Infant-Parent Psychotherapy | The Willow Centre

What is Infant-Parent Psychotherapy?

Infant-Parent Psychotherapy is a therapeutic approach in which both the infant and parent are present during sessions. It is suitable for children from birth to six years of age. This approach to therapy is a child-led and play-based intervention used to help infants and young children who are exhibiting a wide range of concerns. The focus of this intervention is the relationship between the parent and child. The presenting parental concerns, worries and questions about the child are addressed and worked through in therapy by focusing on the interactions between the parent and child. This approach to psychotherapy is grounded in attachment theory, child development, infant observation, psychodynamic principals, and neuroscience.Infant-Parent Psychotherapy is designed to provide children and parents with a safe space to express thoughts, feelings, and worries through their play and interactions with each other. For parents, this dyadic psychotherapy helps identify and explore anxieties, triggers, and expectations about parenting. This may involve working through past experiences or unresolved conflicts from their own childhood or early history which may be disrupting or getting in the way of a healthier, more satisfying parent-child relationship. The safe therapeutic space helps parents better understand and process their own personal triggers and emotional responses to their child. This understanding has shown to promote healing of early negative experiences and to help parents be more sensitive, attuned, available, and responsive to their child’s emotional needs. Thus, it is through this understanding and reflection, that change can occur - in the child, the parent, and in their relationship.Infant-Parent Psychotherapy facilitates or encourages the development of healthy attachments with parents. Research tells us that a positive parent-child attachment has a profound effect on cognitive, social, and emotional functioning. When children feel secure in their attachment relationships during the early years it contributes to fewer mental health problems, enhanced social skills, better coping strategies to manage emotions and behaviours, and it provides a robust buffer for future life stressors. An investment in the early years contributes to psychologically heathier and resilient children, and more confident and proactive parents.

What to Expect in Infant-Parent Psychotherapy

Infant-Parent Psychotherapy sessions involve the parent, child, and therapist working together to observe what is being communicated and understand the presenting difficulties. This is accomplished through play and verbal and nonverbal communication, by providing a safe space to observe and make sense of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and by reflecting on the meaning of play from both the child’s and parent’s perspective. Working to empathically make sense of and understand the child’s internal experience by translating play and behaviour into meaning, provides the child with the sense of emotional safety from which to grow and develop.This therapeutic approach is both an experiential and an empowering experience for both the parent and the child. Through the support of the therapist, the parent discovers his/her own strategies and solutions with their child. Thereby, Infant-Parent Psychotherapy empowers parents and increases parental confidence. Research tells us that a child-led and parent-centered psychotherapy, compared to other approaches, leads to more effective and lasting change.The infant-parent therapist takes a flexible approach depending on the age of the child, presenting concerns, family dynamics, and needs of the family. Infant-Parent Psychotherapy can involve work with one parent or both parents together or individually with the child. Siblings are sometimes included in sessions. In addition, while this treatment intervention is geared for parents with young children, it has also been found to be effective for older school-aged children. The length of the therapy depends on the family’s unique needs. Regular review sessions occur during the process, where therapists work together with parents to evaluate therapeutic progress and determine the course of therapy.

What Happens in Sessions?

The therapist provides a safe, welcoming, and comfortable setting for parents and children with age-appropriate toys and play materials
Parents and their child are invited to play and interact
The therapist is empathically attuned to the parent, the child, and their relationship
Together the therapist and parent discuss observations, attempt to understand, and reflect on the meaning of the play and behaviour, and make possible links from past experiences to the present play
Sessions are 60 minutes in length (clinical hour) and ideally occur weekly at an agreed upon day and time

What are the Goals of Infant-Parent Psychotherapy?

The primary focus of Infant-Parent Psychotherapy is to promote healthy social and emotional development in the child, as well as enhance parental functioning, including increasing confidence and sensitivity. This is achieved by providing an opportunity for the child to “teach” their parent through play and interactions what it is they emotionally need and by the parent gaining insight and awareness by understanding and reflecting on the play in the presence of the child. Ultimately, this leads to the child feeling understood and contained. In addition, the emotional growth achieved by both parent and child leads to a healthier and more satisfying parent-child relationship, as well as symptom reduction.

Specific goals may vary according to the presenting concerns and family needs but may involve the following:

For the parent:

to gain insight and understanding about the child’s emotional world through active observation and reflection
to enhance the capacity to be sensitive, emotionally present, accepting, available, comforting, and predictable
to increase responsiveness by learning to anticipate, predict, identify, and appropriately respond to cues from the child
to learn to accept all feeling states (anger, joy, fear, sadness etc.) from their child
to regulate their own and their child’s emotional state or affect regulation
to make space for the child in the parent’s mind and adjust to the parental role
to increase parental awareness
to decrease parental stress and worry

For the child:

To encourage healthy positive attachments with parents
To increase emotional regulation
To learn to express a variety of emotional states and feelings (anger, joy, sadness, fear etc.) in developmentally appropriate ways
To decrease the presenting concerns (e.g., feeding, emotional or behavioural etc.)
To become more confident
To encourage emotionally and developmentally appropriate dependency and independence

What Areas of Concern are Addressed with Infant-Parent Psychotherapy

Common concerns that may indicate that Infant-Parent Psychotherapy might be beneficial and recommended include, but are not limited to, the following:

Children who:

experience difficulty regulating emotions (severe or frequent temper outbursts, difficulty managing big feelings)
have sleeping or eating/feeding difficulties
frequently cry or are often unsettled
express anger towards parent, peers, or family members (more than developmentally appropriate)
experience behavioural concerns at home or daycare/school (hitting, biting etc.)
present with regressive behaviours (reverting to earlier behaviours or earlier stages/abilities)
experience difficulties with attachment or connecting with parent(s)
are highly sensitive or difficult to soothe
often seems sad/withdrawn
cling to or have difficulty separating from parent (separation anxiety)
often appear anxious or restless
avoid, reject, or have difficulty accepting parent
dislike being touched and/or picked up or are unresponsive to parent
experienced birth trauma or premature birth
experienced trauma, loss, separation, or major life change (parental separation/divorce)

Parents who:

feel anxious or uncertain about parenthood
worry about their ability to connect or bond with their child
feel overwhelmed by their feelings towards their child
experienced past or present difficulties or trauma (negative childhood early experiences, mental health struggles)
feel unsupported or isolated
experienced a traumatic pregnancy, delivery, or post-partum depression

Infant-Parent Psychotherapy during Pregnancy

Infant-Parent Psychotherapy can also be offered preventively, that is before a mother gives birth or becomes a mother. For example, a mother-to-be may be anxious about having a baby because of previous experiences (e.g., miscarriage, birth trauma, post-partum depression) or because of concerns they have about their own upbringing and fears of repeating parental patterns which were less than positive. Infant-Parent Psychotherapy attempts to break negative inter-generational patterns of relating from parent’s own early childhood and to reduce the impact that those patterns have on the child.

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Q & A

Stage Fright
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