Therapy with siblings in reorganizing families

The loss of parenting figures through death, divorce, or other kinds of separation often leaves children without consistent parental support and with increased fears of abandonment. In the natural cycle, siblings can maintain almost lifelong relationships and therefore are in a position to offer each other a significant support system over an extended period of time. We have found that work with sibling subgroups can help children to resolve their individual and shared conflicts as well as to remove interferences to mutually supportive relationships. Illustrative cases are presented and treatment guidelines offered.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the National Conference of the American Association of Psychiatric Services for Children, November 1977, in Washington, D.C. Ms. Rosenberg is grateful to Harvey Falit, M.D., and Fady Hajal, M.D., for their encouragement and support of this work.