Using Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) with children and adolescents
About Joanne Robinson I was working as an Assistant Clinical Psychologist in Leeds, UK, when I first came across Kelly’s Theory of Personal Constructs. I was supervised by Dr Richard Butler, an author of “The Child Within” (known locally as Chuck) who introduced me to Kelly. One of my first memories was reading Don Bannister’s book “Perspectives in Personal Construct Psychology” in particularly the chapters by Miller Mair’s (the Community of Selves) and Don Bannister’s (the Logic of Passion). It was a refreshing read and one that just seemed to make sense! Chuck, encouraged my thinking and I had many supervision sessions reflecting on Kelly’s work and my personal relationship to the theory. I have always viewed this period of time as being instrumental in my learning. My undergraduate thesis explored self construing in children with nocturnal enuresis. I then played an extensive role in the data collection and analysis of the Self Image Profiles for children and adolescents; the profiles being rooted in Personal Construct Theory (PCT). This was the start of my long-standing interest in children’s self construing… Through Chuck, I was introduced to others who engaged with PCT, such as Harry Procter, David Winter, Viv Burr, Trevor Butt and Dave Green. I also attended the research group meetings in North Yorkshire, facilitated by Helen Jones – I learnt how PCT could be applied to businesses, management as well as clinical fields. I was fortunate to meet Fay Fransella at her 80th birthday celebration conference and she was kind enough to give me a cassette recording of an interview with Kelly. It was quite something to hear
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