Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/0075417X.2022.2133156
Judith Edwards
ABSTRACT This paper looks at the role of fathers in the family. Structured around three poems, it emphasises the need for a triangular structure in the mind, enabling the child (and any individual) to look at ‘reality’, internal and thus external too, from a third position. The Oedipal situation, what Hanna Segal called ‘the core complex’, lies deep within the mind of any individual, and continues to have vital relevance in the lives of modern families. Clinical material is included in the paper to illustrate the points made.
{"title":"The elusive pursuit of good enough fatherhood, and the single parent family as a modern phenomenon","authors":"Judith Edwards","doi":"10.1080/0075417X.2022.2133156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2022.2133156","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper looks at the role of fathers in the family. Structured around three poems, it emphasises the need for a triangular structure in the mind, enabling the child (and any individual) to look at ‘reality’, internal and thus external too, from a third position. The Oedipal situation, what Hanna Segal called ‘the core complex’, lies deep within the mind of any individual, and continues to have vital relevance in the lives of modern families. Clinical material is included in the paper to illustrate the points made.","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"362 - 377"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43853518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/0075417X.2022.2136230
Alison Roy
ABSTRACT This paper was presented at the Association of Child Psychotherapy (ACP) annual conference, alongside images of birds’ nests of all shapes and sizes, to illustrate their versatile and unique qualities specifically required for their young. It explores the experience of parenting children who come from ‘other’ worlds, with a focus on adoptive parents, and examines how parenting, or being parented by someone who appears to be so very different to ourselves, can be extremely complicated and can cause significant distress. The paper will refer to some of the challenges of being good enough or secure enough, when it comes to building ‘home’ or nest. These challenges are also experienced by professionals, who can feel that they have limited resources to offer these children given their complex needs. It can feel as though they are continuing the cycle of deprivation, balancing on the edge of the nest with vulnerable fledglings, and preparing them for flight which they may not yet be ready for. These themes are also relevant when considering the context and ‘edginess’ of our times – coming out of the pandemic, many of us have had the experience of being cast out of the workplace and other connected or communal spaces, feeling less protected at home, while being exposed to more of the threat normally held within our clinics. We have all found ourselves living in a changed world.
{"title":"The challenge of parenting children from different worlds","authors":"Alison Roy","doi":"10.1080/0075417X.2022.2136230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2022.2136230","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper was presented at the Association of Child Psychotherapy (ACP) annual conference, alongside images of birds’ nests of all shapes and sizes, to illustrate their versatile and unique qualities specifically required for their young. It explores the experience of parenting children who come from ‘other’ worlds, with a focus on adoptive parents, and examines how parenting, or being parented by someone who appears to be so very different to ourselves, can be extremely complicated and can cause significant distress. The paper will refer to some of the challenges of being good enough or secure enough, when it comes to building ‘home’ or nest. These challenges are also experienced by professionals, who can feel that they have limited resources to offer these children given their complex needs. It can feel as though they are continuing the cycle of deprivation, balancing on the edge of the nest with vulnerable fledglings, and preparing them for flight which they may not yet be ready for. These themes are also relevant when considering the context and ‘edginess’ of our times – coming out of the pandemic, many of us have had the experience of being cast out of the workplace and other connected or communal spaces, feeling less protected at home, while being exposed to more of the threat normally held within our clinics. We have all found ourselves living in a changed world.","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"351 - 361"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46464114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/0075417x.2022.2137558
Charlotte Burton
To be clear about what to expect from this collection right from the off, Clare Shaw (they/ them) is a poet who is intimately acquainted with first-hand experience of trauma and mental ill-health. That said, they are also a living testament to the necessity of maintaining hope in humanity. As well as being a fine poet, they are a creative writing tutor and mental health educator. They say of themselves on their website (https://www.clareshaw.co.uk) that -
{"title":"Towards a general theory of love","authors":"Charlotte Burton","doi":"10.1080/0075417x.2022.2137558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417x.2022.2137558","url":null,"abstract":"To be clear about what to expect from this collection right from the off, Clare Shaw (they/ them) is a poet who is intimately acquainted with first-hand experience of trauma and mental ill-health. That said, they are also a living testament to the necessity of maintaining hope in humanity. As well as being a fine poet, they are a creative writing tutor and mental health educator. They say of themselves on their website (https://www.clareshaw.co.uk) that -","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"441 - 445"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45970011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/0075417X.2022.2137224
Paddy Martin
demonstrates the step-by-step process of developing the depth of understanding, creativity, knowledge and skill that underpin a modern integrative child psychotherapist. Portrayed is a flexible model that is fluid and evolving, bringing together traditional, long-held ideas with fresh perspectives and up-to-date research. In bringing together psychoanalytic theory, attachment theory, trauma theories, the arts and creativity, neuroscience and the body, a rich framework is created. From this, the individual integrative child psychotherapist can choose the interventions which best foster the emotional development of each unique child and their parents today.
{"title":"Contemporary child psychotherapy: integration and imagination in creative clinical practice","authors":"Paddy Martin","doi":"10.1080/0075417X.2022.2137224","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2022.2137224","url":null,"abstract":"demonstrates the step-by-step process of developing the depth of understanding, creativity, knowledge and skill that underpin a modern integrative child psychotherapist. Portrayed is a flexible model that is fluid and evolving, bringing together traditional, long-held ideas with fresh perspectives and up-to-date research. In bringing together psychoanalytic theory, attachment theory, trauma theories, the arts and creativity, neuroscience and the body, a rich framework is created. From this, the individual integrative child psychotherapist can choose the interventions which best foster the emotional development of each unique child and their parents today.","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"438 - 441"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44480186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/0075417x.2022.2139401
Gillian Sloan Donachy
ABSTRACT An earlier version of this paper was read at the Journal of Child Psychotherapy Symposium on Ethical Publishing, 2022. The question under discussion was: how can we write about our patients in a safe and respectful way, while making a contribution to the development of our field. The author describes her experience of sharing a draft paper with a young person towards the end of the treatment, with a view to submitting the paper for publication. Some thought is given to the clinical and ethical complexity of this process, and the questions that arose through the process are explored. The paper proposes that it might sometimes be possible to aim for a collaborative form of writing that involves children, young people and families in writing up their stories.
{"title":"Seeking consent: some thoughts about sharing a draft with a patient","authors":"Gillian Sloan Donachy","doi":"10.1080/0075417x.2022.2139401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417x.2022.2139401","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT An earlier version of this paper was read at the Journal of Child Psychotherapy Symposium on Ethical Publishing, 2022. The question under discussion was: how can we write about our patients in a safe and respectful way, while making a contribution to the development of our field. The author describes her experience of sharing a draft paper with a young person towards the end of the treatment, with a view to submitting the paper for publication. Some thought is given to the clinical and ethical complexity of this process, and the questions that arose through the process are explored. The paper proposes that it might sometimes be possible to aim for a collaborative form of writing that involves children, young people and families in writing up their stories.","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"389 - 397"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42691097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/0075417X.2022.2125044
L. Anagnostaki
ABSTRACT The paper has a twofold aim. First, it describes the complex process of gaining consent retrospectively for the publication of clinical material after the institution, where therapy was taking place, had closed down. The clinical material was derived from the psychotherapeutic work with an autistic young boy and his family. Details of the complicated process of gaining consent to publish this material are provided. The second aim of this paper is to discuss the important role of ‘trust’ when asking or granting consent for publication of clinical material. It is argued that trust at different levels (and amongst various people) plays a pivotal role in gaining consent for publication.
{"title":"The process of gaining consent, retrospectively, when the institution has closed down","authors":"L. Anagnostaki","doi":"10.1080/0075417X.2022.2125044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2022.2125044","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The paper has a twofold aim. First, it describes the complex process of gaining consent retrospectively for the publication of clinical material after the institution, where therapy was taking place, had closed down. The clinical material was derived from the psychotherapeutic work with an autistic young boy and his family. Details of the complicated process of gaining consent to publish this material are provided. The second aim of this paper is to discuss the important role of ‘trust’ when asking or granting consent for publication of clinical material. It is argued that trust at different levels (and amongst various people) plays a pivotal role in gaining consent for publication.","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"398 - 405"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42894981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/0075417X.2022.2140180
Deirdre Ingham, Julia Mikardo
ABSTRACT This paper explores the impact of kinship care upon the child, as observed through the clinical lens of child psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It acknowledges the social care and policy landscape, which retains a widely held belief that kinship care is a preferable option to foster care. In the light of this belief, the paper also draws attention to the internal and external dynamics inherent in the complexities of this arrangement as presented in the child’s psychotherapy and the parallel parent work. Clinical vignettes are used to illuminate the often unconscious, painful and confusing thoughts, feelings and fantasies experienced by both the child and the kinship parent. Psychoanalytic ideas relating to Freud’s ‘The Uncanny’ and Winnicott’s paper ‘Mirror-role of the mother and family in child development’ are used to underpin the clinical material and reflections. The paper culminates in emphasising the need for practitioners to be attentive to these dynamics, and to provide robust support for the kinship parents, in processing their kinship experience and the intergenerational traumas it may stir up.
{"title":"Kinship care: uncannily close for comfort?","authors":"Deirdre Ingham, Julia Mikardo","doi":"10.1080/0075417X.2022.2140180","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2022.2140180","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper explores the impact of kinship care upon the child, as observed through the clinical lens of child psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It acknowledges the social care and policy landscape, which retains a widely held belief that kinship care is a preferable option to foster care. In the light of this belief, the paper also draws attention to the internal and external dynamics inherent in the complexities of this arrangement as presented in the child’s psychotherapy and the parallel parent work. Clinical vignettes are used to illuminate the often unconscious, painful and confusing thoughts, feelings and fantasies experienced by both the child and the kinship parent. Psychoanalytic ideas relating to Freud’s ‘The Uncanny’ and Winnicott’s paper ‘Mirror-role of the mother and family in child development’ are used to underpin the clinical material and reflections. The paper culminates in emphasising the need for practitioners to be attentive to these dynamics, and to provide robust support for the kinship parents, in processing their kinship experience and the intergenerational traumas it may stir up.","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"334 - 350"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43552910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-04DOI: 10.1080/0075417X.2022.2075433
S. Cregeen
ABSTRACT Work with adoptive parents can be complex due to the multiple experiences of loss often carried by the adopted children and by the adoptive parental couple. This paper explores some of the emotional states and dynamics these experiences of loss give rise to, with a specific focus on the parental couple relationship. The case is made for the efficacy of psychotherapy with the couple, the difficulties of managing losses which can generate feelings of shame, and the projective use of blame within the couple and family as a way of evacuating unbearable emotional states. The concept of ego ideal is reviewed, and the need for adoptive couples to relinquish and mourn what is conceptualised as a shared ego ideal. The creation of a more realistic ego ideal is described as a particular aspect of the process of moving from the couple imagining themselves as birth parents, to their aspirations as an adoptive couple. Clinical material is used to illustrate how shame may manifest itself in an adopted child in psychotherapy, and in work with adoptive couples. The inevitably painful nature of mourning, and work with a couple struggling with this, is described.
{"title":"It’s not my fault, it’s yours: shame, loss, and the ego ideal in work with adoptive couples","authors":"S. Cregeen","doi":"10.1080/0075417X.2022.2075433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2022.2075433","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Work with adoptive parents can be complex due to the multiple experiences of loss often carried by the adopted children and by the adoptive parental couple. This paper explores some of the emotional states and dynamics these experiences of loss give rise to, with a specific focus on the parental couple relationship. The case is made for the efficacy of psychotherapy with the couple, the difficulties of managing losses which can generate feelings of shame, and the projective use of blame within the couple and family as a way of evacuating unbearable emotional states. The concept of ego ideal is reviewed, and the need for adoptive couples to relinquish and mourn what is conceptualised as a shared ego ideal. The creation of a more realistic ego ideal is described as a particular aspect of the process of moving from the couple imagining themselves as birth parents, to their aspirations as an adoptive couple. Clinical material is used to illustrate how shame may manifest itself in an adopted child in psychotherapy, and in work with adoptive couples. The inevitably painful nature of mourning, and work with a couple struggling with this, is described.","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"239 - 260"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44149803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-04DOI: 10.1080/0075417X.2022.2088824
S. Hillman, C. Villegas, K. Anderson, Asa Kerr-Davis, Richard Cross
Abstract Children in care, whose early experiences have often involved significant discontinuity and adversity, are at risk of developing insecure attachments with negative internal representations. This study aimed to explore changes in their internal representations over a one-year period, as well as potential factors that could influence them. The Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP) was administered at two time points twelve months apart, to 19 children between five and ten years old (M= 7.55, SD= 1.84). Using the SSAP over two time points showed that security representations significantly increased, defensive-avoidance ones decreased, whilst children with fewer previous placements had lower increases in security. The SSAP demonstrates how secure representations can be developed in new situations with more reliable caregivers, but insecure and disorganised ones might be harder and slower to modify, pointing ultimately to the importance of placement stability.
{"title":"Internal representations of attachment in Story Stems: changes in the narratives of foster care children","authors":"S. Hillman, C. Villegas, K. Anderson, Asa Kerr-Davis, Richard Cross","doi":"10.1080/0075417X.2022.2088824","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2022.2088824","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Children in care, whose early experiences have often involved significant discontinuity and adversity, are at risk of developing insecure attachments with negative internal representations. This study aimed to explore changes in their internal representations over a one-year period, as well as potential factors that could influence them. The Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP) was administered at two time points twelve months apart, to 19 children between five and ten years old (M= 7.55, SD= 1.84). Using the SSAP over two time points showed that security representations significantly increased, defensive-avoidance ones decreased, whilst children with fewer previous placements had lower increases in security. The SSAP demonstrates how secure representations can be developed in new situations with more reliable caregivers, but insecure and disorganised ones might be harder and slower to modify, pointing ultimately to the importance of placement stability.","PeriodicalId":43581,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY","volume":"48 1","pages":"261 - 289"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"58870140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}