Measuring change in psychotherapeutic work with a traumatised child on the autistic spectrum

Abstract

This paper describes a developmental psychotherapy undertaken with a physically disabled latency boy, with a background of significant developmental deficits and multiple psychological trauma, diagnosed by CAMHS as being on the autistic spectrum. Using an assessment framework following Anna Freud’s conceptualisation of developmental lines, pathology as a deviation from the norm was formulated. Assessments using standard psychological tests were made at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of his therapy, in order to study the changes in his personality development. Standard assessment findings were also used to portray the fragmentation of the boy’s psyche in a concrete fashion, in order to facilitate his re-integration.

Keywords:

• early trauma
• developmental therapy
• parent work
• diagnostic psychological testing
• chronic illness
• intrusive medical interventions

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Marianne Parsons for her excellent clinical supervision and Anne Alvarez for her valuable comments on this paper.