The Training of Child Psychotherapists at the Tavistock Clinic: Philosophy and Practice

AN UNUSUAL ELEMENT IN THE BRITISH NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE is that, from its inception, it has encompassed an institution concerned with the development of psychoanalytic psychotherapy; the training of psychotherapists, including a specialized training for child and adolescent psychotherapists; and the broad applications of psychoanalysis to mental health practice, policy, and research. The context in which support for such an institution could be mobilized was the period of post-war reconstruction. Attention had been drawn during the war to the needs of emotionally troubled children. The policies of mass evacuation of children from London had given rise to research and new ideas about the development of children within the family, the crucial role of family relationships, and the pain and damage to personality development attendant on early separation and emotional deprivation. The training in child psychotherapy was created out of John Bowlby's concern that emotionally damaged children should have access to psychotherapeutic treatment. He invited Esther Bick, a psychoanalyst with a special interest in child analysis and in early development, to organize a psychoanalytic training in child therapy, which would be the basis of a new profession within the National