A psychoanalytic exploration of CAMHS clinicians’ experiences with children and young people who do not feed. An interpretive phenomenological analysis.

ABSTRACT This research project explores the experiences of four Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) clinicians who have worked with children and young people who restrict or refuse food. The participants were identified through purposeful sampling and the data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and coded using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. The findings are arranged in 4 Group Experiential Themes that reflect the experiential themes the participants described in undertaking this work: their internal experiences, their experiences of the patient, their experiences of the patient’s parents and their experience of the network and their professional context. The analysis of the findings indicates that clinicians need to feel meaningful connections and have supportive relationships. The success of the work is connected to the clinician supporting the patient to build a new type of relationship that is more realistic and allows for vulnerability and dependence. To do so the clinician has to manage painful feelings in both the patient and in themselves. Clinicians are in contact with projections of extreme anxiety and aggression from both the patient and the patient’s parents and therefore the patient’s parents’ history influences the trajectory of the work. The professional context of “not feeling alone” is highly influential in clinicians’ decision to keep working in this area. Physical recovery is important, but not the main focus.