ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that processes involved in articulating and evaluating a model of time-limited psychodynamic psychotherapy for young people, developed in the Adolescent Department in a multidisciplinary team working in a specialist service for young people with mental health difficulties. The qualities of change and transition that are central to adolescence suggest that young people may constitute a group for whom brief or time-limited psychodynamic psychotherapy is suitable, and it is perhaps surprising that there are not more examples available models being developed. In developing a model of time-limited psychotherapy for young people, the aim has been to integrate the clinical service with the development of a strategy for evaluation. The time-limited psychotherapy approach forms a small service in the Tavistock’s Adolescent Department. Therefore, assessment of suitability for time-limited psychotherapy depends primarily on an understanding of the meaning of the developmental process for each individual adolescent, in relation to both internal processes and social contexts.
