The Child & Adolescent Initiative hosted a presentation at the 2022 IAPSP Conference in Washington D.C. Presenters were William Ketterrer and Erica Young who work together in schools in New England, educating teachers in self psychology in hopes of creating a growth enhancing selfobject milieu, that benefits all of the students and serves the most high risk children especially well. Bill and Erica demonstrated their important work through the story of one particular child in their paper entitled, Clay’s Brook: How Covid Dammed a Child’s Growth. Their paper is summarized below:

Clay, a particularly neglected and unrecognized child (his mother cannot remember her children’s names or how many she has), explodes in rage in the classroom setting, alienating peers and teachers alike. Through consultation with Erica and Bill, school faculty began to approach Clay in new ways-asking permission to understand his “big” feelings with him and attempted to remain with his internal experience rather than using the often tried and generally useless behavioral techniques that had been attempted in the past. Clay confided in a school staff member, Mr. Hughes, that he needed to dam a brook in a ravine behind the school. Mr. Hughes, with his newly acquired self psychological understanding, trusted Clay to know what he most needed, and Clay began a months long task of damming the brook. Peers were eager to participate and this previously shunned child became an admired leader. Sadly, the emergence of covid and remote learning, interrupted Clay’s growth and he was again completely deprived of the much needed selfobject environment. Erica and Bill’s story, conveyed with warmth, humor and sensitivity, was a poignant example of the use of the application of self psychological theory in a community setting.

Attendees at the program were highly engaged in this compelling narrative and we look forward to hearing more of Bill and Erica’s work. This dovetails well with Amy Joelson’s initiative of IAPSP’s greater involvement in the wider community.