” I hope readers will become less afraid of rocking the boat of authority that urges us to make the child talk in adult terms about what the adult world deems important to them. Rather than having children be obedient patients, I want to encourage us to attempt in our work to foster true self-possession, knowing how very hard it is to achieve. I urge us all to fight the tendency to negate emotion, to negate aggression, to negate anything and everything that pulsates with life and therefore stirs things up.”

“With rare exceptions, the academic and professional world doesn’t support a dynamic approach to play therapy (or often the use of play in therapy at all). There is an ever-greater thrust to pathologize the child and the family and this is often where the therapist/therapy stops: diagnosis leads to stasis. This needn’t be so. We can and should have an understanding of what is going on in the child and in their life, but unless we then engage the child in real play, we have not accomplished much. Children need to be allowed to be children and speak their language not ours.”

JKP is exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week. Jessica Kingsley took a few minutes between meetings to talk about why we attend this major international event, and to highlight some of the things we’ve been talking about.

HUGE congratulations to poet and JKP author Craig Romkema who, after ten years of hard work and dedication, has graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Dordt College, located in Sioux Center, Iowa, USA. Craig is the author of a breathtaking book of poems, Embracing the Sky: Poems beyond Disability. Here, he reflects on his determination to[... read more]

The 2011 American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Conference took place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia (USA), this year and JKP was pleased to attend as an exhibitor. The exhibit hall was packed with a record crowd of over 6,000 Occupational Therapists and students in attendance. Our booth was busy throughout the conference, with[... read more]

We are pleased to announce that our new Complete Catalogue is now available!  Inside you’ll find new and forthcoming titles on our full range of topics. Click to browse the JKP Complete Catalogue – Autumn/Winter 2010-2011 Information on How to Order