This study explores the experience of child psychotherapists who work with silent children. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of four child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapists and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to examine the unique meaning that participants attributed to their work with their silent patients. Four superordinate themes emerged from the data: formulations of the silent child – ‘just different’; technique and cautious adaptation – ‘I needed to try something different’; the therapist’s feelings; and the tension between the need for support, and resistance to accessing it. This study aims to highlight the value of long-term work with silent children and strengthen understanding of the need for a mixed approach, which includes psychoanalytic technique and its cautious adaptation, to enliven the withdrawn child. The child psychotherapist’s skill of working with nonverbal communication based on infant observation and countertransference is central, but flexibility is also required.