Topeka youth learned how to build walls early

'Holding therapy,' as described in today's Midway, is an effort to break through the barriers.

Special to The Capital-Journal

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- From the moment he came into the world, the only thing Michael Whitfield could depend on was that he could depend on no one.

Born on Feb. 27, 1987, to a drug-addicted mother and a felon father, Michael was left with acquaintances, relatives and just about anyone who would take him. Less than two weeks before his second birthday, he and his siblings were abandoned by their mother for good.

After that, the Topeka boy spent the next seven years in the foster care system, bouncing from place to place. When one foster family decided they wanted to keep him for good, a job transferred them out of the state and they were forced to leave him behind because it was decided Michael needed to stay near his biological siblings.

He finally was adopted in 1997 by Topekan Terri Dodd, a foster mother who had cared for Michael and his brother for several years.

At age 9, he had already said goodbye enough times to learn it was easier to just not let people into his world. Whenever people got too close, he discovered the quickest way to keep them away was to steal or set fires. By age 6, he had already started doing both on a regular basis.

Through every violent, abrupt change in his short life, the distance between Michael and the people closest to him grew farther and farther apart. To strangers, he was charming; to his own family, superficial. He could lie, cheat and steal from his own mother with a straight face and a seemingly complete lack of conscience.

At only 12, he had the hardness of an adult and the innocence of a child.

The sturdy walls Michael built around him had been strengthened through every hurt, loss and disappointment life had delivered. He wouldn't let them down without a battle -- and unbeknownst to him, that is just what he was about to get.

"Today we're going to go through some brick walls," Dr. Martha G. Welch told the small group, including Michael's family, another family and several therapists from around the Midwest gathered in Kansas City, Kan.

Here, on a hot summer day, in a drab church meeting room, on a loosely covered mattress on the floor, there would be no secrets, shame or self-consciousness.

Find out what happened in today's Midway section of The Topeka Capital-Journal.

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