Engaging with the Baby as a Person in Their Own Right: Early Intervention with Parents and Infants

Thomson-Salo, Frances

Abstract

This paper reviews and summarizes therapeutic interventions between parents and their babies by observing engagement with babies through psychological holding, communication with them as persons in their own right and pleasurable playfulness in infant-therapist interactions. In light of the fact that the increased capacity of parents in vulnerable families to think reflectively about their infant's mind is usually a significant therapeutic method, the report suggests that engaging with the infant in the parents' presence is usually therapeutic as well. It has been reported worldwide that the increase in interventions with infants and parents are effective, when the interactions were made: for individuals and groups; for a short and long term; in the psychodynamic and behavioral manner. Therefore, the task ahead is to further clarify the mechanisms for change. In this paper, we focused on short-term infant-parent psychotherapy by working with parents and infants in the prenatal period. Time pressure sometimes makes this no more than a relational encounter informed by psychoanalytic thinking, such as containment of feelings and thoughts incurred when unconscious conflictual or early implicit meanings distort a parent's relationships with their baby. While there are cultural differences in views about infants, some of these ideas seem universally applicable, for instance, to the importance of sensitive parenting and attachment.