Taking outside in, turning inside out: Exploring social dimensions and psychotherapeutic process in the play therapy of a young girl in foster care

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper, a collaborative effort, describes the work of A Home Within (AHW), a volunteer community-based organization providing pro-bono long term psychotherapy to current and former foster youth. We provide a brief description of the treatment model, present a report of treatment conducted by an AHW volunteer, and discuss further reflections on the societal context of our psychoanalytically-informed work. In-depth psychotherapeutic process from the treatment of a young girl in a pre-adoptive foster placement elucidates the psychotherapeutic possibilities when a psychoanalytic treatment model is accessible to current and former foster youth, usually deprived of this form of treatment due to overburdened, underfunded community mental health systems in the U.S. Open-ended psychotherapy afforded this traumatized child an unusual opportunity to work through past relational traumas in order to form new and more secure attachment relationships. We reflect further on the case from the vantage points of both the psychotherapeutic process and the greater societal context of this community-based program.