ABSTRACT
Wendy (aged 13 years) was referred to the Schools’ Counsellor by her Form Tutor at the beginning of the 2nd year because she continued to be so passive in the context of the classroom and socially withdrawn from her peer group. Her abilities were described as within the ‘low average’ range and no learning difficulties were apparent.
It became evident in the counselling sessions that Wendy’s home situation was emotionally volatile due to the death two months previously of her maternal grandmother. Her mother, as well as trying to cope with her own grief, was allowing herself to be used by her father in such a way that her children – Wendy, her sister (10 years) and brother (6 years) – and husband were all adversely affected by her diverted attention. Every morning Wendy’s mother collected her father from his sheltered accommodation and took him to her own home. His constant need to play his deceased wife’s favourite records and to talk of his own possible pending suicide, together with requests for food, prevented Wendy’s mother from completing her home-based assembly work. Usually he contrived still to be there when Wendy and her siblings returned home from school.
