This paper describes the three-year treatment of a boy with speech difficulties who had been born prematurely and whose early life was characterized by repeated medical interventions. It explores the way in which this had left him with an ambivalent perception of his object as both container and persecutor, and a conflict about the source and impact of his aggression. Enabling him to verbalize fantasies and anxieties about his infancy allowed him to make considerable progress in speech and other areas of his life. This was achieved through the therapist's struggle to find her voice as his therapist.