so we'd like to do what we can now to help her feel generally more content, for her sake and that of the family as a whole.
I've been wondering about play therapy as I'm aware that playing with her is not something I'm very good at, nor is it something I particularly make time to do. I'd be happy to go to sessions with her, or to let her see a therapist on her own. I think she'd love it - she adores individual attention.
I just wondered if anyone had any advice or experience of this. Thanks x