Creating Change for Complex Children and their Families

Jo Holmes has been the Medical Director of the Croft Child and Family Unit for over ten years. She undertakes specialist assessments of children relating to autism spectrum disorders, attachment disorders and other conditions. She also trains child psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Amelia Oldfield is a music therapist at the Croft Child and Family Unit and has worked in child and family psychiatry for over 20 years. She is a lecturer in Music Therapy at Anglia Ruskin University. Marion Polichroniadis was a consultant clinical psychologist at the Croft Child and Family Unit. She has over 30 years' experience of working as a child psychologist in a range of settings including education, child development centres and child and adolescent mental health services.

• Foreword. Prologue. 1. Setting the Scene. 2. Therapeutic Engagement. 3. Structure and Containment. 4. A Nurturing Environment. 5. Multi-Family Work. 6. Accessing Learning. 7. Fostering the Child's Social World. 8. Understanding the Individual. 9. Understanding the Family. 10. Creating a New Story. 11. Reflection and Evolution. Appendices. References. Index.

...there is a wealth of creative and skill-based learning to be explored here, with access to various tools and measures. If you want to work in such a unit, or to draw upon its models for engaging in intensive interventions in controlled environments such as The Croft, then this will be essential reading.