Growth in emotional intelligence. Psychotherapy with a learning disabled girl

Abstract

This paper describes the once-weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a girl, called Ellie, aged eight at the start of her treatment. Ellie had a learning disability and displayed difficult behaviour at school and at home. In her therapy, Ellie grew in emotional intelligence, more in touch with and able to express her feelings. Her behaviour improved and so did her capacity to learn. In the therapy there were certain limitations to progress and this is discussed in terms of how Ellie's disability affected the basic achievements of emotional development, including a mind with a solid ‘reality ego’, able to contain anxiety, and able to maintain depressive functioning. The importance of parallel parent work, to share observations and understanding of the child's functioning is discussed. Difficulties for both child and parents in dealing with the pain of difference and how this limits emotional intelligence are discussed. The author hopes that this paper will encourage the offering of psychoanalytic psychotherapy to children and young people with learning disabilities, who are significantly more likely to suffer from mental health problems than their peers.

Keywords:

• emotional intelligence
• learning disability
• inner world
• containment
• reality ego
• depressive position
• trauma
• limitations

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my colleagues in the Learning and Complex Disabilities Service for helpful discussions, advice and comments and in particular, Dr Nancy Sheppard for her work with Ellie's parents. I would also like to thank Ellie's parents for their permission to write and publish this paper.