Abstract

Psychotherapy and social pedagogical care, help and support in relation to children placed in out-of-home care are typically perceived as two separate forms of practice. In its typical form, psychotherapy is pictured as a meeting between therapist and client in a ‘therapeutic space’ separated out from daily life and activities, while social pedagogical care, help, and support is carried out in close proximity to everyday life in what is regarded as the person’s home. This article analyses an alternative relationship and way of collaborating between psychotherapy – more specifically play therapy – and everyday social pedagogical practice in residential care for children with severe emotional and behavioural problems. This is done by drawing on an empirical case study of the relationship between everyday practice and expertise of social pedagogical practice and play therapy in a children’s home in Denmark. Meeting the needs of children who have been severely neglected and/or abused is challenging in different ways, and it requires highly developed relational, emotional, and reflective skills. The authors argue that play therapy has a particular potential in foregrounding and developing core social pedagogical knowledge and skills. When designed and carried out as an integrated part of everyday social pedagogical practice, play therapy can support practitioners in integrating a reflective and conscious approach to understanding and meeting the children’s emotional and relational needs with the ability to create and enter into ‘playful encounters’ with the children that challenges one-sided and taken-for-granted power relationships, practices and norms.

Highlights

  • In Denmark, social pedagogy is well established as an approach to working with children and young people in residential settings (Petrie, Boddy, Cameron and Wigfall, 2006)

  • As noted by Kyriacou, Ellingsen, Stephens and Sundaram (2009) the term social pedagogy is widely used in continental Europe, and generally, it refers to: actions on the part of adults to promote the personal development, social education and general well-being of the child alongside or in place of parents in a range of educational and social care settings . . . At the heart of social pedagogical practice is the adopting by these adults of a parenting/caring role in meeting the needs of the ‘whole child’. (p. 75)

  • We present the intervention at Hilltop House, which aims at integrating play therapy and everyday practice of social pedagogical care, help and support in order to develop professional practice and its ability to meet the complex needs and problems of the children

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Summary

Introduction

In Denmark, social pedagogy is well established as an approach to working with children and young people in residential settings (Petrie, Boddy, Cameron and Wigfall, 2006). The supervision sessions with the play therapist supported the understanding of Thomas’s experiences and actions and on creating situations where he is invited to collaborate and participate in fellowship with the pedagogues and the other children This way of responding flexibly and creatively to his ‘disturbance’ enhances his opportunities of experiencing belonging and entering into positive interactions, rather than consolidating hierarchical relationships between ‘sane adults’ and ‘disturbed children’. The analytical examples demonstrate how collaboration between play therapy and social pedagogical practice enhances core social pedagogical knowledge and skills that can slide into the background in an institutional setting, within which pedagogues have to act fast and react to the complex needs of a group of children It facilitates a deeper and more holistic understanding of the children’s reactions and maintains and develops the pedagogues’ skills in finding creative and playful ways of relating to what could otherwise be considered problematic and provocative behaviour

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