This book investigates the experiences of severely troubled children and their families teachers and child psychoanalytic psychotherapists working together in primary schools. The book begins by looking at children’s emotional life during the primary school years and what can disrupt ordinary helpful social development and learning. It examines 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 traumatized 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 focus on 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 show 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. Recognizing the increasing importance of attending to 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. |Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Primary Schools Tavistock Approaches | Mental Health
