How it Feels to be You: Objects, Play and Child Psychotherapy

by Tamsin Cottis

Overview

Through the stories of individual children, this book illuminates the process of creative, play-based child psychotherapy. Each chapter focuses on a specific issue that brings a child or a young person to the therapy room and explores the use and meaning of particular objects and ‘object games’. Through these insightful and dynamic stories, readers will gain a profound understanding of the healing power of play in the context of child psychotherapy. The importance and influence Attachment Theory, through the work of Donald Winnicott, alongside that of Anne Alvarez and Margot Sunderland, is woven through the book. 

Composite case material, derived from the author’s many years of clinical practice, demonstrates the centrality of the therapeutic relationship, in concert with approaches which foreground play and creativity in bringing about healing. Chapters address childhood challenges such as autism spectrum condition, selective mutism, parental conflict and separation, ADHD, learning disability, loss and bereavement. These individual difficulties are explored with a sensibility towards both the individual predicament, but also the complex and dynamic society in which our understanding and experiences of race, culture, class, migration, gender, disability and sexuality are in constant evolution. This demonstration of child psychotherapy in action will be of interest to psychotherapists, parents and anyone working to provide emotional support for children in schools, nurseries and other settings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913494285
Publisher:	Global Book Sales
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tamsin Cottis is a child psychotherapist and co-founder of Respond, the UK’s leading agency for psychotherapy and counselling for people with learning disabilities. She works in primary schools and in private practice, supporting children and young people with diverse needs.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

About the Author ix

Introduction xi

1 Samina: A game of Jenga 1

Beginnings

2 Jake: Toy soldiers in the desert 15

Children who are hard to reach

3 Zara: A life-size soft toy cheetah and a cake made of clay 31

Supporting children whose parents separate

4 Theo: Players and playgrounds 49

Reluctant talkers

5 Hakan: An inflatable globe and the 50 clip-together felt pens 65

Children who can't keep still

6 Cristina: A bowl of green paint soup 83

Supporting children who are bereaved

7 Polly: Wet sand and emoji cushions 101

Therapy for children with learning disabilities

8 Jordan and Francesca: A full diary and a giant bean bag 117

Moving on from therapy, moving on from childhood

Appendix: Questions and considerations guiding the assessment process 143

References 147

Index 153

Editorial Reviews

Cottis’s illustrations and explanations of how a Child Therapist works flow seamlessly from events and processes in the session with the child and then, quite naturally, the drama of the session takes over – so the reader is never bored , always pulled along by the narrative, yet ever more informed. This is a beautiful book, describing beautiful work.” – Anne Alvarez, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and author of The Thinking Heart “This is a wonderful and engaging book. Tamsin is the therapist you'd want every child to have. I learnt so very much.” – Dr. Susie Orbach, Psychoanalyst and author of Fat is a Feminist Issue, The Impossibility of Sex, and Bodies About

From the Publisher