Time-limited psychodynamic psychotherapy for adolescents and young adults

Abstract

This article discusses the development of a model of time-limited psychodynamic psychotherapy for adolescents and young adults developed in the context of a multidisciplinary team within the UK's National Health Service working with young people with mental health difficulties. The therapeutic focus in this model is on a significant area of developmental difficulty and/or disturbance, to facilitate the capacity of the young person to meet developmental challenges and/or have this capacity strengthened. The developmental focus is rooted in a psychoanalytic approach to adolescent development, and connects internal, interpersonal and social worlds of young people. Thus this approach understands as psychosocial the mental health difficulties of young people in contemporary contexts. Young people are engaged in therapy through containing anxieties within a clear structure provided by the time frame and the core features of the model. Two case examples are presented and discussed of young people of different ages, both of whom were able to make therapeutic use of this therapeutic modality.