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Though examining outcomes in psychoanalytic psychotherapy remains of central importance in ensuring the survival of the child psychotherapy profession, research has also looked to understand what takes place within therapy. Such studies are valuable to clinicians, in that they add to theory and clinical case study by using research methodology to objectively explore what happens within the consulting room, and between patient and therapist. This allows the possibility of deepening clinical understanding, communicating to those outside the profession the mechanisms by which psychoanalytic work with children is effective, as well as exploring which ways of working are most effective in particular clinical presentations.
Studies included in this edition of the research digest explore the effect of psychodynamic technique (Halfon, 2021), therapeutic alliance (Halfon, 2021; O’Keeffe et al., 2020), transference interpretations (Della Rosa & Midgley, 2017; Ulberg et al., 2021), change in patient internal representations (Atzil-Slonim et al., 2013; Atzil-Slonim et al., 2014) and use of mentalization techniques on therapy outcome (Halfon & Bulut, 2019). Also included are studies exploring the ‘interaction structures’ that develop during therapy (Calderon et al., 2018; Grossfeld et al., 2019) and the ways these influence outcome dependent on the child’s presenting difficulties (Halfon et al., 2020).
Much of the research included in this issue has been made possible due to the existence of large-scale randomised controlled trails (RCTs), which produce vast amounts of rich material for further study. Indeed, four of the papers included below (Calderon et al., 2018; Della Rosa & Midgley, 2017; Grossfeld et al., 2019; O’Keeffe et al., 2020) originated in the IMPACT study, with the principle researcher being an MSc, PhD, or Doctoral student. This is a small but growing area of research, and one that will be interesting to see develop over coming years.
Psychodynamic technique and