Psychologist for parents, children and adolescents · Bucharest and online
Support for the family of a child with type 1 diabetes
As a psychologist and a father, after 12 years of my own child's type 1 diabetes, I am here to help you through this ordeal.
A diagnosis of type 1 diabetes is not given to the child alone; to a large extent, it is given to the whole family. In a single day, habits, sleep, plans, the way the parents relate to each other and to the child, are all changed.
The diabetologist helps you with advice about blood sugar, insulin and medical devices; decisions about treatment remain theirs. But what happens psychologically to the parents, the child, the siblings and the couple relationship when vigilance becomes permanent and the illness settles at the centre of family life?
Areas of work
Receiving the diagnosis and the work of acceptance
The diagnosis creates a rupture. There is a “before” and an “after”. Parents often describe a state that resembles mourning for the healthy child they thought they had, for the life they had imagined. It is a real loss, which needs time and a setting in which it can be spoken, without anyone hurrying “acceptance”.
Reorganising family life
Food, timetables, holidays, sport, outings: everything passes through the filter of constant calculation. This reorganisation has a psychological cost that is rarely acknowledged, because it is masked by efficiency: the family functions, so it seems to be fine.
The couple relationship
A child's chronic illness puts pressure on the parental couple in a specific way. Roles become divided, with one parent becoming “the technical one” and the other “the emotional one”; silent reproaches about vigilance appear; exhaustion sets in and erodes intimacy. Now, more than ever, protecting the couple relationship is no longer a luxury but one of the essential conditions for the family to hold together in the long run.
Medical devices and the child's body
Sensors, pumps and artificial pancreas systems change life for the better, but they also raise a difficult question: what does it mean for a child, and especially for an adolescent, to wear on their body, all the time, a visible object that marks them out as different? Their relationship with their own body, with their self-image, with the gaze of others and with others' (non-)acceptance creates a significant inner conflict that needs to be worked through.
Sleep, monitoring and the fear of hypoglycaemia
Broken nights, alarms, checks and the fear of hypoglycaemia put parents in a state of alert that does not go away even when everything is under control. This constant hypervigilance has real effects on the parent's mental health and, indirectly, on the child, who senses it and internalises it.
School, exclusion and bullying
A child with diabetes is visible, is different. They check their blood sugar often, eat at unusual times, wear devices, sometimes miss school. This is where exclusion, teasing and even bullying come from. We work both with the child's experience and with the parent's position in relation to the school.
The adolescent's autonomy
Handing responsibility over from parent to adolescent is one of the most delicate moments. The adolescent needs to separate, while the illness demands control; the conflict between these two needs can become intense, sometimes with rebellion against the treatment. It is a stage at which it is worth having a psychologist close by who can accompany you.
If you recognise yourself here, write to me →
Who it is for
- Parents and parental couples — individually or together, to work through feelings that have nowhere else to be spoken and to address the specific tensions that arise after the diagnosis
- Children and adolescents — for their relationship with the illness, with their body and with others
- Siblings — the children who often end up in the background, in a family organised around a permanent emergency
What my experience is made of
My training is that of a clinical psychologist licensed in Romania and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in training. To this I add my experience as the parent of a child diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of five and now an adolescent: twelve years of living with this reality, from the first sleepless nights to the negotiation of autonomy.
This experience does not replace professional competence, but it changes the quality of the listening. You will not have to explain from scratch what an alarm at three in the morning means, what happens before a school trip or why a conversation about a sensor can turn into a conflict about freedom.
How it works
- Write to me using the form below or by email. A few lines are enough; there is no need to explain everything.
- I reply within 1–2 working days and we arrange the time of the first meeting together.
- The first meeting, 45 minutes long, at the practice or online, is devoted to understanding the situation. Only then do we decide together whether and how to continue.
The framework
Sessions last 45 minutes and take place at my practice or online. The first meeting is devoted to understanding the family's situation and deciding together on the right way of working: individually, as a couple or alternating between the two. Fee: 200 lei / session.
First meeting
Write me a few lines about what brings you. There is no need to explain everything.
Or write to me directly at radutudorache@protonmail.com.
Psychological intervention accompanies medical treatment; it does not replace it.