ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on situations where biological parents do not hold a parenting role in the lives of their adolescent children. Therapeutic intervention with the adopted adolescent is discussed and strategies for supporting the integration of his adoptive identity within the lifespace are presented. The author demonstrates how acknowledgement of his dual identity, sense of belonging and the presence of disappointment are important factors to consider in therapeutic work with the adopted adolescent. The importance of attending to the phenomenological experience for adolescents living in foster care situations is discussed, as the author emphasises the co-creation of a coherent lifespace narrative. Finally, the experience of parental death is explored and the reader is offered a theoretical framework for supporting grieving adolescents. Case vignettes throughout the chapter demonstrate the clinical sensibilities necessary to support these dimensions of adolescent experience.
