From reactive to reflective: Evidence for shifts in parents’ state of mind during brief under-fives psychoanalytic psychotherapy

Abstract

This article describes a study that was designed to examine the impact of brief psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children under-five years of age and their families. The work took place in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in England, to which children are routinely referred with a range of behavioural and emotional problems. The study examined the hypothesis that through formulating the emotional forces that underpin the family’s here-and-now experiences and bringing into the frame the child’s perspective, a shift in the parents’ states of mind from being less reactive and more reflective would be observed. Further, the less reactive parental state would result in the child feeling more contained, and impact positively in relation to symptom presentation. Using clinical description and quantitative data drawn from the videotaped clinical material the hypothesis was tested on seven families. The prediction was borne out, significantly so in relation to the parents being less blaming and more reparative in their comments. Parental reports also highlighted that six of the seven children exhibited a significant reduction / termination of symptoms for which they had been originally referred. The therapeutic process underlying these results is considered.