Listen to thisCharles Sharpe
Location
England
Biography
I’ve been involved in the care and
education of children and young people as a practitioner, manager,
teacher and consultant since 1965. I now practice as a
psychodynamic psychotherapist in Totnes, Devon, England. I am also the
presiding editor of the goodenoughcaring Journal.
which provides an arena for discussion about the care, upbringing and
education of children and young people including the nurture of those
who are not living with their own families.
In my work I have been influenced in the main
by the psychodynamic theories of Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott and
Wilfred Bion. I am particularly interested in the mutual aspects of the
therapeutic relationship between children and those who provide their
care. During my career I have been helped and supported by – among
others – the teaching and advice of Martin Wigg, Haydn Davies Jones and
Robert M. Young.
Though Scottish by birth and, I suspect, by
nature, I live in England with Jackie, my wife who is, and has been, the
principal influence on my personal and professional life. I have two
daughters, a son, two grandsons and a granddaughter.
How I came to be in this field
I became involved with the residential care and education of children
and young people through expedience rather than altruism. I applied for
a job at a residential school because it came with free family
accommodation which with a young family to provide for was a distinct
attraction. I got the job and in the long term this proved a happy
chance. My career – details of which emerge from my many pieces of
writing – has been, in both practical and emotional terms, a journey of
many twists, turns, and undulations. Yet over time the relationships
I’ve enjoyed with each youngster and colleague I have lived and worked
with have enriched me to the point that I now feel almost ready to
accept myself as a fully qualified grown up. For this I am grateful. My
hope is that I have given something helpful in return. Some have been
kind enough to say so. Yet I know also that sometimes I have failed to
meet the needs of youngsters and colleagues.
Along the way I got
a training. I gained a qualification as a teacher with the University of
London in the 1960s and in the 1980s graduated with a B. Phil in
Residential Child Care and Education at the University of Newcastle upon
Tyne. In the 1990s I did an MA in Psychoanalytic Studies at the
University of Sheffield and followed this up by gaining my clinical
qualification in psychotherapy at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation
and Roehampton University. I gained most from my studies and training
when I was given an opportunity for experiential and reflective
learning.
A favorite saying
Two sayings that are never far from my conscious self
“Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”
– from My Back Pages by Bob Dylan.
“O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us”
– from To a Louse by Robert Burns
These are a help when I feel my grandiose, omnipotent impulses creeping up on me.
A few thoughts for those starting out
Always, always, reflect on your part and your feelings in the
relationships, the events and the processes engendered by your work. I
believe this can give you not only greater self-awareness but just as
importantly a sense of the inner world of each of the young people with
whom you are working.
A recommended child and youth care reading link
I am
impressed and influenced by much of what is published on CYC-Net but for
intellectual and emotional insight Thom Garfat’s article “Sitting with
Jason” at
https://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/CYC-Online-aug2009-garfat.html
offers me a great deal. It is a relatively short piece but it should be
required reading for anyone who wants or needs to know what emotional
containment means. It rings true.
A writing of my own
“The nature of a residential
child care worker” offers an idea of some the conclusions I’m moving
towards about residential child care. It can be found at
http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/writings/the-nature-of-a-residential-child-care-worker/
Influences on my work
A number of people writing now influence my thinking about residential child care. Mark Smith and Adrian Ward are amongst those. Both are well known to CYC-Net fans like myself.
Anything else
Music has always assumed an important place in my work. Over the years I have listened to, and enjoyed with youngsters all kinds of music. I like the Kinks driven by the inspiration of Ray Davies’ lyrics and melodies, Angelic Upstarts, Doug E Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, Muse, The Proclaimers, Emmylou Harris and Franz Ferdinand but the musical experiences and memories that have consistently reached the parts that others can’t are : Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, almost everything by Neil Young, and the voice of Willie Nelson.
Last updated October 2016