CYPNow article by JKP author Gillian Ruch: Time to put relationship building back at the heart of social work
Children & Young People Now have featured a great article from JKP author, Dr Gillian Ruch, in which she argues that a focus on improving…
Tag: child psychology
Danielle Turney on Relationship-Based Social Work
‘Placing the relationship at the heart of practice means recognising that, as we suggest in the Introduction, ”despite all the continuing upheavals in policy and procedure, social work [will] always begin and end with a human encounter between two or more people” and that this encounter, or relationship as it develops, is the medium through which the social work task can be carried out. Social work is never a neutral activity but can, at its best, offer a vulnerable or distressed person the experience of being valued, supported and understood – perhaps for the first time.’
Chris Nicholson on Creative Therapeutic Approaches with traumatised young people
“Through sensitively handled, creative interaction and by the use of ‘creative’ approaches with traumatised young people their characteristic rigidity begins to loosen. New possibilities emerge, the mutative nature of create endeavours. In time, they may be able to see painfully familiar situations in different and helpful ways that can lead to their forming a new response.”
A tribute to renowned play therapist Ann Cattanach
JKP first published Ann Cattanach’s work in the early 1990’s, by which time she was an established play therapist, confident in her ability to help…
Interview with Jan Horwath, author of The Child’s World
“For me the biggest challenge is recognising effective practice and, in the same way that we have begun to pay more attention to resilience amongst children and young people, we should be considering what makes for a resilient workforce. Why is it that some practitioners can continue to work effectively with service users when others in the same or similar settings struggle?”
Mary Fawcett on Learning Through Child Observation
“The government’s more joined up approach to children’s services now means there is an ever greater need for a multi-professional approach. Though the rhetoric is all about ‘every child matters’, personalisation etc, I feel that prescriptive, goal-driven approaches may have diminished open-minded observation and led to less sensitive understanding.”
Robbie Woliver on Alphabet Kids – From ADD to Zellweger Syndrome
“We started getting these alphabet-soup diagnoses, and even as I became more expert on the subject, it was still a confusing maze to me. I wanted to write a book to help other parents and those professionals who work with them, that would provide a roadmap that would make their journeys easier. This is really the book I wish I had when I started my research almost two decades ago.”
Kay and Haitham Al-Ghani on creating The Red Beast
“I began to explore ways of getting the children to visualise their anger as a sort of beast that was very difficult to control. In this way the anger was depersonalised. After all, we are all capable of becoming angry, it is how we deal with those feelings that matters. Children with ASD already have a great deal of anxiety to cope with in a normal school day, and so the chances of awakening the ‘beast’ are increased. I thought about the methods I used to calm children and incorporated these into a story. However, this story really came to life when I asked my son, Haitham, to illustrate it for me.”
Tony Attwood talks heroes and Harry Potter
“I think that the greatest enjoyment is seeing the progress of individuals that I have known for a number of years, in terms of self understanding, abilities and circumstances.”