© British Association of Social Workers
Child Therapy and Evidence in Court Proceedings: Tensions and Some Solutions*
2Virginia Ryan is a child psychologist and trained in the United States. She is now based in East Yorkshire where she works on a freelance basis as a play therapist. In addition to their book, she has co-authored with Kate Wilson a number of articles on non-directive play therapy. She is currently developing a post-qualifying training programme in nondirective play therapy, to be based at the University of York.
1Kate Wilson has recently been appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of York, having worked for a number of years at the University of Hull. She is a qualified social worker and counsellor, and has written a number of books and articles, mainly on marital work and work with children. She is co-author with Virginia Ryan and Paula Kendrick of Play Therapy: A Non-directive Approach for Children and Adolescents (Bailliere Tindall, 1992) and is joint editor (with Adrian James) of The Child Protection Handbook (in press).
Correspondence to Kate Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD.
Summary
Recent policy developments in the UK, implemented in the wake of well-publicized child abuse court cases, have highlighted the tension between offering the abused child adequate support and providing sound evidence in any statutory proceedings. Therapeutic work can give the court clear indications of the child's wishes, feelings and developmental needs, with or without explicit verbal statements, and non-directive play therapy, because it is non-coercive and largely free from therapist suggestion, is particularly effective in this respect. Particular features of non-directive play therapy which enhance the validity of such evidence are considered and a range of factors involved in presenting therapeutic work to the courts are explored.
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