NEWS UPDATE on parent–infant psychotherapy with seven families: evidence for longer-term parent–infant psychotherapy with a psychoanalytic and observational approach*

Abstract

ABSTRACT This News begin by briefly describing the clinical parent-infant psychotherapy treatments and the first two follow-ups with seven families - which have already been published -before expanding on the third and final follow-up, when the children were of school-age. The families had been referred to a specialist Parent-Infant Service for a variety of difficulties related to parental mental instability, immigration, loss, addiction and deep anxieties regarding the imminent birth, or the actual first few months of life of their baby. The third follow-ups took place in different settings several years later and not necessarily where the families had originally been seen. These meetings demonstrate the value of both early interventions - where psychoanalytic thinking combined with mindfulness supported families in navigating through new stages of their life - and of continuity of contact through the years.