An Angel (Jessica)

The African proverb: It takes a village to raise as child implies that the upbringing of children rest upon the entire human race. Sometimes it takes a fallen child to remind us thereof.

SUMMARY OF CASE STUDY 

Family history: Jessica’s* biological father was killed in an accident six months after her birth and the biological mother remarried soon after. Jessica was the youngest of two sisters and at the age of four been placed in protective custody pending an alleged molestation investigation of the stepfather.

After a year of reconstruction services from the local child welfare agency, Jessica was reunited with her family.

The stepfather worked from home, repairing cars, the mother as a cashier in a grocery store while the older sister attended school. Jessica was left in the care of the stepfather. What happened on the tragic day was uncertain, but when the mother returned home she found Jessica in the corner of the garage where the stepfather hung himself.

Play therapy sessions

Jessica entered the room making no eye contact, wearing a too small sweater in the mid of summer and had a backpack over her shoulder. She walked to the curtain and took position behind it, not saying a word. The therapist could only see the pair of sneakers underneath the curtain.  Bearing in mind that Jessica was only five and in the pre-operational stage of development, the therapist simply projected what was evident: A pretty girl in an unfamiliar room who disappeared and that the play therapist had no idea how she was going to explain to the mother what happened to the girl. The sneakers moved. The play therapist talked out loud, explaining that children who came to this room to listen to stories and that the play therapist was going to read a story anyway. She read the story of the Ugly Duckling and the sneakers moved as the therapist contemplated if the little girl who disappeared would have enjoyed the ugly duckling becoming a beautiful swan. When the mother knocked on the door Jessica came out from behind the curtain and walked out.

Session two followed the same pattern and the play therapist read the story of Snow White and the seven dwarfs, but called Snow White Jessica. Jessica’s feet moved and she peeped once or twice before reverting back to her position behind the curtain. Whether she liked or disliked the play therapist replacing Snow White’s name with hers was uncertain. The play therapist continued with the story, placing emphasis on the saddened dwarfs’ reaction when they returned from their chores only to find Jessica (Snow White) being killed by the stepmother.

The third session was scheduled close to Christmas and in the corner was a decorated pine tree. Jessica headed for the curtains, but when she saw the tree she stopped in her tracks. After looking at the tree for quite some time she cautiously stepped towards it. The play therapist sat on the carpet, getting ready to read yet another story. The impasse happened, when Jessica stormed and stripped the tree of the decorative angels and in a suppressed manner broke off all the heads. Jessica turned to the play therapist and displayed uncontrolled anger as she attacked the play therapist using her fists. The play therapist regained composure, took Jessica’s hands and turned her towards the punch bag on the floor. Jessica kept hitting the bag, threw her backpack down and took her sweater off and continued. After some time she fell on the floor and the play therapist handed her a teddy. When the mother knocked at the door, Jessica got up, but refused to take the backpack and sweater with.

Jessica went away for the holidays and did not return for play therapy sessions after. The mother came to see the play therapist and according to the mother Jessica was enrolled in pre-primary school and experienced no problems adapting to the new environment.

Jessica was one of the scholars in the research group to write a paragraph on a bad experience or loss. She drew a brightly colored picture of a man (her stepfather) hanging by his neck in the pink garage against the blue skies, green grass and next to the house a grave with a coffin and a body of the male inside. The picture depicted happiness despite the grim theme.

According to the teacher, Jessica is an angel, participates in class activities with enthusiasm, seems to be well adapted, has a close friend and makes excellent progress.

Conclusion

Even though a major loss is emotionally unsettling, young children still perceive loss or bad experience as factual and specific. Her rage against the decorative angels might have stemmed from someone comforting her by referring to the deceased stepfather as an angel, but Jessica wanted him to be buried. This interruption of the figure formation out of the ground of her experience and emergent needs and were mobilized by aggressive energy. By expressing her anger in a safe environment she managed to bring her energy back to herself, set I-boundaries and got closure by putting the extremely traumatic event behind her.  

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the case study participants.