The Crisis of Paternal Suicide: Case of Cathy, Age 4 1/2 (IN: Play Therapy With Children in Crisis: a Casebook for Practitioners, edited by N B Webb)

This chapter describes the course of treatment for children who have lost a parent through suicide & who are considered to be in a traumatic grief state. One case is discussed in which a combination of nondirective play therapy & a semistructured play situation decreases the child’s resistance as the working through proceeds. Throughout the process, the child therapist is alert to disturbances in the child’s ongoing interpersonal relationships as well as the child’s internal psychological conflicts as a consequence of parental suicide. (26 refs.)