From the context of the pressures of working in a clinic (and other realities of life), the author evaluates both disadvantages and potential advantages of less intensive therapy with children—many aspects of which apply also to work with adults. This leads to more general considerations: the rhythm of work; the potential for learning for the therapist; the anxieties aroused and defences employed; the place of teamwork; the selection of cases; the goals which are realistically possible by comparison with more intensive therapy; technical matters such as alternative modes of communication to transference interpretation; the roles of observation, family history and theory; and the balancing of personal learning with social obligations.