The Little Turtle's Progress: On Psychotherapy in Residential Treatment

Abstract

SUMMARY This article briefly discusses a number of arguments often given in support of the increased use of short-term residential treatment and examines some of the assumptions underlying those arguments. It then focusses upon the detailed description of an individual psychotherapy case study of a young child in long-term residential treatment. That case presentation indicates a number of clinical issues which appear to contraindicate the use of either brief therapy techniques or short-term residential treatment, and which also illustrate the need for the preservation of long-term residential treatment options for certain severely disturbed children and adolescents.