Abstract
This study examines how school-based clinicians connect with their younger selves through their work. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze responses from 10 interviews. Participants were selected through both convenience and snowball sampling methods. Three main themes emerged through data analysis: Purposeful Play, Inner Child Connectedness, and A Career Shaped by Childhood. One major finding of this study was that ‘play’ or ‘playfulness’ was mentioned by all 10 participants, both as an enjoyable element of the work that keeps the inner child alive and as an important quality for clinicians to possess when working with children and adolescents in schools. Recommendations and implications for social work policy and practice are also discussed.