HELPING CHILDREN WITH SYMPTOMS:

1
HELPING CHILDREN WITH SYMPTOMS

• finding the adult in the child and the child in
  the adult

2
the way in

• what does the title mean (or what it doesnt)?
• what am I going to do?
• the different worlds of
• the child
• the adult
• the family
• the professional
• and what we can do to improve things for the
  children we care for.

3
Atticus speaks

• First of all.. if you can learn a simple trick,
  Scout, youll get along a lot better with all
  kinds of folks. You never really understand a
  person..
• - until you climb into his skin and walk
  around in it.
• (To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper
  Lee)

4
general practice

• a family comes to emergency evening surgery

5
the childs world

• the TV news reporter
• a grandchilds first birthday
• a new child at school
• 2 French teenagers

6
imagination

• Bumface by Morris Gleizman
• (a poem)?

7
the languages of childhood

• hard-wired for grammar (Pinker)
• ? making sense of the world as she sees it
• imitation and the world around her
• needs and behaviour
• safety and responsibility
• symptoms and the healing property

8
2 little problems

• is he really sick?
• tummy aches, headaches and so on
• coping with change and loss
• life events and losing emotions

9
the adults world 1.

• the gulf of forgettory
• and symptoms
• - some accessible
• - some very deeply buried indeed

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An American in Paris

• Some ideas about the psyche
• no concept of time (Freud)
• relationships are symmetrical
• repetition - the unknown treated as if it were
  known (Casement).

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The adult world 2.

• This is how to treat children. Its ok to
• Learning from each other,
• but not from children.

12
a case in point

• telling the truth in medicine

13
the world of the family

• The culture
• The excluded
• Transmission across generations
• The focus elsewhere and emotional poverty
• Learning about illness

14
the world of the professional 1.

• a second gulf
• les deformations professionelles
• burnout
• motivation for caring professions
• power
• and Nasty Things (more later)

15
the frustrated professional

• condescension
• anger,
• cruelty,
• envy,
• 
  bullying,
• 
  etc
• 
  

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The world of the professional 2.

• a third gulf rivalry
• and non-co-operation

17
some possible therapies 1.

• Levelling with the child
• Looking for meaning
• Hearing the language
• Listening to the story
• Learning to explain

18
Some possible therapies 2.

• Systemic thinking
• Work reflection and discussion
• Crossing the gulfs
• Personal work

19
the key paradox

• Children, unless they have learnt the
  adult way of forgetting, are clear about their
  needs, but adults often cannot or will not hear
  what they are trying to say.

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The Drama of Being a Child

• By Alice Miller
• the child has a primary need from the
  very beginning of her life to be regarded and
  respected as the person she really is at any
  given time.
• .respect, understanding and being taken
  seriously -