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In her paper, Elizabeth Edginton (2024) quotes extensively from my article on the IMPACT Study in the Bulletin issue no. 269; summer 2018 (Schmidt Neven, 2018; IMPACT Study Response). I am responding to these comments, as well as to Edginton's assertion that the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) needs to be more pro-research if they want randomised controlled trial (RCT) methodology to be more appropriate to their way of working.
I was surprised that Edginton does not mention in her article the ACP event ‘Key debates in child psychotherapy’, which we both presented at in October 2018, myself as keynote speaker. The event, which was chaired by Peter Wilson, and at which Jocelyn Catty and Nick Midgley also presented, was an opportunity for the future course of child psychotherapy research to be debated, and for my position to be critiqued.
In my presentation as part of the ‘Key debates in child psychotherapy’, I referred to the need for the child psychotherapy profession to reassess its focus with respect to clinical practice, research, prevention and advocacy. This within the context of a clearer position on values (the validation of behaviour through understanding its meaning has a strong advocacy function for the child and young person) and the need for developing innovative theory with regard to psychodynamic psychotherapy with children, young people and their parents in a changing society. The development of new theory and research related to exploring innovative practice need to go hand in hand. In this regard, I was clear about the need to take a critical view of a traditional psychoanalytic approach involving only long-term therapy with the child or adolescent.
It is generally accepted that the RCT method and the related bio-medical model of research are paramount to the investigation of the efficacy and safety of medical procedures and the development of new medication. Moreover, this method lends itself well to applications in large populations. Howev