Monica Lanyado is one of the UK’s leading clinicians and thinkers in the field of childhood trauma. Her desire to help severely traumatised children, many of whom have been fostered or adopted, has fuelled her working life as a child and adolescent psychotherapist, trainer, supervisor and prolific author.

In this interview you will hear Monica’s clinical wisdom and thinking that has evolved over a 50 years period working with traumatised children. She shares her depth of knowledge as a leading supervisor of therapeutic work and teacher to students of psychotherapy at IPCAPA (the Independent Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Association, part of the British Psychotherapy Foundation).

As anyone who has worked with traumatised children will know, this work is at times harrowing, despairing and exhausting, making demands on us that at times feel unstainable. This interview discusses the self-care that is necessary when working with traumatised children and their families.

Monica shares many clinical vignettes of children who she has worked with. She discusses how psychoanalytic training and supervision helps us bear the psychological pain of traumatised children.
Clinical techniques are discussed such as locating the strengths in children we treat and how to approach the ending of therapeutic work.

You will also hear why Monica believes that it is important for children and families, no matter how difficult their experiences, that we maintain sufficient hope for their future wellbeing.

“Excited to see Monica Lanyado's video/podcast released on MINDinMIND. Few therapists understand child trauma and how that impacts on the psyche in the way Monica does. She has pioneered work with traumatised children for decades, the interview is infused with wisdom, compassion and experience.” Graham Music, Child and Adult Psychotherapist.

“Enlightening interview on therapeutic work with children's trauma”. Simona Di Folco, Clinical Psychologist



Interviewer and Director: Jane O’Rourke
Filming and Editing: Derek Jarman Lab
Producer: Becca Wilcox

Background to Monica
Monica’s groundbreaking paper, ‘Surviving Trauma’ published in 1985, marked the beginning of a flurry of publications about trauma, as the world at last began to wake up and recognise the extent of child abuse.

Remarkably, at only 19 years of age, she started working with children who had been taken into care by social services and much of her working life has since been devoted to working with fostered and adopted children, either as a clinician or supervising psychotherapists who do.

She trained at the Tavistock Clinic under the auspices of Mattie Harris who then ran the child psychotherapy training, alongside other notable names such as Isca Wittenberg, Isobel Menzies-Leith and Frances Tustin.
And yet after a training which primarily focussed on the theories of Melanie Klein, she began to forge her own theoretical pathway, drawing on a diverse range of psychoanalytical thinkers.

After only 6 yrs following qualification, she set up a new child psychotherapy training at the Scottish Institute of Human Relations (now Human Development Scotland). A succession of books and papers focussing on the treatment of traumatised children have flowed over the years, including the invaluable, ‘Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy’ and most recently ‘Transforming Despair to Hope’.




For more information see the interview on our website @ www.mindinmind.org.uk

Monica Lanyado publications list:

Lanyado, M and Horne A. (Eds) (1999) The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic Approaches. London: Routledge. Italian transla-tion published in 2003, Czech translation published 2004. Japanese Translation.

Lanyado, M. (2004) The Presence of the Therapist: Treating Childhood Trauma London: Brunner-Routledge.

Lanyado, M. and Horne A. (Eds) (2006) A Question of Technique: Independent Psychoanalytic Approaches with Children and Adolescents Series. Lon-don:Routledge

Horne, A. and Lanyado, M. (2009) Through Assessment to Consultation: Inde-pendent Psychoanalytic Approaches with Children and Adolescents Series. Lon-don and New York: Routledge

Lnyado, M. and Horne, A. (Eds) (2009) The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy: Psychoanalytic Approaches. Second Edition. London and New York: Roulade. Translated into Japanese 2013.

Horne, A. and Lanyado M. (Eds) (2012) Winnicott’s Children: Independent Psycho-analytic Approaches with Children and Adolescents Series Hove, East Sussex and New York: Routledge. Published in German 2016, Frankfurt a. M.: Brandes and Apsel.

Horne, A. and Lanyado, M. (eds) (2015) An Independent Mind. Collected Papers of Juliet Hopkins. London and New York: Routledge

Lanyado, M. (2018) Transforming Despair to Hope. Reflections on the Therapeutic Process with Severely Neglected and Traumatised Children. Hove, E Sussex and New York:Routledge.

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