ABSTRACT
Previous chapters have outlined basic psychoanalytic principles and some of the more recent theoretical developments relevant to child psychotherapy, including attachment theory, contributions from neuroscience and an overview of normal emotional development. These theoretical foundations have had a major impact on our thinking about the emotional development of children, and on the services that may need to be brought to bear when emotional dif®culties emerge. They have led to concepts such as the need to think about `the whole child' ± physical and social, as well as psychological. This in turn has led to ideas about the `multi-disciplinary team' of professionals that might be needed to assess and treat dif®culties, and the `multi-agency' systems that need to be developed if issues are to be addressed holistically.
