Taking outside in, turning inside out: Exploring social dimensions and psychotherapeutic process in the play therapy of a young girl in foster care.

This paper, a collaborative effort, describes the work of A Home Within (AHW), a volunteer community-based organization providing pro-bono long term psychotherapy to current and former foster youth. We provide a brief description of the treatment model, present a report of treatment conducted by an AHW volunteer, and discuss further reflections on the societal context of our psychoanalytically-informed work. In-depth psychotherapeutic process from the treatment of a young girl in a pre-adoptive foster placement elucidates the psychotherapeutic possibilities when a psychoanalytic treatment model is accessible to current and former foster youth, usually deprived of this form of treatment due to overburdened, underfunded community mental health systems in the U.