A preliminary evaluation of a brief child psychotherapy service

Abstract

Very Few Children and young people in Northern Ireland receive child psychotherapeutic interventions and the aim of this study is to find out whether providing a brief child psychotherapy intervention could be helpful to them. The interventions took place across four sites in Northern Ireland and pre- and post-test data was collected for twelve of the forty-two children and young people who completed the twelve session intervention. The findings have to be interpreted within the context of a small sample size with no comparison or control group. However, some preliminary and tentative indications did emerge that this model of child psychotherapeutic intervention could be potentially helpful. It is suggested that this model of intervention should be added to the current psychological treatments available to children and young people in Northern Ireland to increase the range of therapies and as such, the chance that each child or young person will receive the treatment that works for them.