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Synchronicity was at work when I was asked to review Child-Centred Attachment Therapy by (Alexandra) Maeja Raicar, as I had just attended a Post-Adoption Centre training day, where I had met Maeja for the first time and had seen her book there.
As an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in a school with children with severe, profound, and multiple learning disabilities, many of whom have attachment disorders and some of whom are looked after children, I found the description of Maeja's work and her exposition of the CcAT Programme fascinating throughout.
Maeja describes how, with her colleagues Pauline Sear and Maggie Gall, she developed the CcAT Programme around 1995-1997 and piloted it with adoptive families. She has since gone on to use the programme with birth, extended, foster, and step-families, too. Unlike some other therapeutic programmes, CcAT combines assessment, treatment, and support from the beginning, and the needs of both child and family are addressed.
CcAT is firmly rooted in attachment theory, positing that ‘a child who feels securely attached to her family is likely to be rewarding to care for and, therefore, well parented’ (p. xiv). By identifying and addressing insecure attachment styles in both child and carers, followed by griefwork and play therapy, mutual attachment can be brought about. The work is time-limited, usually consisting of eight two-hour sessions, weekly or fortnightly. The sessions might be parent-child, family, individual, or couples work. Review and follow-up sessions are offered at the end of the programme.
Maeja uses case studies to illustrate her work. In particular, she tells the stories of ‘Rose’ and ‘Emily’ to describe how a family can be torn apart by illness. She uses these tales as a vehicle to demonstrate how disrupted attachment