A Lonely “Pippi Longstocking” Learned That a Best Friend Comes from Within

A therapist celebrates the wisdom of a child

Martha Manning, Ph.D.
Age of Empathy
Published in
7 min readMar 30, 2024

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Photo by Sebastian Pandelache on Unsplash

Lonely and alone

A six-year-old girl was brought to my psychotherapy practice by her concerned parents. A month before, her mother’s job had been transferred to another state with little notice.

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Martha Manning, Ph.D.
Age of Empathy

Dr. Martha Manning is a writer and clinical psychologist, author of Undercurrents and Chasing Grace. Depression sufferer. Mother. Growing older under protest.