This book draws together work from across Europe by leading clinical researchers who have been looking into the effectiveness of psychoanalytic interventions. They are mostly time limited, brief, non-intensive ways of working so are applicable in many settings and can therefore be generalised to other clinical teams. The populations worked with are diverse and often present mainstream services with refractory clinical problems, so an applied psychoanalytic approach is well worth trying, given the evidence presented in this volume. There is in addition an excellent theoretical chapter on the issues of such clinical research from Stephen Shirk which merits consideration by those wishing to evaluate their own work. This book is an important contribution to services for child and adolescent mental health. With increasing family distress and concerns about inadequate parenting, family breakdown and troublesome adolescents, it will help to ensure the full menu of interventions is retained in these times of financial restraint.

This book draws together work from across Europe by leading clinical researchers who have been looking into the effectiveness of psychoanalytic interventions. They are mostly time limited, brief, non-intensive ways of working so are applicable in many settings and can therefore be generalised to other clinical teams. The populations worked with are

Drawing on the rich range and depth of the clinical experience of the contributors, this welcome volume will be a valuable tool for clinicians and trainees. The authors share a powerful commitment to the relevance and value of psychoanalytically based work with parents - an area all too often inadequately provided for - and provide heartening evidence of the resilience and intellectual vitality of the various strands within this tradition. Part of the EFPP Monograph Series.

This book applies psychoanalytic insight to work with children and adolescents in a changing, often traumatic, world. Each chapter considers how psychoanalysis can develop and be developed, assessing how in the modern world, psychological disturbance and psychological trauma is manifest in new, unfamiliar ways. From new and different social and technological realities, to the internet, and new sexual discourse, each chapter explores how the analyst can hold onto fundamental psychoanalytic understandings of mental functioning, address the young patient’s or family’s need for containment, while respecting the importance of drives, the varieties of psychosexuality, and the powerful impact of anxiety on psychological development. In relation to children, these authors disclose the potential destructiveness of impingements from adults on a precious, vulnerable development. This collection is essential reading for all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as other health and educational professionals working with children and adolescents.

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.

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.

What do we wish to know about psychotherapy and its effects? What do we already know? And what needs to be accomplished to fill the gap? These questions and more are explored in this thoroughly updated book about the current status and future directions of psychotherapy for children and adolescents. It retains a balance between practical concerns and research, reflecting many of the new approaches to children that have appeared in the past ten years. Designed to change the direction of current work, this book outlines a blueprint or model to guide future research and elaborates the ways in which therapy needs to be studied. By focusing on clinical practice and what can be changed, it offers suggestions for improvement of patient care and advises how clinical work can contribute directly and in new ways to the accumulation of knowledge. Although it discusses in detail present psychotherapy research, this book is squarely aimed at progress in the future, making it ideal for psychologists, psychiatrists, and all mental health care practitioners.

In the nearly one hundred years that have elapsed since Freud’s publication of his pioneering work with “Little Hans,” psychoanalysis has transformed not only our clinical work with children, but has immeasurably enriched our understanding of normal child and adolescent development as well as developmental deviations and derailments. We have gradually come to understand childhood and adolescence as a complex tapestry of developmental themes, conflicts, and crises; sometimes discontinuous or discrete, at other times, harmonious and integrated, yet always occurring within a transactional matrix of environmental influences and internal experience. In this transdisciplinary anthology, eight authors explore the changing terrain of child and adolescent psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy. The contributions, which reflect theoretical and clinical heterogeneity, are both innovative and varied, and range from the highly abstract and theoretical to those that consider very specific dimensions of clinical process. Collectively, they make a compelling case for the continued relevance of psychoanalytic ideas in the treatment of children and adolescents. With insightful contributions by expert psychoanalysts, clinical social workers, and clinical psychologists, Psychoanalytic Approaches to the Treatment of Children and Adolescents: Tradition and Transformation is essential reading for child and adolescent therapists. Psychoanalytic Approaches to the Treatment of Children and Adolescents will increase your knowledge of: the function of play in normal development--and within the treatment relationship psychoanalytic theories and research investigations linking early object loss to depression the nature of adolescent depression the theoretical and clinical dimensions of a two-systems approach to understanding psychopathology and the clinical process the dynamic meaning and clinical management of drug and alcohol abuse, promiscuity, eating disorders, violence, and other self-destructive behaviors the complexities of treating children with neuropsychological deficits

Play is a ubiquitous and universal aspect of early childhood. Although it may take different forms throughout development and across cultures, decades of research have found play to be related to important, positive outcomes. Play provides children with valuable cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal learning opportunities. It can act as a mode of communication for young children and allows them to practice ways of managing complex interpersonal interactions. Specific aspects of play, such as children’s creativity in pretend play, have been associated with resilience and coping. The significance of play in childhood has led to its frequent use in the assessment of child development and in the implementation of child and parent-child psychological and educational interventions. Historically, however, the validity and efficacy of these interventions have not been rigorously evaluated. Further, few assessment and intervention models have included parents, teachers, and other key caregivers, but have focused only on the child. This Research Topic will bring together the most current literature on the use of play in child assessment and intervention.

What can child and adolescent counsellors and therapists learn from research? What evidence is there for the effectiveness of different therapies and techniques? How can developmental or neuroscience research inform or inspire therapeutic work with young people? This book provides the answers to these questions, and more. Leading experts in the field take you through the latest research findings in child and adolescent therapy, discussing how each is relevant to the work of practitioners. Today, both therapists and trainees need to be aware of, and engage with, research findings. The book presents, accessibly, the current best knowledge and its implications for practice.