Ok ik heb op de officiele site gevonden hoe het is afgelopen! Backstage ReactionsAs Brad, Kenda and their three younger boys leave the stage, Brad unleashes his frustration.
"My husband ripped his tie off, his jacket, his glasses, in a rage of hurt," says Kenda. "All I could think of is to hold him tight and we just sobbed. Our worst nightmare had come true."
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Brad shares his thoughts. "What does a father do when he hears, 'Your daughter has been touched sexually by your own son.' It's like right then, immediately, my heart was torn right in half."
"Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mikai. He was a lost soul. We pulled our three boys close to us. In a family circle we all just held each other tight," Kenda continues.
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Mikai's youngest brother says, "I felt pretty angry about the stuff that Mikai did."
Dr. Phil meets with the family backstage and shares his thoughts. "You have to take care of yourselves right now, and I've got to take care of Mikai," he tells the family. He assures them that Mikai will receive serious help, probably inpatient treatment.
"That's why we came," Brad says.
"He can't come home," Kenda agrees.
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"We can take him out of that horrible existence and start to build him back and build his character, and get his impulses under control and heal whatever is wrong in his history and his background. I'm not going to throw this human being away," Dr. Phil continues. "You guys need some help as well. Just having the courage to come here and work on this and do this. I know what y'all have been through." He points out the positives: they have stopped the molestation legacy in their lives, and this show will have a huge impact on the viewers. "There will be people that see this and say, 'We cannot be in denial anymore,'" Dr. Phil explains. "They'll say, 'No, we can't do this anymore.' You have created meaning to your suffering."
Dr. Phil looks to Kenda: "You know now [your daughter is] safe, others are safe. That phone's not going to ring with that call you didn't want to get."
Dr. Phil asks Brad and Kenda if they are at peace with what has happened.
"It's going to be a rough road, but I think it's a journey that we needed to take," Kenda says.
Brad agrees. "Nobody else could give us what we were looking for. Nobody else had a solution," he says. "All the naysayers said, 'Are you sure you want to do this?' Nobody had an alternative. Not one person."
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"And nobody, nobody heard our cries for help," Kenda adds. She asks Dr. Phil if she can see Mikai, and he tells her she can.
Brad interrupts: "Can't you wait and let him be on with his life?"
"Honey, I'm the mom. He's still my son," Kenda tells Brad, and she goes to visit with Mikai.
As Kenda walks in the room, she hugs Mikai. "Are you OK?" she asks and he nods yes. "Are you glad it's out?" Mikai again nods yes.
"Do you know we love you?"
"No," Mikai replies. "I know you do."
"Your Dad has a lot of hurt. So do your brothers. And it will take some time for them to find that forgiveness," Kenda explains. "But you destroyed that trust. You know we can't have you in our home."
"I know," Mikai nods.
"And it's not because we don't love you. It's because we have to protect [your younger sister]," Kenda makes clear.
"I know," Mikai repeats.
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Kenda attempts to hold Mikai close and he pulls away saying, "Don't Mom. I don't want to be held."
"I'm still your mom," Kenda pushes.
"I know that, but I don't want you touching me right now."
After Mikai tells Kenda he wants her to leave, they hug. "I love you," Kenda tells Mikai. "Love you too," he responds.
Dr. Phil asks Kenda and Brad how they are doing now.
"It's been hard," Kenda replies. "I just want to take that little boy in my arms and hold him and protect him, and I can't. I just wanted to take away all of his pain. I wanted to be able to go to the treatment center for him. I wanted to be able to walk this road that he has to go down for him, but I knew that he has to do it."
"You know that that's something that he not only needs to do, but will flourish from doing," Dr. Phil points out. "He's not a little boy, he's a man. He's an adult, and he has to stand up and claim which way he wants to go and make those choices. And that's something that he can't do on his own, but he can do with help."
"I've always been the mom to go fix it," Kenda admits. "I've always fought his battles for him and I want so badly to fix this, and I can't. And that is really frustrating for me."
"Do you believe in him?" Dr. Phil asks.
After a pause Kenda says, "I have faith in him."
Brad says that he believes that Mikai will be able to overcome this. "That's what helps me keep going," he explains. "I do want my son back, I just don't want the one that we left here."
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Picking Up the PiecesA few days after the family returned home, they were investigated by Child Protective Services. "I asked, 'Are you going to take my children out of the home?' And the social worker asked me, 'Should I?' I said, 'No, because we had Mikai removed from the home and he is getting the help that he needs,'" Kenda explains. Family and friends have shown mixed feelings. "I've had people tell us that they're proud of me. And we've had people call and be concerned that Mikai may have violated their children, and they have disassociated themselves from us."
Brad and Kenda's three younger boys share their thoughts. "I don't want anyone to get hurt again," says one son who hopes Mikai never comes back.
"I'm feeling a lot better that Mikai has gone. I don't like to think about the things that Mikai's done," another brother says.
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Mikai's youngest brother says, "I don't even like to think about Mikai. Hearing his name makes me want to run into my room and rip everything off of the walls."
"I worry about my boys. I don't know if they're really dealing with their feelings," says Brad. But he acknowledges that the family is improving. "Our family's moving in a more forward direction than we were before. I feel that Mikai is right where he needs to be."
"There is a different spirit in our home. It's very calm," Kenda agrees.
Dr. Phil explains that the show reported the family to Child Protective Services. "That's a requirement," he tells Brad and Kenda, who were kept abreast of the situation.
"We didn't have a problem with it," Brad says.
"We've talked to the state. We've talked to Child Protective Services. We've talked to law enforcement," Dr. Phil continues. "Everybody seems to be of one mind, that what's happening with Mikai is the best possible thing that could happen with him, as opposed to him being charged with something or sitting in jail. So they seem to be supportive of that."
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Dr. Phil introduces Dr. Frank Lawlis, chairman of the Dr. Phil advisory board, who arranged the treatment for Mikai, and will remain a liaison between the family, Mikai's treatment center and the therapist that Brad and Kenda will see. He shares his findings. "Mikai was very positive in terms of making another step," Dr. Lawlis says. "He has some sense of satisfaction that he is stepping up to the challenge, and is apparently gaining a lot from this treatment."
A few days after Mikai was at the treatment center, he called home. "His father was livid. He made me cut the conversation short," Kenda explains. "Brad was irritated and said I was coddling him, and that we needed to leave him in California and not to have any interaction with Mikai while he was there."
"They were having this discussion like nothing had happened. It made me sick to my stomach actually. Mikai was saying how everybody there had an addiction and he didn't know why he was there," Brad says in disbelief. "I get angry that Mikai is in treatment and we're left here picking up the pieces of the mess he created."
"We are arguing about [Mikai] constantly," Kenda says. "Brad can't get past the fact that Mikai violated our daughter. He sees the perpetrator; I see the victim."
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Brad is frustrated that Kenda is so protective of Mikai. "She won't let the other boys say that they hate him or they're angry with him," Brad explains. "Kenda's telling the boys that they need to forgive Mikai. I can't even get to that point so I don't expect them to."
Kenda defends her actions. "[Mikai] needs to know he has an ally. That he has somebody who's on his side who loves and cares for him," she says. "Brad says he wants his son back but doesn't show it. Brad refers to Mikai as a 'monster' and I say, 'He's not a monster; he's my son.'"
Reality Sets InDr. Phil makes clear that when Brad and Kenda first contacted the show, they were very suspicious about what was going on with Mikai. "You had to come here with the anticipation that that was going to be confirmed, not refuted. True?"
"True," Brad agrees.
"What did you think was going to happen at that point? That you were just going to drop him off in LA and say, 'So long'? I don't like the fact that you have a disease and have made bad choices," Dr. Phil asks.
"My idea was at least give us some peace. Give us a little while, the rest of us as a family, to heal up a little bit before we have to be immersed back into Mikai," Brad replies, explaining that the main focus of the family has been Mikai for months.
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Responding to criticism about the family's decision to go on national TV with their issue, Dr. Phil says, "The truth is, this was very public in your community." Brad and Kenda agree. "This wasn't going to be some new revelation, and I think you both believed that had you not come here, he would be in jail today instead of in treatment ... His behavior was unravelling and you were getting ready to have that knock on the door. You pre-empted that. He's in treatment and things are moving in the right direction."
Dr. Phil recalls Brad's comment to Mikai from the previous show: "You are dead to us." He points out that Brad said that in anger, and asks him, "That is not how you feel as you sit here now, correct?"
"Correct. Right now I feel as though there's hope for this boy," Brad says. "I just can't carry that hate. I can't do it."
"Hate the disorder. Hate the behavior," Dr. Phil tells him. "This is your son!" He looks to Kenda. "Don't you let him or anybody else tell you that you aren't his mother and that you aren't entitled to love him and nuture him and comfort him and be there for him," he tells her. "You need to and should nurture him. It's not rewarding bad behavior. His behavior right now has been to step up as a man and get himself help, and get himself treatment and work to turn his life around."
He adds, "I truly believe that there is hope here, and that with proper treatment and proper healing in the family, that this can turn out OK."
Kenda is having a hard time accepting what Mikai has done. Dr. Phil asks her, "When you think about it objectively and intellectually, are you honest enough with yourself to embrace the truth?"
"I know it because I'm an intelligent woman, and [the polygraph] told us the truth, but my heart says, 'He's my son. He couldn't do this. He's kind. He's compassionate. He would never hurt his little sister. He would never hurt me. This isn't in his character.' Denial, denial, denial."
Dr. Phil makes clear that the polygraph is a sophisticated, investigative tool that has a high degree of accuracy, but it is not foolproof. In this case, Mikai also admitted to his wrongdoings.
"He's a pathogical liar," Kenda interjects. "I sat there right across from him when he admitted it and my heart was ripped out."
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Dr. Phil reminds Kenda that they are not only relying on the polygraph and Mikai's admission, but on what the school, the girls and his brothers have said. "You'll never be able to deal with this until you come out of the denial and acknowledge what's going on," Dr. Phil tells her.
"I know that. All of the puzzle pieces are in place. Everything you said is true. Everything that I know is true, but I don't want the puzzle to be put together."
"You have to be honest with yourself about this, but don't let me talk you into it."
Dr. Phil shares his opinion about whether he feels Mikai should come home. "Mikai is a part of this family. Good, bad, indifferent, he's part of this family. Question is, can he ever be a healthy, trusted, involved member of this family, and the answer is yes. Isn't that the whole purpose of doing all of this?"
"Definitely," Kenda says.
"You didn't bring him here just to get an answer and leave him if you didn't like it and take him home if you did. The idea was to try to get this young man some help," Dr. Phil points out, noting that Mikai will not be able to come home anytime soon. "It would be irresponsible for you to do that. It would be impossible for the state to allow that. But that doesn't mean that you don't adjust your relationship and love this young man the best that you can. It's not about hate; it's about help. And I need you both plugged in to do that."
Dr. Phil looks to Brad. "You can't be hiding behind your anger. Your son owes you an apology and you owe your son an apology. He is not dead to you, and he needs to know that the end product of all this hard work is that he has somewhere to go. That he has a family to be a part of," he says. "Should you move him back into the home in the near future? No. Should your relationship with him stay active and engaged? Absolutely."
Mikai ReturnsFacing His Parents and Dr. Phil
Home Without Mikai"Since Mikai has been gone, life is hard, crazy, stressful," says Kenda. "I feel like I'm at the edge of a breakdown. I just keep beating myself up. What could I have done differently? ... I've forgiven him, but I don't trust him because how many times does he have to sh** on you before it's like, 'He's going to do it again'?"
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"I'm worried about my wife because she has disconnected herself. I've seen it before and it caused her to crash," says Brad, who's also having a tough time. "I can't tell you how jealous I am that Mikai's getting all this help and we're here living in the real world, trying to struggle and survive. Some of us might not get out of here alive. It might be me, it might be one of my kids."
Since the show, Brad and Kenda have learned about instances when Mikai was the victim of sexual abuse. "The other children were saying, 'Oh, we used to play Spin the Bottle with this babysitter and we'd have to run out to the trampoline naked,'" Kenda explains. Kenda is also putting the pieces together about why Mikai stopped playing football. "He quit playing because he didn't want to be touched. It was around the same time when he was being abused by the babysitter," she says. "Sexual abuse is more of the norm than the exception. It is in every home everywhere."
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Kenda is also concerned for her husband. "Initially, Brad couldn't see the victim in Mikai; all he saw was the predator. Brad sees himself in his son. Brad was pretty much a horrible husband when we first got married. He was a liar, a manipulator, he was unfaithful — he was a Mikai."
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Although Brad and Kenda were hesitant to believe Mikai would make any progress, they were pleased when they met with him and his therapists. "He's come a long way," says Kenda, acknowledging that he still has a long road ahead of him.
"I can tell that he's been helped along the way and he's discovered some things within himself that he didn't know before," says Brad.
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"He's been out of the house for two months now. What's the result in the home?" asks Dr. Phil.
"Things were better," says Kenda. "We had a lot more harmony, a lot more peace. It was just pleasant to be home because there wasn't the constant fighting and bickering among the children and the contention ... What we have learned is that Mikai is not the only sick one in our family."
"I think it's important to look and ask, 'What role am I playing in this?" says Dr. Phil. For example, even though Mikai molested his younger sister and physically abused his younger brother, Kenda still wanted to bring them along to spend the day with Mikai at Disneyland. "In retrospect, does that seem now to have not been a good plan?" he asks her. "Do you see that it could be highly provocative during a time that he's struggling to get his bearings?"
Kenda responds, "I'm being torn apart. I was trying to take care of everybody at once and not thinking."
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"Do you see that ... the thing to do is not to bring two of his most intimate victims and bring them and put them right in his face and go, 'Let's go to Disneyland and pretend that nothing ever happened; we're just going to be one big happy family in Fantasyland'?"
"I do see that now," she says. "I feel like I just need to be educated."
Family TherapyDr. Phil referred Mikai to Creative Care, a center that deals with disorders like sexual addiction, impulse control and substance abuse. Cameras were allowed in a session with Mikai, his parents and his therapist.
"Mikai, what have you learned in treatment?" Dr. Khaleghi asks.
"I've learned tons about boundaries and how to have healthier relationships, stronger physical boundaries," says Mikai. "I like knowing what I can do and what I can't do. When I was growing up, my parents would have consequences, but they wouldn't follow through with them. That meant that I could do whatever I want."
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"I was a severely abused child and my destination in life was to be an abuser, and I did not want that," Kenda explains. "Mikai learned at a very young age that he could manipulate me because I didn't want to hurt him. I didn't want him to be mad at me.
Dr. Khaleghi asks her, "I know about the abuse you've endured as a child. How much did you disclose to your children?"
"I did not reveal the details to them until probably about five years ago," says Kenda. "Thinking that I was educating, I was letting them know that I lived through this as a small child."
Mikai reveals that he's known about his mother's abuse long before she told him. He says he probably overheard her telling somebody else when he was around 6 years old.
Kenda explains, "I thought I was protecting my kids, saying, 'You know, there are bad people out in the world.' Inside of myself, I couldn't see what I was doing to my own kids."
Brad also shared his abusive past with his children. "I was more the detail guy. I feel like it was a horrible mistake and that I've probably done more damage than good," he says.
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Dr. Khaleghi tells Mikai, "Your mom's intention was to prevent those sort of things from happening to you. And what ended up happening is you took advantage of other people in the family ... How have you been dealing with your sexual desires and your sexual impulses?"
"I deal with them fine," says Mikai. "There's people there that I could have taken advantage of. I could have manipulated them into giving me what I wanted."
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"What stops you from doing that?"
"The structure, mostly, I think," says Mikai.
"How much do you find yourself compelled to lie?" Dr. Khaleghi asks.
"Not very often," says Mikai. "And when I do, I usually catch myself before I do, I think."
"And you come clean?"
"Yeah," says Mikai. "Well, no, not like toward patients, but if it's with my therapist or one of the staff, I go back to them, and I'll be like, 'That's not completely true.' I'm not stupid. I'm not dumb, so I'm capable of doing the right thing."
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Later, Mikai reveals, "Last Wednesday, I cried all day long. I was feeling guilty mostly about like abusing my family and how much I screwed them over. I wish would've been nicer to all of them, but mostly [my little brother]. I feel bad. I was a d**k to him. I was just mean to him."
Back on stage with Dr. Phil, Kenda explains that she was a "wounded spirit" as a child and now she lives with a lot of guilt because of what her family is going through. "If I could've learned more at a younger age instead of when I'm 38, I wouldn't have put so much harm on my kids."
"There are things that you can change," Dr. Phil tells her, suggesting that she and Brad need to look at the sexually charged environment they're creating for their family when they share the details of their past, especially in front of their youngest kids. Dr. Phil also reprimands Kenda for sending Mikai a family picture, including his little sister whom he molested. "That's provocative behavior, intentionally or otherwise," he says. "And that has to stop."
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Dr. Phil continues, "We need to drain the sexual energy from this atmosphere ... There are Five Factors for a Phenomenal Family. And one of those factors is not having an environment pervaded by sexual molestation, abuse, fear and reaction to that."
Dr. Phil reminds Brad and Kenda that how they interact and respond to Mikai is very important. He brings up the time when Mikai told his mom he was making progress, and she said, "It's just a honeymoon period. You're not really getting better."
"What was your prediction of the impact of that message to Mikai?" Dr. Phil asks.
"'Don't sh*t on me again, kid, because I'm not falling for it.'"
Dr. Phil says, "Answer this very, very carefully. Do you honest to God, no kidding, believe that your family can be healed and get better? Or do you honestly, truthfully believe that this is your plight in life and you've got no way to ever escape all of this pain and dysfunction?"
Kendra gets emotional during Dr. Phil's question. "Four days ago I would say this is my plot in life. It has haunted me from infancy and I thought I had gotten rid of it. And now it plagues my children and it plagues our marriage."
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"I don't want you to live your life as a victim. And I don't want to ever trivialize what's happened to you [two] in your lives. I don't mean to trivialize that in any way. That was then, this is now. And I'm not just saying, 'Get over it.' You've got to do what it takes to provide for yourself mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, so you can give it to other people."
Moving ForwardMikai joins his parents on stage with Dr. Phil. He says treatment, although very hard, has been worth it. "It's a workout, but it's changed my life," says Mikai. "I've learned that telling the truth is a lot easier on me. It doesn't wear me down as much as lying did. I've also learned tons and tons about boundaries. I've learned that without boundaries all your relationships your entire life aren't going to be healthy at all."
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Dr. Phil introduces Dr. Khaleghi, the founder and executive director of Creative Care and Debra Carroll, a licensed psychotherapist who's been working with Mikai since he began treatment.
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"In the beginning, Mikai came in pretty angry," says Debra. "He was feeling all sorts of fear and sadness and not capable of expressing it."
"Do you think you have a future?" Dr. Phil asks Mikai.
"Yeah, I think so," he says. Looking back, Mikai knows he would've eventually ended up in jail.
"And you know that you're not finished? That you have a lot of work to do?"
"Yeah. I'm aware of that," says Mikai.
Dr. Phil asks Brad and Kenda if they have anything they need to say to Mikai now that he sits in front of them.
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Kenda tells her son, "I would like to ask you for your forgiveness."
"What is it that you want him to forgive you for?" Dr. Phil asks.
"I want him to forgive me for everything. Yelling too much, not protecting him," says Kenda.
"Do you think you should've had better boundaries between you and Mikai as well?"
"Definitely," says Kenda.
"What do you see in your future?" Dr. Phil asks Mikai.
"I'll definitely have stronger boundaries with my family, hopefully. Eventually we'll be able to start our relationship over," he replies.
"What's going to happen with you, Kenda, if he continues to climb this hill and gets to the point of being able to live healthily and independently and not re-enter the enmeshment of this family as it now exists?" asks Dr. Phil.
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"I want to keep all my chicks right underneath my wing," Kenda admits. "I hope he doesn't forget that I'm his mom," she says tearfully.
"But do you understand that even if it was possible, the worst thing that could happen with him right now is to re-enter this family? Because this is not a healthy family right now."
"I know that," says Kenda.
"I wouldn't go back to their family," adds Mikai.
Dr. Phil recommends they continue to work on boundaries and sensitivity to age appropriateness. "You don't talk about things around young children that are beyond what they can control, beyond what they can understand and conceptualize," says Dr. Phil. And he reminds Kenda that Mikai is a grown man and can't come home to live with them again. "That's not healthy at this point. You have to let that go."
Although Kenda thinks sexual abuse is in "every home everywhere," it isn't. "It's not everybody. That's not the norm. There are healthy, functioning families and you can become one of those," says Dr. Phil.
When Dr. Phil points out that Kenda wanted to bring her daughter with them to the show, Kenda says, "I know I need boundaries, but I don't think a mother can have too much love for her children."
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Dr. Phil responds, "That isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about having a sexually dysfunctional environment and wanting to gather all the children around and have them there so nobody misses any of it. That is what being too much of a mother is ... Love without boundaries is like a missile without a guidance system: You have no idea where it's going."
"I'm learning that," says Kenda.
At the end of the show, Dr. Phil commends the work that Kenda, Brad and Mikai have been doing. "The good news is you're not alone. You're surrounded by good people. You've got wonderful resources here with Creative Care. You're taking a lot of the right steps."
Mikai says, "I'm going to keep working and I hope they'll keep working too."
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All those moments will be lost, like tears in rain... Time to die.