elinquish the old attachments to the deceased, Re-adjust and adapt to their new world without forgetting their old one by developing a new relationship with the deceased, adopt new ways of being in the world without their loved one and form a new identity and finally Re-invest. Rando stated that complicated mourning is present whenever there is some compromise, distortion, or failure of one or more of the six “R” processes of mourning. It is clear from working with C that her grief is complicated and so some sort of compromise in one or more of the six R’s is probable, I don’t agree that one of the stages could be failed, it may just not be achieved in the way they are described. I feel that C recognises the loss, she has acknowledged her losses and understands why her surviving children were adopted, however, she blames herself, and was blamed by her ex-partner for the death of her baby but struggles to understand why her baby had Edwards Syndrome, which, ultimately, was the reason she chose to terminate her pregnancy, she has reacted to the separation by experiencing the pain of her losses, she has experienced normal grief reactions and psychological reactions to her losses by experiencing re-occurring nightmares and has identified the secondary loss being loss of identity as a mother as her children are no longer with her. She has begun to recollect the relationships she had with her surviving children, but feels that she didn’t have a relationship with her baby as the baby died in utero, however, with support, it is entirely possible that she will come to the realisation that she had a relationship with her baby before she died, in session we have created a safe space for her to re-experience the feelings she has for her surviving daughter, however, I am mindful that while she is still pregnant, to approach this area of our sessions sensitively and remain aware of her stress levels, to ensure she does not become too upset. It is difficult for C to attempt the stage of relinquishing the old attachments to the deceased, as two of her children are still living, as with adoption, it is difficult to mourn the loss in the traditional sense as the children are still living, and it is at this point in the six R’s model, that we will have to make a compromise in her way of approaching this particular stage. I do not yet know how this will be accomplished as we are working at C’s own pace. I feel that C has, to some degree, re-adjusted and adapted to her new world without forgetting her old one but has not yet developed a new relationship with her losses, she has however adopted new ways of being in her world and is currently forming a new identity as a mother and she is re-investing herself in her role as a new mother again.

As N has not experienced the death of her children an adjustment to recognising the loss by acknowledging and understanding the death must be undertaken, in this instance working with N to understand and acknowledge the events that led up to her children being placed for adoption. I feel that she has reacted to the separation by experiencing the emotional pain of losing her children to adoption, she has to some extent achieved this stage, however, she has not yet identified the secondary losses, for example, she has not lost her identity as a mother as she has other children remaining with her, with further work I will encourage her to recollect the relationship with her sons by remembering them realistically and re-experience the feelings that she had for them, I feel that she has begun to re-adjust and adapt to her new world without her sons without forgetting her old one with them in it, however, due to the adoption she is n