Newsletter: April 2024

Things Change!

Actually everything deteriorates. Even atoms decay over time. (Radioactive decay)

Now, I know that this can lead down a quite morbid rabbit hole, so let’s pull it back a bit! I’m not just talking about life, but about systems. Models. 

Newton (Back to the second law of thermodynamics) had ground breaking ideas that changed the way we looked at our world and our universe. Einstein had his E=MC2. Although the underlying truth of these theories are still valid and true they have been superseded by other thinking and ways of looking at our world and universe. This is true also in our field of therapy. We look back at the works of Freud and Jung with admiration and hail them as ground breaking theorists, but… in the proceeding years others have come and tweaked the theories and added new research to the wisdom and found other ways  to work with clients. Child centred approach, Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), Attachment theory, Eye Movement Desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR). Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), to name but a few.  Neuroscience has had a huge impact on the way we work with clients.

When I trained to be a therapist, not many people understood attachment theory. It was a mystery. Teachers and social workers were in awe, as I explained during training how early infant relationships could shape the behaviours of older children and adults. Now, attachment is a reasonably well known theory. It was the same with early infant complex trauma. Nobody understood why children’s behaviour was affected by something that “they couldn’t even remember!” In the following years, we have had the rise of DDP and the acceptance and understanding of attachment. We have seen Adverse Childhood Experiences, a phrase coined by John Bowlby and later by Bruce Perry, Dan Segal etc., etc. We have had the rolling out of Trauma Informed Practice in schools, social services and even the police. All this is good, it has been necessary and a crucial part of our development as a “caring society”. As therapists I wonder if we are willing to adapt to our constantly developing world or if we find ourselves stuck in our old (still valid) ways of working?

At our recent CPD with Robert Grant (AutPlay) we got to grips with a way of working with parents present in the therapy room during therapy. This may not something that we have all been taught and yet it feels that it has its place. In cases of early infant complex trauma where the attachment has been compromised, this model of working could offer benefits. With the greater understanding of Neurodiversity and inclusive practice, we need to be looking at models like AutPlay Therapy to help us focus on, and develop our therapeutic skills for the best interest of the child and their families.

In the same way as Axline and her peers moved away from the Therapy Couch and into the world of creative arts, we must assess each client to see what the best model of therapy would be for the best therapeutic outcome for each individual child.

I have called this scribble “Things Change” but actually, there are some things that don’t change. Our need to continually learn won’t change. The inexorable fact that we don’t know everything won’t change. Learning being more important than achievement won’t change.

At the School of Play and Creative Therapies we welcome change. We want to push the boundaries and not stagnate. We would love you to be next to us on this journey into the next chapter.

Alun John