This is the last of a series of three papers exploring the use with older children of tripartite psychotherapy – a technique of psychoanalytic psychotherapy of the parent–child relationship with both parent and child in the room together with the therapist. Tripartite psychotherapy merits more attention than it has received. It is a flexible, psychoanalytically oriented approach to parent–child relationship problems, particularly useful when the primary attachment has gone awry. A study is presented of a mother and her 12-year-old (adopted) daughter, who are embroiled in a hostile and rejecting relationship. The mutuality in this case illustrates the complexity in attachment relationships, and also how useful tripartite psychotherapy can be in working with attachment issues that often present as problems of the child alone.