Work Discussion

Jonathan Bradley is a consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist in the Adolescent Department at the Tavistock Clinic, where he is the Child Psychotherapy Head. He is the Organising Tutor of the PG Dip/MA in Psychoanalytic Studies offered by the Tavistock Clinic and the University of East London. A two-year Work Discussion Seminar has always played a prominent part in this large course. He is author of 'Coping With Life' (addressed specifically to adolescents). He is the Editor of the revised 'Understanding Your Child' series, published by Jessica Kingsley. He is interested in the processes involved in group learning, and he has worked as a staff member in group relations events, both at the Tavistock and the Leicester Conference. Margaret Rustin is a consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, London, and an Associate of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has pioneered and supported the extension of training in psychoanalytic observational approaches to training across the United Kingdom and in a number of other countries.

Series Editor’s Preface -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Work Discussion: An Overview -- Work discussion: some historical and theoretical observations -- The work discussion seminar: a learning environment -- What’s happening? Some thoughts on the experience of being in a work discussion group -- Work discussion groups at work: applying the method -- Case Studies -- Work in educational settings -- “Struggling with manifold disillusionment”: a non-directive drama therapy group for adolescents who have learning disabilities -- Becoming a learning mentor in an infant school -- A therapeutic approach to working with primary-school children -- A creative arts project in a primary school: the impact of “bizarre artefacts” in the classroom -- Work in health and residential settings -- Working with sick children in a hospital setting -- Trauma and containment in children’s cancer treatment -- Developing a containing relationship with a child living in a residential setting -- Work with vulnerable families -- Working within a refugee community -- Providing a play setting for children visiting parents in prison -- Emotional numbing and mindlessness as a phenomenon in residential assessment work -- International Contributions -- “Sibonye is stuck …”: the work discussion model adapted to South African conditions -- Parenting a new institution -- Work discussion seminars with the staff of a children’s home for street children in Puebla, Mexico -- Epilogue -- Work discussion: implications for research and policy