ABSTRACT
Supporting a child through a life-threatening illness is a complex experience for the parents. Writing from the perspective of a mother whose daughter underwent successful surgery for a brain tumour and subsequent chemotherapy when she was seven years old, Marta Alonso maps out what this involved at the time, how she sees it now and the bearing it has had on her role as a psychotherapist working with children and adolescents. An ill child shifts the centre of gravity in the family and is a life-changing event for all. Looking back, Alonso tries to capture what it was like for her and her partner who were confronted with the unbearable possibility of the death of a child. This leads to bringing in case material and to thinking about how Alonso’s personal experience made it possible to support the parent and child without revealing her own history.
