Routledge Early Encounters with Children and Adolescents: Beginning Psychodynamic Therapists’ First Cases

Early Encounters with Children and Adolescents is the first training guide to use the works of beginning therapists as its focus. Far too often, therapists in training are given the "classics" to read―case histories by the masters in the field, which can sometimes leave beginning therapists intimidated or even in despair as to whether they can ever reach that level of proficiency. This book is the first to remediate that situation by providing beginners with role models they can more easily internalize through realistic case histories that reveal the ins and outs of starting in a craft that is never fully mastered. Not only are the cases themselves fascinating, but the therapists also refer to the processes they struggled with while treating these patients. Readers will thus have a striking new counterweight to the classics they will still want to read as they progress in the field. Eight beginning clinicians discuss aspects of their clinical process, including: issues of transference and countertransference; the role of supervision; doing parent consultations, especially when one is not yet a parent; cultural/racial/socioeconomic differences between patient and therapist; and the vulnerability of not understanding for long moments in treatment. Psychodynamic beginners in every discipline will find these case histories compelling, heartfelt and inspiring. Review "For several decades, Steven Tuber has been among our foremost educators in teaching and supervising child clinical psychology and psychotherapy. In Early Encounters with Children and Adolescents, we all reap the benefit of his curiosity, creativity, keen intelligence, and the depth of his clinical and pedagogical skills. This book will help a new generation learn to treat children and establish identities as child clinical psychotherapists." ―Lewis Aron, PhD, director, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis "In this touching compendium, renowned Winnicottian Steven Tuber assembles a group of rookie child psychotherapists to describe their work. As their patients gradually learn safely to play, rage, and cry―often for the first time―so too their therapists show, with impressive honesty, the first steps towards the poignant balance between realism and hope, technique and spontaneity, that is the hallmark of clinical competence. This is a brilliant teaching text, and essential reading for child psychotherapists and their trainers." ―Jeremy Holmes, MD, University of Exeter, United Kingdom "Steve Tuber further extends his role as a master teacher of child therapy in this brilliantly conceived volume. The superb beginning therapists who describe their struggles and their impressive insights and innovations depict a wide range of dilemmas that child therapists regularly encounter but that are often omitted in the airbrushed presentations of ‘how brilliant I am’ by ‘name brand’ therapists. This is a volume rooted in the ‘facts on the ground,’ and it will be of continuing value not just for beginners but for any child therapist who recognizes that ours is a profession where continuing to learn and reflect is of the very essence of what we do." ―Paul L. Wachtel, PhD, CUNY Distinguished Professor in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York About the Author Steven Tuber, PhD, ABPP, is professor of psychology and director of clinical training in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the City College of New York, where he has taught for nearly 30 years. He is the author of three critically acclaimed books: Attachment, Play, and Authenticity: A Winnicott Primer (2008), Starting Treatment with Children and Adolescents (2011), and Understanding Personality Through Projective Testing (2012).