"‘You go from zero to toddler’: A psychoanalytic model of group work with adopted toddlers and their parents"

Sarah Peter

This paper describes a version of a long-running Anna Freudian approach to working therapeutically with toddlers and their parents in a group setting, adapted to be delivered to recently adopted toddlers and their parents. We piloted the group in 2019 in partnership with Adopt London South (ALS), and over the last six years it has grown into a well-established care pathway now offered to all ALS families who adopt babies or toddlers, with plans to replicate this in three other Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) in London. The paper outlines the historical and theoretical context of the model of psychoanalytically-informed parent-toddler group work, how it has been adapted for adopted toddlers and their parents, and the key therapeutic components and agents of change in the approach, illustrated by clinical examples and a composite case study.

Dr Sarah Peter qualified from IPCAPA British Psychotherapy Foundation (BPF) in 2014. She worked in a range of NHS child and adolescent mental health teams teams in London before moving into specialist services for children under 5 and their parents. Sarah was the co-lead for Growing Together, a joint venture between Islington CAMHS and Camden and Islington adult services and a senior therapist in the Early Years Service at the Anna Freud Centre. Sarah taught child development and psychoanalytic theory in the Postgraduate Studies department at the AFNCCF for several years, and continues to teach contemporary psychoanalytic theory to IPCAPA trainees. In 2022 Sarah founded Chorus, a social enterprise which provides therapeutic group interventions for young children and their parents who face or have faced adversity. Sarah also works as a child psychotherapist in the Whole Family Team Perinatal, a specialist team for under fives at the Tavistock, which is integrated with Camden local authority.

Eva Crasnow

This paper tracks the development of the Anna Freud parent-toddler group model as it is adapted to an adoption population for parents and adopted 1-3 year olds.  The adaptations are explored and explained as are key concepts that authors have come to use in the work. A case study is used to exemplify the complexity of the work and flexibility of approach. 

Dr Eva Crasnow qualified from IPCAPA in 2013. She worked in generic CAMHS and then moved into specialist services, including the Gender Service at the Tavistock, Islington Child Looked After Team, Forensic CAMHS at the Portman Clinic, and co-led the Brent Harrow Hillingdon Under 5s Team. She worked in the Early Years Team at the Anna Freud Centre from 2015 to 2022. Eva and Dr Sarah Peter established Chorus in 2023, a social enterprise that provides therapeutic interventions for families with children under 5 who face or have faced adversity, www.chorusfamilies.co.uk. Eva is passionate about infant observation and has been part of the BPF infant observation committee since qualification, as well as facilitating observation seminars in other organisations.