Die Geschichte der Personzentrierten Kinder- und Jugendpsychotherapie, Elternberatung und Familientherapie

Abstract

The History of the Person-Centered Approach in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Parental Counseling and Family Therapy. This article provides an overview of different tracks of emerging concepts of child psychotherapy since the beginning of the 20th century by referring to influential publications. Specifically, sources of primary literature and overviews on historical precursors were used. In the 1940’s and 1950’s psychodynamic hypotheses, which claim the effect of therapy as a result of interpreting the play process, were substituted by concepts about the healing power of play itself and play facilitating interpersonal relationships. Since the 1970’s, Stefan Schmidtchen developed client-centered psychotherapy with children towards a differential, operationalized and evidence based healing method in German speaking areas. Further developments include the integration of experiential methods, the highlighting of the interactional process with the therapist and disorder specific applications. In the USA, parenting trainings e.g. filial therapy, and person-centered family therapy concepts emerged. Both in the USA and Germany outcome research was conducted and summarized in two comprehensive meta analysis.