Integrating professional identities: an ethnographic study of psychoanalytic child psychotherapy in a children’s social care setting

Abstract

ABSTRACT The importance of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) collaborating with other agencies is of paramount concern for children with complex difficulties, including children in care. However, there is a lack of research exploring the role of child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapists in multi-disciplinary and multi-agency work surrounding these children. Aims: to develop a theory of how child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapists function within a social care setting, including how they position themselves in a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency environment. Methods: an ethnographic case study design, consisting of participant observation supplemented by interviews. Findings: grounded theory analysis identified that the child psychotherapists balanced three elements of their professional identity: discipline-specific identity; CAMHS team member identity; child’s care network member professional identity. To be effective in their role, the child psychotherapists needed to integrate the elements of their professional identity. The findings have implications for understanding the contribution of child psychotherapists in this field, particularly how to integrate into multi-disciplinary and multi-agency settings, whilst retaining their distinctive professional identity.