Deirdre Dowling was Head Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Cassel Hospital, West London Mental Health Trust. She trained at the British Association of Psychotherapists, qualifying first as a child and adolescent psychotherapist in 1991, then as an adult psychotherapist in 2006. She worked at the British Psychotherapy Foundation for 5 years as Curriculum Lead of the Independent Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Training and is also a teacher and supervisor.

Acknowledgements

Foreword Ann Horne & Monica Lanyado

Preface

Introduction

Part 1: Mapping the territory

Chapter 1 The therapeutic process

Chapter 2 Creating a therapeutic setting

Chapter 3 Making an assessment and starting the work

Chapter 4 Approaches to child psychotherapy with children of different ages

Chapter 5 Reflections on brief psychotherapy

Chapter 6 Engaging with parents

Chapter 7 Pleasures and challenges of working in a team

Part 2: Hard times: the challenges of child psychotherapy

Chapter 8 Facing despair, doubt and anger - and finding hope

Chapter 9 Learning from mistakes, losing my way and the value of supervision

Chapter 10 Working towards an ending

Part 3: Therapeutic work with children and parents in crisis

Chapter 11 Behind closed doors: therapeutic work with children and adolescents living with mentally ill and vulnerable parents

Chapter 12 Therapeutic work with children whose parents have separated or divorced

Part 4: Taking child psychotherapy outside the psychotherapy room

Chapter 13 New pathways: applying psychotherapy to other settings

Final thoughts: playing with ideas

Index