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‘Thou should’st not have been old til thou hadst been wise': Reflections on mental homelessness
No full textA good enough mother
No full textRuth Hartland is the Director of a trauma therapy unit in London. A psychotherapist with years of experience, she is highly respected in her field. But her family life tells another story. Tom, her seventeen-year old son, has disappeared, and has had no contact with anyone for over two years. Ruth is grieving for her missing son while trying to understand his disappearance. Is he missing? Or dead?
When Ruth is referred a disturbed patient, who bears a striking resemblance to her missing adult son, her grief and guilt compromise her work. With her professional boundaries skewed, events spiral out of control, culminating in a terrible act of violence.
A dark and gripping novel about the complex dynamic between a patient and a therapist, and a look at the responsibility and limitations of motherhood
‘Step by step, side by side’: the quest to create relational artistry through systemic practice within children’s social care
Get PDFThis paper describes a quest towards relational artistry in the development of a systemic training programme in social care. As part of tiered delivery addressing staff at different levels in the workforce a systemic group supervision process was introduced, adapted from Proctor’s (1997) ‘Bells that Ring’ model. The paper describes the adaptation and delivery of the model through live supervision of senior practitioners by Systemic Mentors working in situ alongside the supervision groups. The project expanded in response to feedback leading to further initiatives to embed systemic ideas. These included a ‘systemic rucksack’ containing sets of cards to guide the supervision process. ‘Systemic champions’ went on to co‐produce and deliver workshops on key concepts for the whole workforce and to engage frontline workers and families in creating the next steps in the project
Exploring Designated Safeguarding Leads’ experiences of working with children and young people associated with knife crime: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Get PDFThe increasing level of knife crime taking place across the UK is of growing concern, nationally and locally. It is recognised that knife crime affects young people, impacting not only those directly involved but also their families, friends and the wider communities around them. Legislation and guidance has highlighted the role schools play in educating, safeguarding and supporting pupils associated with knife crime. Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) are professionals in school who hold key responsibility for the safeguarding and protection of their pupils. There is a paucity of published research into the experiences of school staff working with children and young people associated with knife crime, in particular there is a lack of research specifically exploring the experiences of Designated Safeguarding Leads, despite the prominence of their role. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the experiences of DSLs working with children and young people associated with knife crime and hear their voice. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to explore the experiences of five secondary school DSLs working in one Inner London Borough. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and superordinate themes from each of the DSLs emerged from the analysis. Five overarching themes were identified across the participants; ‘socio-economic factors’, ‘school as protector’, ‘tensions in role’, ‘a myriad of emotions’ and ‘the need for support’. The themes which emerged from the analysis are discussed in the context of existing literature and relevant psychology theory. The limitations of the research are considered, and implications of the findings for EPs are explored including providing supervision, support and training to DSLs and using their psychological knowledge and skills at the wider group, system and community level. Suggestions for future research are provided
Caring for the mother as well as her children
No full textThis chapter makes the case for a return to longer-term work if we are to be effective in caring for the damaged and damaging mothers who are both the product of and purveyors of perverse mothering: the mothers described in Chapter 1 by Estela Welldon, as abusing their own bodies and those of their babies and children. When we remove the children and subsequently abandon the mother our interventions are experienced as punitive and rejecting. Yet when we stay with them we are faced with rage and rejection and are implicitly invited to collude with them in perpetrating further abuse and neglect by cutting short any help we offer. Women for whom care has so often been abusive and who, as a result, distrust and reject therapeutic help pose particular challenges to those wishing to work with them. A series of case examples is used to convey some of the complexities in treating these women, by identifying the challenges they pose, the ways in which we fail them, the tragic outcomes and the relentlessness of the problem
Reflections on ‘Thinking an ethics of gender exploration: Against delaying transition for transgender and gender variant youth’
No full textIn this short article are offered some brief reflections on the commissioned response to my article on ethical issues arising in the provision of medical interventions for gender diverse children. Ashley argues for the importance of ‘an ethics of exploration’ which prioritises making opportunities for fluid, open-ended reflection by gender diverse children and young people, operating through and alongside, rather than prior to, social and medical transition. While noting significant areas of shared outlook between Ashley and myself, I correct some assumptions that Ashley may be making about the range of young people seen at the UK Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) and the way we work clinically within a developmental framework. I highlight my reasons for thinking that there are particular concerns arising in the care of the very young. Finally, I reiterate my view that professionals cannot so easily abandon altogether an ‘ethic of prediction’ and surrender their responsibilities and accountabilities in this area of clinical practice
