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Barbara Dockar-Drysdale, founder and original therapeutic adviser to the Mulberry Bush School, is now in her eighties, and living in retirement. Her writings make frequent reference to her indebtedness to Winnicott, whom she used to meet monthly over the last seventeen years of his life to discuss their ideas and work. Winnicott wrote of her: ‘Here was someone who knew’.
I first met Winnicott in Paddington Green Hospital. He had invited me to come and be present as he played with a group of children there. I remember particularly Winnicott's spontaneous, natural enjoyment when participating in the children's play. His engagement with them is what made it such a valuable experience. Afterwards we met for supper and had a long and wide-ranging talk. (Mrs Dockar-Drysdale had earlier sent him the draft of a paper on the treatment of ‘frozen children’ for his comments?) This was the beginning of our association. There were no agenda for our regular meetings. They were very informal. It was not a supervision session. We never really said what it was supposed to be. We just waded in. You could say, we were simply two friends and colleagues with overlapping ideas and interests sharing whatever happened to be concerning us at the time. Sometimes, quite often, we discussed cases where we were both involved, or ones which he had referred on to me for treatment. In addition to my work at the Mulberry Bush I also had a small number of children staying at our house who needed an opportunity for actual regression. Winnicott made use of me as a therapist in this capacity.
Winnicott, of course, had never worked himself in a residential setting, but he was fascinated by it, as well as valuing it. I think he