Even broken pencils can still work

ABSTRACT The article describes the work of supervision of work, discussed in a group facilitated by a child psychotherapist in a Children and Families Centre in Italy. The supervisor describes the supervisory role and the usefulness of examining the transference and countertransference, in supporting the developing capacity for containment and reflection in the multidisciplinary group discussions. The paper continues with further sections written by different members of the group, including two teachers, a child psychotherapist and a social worker in which they describe their work and the understanding of it which has emerged through discussion. The region where this work takes place is generally socially deprived, with few work opportunities, quite a lot of substance abuse and intergenerational trauma. The supervisor encourages the group to look at the transference, and more especially the countertransference, and what is split off by children and adults and projected into the workers. The examination of the countertransference is seen as an important source of insight into what can be contained and understood in terms of working therapeutically with parents and children in contact meetings and in helping the Family Court to reach decisions about whether children should remain with their parents or not.