This is an introduction to using a Personal Construct Therapy approach with children and young people. It will be most useful to professionals who already have some knowledge of Personal Construct Psychology and would like to know more about the practicalities of therapy. It might also be a starting point for readers who are trying to find out about therapy styles and want to see what a PCP therapist might do.
This book includes details that are not available in other texts. Heather Moran draws attention to issues around referrals, setting up for therapy and measuring progress. There is an explanation of what happens at the start, middle and end of an episode of Personal Construct Therapy. The book ends with some thoughts about how to write about the therapeutic work. Sample letters and explanations are included. There are also explanations for six Personal Construct techniques which can be used in sessions, including two newly developed and previously unpublished techniques, The Belgrade Difficult Experience Comic Strip Technique and The Super Simple Role Rating.
Heather Moran is a clinical and educational psychologist with 40 years experience of working with children, adolescents, their parents and teachers.  She has delivered workshops and conference presentations about her therapeutic work and has had a number of journal publications.  Her Drawing the Ideal Self technique has been used in therapy and research to explore the personal views of children and young people: drawingtheidealself.co.uk.  Heather teaches on the Coventry Constructivist Centre's Personal Construct Psychology foundation course and is a visiting lecturer at the universities of Birmingham, Coventry and Warwick.

SETTING UP FOR THERAPY

Key messages

Referral issues

Practical arrangements

Deciding who to work with

Engagement in therapy

Initial conversations

Example explanations

Absence letter to teacher

MEASURING CHANGE

Being a credible therapist

Collecting information before your first session

Baseline tools

Initial formulation

Measuring progress across sessions

A PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THERAPY PROCESS

Practice stems from PCP theory

The importance of finding out about core constructs

The initial phase of therapy

The middle phase of therapy 

Homework

Ending therapy

The final session

TECHNIQUES

A start-up tool box

Using materials 

Caution

1. How to find out what a person's constructs are (eliciting constructs)

2. How to explore the detail of a construct (pyramiding) 

3. How to find out how a construct is connected to that person's most important (core) constructs (laddering a construct)

4. How to explore a person's view of their own development and their personal ambitions (Drawing the
Ideal Self)
5. How to explore personal construing in relation to a small group (Perceiver Element Grid - PEG)

6. How to explore a person's construing of self in a role (Super Simple Role Rating)
7. How to explore the impact of a difficult experience on a person's sense of self (Belgrade Difficult Experience Comic Strip Technique)

WRITING ABOUT YOUR WORK

Consider the implications before you write

Example letter to a young person

Example letter to a school

Example consultation summary

BECOMING EXPERIENCED

Continuing professional development

RESOURCES - READING AND CONNECTIONS

Books

Further training and CPD

Drawing the Ideal Self - abridged manual