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We are four psychotherapists practising in Prague, each using a different theoretical framework in our work. We offer here a response to Betty Joseph’s paper ‘Thinking about a playroom’, from our particular perspectives. We are all members of the Prague Independent Group.
The Prague Independent Group is so named as a nod to the richness of the varied theoretical stances that our members take. We decided to include photos of our consulting rooms to show that they are all set up differently, each reflecting our personality and the theoretical orientation we bring to our work and thinking. Inspired by Betty Joseph’s classic paper, we offer here an inside view of our work with children and our thinking about it.
The aim of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children is to support or re-start ordinary psychic development. This might seem a broad definition, but this openness can help the therapist and the child find what is unique and specific to their situation, and to themselves individually. However, this can also evoke fear and anxiety, and this is where rules come in. They help us create safety. A framework can help us experience, feel, think and act. But maybe it is better to speak about boundaries rather than rules, to better capture the essence of meeting within the psychoanalytic process. A boundary can be a touch-point place, in the context of which we make emotional contact. The aim is the meeting of two subjects, the conception of new experience and new knowledge. This knowledge can become the driving force, which can support ‘good enough’ psychic development.
Of course, boundaries are not there to limit us or the client. They can be a frame of reference that can help us notice change – how it happens, when it comes, what it relates to and what it evokes in us. We can see this in the two elemental axes of meeting: time and place. When we agree that our patient will arrive at 5pm and he is not there at the appointed time, we can wonder why. We can notice what this