Training Programme for Child Psychotherapy: In
its Tenth Year And Growing
The Tavistock Model Mumbai Course in Psychoanalytic
Observational Studies is now in its 10th year. So far 80 students
have completed the course. Among those who enrolled were paediatricians,
psychiatrists, homeopaths, clinical psychologists, journalists,
school teachers, MBAs, as well as some from the field of business
and films. Of these, nine have entered the clinical training
programmes to qualify as either child psychotherapists or as
adult psychoanalysts. The remaining have returned to their former
professions, equipped with a keener observation and greater
understanding of human nature. This year, six more students
have enrolled in the course. (Our observation-based seminars
take a maximum of six students).
April 2006 saw three students qualify as Child
Psychotherapists, bringing the total number of qualified Child
Psychotherapists who have completed the Course in Psychoanalytic
Psychotherapy with Children, Parents and Young People to five.
The three qualifying students were: Mrs Micky Bhatia (who had
earlier qualified as an Adult Analyst), Ms Manju Mukhi and Mrs
Mayavi Khandelwal. The convocation ceremony was held in July
2006. Chief guests Captain and Mrs Somesh Batra presented the
certificates to the newly qualified students. The occasion was
graced by families and friends of the qualifying students as
well as supporters and well-wishers of PTRC. These included
Mrs Mithu Alur and Mrs Varsha Hooja, both of the Spastic Society
of India and Mr Zareer Cama of HSBC who had helped obtain a
scholarship for one of the three qualifying students.
As part of PTRC’s efforts to strengthen
links with the Tavistock Clinic in London, and to bring to our
students some of the most experienced teachers from Tavistock
and elsewhere, PTRC arranged the following events:
• In April 2006, a member of our visiting
faculty from the Tavistock Clinic, Mrs Asha Phillips came for
a week-long teaching visit. Mrs Phillips is a practicing Child
Psychotherapist in London, and a tutor at the Tavistock Clinic,
and is the author of the book titled Saying No – Why it
is Important for You and your Child. She has worked extensively
with very young children and families in child guidance settings
as well as with newborns in neonatal care in paediatric departments
of hospitals. Her week-long teaching included a Clinical Seminar
and a Parent Work Seminar for our clinical students.
• For the Observation Course students Mrs
Phillips held a very interesting seminar on Childrens’
Play, pointing out not just the social or the educational or
the ‘fun’ aspects of a child’s play, but also
the psychoanalytic view that all play is an expression of a
child’s inner world and holds an important meaning for
the child. She spoke of about how an infant’s first play
is with the mother – it is the interaction during feeding,
between the two, where the baby looks at mother, waits for her
response, takes it in and suckles again. Play is always with
another and therefore, as she pointed out, it is really an exploration
of a relationship.
• Apart from these seminars, and as part of PTRC’s
outreach programme aiming to bring psychoanalytic ideas to the
community, Mrs Phillips gave two public talks to the parents
and teachers of pre-Nursery and Nursery schools. One of our
concerns at PTRC has been to look into the matter of progressively
younger children (now as young as 18 months) being sent to either
play schools or pre-nursery schools or day-care centres. Mrs
Phillips’ talk touched on some of the difficulties children
at this age face when settling in schools, like separation anxiety,
excessive clinging, crying, etc. and how teachers and other
care-givers can help them cope with this very important transition.
One of these talks was for parents and teachers of the pre-Primary
Section of Alexandra Girls English Institution, and was held
in the school hall. The other was for pre-Nursery and Nursery
School teachers from around 10 schools in the city. The talk
was titled The Emotional Needs of Pre-school Children, and was
held at the Bandra campus of the Spastic Society of India. Around
90 teachers attended. The talk was followed by a lively Q &
A session, and a request to the PTRC to hold more of these in
the future.
• In October, an analytical psychologist
from the UK, Mrs Joan Lee, gave a talk on Psychological Process
in Pregnancy and Postnatally: Predicting Who Might Have Difficulties
to the students of our Observation Course. Mrs Lee spoke of
her experience with a Pregnacy Research study being conducted
in Greenwich in London. The study found evidence that the health
of infants of depressed women is adversely affected, compared
with infants of mothers who are well. This resulted in a psychotherapeutic
service being made available to pre-natally and post-natally
depressed women. Some of our students later expressed a wish
to provide similiar services in our city. Besides this talk,
Mrs Lee attended and participated in the Infant Observation
and the Work Discussion seminars.
Forthcoming Events
Among PTRC’s forthcoming events, are two
Child Study Days on January 4 and 5, 2007, preceding the India-Australia-Israel
international conference in Mumbai. Mrs Margaret Rustin, Head
of the Child Psychotherapy Department, Tavistock Clinic and
our visiting faculty member, will hold seminars and supervisions
for our students. Prof. Michael Rustin of the Tavistock Clinic
and Professor of Sociology, University of East London, and also
a member of our visiting faculty, will speak on Introduction
to Research Issues in Psychoanalysis and States of Narcissism.
Mrs Gillian Ingall, one of the seminar leaders at the Tavistock
Clinic will give a talk on Questions Childrens Ask.
Work in School and Colleges
Over the last six years, our therapists and trainee students
have been working in schools, providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy
to children with emotional difficulties. A substantial amount
of work has been done with children and parents, which otherwise
they would not have had access to. In the coming months we will
continue our work with schools and in addition, also plan to
make our presence felt in colleges.
In January 2007, PTRC will participate in a Career
Fair organised by Sydenham College. This will be the first time
that we are attempting this and we hope that it will help to
spread awareness, both of the courses we offer as well as our
clinic services.
Adult Analysis Training: Moving Ahead Steadily
The clinical training programme for adult analysis
has been steadily gaining momentum. Not only are there new applicants,
but with all our efforts at outreach, such as participating
in college festivals and career fairs, the newsletter and participation
in the Marathon, many more people are aware that this training
is available in Mumbai.
Over the last year three students applied for
the adult training programme, bringing the total number of students
in clinical training for adult analysis to six.
One of our members, Mrs Micky Bhatia, visited Kolkata this year
to further our links with the Indian Psychoanalytic Society
(IPS) there. She met with the Secretary, Mr Arup Ghoshal, and
also with members, Ms Sarala Kapoor and Ms Suvra Chunder. These
meetings enabled her to learn of the training programmes in
psychoanalysis run by the Kolkata group. Currently, there are
14 students in training in Kolkata and the group also runs a
charitable clinic on some days of the week. Mrs Bhatia discussed
various issues like funding, city and society specific ways
of practice, and ways of forging closer ties between the Kolkata
and Mumbai groups, as well as other psychoanalytic associations
within India.
Over the year, the Mumbai Chapter of the IPS has
also been in more regularly touch with the International Psychoanalytical
Association (IPA) and for the first time, the events page of
the IPA website carries an announcement of our forthcoming India-Australia-Israel
Conference.
In October 2006, Prof Schmuel Erlich and his wife
Mira Erlich -Ginor were in India on a three-week visit. They
were officially designated by the IPA to get to know the workings
of the various Indian Societies affiliated to the Indian Psychoanalytical
Society. Prof. Erlich is the current chair of the IPA Eduation
Committee and a representative on the IPA board with link responsibilities
for India. Mrs Mira Erlich-Ginor is the chair of the EPF Working
Party on Education.
Prior to their visit to Mumbai they visited Kolkata
and Delhi. In Mumbai they met with our senior analysts as well
as our pre-clinical and clinical students. There was a mutual
exchange of information about the courses conducted in Israel
and India and the path ahead. They made various helpful suggestions
and acknowledged that our standards were very much in line with
standards demanded of the International Psychoanalytical Association.
Upcoming Conference
PTRC’s India-Australia-Israel conference
will be held from January 6-8, 2007. The theme of the Conference
this time is Disorders of Thinking. We have received a very
good response not just internationally but also from within
India. This will be a closed door conference, with 15 participants
from Australia, two from Israel and four from U.K. In addition,
we also expect participants from Kolkata, New Delhi and Ahmedabad.
Dr Pine’s Visit
In January 2007, Dr. Fred Pine, who is visiting
India, will be in Mumbai for a few days. He is currently Emeritus
Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York),
Department of Psychiatry, a Training Analyst of the IPA, a faculty
member at The Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and
Research, at the New York Freudian Society, and at the New York
University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis.
Dr. Pine has a full practice in psychoanalysis
and psychotherapy, including private clinical seminars and individual
supervision. He is the co-author of one and author of three
books: The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant (with Margaret
S. Mahler and Anni
Bergman) (1975), Developmental Theory and Clinical Process (1985),
Drive, Ego, Object and Self: A Synthesis for Clinical Work (1990),
and Diversity and Direction in Psychoanalytic Technique (2003).
His writings have been predominantly in two areas:
the intersect between developmental theory and psychoanalytic
theory, and integration of the multiple models of mind present
in psychoanalytic writings today. While in Mumbai, Dr Pine will
meet colleagues and students of the Mumbai group, as well as
give a talk that will include a substantive introduction to
his thoughts on theoretical and technical diversity and integration
in psychoanalysis today.
The Horniman Circle Therapy Centre: An Update
In June 2005, The Horniman Circle Therapy Centre
began with three patients. In the course of this year we have
seen over100 cases at the Centre, including parents, children,
adolescents and adults. Apart from psychoanalytic therapy we
have also conducted psycho-educational assessments for school
children.
In the period since the Centre began its work,
we became aware of a gap in the services that we were providing.
Bearing this in mind, in April 2006, the Horniman Circle Therapy
Centre started an additional service called the Young People’s
Counselling Service (YPCS), geared exclusively towards helping
young adults between the ages of 16-30 years.
We felt that we needed to offer this age group
an alternative to more intensive therapy or analysis, and so
we decided to offer them 4-6 confidential counselling sessions.
Once this service was in place, we designed a YPCS brochure
which has since been widely distributed in high schools and
colleges.
Although both schools and colleges were welcoming
of a service geared towards young people and happy to put up
our posters, referrals have trickled in slowly. Clearly, the
idea of actually referring students to a clinic is still not
easy to accept. We found, instead, that the educational institutions
preferred that we go to them and set up counselling units within
the school/college premises. It is a concept that we are currently
reviewing as a possible addition to the Centre’s activities.
In order to spread awareness of the YPCS, in December
2006 we participated in the annual Sydenham College Festival,
which attracts students from colleges all over India. The Centre
set up a stall for 6 days to impart information and to interact
with students. We hope that in future we will be able to participate
in more such events in both colleges and schools.
It’s Mumbai Marathon Time Again!
Come January 21, 2007 and the citizens of
Mumbai will be out in the thousands to participate in the Mumbai
Marathon again. Encouraged by the response we received during
last year’s Marathon, we at PTRC have decided to participate
in this event as well. We already have an encouraging response,
with friends coming forward to represent PTRC in the Dream Team,
the Corporate Challenge and the Dream Run. We hope the donations
will be as generous as they were in the last Marathon, to enable
us to carry on our activities. We take this opportunity to thank
all those who are helping us raise funds through this event.
