ABSTRACT
Childhood cancer has a traumatizing impact on the whole family, creating massive emotional pressures and paradoxes that can reverberate through their lives. This chapter explores these emotional complexities by looking at themes arising in psychotherapy with young adults who have had cancer treatment when young, as well as with supporting parents of children going through cancer treatment. The focus is on young people who are now between 18 and 24 and hence, by age, on the cusp of adulthood. The developmental move into adulthood can be particular difficult to emotionally negotiate and can be a trigger point to “psychological late effects”, where elements from the deeper layers of the mind may rise up into consciousness and impact on emotional, relational, and identity development, affecting outlook on life (and death) and sometimes leading to darker states of mind. In addition, by looking at the potential impact on a very young mind of cancer and its treatment, I outline the specific difficulties for young people whose cancer treatment happened during infancy.
