First Steps

Jenifer Wakelyn is a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She teaches and supervises in the clinical training in child psychotherapy at the Tavistock Centre and has given presentations across the UK and in France, Italy, Norway, and the Ukraine about her research on therapeutic interventions with babies and young children at risk.

"The experience of reading this book will be therapeutic for many professionals who may feel daunted and overwhelmed by trying to help children whose lives have been severely disrupted and who have lost trust that they will ever be genuinely ‘seen’."–from the Foreword by Dilys Daws, Honorary Consultant Child Psychotherapist, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust; founder member, Association of Infant Mental Health, UK; co-author of Finding Your Way with Your Baby: The Emotional Life of Parents and Babies (Routledge)"In this profoundly important book, Jenifer Wakelyn and her colleagues sensitively and skilfully offer acute insights into the lived experiences of babies and young children in care and their caregivers. The book conveys deeply empathic, compassionate and hopeful understandings of trauma and what is needed to recover from it. In so doing it makes a vital contribution to practitioners’ abilities to access, and better understand, the internal worlds of the children and families they work with and provides invaluable guidance to support them in developing and delivering attentive and attuned professional engagement."–Gillian Ruch, Professor of Social Work, University of Sussex, UK and Co-editor, Journal of Social Work Practice"Wakelyn’s impressive book is dedicated to showing how transitions and change impact powerfully on babies and young children in care, both at the time and potentially for their future development…The achievement of Wakelyn’s book is in its focus on the baby and young child and to help others to achieve such a focus… The examples given show how even the briefest of interventions can help young children under stress, and how flexible the method can be in a range of situations including assessments." - Jenny Kenrick, former Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Centre, writing in the journal Infant Observation.

• Series Editors’ Preface AcknowledgementsForeword by Dilys DawsIntroductionChapter 1: Being seenChapter 2: Therapeutic observationChapter 3: Clinical research: therapeutic observation with an infant in foster careChapter 4: Learning from the researchChapter 5: Therapeutic observation in clinical practiceChapter 6: Briefer interventions: Watch Me Play! Chapter 7: Practice considerations for the Watch Me Play! approachAfterwordGlossaryFurther reading and resources