Editorial

This issue contains a range of papers of clinical and theoretical interest, reflecting both the breadth of work undertaken by child psychotherapists and the consolidation and development of research based on accumulated clinical experience. Taken together, we hope that they succeed in conveying something of the sense of interest and excitement with which these authors have approached challenging clinical situations – with the demands they make on practitioners to re-think technique, theory and approach – and the energy that has gone into research projects that demonstrate a practice fully alive, and relevant, to the challenges and opportunities facing us as a profession. We hope, too, that the overlap of clinical, research and theoretical interests between the authors, as well as their differences, makes for a rich and stimulating read.

The first two papers, by Maria Rhode and Andrew Briggs, converge in several ways. Both explore the frontier of body and psyche and consider the sorts of powerful responses that can make us feel deeply uncomfortable but also more in touch with our patients if we are able to recognise and understand them. Rhode’s lucid, thought-provoking article addresses difficulties in the therapist’s capacity to think and to recognise meaningful patterns in work with children on the autistic spectrum. The paper explores two of the countertransference pathways that can lead to this situation, focusing on the impact of projective and adhesive identification: the extent of bodily and emotional cohesion that a child has achieved, the author suggests, exerts an important influence on which pathway may predominate. Rhode’s paper is, like the other articles in this issue, rich in clinical detail that vividly conveys the challenges of understanding and working with such children. It is particularly interesting to be able to follow her detailed thinking about the extreme bodily anxieties that, for some autistic children, can accompany the awareness of being p