Siblings of the Child with a Life-Threatening Illness

Summary This paper examines the experience of siblings who live with a child with a life-threatening illness, and the adaptive means they mobilize to negotiate this unique life stress. The author highlights the themes which have emerged from her psy-chotherapeutic work with siblings by the children's statements and drawings, and stipulates intervention strategies. Key issues in bereavement are also discussed. The siblings' experience must be seen within a “normalized” framework at the juncture of three perspectives: the family system; a focus on life rather than on death; and a view to positive adaptation.