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"Ben" was a 10-year-old boy with a six-month history of increasingly unstable and depressed mood and loss of interest in play and school. His father had died in a work accident when Ben was three years old. His mother had recently remarried and the stepfather was having problems coping with Ben's provocative and irritable behaviour. Successful treatment involved parental guidance on consistent child care, organisation by the stepfather of planned positive events with Ben such as a ride in his truck to pick up building supplies, playing football and playing a favourite board game, several individual sessions to talk about Ben's memories of his father and his death and his reaction to his new stepfather (interpersonal therapy) and two sessions of cognitive therapy during which Ben gave spontaneous depressive statements in response to questions about his life, such as "What do you think about school?". He was then asked to construct alternative positive statements, which he read aloud to his mother and stepfather twice a day.

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