MD, that's not a bad idea, a group counseling session. Her tempers and outbursts tell me that she wants to tell me something but isn't able to find an appropriate way of doing it. And I really *am* keen to hear what it is that's bothering her particularly, and to be honest, I want her to hear what I'm dealing with too, when it comes to her outbursts!! We've already had one joint session that was very good.

I was very unsure about her returning to this school to do her VCE but she was adamant - I think there is a certain amount of pride involved. She wants to succeed at this school. She wants to finish something.

I am in a bind as far as her doing her VCE some other way because after she flunked out last year, and then decided she wanted to go back, I told her that this was the last time I'd be funding her changing her mind. We had already tried different schools before hand, even going into debt at a private school setting her up, only to have her decide she didn't want to go, or truant. I told her she needed to be sure because if she was going to change course midstream, the next time she'd need to get a job and pay for it herself.

I feel like I've run around in circles trying to fix things for her for so many years, doing everything I can to meet her needs, and now I feel like she needs to start taking the initiative herself, kwim? She's been given all these chances, all the support, now she needs to start working with it all.

I should mention, she is extremely bright, a gifted student, highly emotional, and she and her elder sister had quite an unsettled early childhood as their bio-dad left early, and he's come and gone through their lives a lot and that has been very disruptive for them. Dd2 has been dealing with emotional issues of one sort or another since she was a toddler.