The Invisible Child

A story told by one of my DMT teacher, translated from Swedish. The pictures of the story book is very sweet and touching. A simple story but it has a lot of truth and meaning behind it.

The name of the little girl is this story is Ninni. 

Ninni has become invisible because she has been badly brought up in a family where the grown ups were ironic and treated her without respect so Ninni felt that they didn't like her. Therefore, the child became more and more silent until she couldn't speak at all, couldn't play, lost her sense of humour and finally she faded in her contours and step by step she became invisible. The only thing that you could see of Ninni when she came to the Mumin valley was a little bell that she wore around her invisible neck so that it was possible to know where she turned out to be when she came to the Mumin family. 

The Mumin family all wanted to help little Ninni to be visible again. They tried to treat Ninni with all the methods that are still the most important and most effective within psychiatry for children and adolescents.

The family accepted Ninni the way she was, but they also tried in different ways to get her out of her isolation and dumbness. All of them showed Ninni their love and affection, for example, the Mumin mother made Ninni a fine red dress and a beautiful hair ribbon. Ninni got sweets from the little Mumin troll and a glass of orange juice at her bedside when she was going to sleep. They all treated her very well, but they also demanded things of Ninni. Ninni was supposed to take part in the daily life of the family, for example, to pick mushrooms and to help the Mumin mother with the dishes. Little My and the Mumin troll tried to teach Ninni how to play and have fun. The Mumin mother also gave Ninni medicine. The Mumin mother had a practical book with very effective household remedies and there was a special medicine to use if one's friends faded away and become difficult to recognize.

Little by little the invisible Ninni got more visible. 

At first they could see Ninni's feet when she came down the stairs. Thereafter Ninni's leg and her dress. Little My thought that Ninni's dress was very ugly so the Mumin mother made Ninni a new dress that was very beautiful. 

Then Ninni said her first words, "Thank you very much" in a very silent voice. She was not dumb any more but she was still very shy. She got more visible but her face was still invisible. Ninni was not fully visible until she released her genuine feelings.It happened once when Ninni and the whole Mumin family went on a picnic near a lake. They all sat on the bridge when the Mumin father wanted to embrace the Mumin mother and came up behind her. Then Ninni suddenly thought that the Mumin father tried to throw her beloved Mumin mother into the cold water. She then jumped on the Mumin father and bit him furiously in his tail. Then for the first time her face got visible and it became even more clear when she began to laugh loud and heartedly because the Mumin father got so astonished when Ninni bit his tail that he fell into the water. 

With the help of this good combination - medication, a friendly millieu and psychotherapy, little Ninni became a normal healthy child and she could now show her spontaneous various feelings joy, anger and sorrow and everyone could see all of Ninni.

This story shows that a child need to grown up in a healthy way. It also shows the importance of an affective family to develop a child's psychic health.