Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Primary Schools

Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Primary Schools investigates the experiences of severely troubled children and their families, teachers, and child psychoanalytic psychotherapists working together in primary schools.

The book begins by examining children's emotional life during the primary school years and what can disrupt ordinary, helpful social development and learning. It explores what child psychoanalytic psychotherapy is, how it works, and why it is offered in primary schools.

The following chapters intersperse accounts of creative child psychoanalytic approaches with interviews with parents, carers, teachers, and clinicians. A section focusing on mainstream primary schools presents parent–child interventions for a nursery class; child group psychotherapy with children from traumatised families; and consultation to school staff, with personal accounts from parents, a kinship carer, a family support worker, a deputy head, and a child psychotherapist.

Chapters then shift the focus to alternative educational settings, featuring a school for children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities, a primary pupil referral unit, and a therapeutic school. These chapters demonstrate psychotherapy with a non-verbal boy with autism; therapy groups with children who have missed out on the building blocks of development alongside reflective groups for school staff; and child psychotherapy approaches at lunchtime and in breaks, with insights from a parent, a clinical lead nurse, a head teacher, and a child psychotherapist.

Finally, there is an evaluation of evidence about the impact of child psychotherapy within primary schools.

Recognising the increasing importance of addressing the emotional difficulties of children whose relationships and learning are in jeopardy, this book will be invaluable to all those working in primary schools, to commissioners of child mental health services, to parents and carers, and to experienced and training clinicians.