Residential Group Therapy for Children

Living and working with children in a residential setting inevitably involves a continuous ‘group experience’ and an appreciation of the potential for change and development inherent in group processes can be of great help to residential workers in clarifying and achieving their aims.

In Residential Group Therapy for Children (originally published in 1982), Daphne Lennox describes three approaches to personality development and group therapy: transactional analysis, behaviour modification, and the humanistic experiential approach. Her emphasis is upon the practical ways in which the methods of group treatment that have evolved from these approaches can be used, either singly or side by side, with children of a wide age and ability range, within a residential establishment. Each theoretical exposition is followed by suggestions for games and exercises, in the hope that the residential worker who has reached the desperation point of exclaiming ‘What can I try now?’ may find some inspiration.