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Hilkka Valtonen, child and adolescent psychoanalyst and a training analyst in The Finnish Psychoanalytical Society died on 12 February 2009 in Espoo, Finland. She had had health problems for several years, but her death nevertheless came unexpectedly.
Hilkka Valtonen was born in Vilppula and her school and formative years coincided with the war years in Finland. After graduating from Haapamäki secondary school, she studied at the Helsinki Arts and Crafts Institute. At that time, she met the late artist Osmo Valtonen, whom she married in 1955. In the 1950s, Hilkka Valtonen was occupied in the advertising business.
She graduated with a Masters degree in philosophy from Helsinki University in 1965. After working in hospitals for a number of years, she worked for several years as a psychotherapist in the Students' Health Foundation in Helsinki. She subsequently moved to private practice as a psychoanalyst.
Hilkka became a training analyst of the Finnish Psychoanalytical Association in the 1980s. Before that, in 1978, after graduating as a psychoanalyst, she started her training in child and adolescent psychoanalysis led by the Nordic pioneer of child and adolescent psychonalysis, Leena-Maija Jokipaltio. In 1985, together with Leena-Maija Jokipaltio and Kyllikki Lyytikäinen, Hilkka Valtonen coedited the first Finnish textbook in child psychotherapy, “Lasten psykoterapia”.
Hilkka Valtonen was active on the board of the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society as well as on the board of its training institute. Her colleagues and students remember her as a fair and encouraging colleague with a positive attitude. Psychoanalytic theory was “incarnated” in her as clinical knowledge and skill.
I was a student of Hilkka Valtonen during my years of training as a psychoanalyst and child and adolescent psychoanalyst. She was my supervisor in child analysis for three years. At her home, downstairs, she had a little study, which I remember, never having left disappointed after a supervision sessi