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Jackie is an eight-year-old girl who is from a white, British, working-class background. She was born and brought up in the north of England. She was referred to the local CAMHS team by her social worker with the request that she receive therapeutic support to help her manage the transitions with which she was faced. At this point and subsequently, Jackie had frequent angry and violent outbursts that sometimes involved her being restrained. She had been excluded several times for attacking and swearing at school staff. These outbursts dated back to when she was taken into the care of the local authority.
Jackie was placed in a short-term foster placement two years ago and she has been able to stay with the same carer throughout this time. She has a much younger sister who was placed in care shortly after her birth and she has now been adopted. Social Services were involved in Jackie's life from a relatively early age; she has experienced a great deal of chaos and neglect as well as witnessing episodes of domestic violence and inappropriate sexual behaviour. Jackie has regular supervised contact with members of her family.
Following assessment, once-weekly psychotherapy was recommended and the session recounted took place a year into treatment. Network meetings are organised on a half-termly basis and this session took place a couple of days after the network met. The subject of the meeting was raised during the previous session but Jackie was reluctant to think about it with me. When Jackie started to attend sessions the plan was for her to be adopted, however, this changed to long-term foster care as no suitable adopters could be found within the period stipulated. At the time of the session, a long-term placement was still being sought whilst a family member had also decided to make yet another bid for Jackie to be returned to her care. A move away from her carer, her school, her city and her therapy, was likely to take place with little