This case study outlines the process of play therapy with a beginning child therapist and an 8-year-old female patient. Salient aspects of the content of this child’s play were consistent with an ongoing effort to master anxieties about departures and unpredictable goodbyes. After some months this theme faded, corresponding with some reported improvement in the child’s emotional experience outside of therapy. Later the therapy process ended in a manner which apparently bears echoes of the child’s early experiences. The process is discussed in the light of a new therapist’s experience of making shifting formulations about the child in the context of her past and her family.