Child And Adolescent Psychotherapy

In this new edition Blake gives a personal account of his professional experience of working with children and adolescents over the last 45 years. Providing a wonderful integration of the conceptual and the practical, this book clarifies complex theory while giving practical advice for clinicians through a nuts and bolts description of how to interview parents, emotionally assess a child and adolescent, set up a consulting room and conduct a therapy session. The addition of chapter summaries, questions and suggested further readings provides a valuable structure to those in child and adolescent training programmes. The author’s experience, gained from public and private work, is vividly described with the use of clinical examples to illustrate his thinking and way of working. This third edition highlights his evolution from a more traditional epistemological (knowing) approach, with its emphasis on interpretation and insight, to a more ontological (being) framework. He explores a more intuitive and unconscious way of working and argues this is more developmentally appropriate to children and adolescents. His accessible writing style transports the reader into his clinical world: a world full of fascinating stories of children talking through their play; of adolescents exploring who they are through their discussions about music, films, sport and computer games; of helping parents to understand and thoughtfully manage their child’s emotional struggles. This new edition, an amalgam of theoretical orientations (Kleinian, Bionian, Winnicottian, relational, non-linear and neurological), draws from recent developments, both in theory and technique. It will be of immense value to psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and all those involved in the treatment of children’s mental health.

An Independent Practitioner's Introduction to Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy: Playing with Ideas is a comprehensive guide to child and adolescent psychotherapy, taking the practitioner from the initial meeting through the therapeutic process with young people of different ages, to the ending of psychotherapy. It includes approaches to working with parents and the family, introduces theoretical ideas simply and provides references for further learning. Part of the popular Independent Psychoanalytic Approaches series, this book is written from an Independent perspective, but it is also an account of Deirdre Dowling's approach, developed from her considerable experience of working in the NHS and now as a private practitioner. An Independent Practitioner's Introduction to Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy will be an indispensable guide for child psychotherapists (especially trainees), colleagues working in child and family mental health settings, play therapists, counsellors and support staff in schools and child care professionals working therapeutically in residential and community settings.

Therapy referrals for a child or young person can be motivated for a number of reasons. The parents, carers or professionals responsible for their wellbeing might describe a sudden change in presentation, risk taking behaviour, such as self-harm or experimentation with drugs, alcohol or sex, or they might label the young person as over reacting, under reacting or attention seeking. Such behaviour prompts concern for their safety and confusion about why the child or young person is presenting the way they are. This book offers a thoughtful approach to making sense of such behaviour and encourages adults to ‘reflect on’ rather than ‘react to’ young peoples’ outward presentations. Based on the author’s work with children, young people and families over two decades, this book shares reflections from the therapy room and illustrates how the therapist can try to make sense of mood, behaviour and presentations that previously made no sense. The content relies heavily on clinical experience as well as drawing on classical and contemporary psychotherapeutic literature. So often adults find themselves reacting to observable behaviour in a judgmental or punitive way, rather than pausing to consider what the behaviour might be communicating. The author aims to model a thoughtful reflective approach to making sense of what might be going on for children and young people and this book will be of great interest to child and adolescent psychotherapists, related professionals and those with an interest in young persons’ mental health.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to the practice and principles of child and adolescent psychotherapy around the world. Contents include: * a brief introduction to the child psychotherapy profession, its history and development * a review of the theory underlying therapeutic practice * an overview of the varied settings in which child psychotherapists work * analysis of the growth of the profession internationally * an examination of areas of expertise around the world * a summary of current research Contributors are experienced practitioners from within a diverse range of schools and approaches and so provide a well-rounded picture of child and adolescent psychotherapy today. The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy will be an essential resource for professional psychotherapists, students of psychotherapy, social workers and all professionals working with disturbed children.

"This edition is an attempt to present the reader with a lucid and concise, yet comprehensible text that outlines the key components that are required for practicing psychodynamic psychotherapy of children and adolescents. There is a brief exposition of the oeuvre of the three main successors of Sigmund Freud's prodigious work, and their significant contribution to the formation of both the theory and technique of child and adolescent psychodynamic psychotherapy. In addition, there is a description of the key parameters of psychodynamic approach for the therapy of the most-often attested conditions in childhood and adolescence. Special reference is made to particular issues that have a bearing on practicing child and adolescent psychodynamic psychotherapy in the present day. Throughout this book and where it was deemed necessary, the inclusion of informative (yet appropriately disguised) clinical material, originating from the authors' broad clinical experience, significantly enriches its content. The book's chapters are written with clarity, whilst its topics are informed by state-of-the-art theorization and supported by selected both recent and seminal references. The content of this book will be invaluable to the readers who need a careful description of the fundamentals of contemporary psychodynamic approaches to the comprehension and therapeutic treatment of children and adolescents' psychopathology, including the specificities, challenges and questions raised accordingly. Notwithstanding any omissions, it is its authors' belief that the book in question deserves a place in the library of anyone with a genuine interest in child and adolescent psychodynamic psychotherapy"--

This updated edition of The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy reflects the many changes in the profession. It includes: additional chapters on neuroscience, work with ‘looked after children’ and with foster parents, working in schools enlarged chapters on research, attachment theory, work with parents, and developments in child and adolescent psychotherapy around the world chapters on areas of specialist interest including violence, sexual abuse and abusing, trauma, parent-infant psychotherapy, autism, victims of political violence, delinquency and gender dysphoria. The Handbook remains accessible and jargon-free. It will be a valuable resource for all who work in allied professions where the emotional well-being of children is of concern – health, education, social services – as well as trainee psychotherapists and experienced practitioners.

Since Freud’s publication of 'Little Hans', advances in psychoanalytic technique and theory have transformed our clinical work with children. Individuals including Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott have influenced psychoanalytic play therapy and broadened the scope of practice with them. Contemporary psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic social work clinicians often find themselves responding to misapprehensions and distortions about psychoanalytic theory and treatment created or promoted in popular culture. Furthermore, clinical practices are subject to the disruptive influence of managed mental health care and, with the ascendancy of biological psychiatry, an increasing reliance on psychoactive drugs in the treatment of children, often in the absence of sound research support. In this book, expert international contributors explore developmental, theoretical and clinical themes in work with children. Focusing on diverse populations and varied treatment settings, they present compelling clinical cases and research that, collectively, demonstrate the efficacy and relevance of psychoanalytic ideas in the context of play therapy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Psychoanalytic Social Work.

Psychodynamic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy is both a textbook and book of reference for all child and adolescent psychotherapists. It addresses both novices, who need to learn the theories and methods of the work, and also experienced psychotherapists, who want to expand their knowledge, at the same time getting a readily-accessible update and revival of the many ways in which psychodynamic child and adolescent psychotherapy enters into contemporary practice. The book offers a clear, methodologically precise and updated introduction to the theories, methods and practice of the field. The authors demonstrate through practical examples what psychodynamic child and adolescent psychotherapy is, and how a psychotherapy can be planned and carried out, expounding the necessary preconditions, settings and methods. A personal understanding of the complexity of the therapeutic relationship is presented together with an elucidation of drawings and symbolic play, parallel work with parents, and the special conditions for work with adolescents. A special section deals with the meaning of time, beginnings, endings, and breaks in psychotherapy, followed by a part about the methodological adaptations necessary for psychotherapy with children and adolescents suffering from maltreatment and complex trauma. Psychodynamic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy ends with a description of the present state of research in the field.