ABSTRACT
To write a brief account of the impact of the author's training at the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic is an immense challenge. It was an experience that, although completed many years ago, is alive in the author's mind in some way every day. What stands out and what continues to be etched in the author's mind is the elegant simplicity with which Anna Freud described children and their problems. In any context—observing a child in her beloved nursery school; giving a formal discussion following a clinical paper; or making a comment during a meeting of a research or study group—she was a person whose confidence in her ability to understand gave her the freedom not to have to know all the answers. The fact of being in a full-time training allowed people the luxury of having time to “sit around” with their teachers and staff members, usually in the common room or the lunchroom.
