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Anchoring social care and social work practice in structured reflection: introducing a model of group reflective practice
No full textThis paper explores the provision of a psychoanalytically informed reflective practice space to a multi-disciplinary social care and social work team in Ireland. The reflective model is closely aligned to the Tavistock’s Work Discussion Group (WDG). The authors explore the selection and preparation of a case and case presentation by one of the authors. This paper examines this process, what it looks and feels like, showing with supporting theory, how refined engagement with case material offers an opportunity for deep thought and reflection. The paper draws on Bion’s concept of ‘attacks on linking’ referring to a phenomenon that occurs when intolerable experiences sever the capacity to think. Facilitated group reflection offered emotional containment to the worker and supported a deeper understanding of his complex connection with and understanding of one foster family. This experiential paper is written in support of the potential for reflective practice spaces
The post-16 education experiences of transgender young people in the UK: Implications for Educational Psychology practice
Get PDFAims: This study explores the post-16 education experiences of transgender young people to inform the practice of Educational Psychologists. Currently, little is known about the needs of transgender students, and such knowledge is essential to inform the implementation of appropriate and effective supports for these youth in schools. EPs are uniquely placed to provide intervention at the individual, school and familial levels to support transgender students. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven A-level transgender students. Interview data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings: Five overarching themes emerged from participants’ narratives: Social transition at school; Navigating school as a transgender student; Bullying, transphobia and peer relations; Students’ ambivalent experiences of staff; and Experiences at the systemic level of school. Limitations: Participants were recruited from community Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) youth groups. By engaging in these groups, they accessed both direct and indirect support in relation to school. This may have influenced their experiences reported in this study as their needs may not have been as extensive as transgender students without access to such groups/supports. Conclusions: Findings identify that transgender young people experience unique challenges and have distinct needs at school. Findings support previous evidence that transgender students often experience negative school environments; however, this did not diminish the complexities of participants’ experiences as individuals and as a group of students. Implications of the findings for EP practice are discussed
How child psychotherapy is used to help young people with perversions at the Portman Clinic: An explorative study
No full textThis thesis explores the treatment offered by the child and adolescent psychotherapy team at the Portman Clinic. The qualitative research study approaches this question by exploring the nature of perversions, the patient group, the treatments offered to this population, and the challenges that arise. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with nine clinicians from the child and adolescent psychotherapy team at the Portman Clinic. A thematic analysis was employed to identify themes and the findings are discussed. The study found the way action, thinking and risk are managed at the Portman Clinic is central. The study also highlighted the paradox in working with patients on the edge of society where the clinician becomes simultaneously collusive and protective
An introduction to systems psychodynamics: Consultancy research and training
No full textThis book provides an introduction to systems psychodynamic theory and its application to organisational consultancy, research and training, outlining systems dynamics methods and their historical and theoretical developments.
Systems Psychodynamics is an emerging field of social science, the boundaries of which are continually being refined and re-defined. The ‘systems’ designation refers to open systems concepts that provide the framing perspective for understanding the structural aspects of organisational systems. These include its design, division of labour, levels of authority, and reporting relationships; the nature of work tasks, processes, and activities; its mission and primary task; and the nature and patterning of the organisation’s task and sentient boundaries and the transactions across them. This book presents a critical appraisal of the systems psychodynamics paradigm and its application to present-day social and organisational difficulties, showing how a holistic approach to organisational and social problems can offer a fresh perspective on difficult issues. Bringing together the theory and practice of systems psychodynamics for the first time, this book provides an examination of the systems psychodynamics paradigm in action.
This book gives an accessible and thorough guide to understanding and using systems psychodynamic ideas for analysts, managers, policy makers, consultants and researchers in a wide range of professional and clinical settings
Children in lockdown: Learning the lessons of pandemic times
No full textThis timely and relevant book focuses on the societal impact of the pandemic on children and the educational, social and psychological services that function to support them. It acknowledges the constant change and adaptation required in real time and provides the basis for a start to the discussion about the effects of COVID-19 on families and everyone involved with ‘school life’. Essays include reflections on the impact of lockdown on children and the lessons to be learned, with contributions from children, parents, teachers, Educational Psychologists and Social Workers in the UK and worldwide
Introduction
No full textThe nature of those coming to the service has changed significantly over the years, but the essential element of trauma inflicted from outside, in external reality, remains. Hence the Tavistock Clinic was established as a centre drawing substantially on psychoanalytic thought in its clinical services, teaching, and research activities. Re-integration requires facing the avoidance and numbing that is central to the aftermath of trauma, and that can so easily shut down external connections with the social world. The concrete reality of a changed body at a time when “ordinary” bodily changes require negotiation can impair mourning and thereby impair being able to move forward beyond traumatic past experiences. Joanne Stubley focuses on the potential for re-traumatization among our complex trauma patients. Unravelling this within a therapeutic community posed significant problems for both staff and residents, as repeating traumatic identifications wove a path into the internal and then external relationships of the men
A reflective evaluation of a feeding clinic intervention—Parents as a reflecting team
No full textBackground: This feeding clinic engaged parents as active participants in a group intervention. Parents' participated behind a two-way mirror. This novel approach to practice in this domain largely evolved from an integration of theory, service user feedback, service development and the local context. This review sought to understand how parents experienced being part of a reflecting team in this way.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were completed and analysed using thematic analysis. The researchers took a critical realist approach to the research, data analysis and report writing.
Findings: Parents talked about benefiting from perspective taking that enabled them to see the child in context, which in part supported novel understandings of their child's feeding and their relationship to it. Three themes were identified:
1. “Connection and Distance” explored parents' experience of being behind the screen in terms of the dialectic potential that was created by being simultaneously close to and distanced from their children and the other parents.
2. “Playing with Techniques” describes the way parents valued learning in the group through discussion and working on techniques between sessions. In particular, they moved from looking for techniques to thinking about how and when to use “techniques” that is, second-order change.
3. “Unexpected Gains” describes how parents came to new and unexpected insights about their understanding of their children, the presenting issues and their relationships to these issues.
Conclusion: Parents' experiences suggest that there is merit in engaging parents in a reflecting team in a feeding clinic. This way of working with parents supports their engagement in change and positions them as active agents of this change. Parents taking up this position has the advantage of moving from passive consumers of health care to active and critical collaborators
The art of witnessing: Exploring the interplay between play therapy, theatre and supervision
No full textThe Joan of Arc effect, thriving or surviving, is resilience more than the ability to endure? Understanding women leaders
No full textThis qualitative study was based on the experiences of three female leaders in the charity sector in the UK. The research question was developed to focus on understanding what motivated their sense of resilience, and if their experience was reflected in current literature on resilience in leadership. The topic was inspired by my own experience of being a female senior leader, and a curiosity about whether the leadership role amplified or undermined the experience of resilience for women leaders. Women leaders were invited to be considered for the study through an open call on key professional networks The study was undertaken in part during the global pandemic and as such there were some modifications including virtual interviewing. The research method included two interviews with each participant, and they submitted reflective logs. An advisory group of three additional female leaders were recruited to form a reflexive space in which we could interpret the data and think together about the meaning and relevance to the research question. By exploring the theories from a systems psychodynamic understanding of leadership, resilience and feminist theory, the research used a constructivist epistemological lens to interpret the findings from interviews, reflective notes, and advisory group discussions. The study revealed insights into the complexity of women’s experiences within their leadership role and considered how we can understand the intersectional demands of role, the ‘social’ task of a charity and the hostile environment towards women. The study revealed that women leaders are at greater risk of experiencing challenges in their role related to their gender, these included discrimination, micro and macro aggressions in the workplace. The consequences of these threats created psychological processes i.e., social defenses against anxiety, shame and envy. I have called this process for female leaders The Joan of Arc Effect. The Joan of Arc Effect described several dynamics relevant to the experiences of female leaders, it includes the idea that resilience is motivated by a need to survive, which can be a paranoid schizoid formulation of resilience. In addition, leading charities can create the conditions for leadership shame, which has associations particularly for women. These leaders do not anticipate or have additional support from other women, they cannot rely on a sense of sisterhood. In conclusion, the research identified what has been helpful for women leaders and these have been termed The Mitigations. They can support women to move from a paranoid schizoid formulation of resilience to a depressive position functioning of resilient leadership that relies on feminist principles of deep reflection and communalism. The study has recommended that Feminist Leadership could be considered as a model which is inclusive of the Mitigations and drives the conditions for equality
The Fitzjohn’s Unit
No full textThis article provides a description of the development and work of The Fitzjohn’s Unit a specialist service, housed within the Adult Department of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy for patients suffering from the more complex/serious disorders many of them having been unwell for many decades. The paper describes the patients treated, the model of care and also aims to show how this work can illuminate more general consideration such as the nature of the psychoanalytic attitude and the relation of psychiatry to psychoanalysis