ABSTRACT

This book draws upon the author’s first-hand clinical experience as an Expert Witness in child and family legal proceedings to explore the success of psychotherapy assessments and interventions. Focusing on families who are seeking to be re-united after the removal of their children into foster care, Mike Davies discusses critical aspects of therapy which can help to identify and engage those who will benefit from additional support.

Chapters combine heuristic, case studies, and narrative research methodologies, considering parents’ stories, self-identity issues and assessment criteria, to uncover an emerging framework that illuminates an innovative therapeutic approach. Divided into three parts, the book develops a comprehensive overview of and thorough investigation into therapeutic assessment during childcare legal proceedings, including explorations into crucial issues such as how and why some families are granted therapeutic intervention, as well as the level of understanding and expertise that professionals and local services can provide in these contexts.

Therapeutic Assessment and Intervention in Childcare Legal Proceedings will be of key reading for researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of child and adolescent mental health, law, social work and psychotherapy. The book will also be of interest to social workers, expert psychologists, psychotherapists, family therapists, psychiatrists, and those specialising in public law.

part 1|53 pages

Background

chapter 1|13 pages

Expert witness or psychotherapist

A personal development account

chapter 2|21 pages

Context and review of the key issues

Parents, parenting and child protection in a risk-aversive culture

chapter 3|17 pages

Research questions, method and emerging themes

A reflexive journey

part 2|32 pages

Families on the edge

chapter 4|30 pages

Five case studies

Examples of engagement in therapy and successful rehabilitation

part 3|79 pages

Findings and discussion

chapter 5|25 pages

A working framework

‘No chance, some chance, every chance’ of engagement in therapy and successful rehabilitation

chapter 7|14 pages

Critical aspects of therapy

The who, how and where of creating a therapeutic context

chapter 8|17 pages

Multidimensional therapeutic work

chapter 9|4 pages

Conclusions