Exploring How a Trainee Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist Generates Clinical Formulations When Undertaking Assessment Work. A Qualitative Study.

Background information Assessment forms a significant and important component of a child psychotherapist’s work. Petit and Midgley’s (2008) small-scale, qualitative study found that assessment equated to 45% of their work within a five-year period. Despite this, child psychotherapy assessment continues to be relatively neglected in the research literature. Focus of the study The research study explores how a trainee child psychotherapist generates formulations within their psychotherapy assessment work. This will involve the systematic analysis of the assessment encounter, incorporating an understanding of the unfolding transference and countertransference relationship and the technical approach of the assessing psychotherapist. Gap This research study is the first to use template analysis in order to examine how clinical formulations arise as a result of child psychotherapy assessments. Methodology A qualitative approach was used. Detailed descriptive commentaries of assessment sessions for three different case studies form the data to be analysed. This was facilitated using the hierarchical coding structure of Template Analysis. Conclusion The application of template analysis enabled a systematic exploration of assessment data. Coding of the session data allowed for the fine detail of the communications between the child and assessing psychotherapist to be illustrated and tracked. The research demonstrates how close and detailed observation of a child can facilitate an expression of their inner world. This allowed the origin and validity of the trainee child psychotherapists formulations to be captured and evaluated. This included evidence of clinical understanding in relation to the unfolding transference-countertransference relationship. It has also provided evidence of the technical approach to undertaking assessment work.