Introduction

One of the aims of this book is to give a sense of the distinctive research tradition that exists within child psychotherapy. However, like all areas of research, some of the most interesting work takes place at the borders, where child psychotherapy engages with ideas and approaches from other disciplines. Many child psychotherapists come to the profession of child psychotherapy having already gained extensive training in a variety of academic and professional backgrounds, such as clinical psychology, sociology, medicine, social work and so on. When considering issues pertinent to research into psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children, they inevitably bring to these considerations their understandings and skills gained prior to their clinical training. Researchers from outside the field of child psychotherapy have also chosen to collaborate with child psychotherapists, producing innovative models and methods of child psychotherapy research.