For Siblings of the Medically Complex and Disabled

An interview with Johanna Dobrich, award-winning author, therapist and psychoanalyst, expert in working with siblings of disabled persons

Recently, I had a chance to conduct an email interview with Johanna Dobrich, LCSW, author of Working With Sibling Survivors In Psychoanalysis, a rich clinical and theoretical book discussing her work with people who have disabled siblings. We hope this will be useful to readers.

What does it mean to be a “sibling survivor”?

Recent trends in trauma research and clinical knowledge emphasize the role of ACEs ( adverse childhood experiences) on human development over the lifespan. Ongoing medical trauma is typically not included in the obvious list of environmental conditions that create and contribute to an experience of having survived something, particularly from the vantage point of children who witness it.

Survivor siblings refer to the experience of those siblings who grow up alongside the presence of a sibling with a chronic, life-limiting, severe disability, often accompanied by medical complications. The survivor siblings are rarely the protagonist in anyone’s understanding or mind, and yet what they witness and encounter while growing up alters the…