Editorial

This edition of the journal contains papers, both national and international, which detail some of the varied settings in which child psychotherapists work. It also continues our theme of describing the development of child psychotherapy in other parts of the world, and here we focus on Australia. Previously, there have been papers describing child psychotherapy in Russia and Hungary, 24(1) and Italy, 25(3); plus a recent letter (Correspondence, 25(3)) from child psychotherapists in Sydney, NSW, which outlined how the practice of child psychotherapy has been established in a very different way from that in the United Kingdom and how this poses different dilemmas for practitioners. In this edition, we are pleased to open with Frances Thomson Salo's comprehensive account of the historical context for the establishment of training in child psychotherapy in Australia and how the service is developing in ways that are culturally and geographically relevant. We would like to thank Frances Thomson Salo for all her help in encouraging her Australian colleagues to contribute to this edition and acting as our guest editor ‘down-under’.

Our first paper comes from Melbourne, Australia. In ‘The role of the body as the medium in child psychotherapy’, Marell Lynch gives a compelling account of her work with an 11-year-old girl who had been severely abused and rejected by her biological mother, followed by a succession of foster placements. She describes how the current thinking in mental health services about therapeutic work with such damaged children is to provide more responsive and briefer treatment models. This challenges the child psychotherapist to consider alternative models of intervention, involving changes in technique, role and the use of a time-limited intervention. In her work with Gina, she strove to provide a model which acknowledged the child's psychobiological experience of trauma and disrupted attachments as well as giving a voice to the child's experiences.

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