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The greatest need of a child is to obtain conclusive assurance (a) that he is genuinely loved as a person by his parents, and (b) that his parents genuinely accept his love … frustration of this desire to be loved as a person and to have his love accepted is the greatest trauma that a child can experience.
This book is about dedication and is dedicated to the children and youth in the Children's Psychotherapy Project (CPP). It takes its name from “A Home Within,” a non-profit organisation that sustains the work of the CPP, and consists of a group of clinicians who help current and former foster children and youth build healthy and lasting relationships. All the therapists in this project work for free, and each chapter movingly describes the nature of that work. The therapists working for the project are also all members of consultation groups run by senior clinicians who also do this for no pay. These consultation groups and the administrative structure of the organisation serve as the “protective arch” for the therapists engaged in what is often difficult and provoking work. The radical stance of “no pay” is an inspiring answer to the pressures of endlessly trying to gain adequate funding for therapy for these children
I also found the book to be a “gripping read.” On one occasion I was so involved I overshot my stop whilst on a train! This was of little real consequence but did serve as a timely reminder of how children in the foster care system can also be so involved in their internal worlds that they, too, can miss many more vital cues in their external existences, often leaving them in a state of a seemingly endless spiral of deprivation (Henry, 1974).