ABSTRACT
This chapter shows Danilo’s case, which was discussed by a clinical observation group using the Three Level Model (3-LM) for children. The family suffered other losses at the time: the maternal great-grandfather and grandfather died, and their old nanny moved out of town. Danilo’s father lost his father when he was 13 years old. The material supplied by the therapist covered four meaningful sessions over a two-year period. Several studies have found that children respond to loss in the same way as adults in the nature and frequency of their grief reactions, showing an identical chronological pattern of bereavement. In several studies assessing children’s pathology following the early loss of a parent and other trauma, the degree of distress and the level of coping skills in the surviving parent were the most significant mediators of the child’s later psychological and behavioural symptoms.
