Child agency and voice in therapy : new ways of working in the arts therapies

PART 1: Debates and key concepts -- Child Agency, voice and the arts therapies: a new paradigm -- The constructions of children in therapy -- Rethinking the therapeutic process -- The arts therapist: revising roles and relationships -- Research, children and therapy -- PART 2: Research -- contexts and collaboration: part 2 - research -- The therapeutic process: research into children’s views on their therapy -- Therapist perspectives on child agency and voice: opportunities and challenges -- First contacts: referral, consent and assent revisited -- Opinions of worth: the art of researching child client views about their therapy -- Child agency, voice and the arts therapies: key concepts revisited.

Child Agency and Voice in Therapy offers innovatory ways of thinking about, and working with, children in therapy.

The book:
• considers different practices such as respecting the rights of the child in therapy and recognising and listening to children as ‘active agents’ and ‘experts’;
• features approaches that: access children’s views of their therapy; engage with them as researchers or co-researchers; and that use play and arts-based methods;
• draws on arts therapies research in ways that enable insight and learning for all those engaged with children’s therapy and wellbeing;
• considers how the contexts of the therapy, such as a school or counselling centre, relate to the ways children experience themselves and their therapy in relation to rights, agency and voice.

Child Agency and Voice in Therapy will be beneficial for all child therapists and is a good resource for courses concerning childhood welfare, therapy, education, wellbeing and mental health.