Through the stories of individual children, this book illuminates the process of creative, play-based child psychotherapy. Each chapter focuses on a specific issue that brings a child or a young person to the therapy room and explores the use and meaning of particular objects and ‘object games’. Through these insightful and dynamic stories, readers will gain a profound understanding of the healing power of play in the context of child psychotherapy. The importance and influence Attachment Theory, through the work of Donald Winnicott, alongside that of Anne Alvarez and Margot Sunderland, is woven through the book.
Composite case material, derived from the author’s many years of clinical practice, demonstrates the centrality of the therapeutic relationship, in concert with approaches which foreground play and creativity in bringing about healing. Chapters address childhood challenges such as autism spectrum condition, selective mutism, parental conflict and separation, ADHD, learning disability, loss and bereavement. These individual difficulties are explored with a sensibility towards both the individual predicament, but also the complex and dynamic society in which our understanding and experiences of race, culture, class, migration, gender, disability and sexuality are in constant evolution. This demonstration of child psychotherapy in action will be of interest to psychotherapists, parents and anyone working to provide emotional support for children in schools, nurseries and other settings.