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A Big and a Little One is Gone: Crisis Therapy with a Two-year-old Boy

Author(s) : Elisabeth Cleve

Reviews and Endorsements

'What is a little child capable of understanding? This question inevitably comes to mind as we interact with the little children in our lives. We are amazed at their ability to recall events and people, and we laugh when they give us their own version of the well-meaning but sometimes nagging words of adults. The way they show their compassion for others astounds us. The question reaches a peak of importance when tragic events strike very young children. Can they understand? What can they understand? And what can they make of their knowledge if they have understood? A little child who is dealt the hardest of blows that life can bring is the subject of this book. A two-year-old boy loses his mother and younger brother in a traffic accident. Now his life must go on together with his desperately grieving father. How is this possible?

Elisabeth Cleve's book is an excellent guide to understanding a little child's many modes of expression. It is not hampered by obscure, specialized terminology and should be understandable and helpful to a parent or grandparent without a background in psychology as well as to school and day-care personnel and other professionals whose daily task is to help children meet and cope with life's difficulties.'
- Ami Lönnroth, from the Foreword

'A Big and a Little One is Gone is a study in childhood bereavement as well as a valuable account of the kind of psychoanalytically informed brief therapy that can be highly effective when offered in a timely, well-supported and carefully thought out way. For both of these reasons, it is an unusual and valuable resource to clinicians. In this book we have a courageous and heartfelt example of what goes on between a therapist and her very young patient as they try to work together towards recovery from one of the most painful and traumatic experiences that any of us can imagine.'
- Monica Lanyado, from the Preface