Robinson, Fiona;
(2021)
‘Shifting between the internal and external’: Psychoanalytic ways of working with children in local authority care.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis seeks to explore psychoanalytic ways of working with children in local authority care. Despite evidence suggesting psychoanalytic psychotherapy is used widely in routine clinical practice in the UK and may be helpful for children who experienced early attachment trauma, there is little research examining its use with these children. Study 1 aimed to identify current models of working with looked after and adopted children amongst UK psychoanalytic child psychotherapists. A survey of child psychotherapists (n=215) examined a range of activities, including assessment, therapy, work with foster carers/adoptive parents, and consultation to the professional network. Respondents placed emphasis on work with professionals and foster carers, seeing this as an area of development for services. Study 2 aimed to explore how child psychotherapists understood their work as consultant to the professional network, and what they saw as particular to the psychoanalytic approach. Thematic analysis of in-depth interviews (n=9) identified that participants experienced various tensions they held within themselves in their role, particularly around wanting to offer a network-led approach, when professionals often asked them to provide therapy. Study 3 aimed to understand how child psychotherapists function within a specialist children’s social care setting, including how they positioned themselves in a multi-disciplinary Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and a multi-agency setting. Grounded theory analysis of an ethnographic case study identified that the child psychotherapists balanced three elements of their professional identity in this role: a discipline-specific identity; CAMHS team identity; and professional network member identity. To be effective in their role, the child psychotherapists needed to integrate the elements of their professional identity. Collectively, the findings have implications for understanding the role of UK child psychotherapists working with children in local authority care; particularly the significance, but also complexity, of work with the professional network around the child.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | ‘Shifting between the internal and external’: Psychoanalytic ways of working with children in local authority care |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2021. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10132520 |
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