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The purpose of this paper is to report the evidence base for the practice of individual psychodynamic psychotherapy with adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs).

Literature review.

In total, 14 papers were reviewed. From these, one existing review and seven individual papers provided enough evidence to support effectiveness of individual psychodynamic psychotherapy for people with IDs.

This research indicates individual psychodynamic psychotherapy to be of benefit. Indeed, all studies reviewed supported individual psychodynamic psychotherapy, but methodological shortcomings weakened the confidence placed in findings for some studies. Limitations of this review include methodological shortcomings of studies reviewed, a small number of existing studies and reliance on case studies.

Therapists and commissioners of services should routinely make individual psychodynamic psychotherapy available as part of a spectrum of therapies available to people with IDs who experience emotional and behavioural problems. This is because it is needed for some clients and they benefit.

Individual psychodynamic psychotherapy for people with IDs adds to the range of therapies available to alleviate emotional distress and enhance well-being. These are necessary to provide a foundation for meaningful contribution to society, particularly for those who have experienced psychological trauma (Frankish, 2016).

This review includes more relevant studies than previous reviews and adds to a limited number of reviews in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on putting a paradigm shift into practice to become a disability psychotherapist (Frankish, 2013a).

A personal reflective account.

The author suggests seven conditions necessary or advisable for growth of disability psychotherapy (DP) within the workplace.

Strategies to help implementation of DP have not been published to date.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the theory and practice of disability psychotherapy (DP) using the integrative Frankish model (2013a). This draws on the model’s use with a 28-year-old male with a mild intellectual disability (ID) who presented with a range of emotional and behavioural problems.

A case study reporting on the practice of DP of psychodynamic orientation.

Adaptations useful in providing DP with people with IDs and the type of issues which arise are reported.

DP is possible and beneficial in community settings. Limitations of a single case study include generalisability of findings.

Existing papers focus on the model (Frankish, 2013a), development of the emotional development measuring tool (Frankish, 2013b) and contextual issues (Frankish, 2013c). This case study provides novel information on the practice of DP, and analysis of manifestations of white supremacy (Ani, 1994) in psychotherapy with people with IDs.

This study reports a recovery‐themed cognitive behavioural educational group for clients suffering from chronic positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, on a low secure inpatient unit. Nine participants completed baseline and post‐intervention measures of insight, self‐esteem and knowledge about schizophrenia. Additional post‐intervention measures included compliance with medication, feelings about schizophrenia, qualitative views and access to the community. Overall, the results were positive within the limits of this small‐scale study. Following the intervention, most participants reported that they were less frightened about psychosis, and felt more in control of their illness and more optimistic about their future. This study suggests that there may be clinical benefits of having CBT‐orientated educational groups in low secure settings with clients with longstanding co‐existing positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Recovery style should be evaluated systematically in future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to report effectiveness of disability psychotherapy with a male adult with a mild intellectual disability presenting with complex emotional and behavioural problems.

An individual case study was used with repeated analytic, quantitative and qualitative measures. This reported progress from individual weekly disability psychotherapy of psychodynamic orientation within an emotional disability framework.

Disability psychotherapy led to a reduction in emotional and behavioural problems, reduction in emotional disability and facilitated protective psychological growth. In total, 88 sessions resulted in cessation of problem behaviours when other approaches did not. Given this therapy is likely to be reserved for the most complex and severe of cases, this study suggests more sessions of psychotherapy are needed than inferred from previous studies of effectiveness (Beail et al., 2007). This is to promote a sense of self which facilitates psychological well-being.

Limitations of a single case study include generalisability, controlling other factors in real life settings and subjectivity from inclusion of analytical measures. Further studies and follow-up would determine longevity of benefits. Nevertheless disability psychotherapy can be effective and should be available in a culturally appropriate service to meet the diverse needs of people with intellectual disabilities.

This case study adds to the limited body of evidence on effectiveness of psychotherapy for people with intellectual disabilities. It is novel to report formal outcomes from an emotional disability model (Frankish, 2013a) and the use of analytic and attachment outcome measures.