Levels of change in parent–infant psychotherapy

Abstract

This paper offers a way of thinking about the process of parent–infant psychotherapy. I start by outlining some ideas as to what can go awry in troubled parent–infant relationships, and then a way of working with parents with pre-verbal babies. I suggest a model for understanding three interlaced levels at which change might occur if a psychodynamic, systemically sensitive, therapeutic intervention is offered. I describe a particularly challenging clinical case in which a mother and I also worked with video material of her and her son.