Child Psychotherapy Process Outcome Study (CPPOS)
The Anna Freud Centre has a long history of research in the field of child therapy, including a major retrospective outcome study and a long-term follow-up of child psychoanalysis. That is, an investigation of the effectiveness of therapy on children both in the short-term and in the long-term (long after therapy has directly ended).
As part of this on-going work, the Centre has built up a unique data-base - much of it yet to be analysed - providing a mass of material relating to treatment. This includes videotapes of clinical sessions and regular and systematic assessment data collected before, during and after treatment.
Drawing on this gold-mine of material, the Child Psychotherapy Process Outcome Study (CPPOS) aims to explore in depth the nature of the therapy process and its relation to outcome.
The CPPOS project aims to apply a range of research methodologies - mostly developed in the field of adult psychotherapy research - to clinical work with children, in order to progress towards identifying key mechanisms involved in therapeutic change and to reach a better understanding of change processes as they occur in psychodynamic psychotherapy with children.
The project is funded both by the Tavistock Institute and by the IPA Research Advisory Board. Early findings were reported in March 2007 at the Joseph Sandler Conference.