Loss, recovery and adoption: a child's perspective

In the following case study, the death of the child's adoptive father when she was two and a half years old, set up a chain of events that tossed her into a 'developmental vacuum.' During the course of psychotherapy, her capacity to grieve the loss of her adoptive father enabled her to develop a closer relationship with her adoptive mother, and to grapple with the earlier phases of development at a later stage. The complexity of this young girl's struggle to be part of a family and to begin to think about the fact that she was adopted is described.