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.
