ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the work of play therapists working in multidisciplinary Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) teams and the challenges they face. It considers how play therapists seem to offer something unique within CAMHS, in helping children and adolescents process the unconscious, sensory or bodily experience of trauma. This includes work with those who have experienced this pre-verbally, including developmental, attachment-related trauma. The chapter describes the types of referral within CAMHS that tend to be referred to play therapists. Play therapists can occupy a variety of posts within CAMHS. For example, some practitioners find themselves in a primary mental health worker post, within which they can practice play therapy. Others may be employed in a more direct play therapy or creative arts therapy post. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence set out clinical pathways to steer decisions about treatment plans within CAMHS teams.
