Psychosocial Group Work with Vulnerable Children: Eclectic Group Conductors and Creative Play

Psychosocial Group Work with Vulnerable Children presents a simple, accessible, and preventative approach to psychotherapeutic interventions.

The authors explore how this form of group work can strengthen resilience and prevent an increase in antisocial behavioural tendencies among children. Based on a process of shared meaning communication, the book explains how professionals can help children to engage in in-group creative play and allow them to experience their self in relation to others. Castrechini-Franieck and Bittner draw on their experiences of working with children in groups, supplemented with therapeutic elements from Gestalt therapy and ontological psychoanalysis. This approach helps children to achieve a stable state of emotional well-being while improving their behaviour at school, along with their social skills.

Psychosocial Group Work with Vulnerable Children will be a key reading for psychotherapists and other professionals working with vulnerable children including psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers.

Maria Leticia Castrechini Fernandes Franieck, PhD, is a registered Chartered Counselling Psychologist in the UK, an i.t. Group Analyst with the Seminar für Gruppenanalyse Zürich, and a licensed Psychotherapist and Supervisor in Germany. Working with highly vulnerable populations is central to her clinical practice, and her studies were funded by the International Psychoanalytical Association.

Niko Bittner is a qualified pedagogue and Gestalt therapist, as well as a systemic trainer and coach. He works in youth social work and is a seminar leader at the Odenwald Institute, Germany, where he trains conflict coaches, among other things.