Charlotte's Story

This is the story of a 9 year old girl we shall call ‘Charlotte’.

Charlotte was referred to The Place2Be by her class teacher because she was bullying other children.

Charlotte's problems stemed from having seen her mother die from leukaemia when she was 5 years old. Her dad, who has brought Charlotte up alone ever since, had relationships with other women and Charlotte found this confusing: She started telling stories at the school about having 3 mums. Dad also tried to hide his grief from his daughter.

When we first met with Charlotte she was able to talk about the problems arising from her mother’s death but she seemed less able to make sense of her emotions. She expressed a wish that The Place2Be would help her become happier.

Over the intervention period that Charlotte came to The Place2Be her father remarried and his new wife then gave birth to a baby son. Charlotte had to wrestle with questions such as ‘is it disloyal to be fond of your new mum and baby brother, when you still miss your old mum?’

Supporting Charlotte

Charlotte quickly formed a close relationship with her counsellor and showed a lot of creativity using art and drama techniques. She also got more in touch with her suppressed anguish around her mother’s death, crying a lot in some of the early sessions.

Charlotte decided to use her sessions to make a scrap book to collect together memories and thoughts of her mother. She filled it with pictures – of the family at her mother’s grave, of her mother in heaven, of herself as she is now – and with letters to and from her mother.

She became increasingly creative and also explored masks and lies (her favourite game in her sessions was playing as the most outrageous liar in the whole world). This seemed to relate to her curiosity about Dad pretending not to be upset at the death of her Mum.

At the end of her time with The Place2Be Charlotte said how much happier she felt: Charlotte's teacher reported she was much more considerate towards other children. Her father thanked The Place2Be because he had not even been aware that Charlotte was still missing her Mum.