ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the application of therapeutic observation in a mental health service for children in care through two case examples. I outline stages in setting up a therapeutic observation as a clinical intervention and discuss the clinician’s role and tasks. The first case describes work carried out over two years with a baby born severely addicted to drugs who was adopted within her extended family with the support of a cohesive professional network. The second case describes a four-month intervention with a 4-year-old boy in foster care who had become isolated and withdrawn following a series of losses. The clinicians in both cases—a clinical social worker and a clinical psychologist and parent-infant psychotherapist—were trained in psychoanalytic infant observation. The last section of the chapter addresses complexities inherent in the experience of belonging.
