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Disability Psychotherapy: An Innovative Approach to Trauma-Informed Care

Author(s) : Patricia Frankish

Reviews and Endorsements

‘Patricia Frankish has been developing a way of providing psychotherapy to people who have intellectual and development disabilities for over thirty years. In this book she brings together the influences that have shaped her approach and the model she has arrived at. The most significant influences in her work have been psychoanalytic thinkers and developmental practitioners, notably Bowlby, Winnicott and Mahler. She illustrates the applicability and usefulness of these models in providing a psychotherapeutically-informed approach to helping and supporting people who have disabilities. When the author started this work in the 1980s she was working against the perceived wisdom of the psychoanalytic schools which then, as now, struggle with disability issues. However, along with others, she has had to work outside of them and became a key player in the formation of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Disability. Her model and approach is not just about individual psychotherapy but also about working with systems. She has also long argued for the recognition of trauma as a key issue in the lives of people who have disabilities and it is no surprise that her approach is trauma-informed.’
- Professor Nigel Beail, Professional Lead for Psychological Services, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield

‘This is a very long-awaited book. Dr Patricia Frankish has not only been a disability therapy pioneer, but also a key theoretician, clinician, organiser, strategic thinker, teacher, presenter and researcher. She has created the only psychotherapy disability training in the UK and provides bespoke specialist residential care for those no-one else can treat. It will be no surprise for readers to realise that some of Patricia’s knowledge comes from her lived experience of parents living and working in a “mental” hospital. Whilst she helpfully and generously educates us as to her main theoretical influences, it is her personal application of Margaret Mahler’s theories that have provided the disability field with the greatest tools. This book is clear, accessible, seminal and rich with lived experience.’
- Valerie Sinason, President of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Disability, and editor of Trauma, Dissociation, and Multiplicity