I am a psychodynamically-trained counsellor. The following case is from counselling work in a Family Service Unit. All my work with parents and infants is supervised by experienced child psychotherapists who specialize in parent-infant work.

Lydia was referred to see me at the Family Service Unit by another counsellor who was seeing her son Jay, aged 7 years, once weekly for depression.

Lydia's extremely haggard, depressed appearance had aroused alarm in all the staff who entered the Unit's waiting-room. Various concerned staff members approached her as she sat tearfully waiting while Jay had his session. Lydia asked to see a counsellor. Jay's counsellor made an appointment with me for the following week. The counsellor told me that the family were black British, that Lydia's parents were born in Jamaica. Lydia was a middle child in a family of 13 boys and girls.