ABSTRACT
As a child psychotherapist, the author takes part in the Childhood Depression Project over a period of three years and worked with three different young people (Richard, Roger, Sam). All were boys, all were living with their lone mothers, and the mothers were struggling with their own serious issues, alongside their real concern for their children. All three boys seemed to have little sense of their own identity and direction. The children/young people were all very depressed, in and out of school, and were often isolated at home. The Project was primarily a comparative one of individual psychotherapy and family therapy; it explored several specific areas for me personally. These were, that: time-limited psychotherapy is effective; Parental and childhood depression is often enmeshed and is muddled with transgenerational aspects; the recognition of countertransference and projective identification are important, as a means both of communication and of understanding the internal world.
