FAQs

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Questions about Chisato:

"What population have

you worked with? "

My main populations have been kids and families. Even before I obtained my masters degree, I volunteered as a rape crisis counselor, supervised visitation monitor and as an in home advocate in Intensive Treatment Foster Care. When I was in my master's degree, I worked as a Therapeutic Behavioral Services Coach, where I worked with children with severe behavioral health needs whose placement was threatened due to those behaviors. As a therapist, I have worked with trauma, children, youth and adults, couples, families and more!

I realized that I have an interesting perspective: I am both a mental health professional and a mother of children with special needs. Before I had my kids, although I empathized with my families, I definitely did not understand how hard it can be to balance everything! As someone that has both roles, I wanted to share information to help!

"Why did you start this site?"

FAQs (continued)

Do you have more questions? contact us!

Questions about the boys

"When did they get diagnosed? What lead to the diagnosis?"

Yuri was diagnosed when he was 2, very close to 3. Akira was diagnosed within a month after that, when he was 3.

What lead to the diagnosis is a bit of a long story. The big thing was that we noticed that they were not talking. We were told by many people, including professionals, that it was due to them being boys, twins, and being bilingual.

Yuri was only playing one way (he would play 5 little monkeys- a little game he created) and would cry for hours when people came over. If it was anyone other than my parents, brother, husband and me, he would cry. Akira would get so frustrated due to not being able to communicate and would escalate to the point where he would hit his head on things, hit people and would scream.

My husband, Yuki, said it best the night that Yuri was originally diagnosed:

"It makes sense. It clarifies a lot of things and also acknowledges that we were not overreacting. And the diagnosis is a way for us to get them the help to grow up and learn the skills to help them thrive. The diagnosis does not change who they are.”

By the time Akira was diagnosed, we were ready and knew the answer.

"How did you handle the diagnosis?