Psychoanalytic child play (Hug-Hellmuth, A. Freud)

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, Anna Freud · 1920 · Vienna

What it is

This is a training tradition and a historical lineage, not a manualised therapy. Hug-Hellmuth (Vienna, 1871–1924) was the first person to practise psychoanalysis systematically with children and used play in diagnosis and treatment from the late 1910s; Anna Freud (Vienna 1895 – London 1982) built…

Format

• The cited sources give no fixed number of phases or sessions; the stages below are organised from what Hug-Hellmuth and Anna Freud are reported to have done. Criteria for moving between stages are not given in the sources and are marked.
• Stage 1. Opening and preparatory phase. Goal: rapport and a working alliance. Hug-Hellmuth treated the first session as decisive for rapport and direction; Anna Freud introduced a preparatory phase to win the child's trust and cooperation before analysis proper. Move on when the child attends…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Professional frame. In the UK, psychoanalytic child and adolescent psychotherapy is a distinct profession whose registering body is the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP). The ACP accredits five training schools: Birmingham Trust for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy; Human Development Scotland (Glasgow); Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy (Leeds); and in London the Independent training (a UCL…
• Version followed: Hermine Hug-Hellmuth's technique as set out in her paper "On the technique of child analysis", given at the Sixth International Psychoanalytic Congress in The Hague in 1920 and published in 1921 in German ("Zur Technik der Kinderanalyse") and English; it is republished as chapter 2 ("Child analysis") of Routledge's Influential Papers from the 1920s (2020). Her technique is read through Niwa's…
• This is a training tradition and a historical lineage, not a manualised therapy. Hug-Hellmuth (Vienna, 1871–1924) was the first person to practise psychoanalysis systematically with children and used play in diagnosis and treatment from the late 1910s; Anna Freud (Vienna 1895 – London 1982) built child analysis into an institution, first in Vienna and then at the Hampstead War Nurseries and the Hampstead Child…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Abrupt parental withdrawal; offer at least one ending session.
• A child who stops talking because a sibling teases them about "going to the doctor".
• Bargaining at the end of every session; parents arriving late repeatedly. Working: the child anticipates the end and manages it.
• The room becoming unsafe during aggressive play (see 5); a child taking toys home (a meaning to explore, and a practical rule to set).
• Any drift toward sexualised interpretations of the child's behaviour, which carry risk to the child and to the therapy, as this history shows.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.