quote:
Need a rec for a child psychologist/psychiatrist in BR area that is skilled at getting through to very hard to reach kids. The kid has some pathological behaviors that need to be addressed such as lying, manipulation, lack of empathy, no remorse, etc and it’s starting to cause more issues with the teenage years approaching. The parents have brought them to no less than 4 different councilors over the past 5+years, the most recent one for over 2 years, with a zero percent success rate with any of them getting the kid to open up. From what I’m told, the conversations between the kid and counselor are superficial, with the kid only answering enough to keep the counselor from asking more questions or appear not to have shut down. The kid is very smart and not on spectrum. The parents are good folks and their other kids don’t have similar issues.

TL/DR: friend’s parents are worried their kid may be a psychopath and hoping the right person can get through to/help with emotional development. Previous 4 counselors, which came highly recommended by others, have had zero success so I’m reaching out to the OT to help a brother out.

There is no 'cure' for a personality disorder, unfortunately. The truly scary thing is that counseling has limited upside. Counselors know that it's hard to help a kid like this so many will want nothing to do with the situation. Don't get me wrong, the right combo of a psychiatrist and a counselor might be able to steer the kid in a better direction. But a lot of the heavy lifting will have to be from the parents who probably need counseling/training as well.