“The Flight of Peter Pan”: Working with a Mother and Child at a Child Guidance Unit

This paper describes our work with a six year old child and his mother which consisted of ten sessions over a period of one year. The aim was to improve the mother/child relationship and to help the child's adjustment to life at home and in school by attempting to explore his internal world, fantasies and anxieties, using the child's play as a constant focal point.

It is our contention that far from being atypical, this case is increasingly representative of the work in community child guidance units. Perhaps it falls somewhere between extensive individual psychotherapy and well planned family therapy, and so we cannot rely on the theories of either to provide a theoretical framework. The extensive involvement by our clinic with the schools in our community allowed us to construct a new efficient team of school, family, therapist and social worker. The smooth functioning of the various parts of this network was a crucial factor in determining the outcome as no relevant aspect of the child's life was excluded from our minds.

Assessment phase

Ken was referred to us by his headteacher. His teacher had compiled an extensive report about his behaviour in class and included the observations of the school helpers and others involved with him. He was described as a child who did not smile but sought a lot of physical contact with adults. He was behaving aggressively towards other children, and on the few occasions he had seemed happy, he had become loud and bossy. Although, seemingly, a very bright child, he had no enthusiasm for school work. On very bad days he would cry for no obvious reason and if asked why he said he didn't know. He would calm down if comforted and then he would play a lot on his own, mainly with “Lego”. The teacher tried to help him understand his aggression to other children and their reluctance to play with him; he could agree that he was crying because he was feeling lonely. When the teacher wanted to see mother, she readily came to school