ABSTRACT
Child psychotherapy has grown in the last seventy years out of the pioneering work of psychoanalysts such as Hug-Hellmuth (1921), Melanie Klein (1932), Anna Freud (1966), and Winnicott (1975), who developed play techniques to analyse pre-school children not yet able to express themselves fully in words. With older children and adolescents it is possible to move towards more verbal communication in individual psychotherapy (Daws and Boston 1981) and in group psychotherapy (Riester and Kraft 1986, Evans 1998); and there have been several therapeutic communities providing the benefits of social therapy (p. 151) for disturbed children and adolescents, who often present with learning difficulties (Rose 1990). Most child psychotherapy in the UK takes place in community child guidance clinics and in hospital departments of family and child psychiatry, where a family approach is usual. In some, family therapy is emphasized; in others, parents are supported and guided while the main therapeutic effort is directed towards the child. A team approach is used, with the work of educational psychologists, teachers, educational therapists, and social workers integrated with that of psychiatrists and child psychotherapists.
