Abstract

This paper presents a treatment of a girl (age 9) whose parents voluntarily turn to a psychologist after the father of the girl was diagnosed with terminal cancer with life expectancy of six to twelve months. The girl reported no appreciable diseases. She is the only child in the family, has high intellectual capacity and never reported any socio-emotional difficulties. The case study gives an overview of the counselling work with the mother and psychological support to the child through several stages: (1) coping with the illness; (2) bodily and mood changes of the father; (3) side-effects of the father’s treatment; (4) severe health deterioration of the father; (5) father’s approaching death; (6) father’s death; (7) grief and adjustment. The girl and the mother reacted to all aforementioned stages in very different ways, thus the interventions were also focused on invoking mother’s emphatic understanding of the girl and preserving their relationship. The girl went through three stages of grief: (1) perceived loss of the father through the deterioration of his psychophysical condition; (2) perceived loss of the mother, who is all too busy looking after the father; (3) the death of the father, which makes the subject relevant for a deeper understanding of the emotional processes of a child in such a complex traumatic situation. An integrative therapeutic approach was used as method.


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U ovom radu prikazan je tretmanski rad s djevojčicom (dobi 9 godina) čiji se roditelji samoinicijativno javljaju psihologu nakon što je ocu postavljena dijagnoza terminalne faze karcinoma s perspektivom životnog vijeka od šest do dvanaest mjeseci. Djevojčica je urednog razvoja, jedino dijete u cjelovitoj obitelji, visokih intelektualnih kapaciteta i bez ranijih socio-emocionalnih teškoća. Prikaz slučaja uključuje prikaz savjetodavnog rada s majkom i psihološke podrške djetetu kroz nekoliko etapa: (1) suočavanje s bolešću; (2) očeve promjene tjelesnog i emocionalnog tipa; (3) nuspojave liječenja; (4) značajna pogoršanja zdravstvenog stanja oca; (5) približavanje smrti oca; (6) smrt oca; (7) tugovanje i prilagodba. Djevojčica i majka značajno drugačije oživljavaju sve opisane faze te se intervencije usmjeravaju i na majčino empatijsko razumijevanje djevojčice te očuvanje njihovog odnosa. Djevojčica prolazi kroz tri ciklusa tugovanja: (1) percipirani gubitak oca kroz pogoršanje njegovog psihofizičkog stanja; (2) percipirani gubitak majke zbog stalne okupiranosti skrbi o ocu; (3) smrt oca, što temu čini značajnom za dublje razumijevanje emocionalnih procesa djeteta u ovako kompleksnoj traumatskoj situaciji. Korišten je integrativni terapijski pristup kao metoda rada.