Scaffolding the Brain: Key Areas of Evaluation in Infant Parent Psychotherapy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Clinicians are often challenged by the complexity involved in early childhood infant/parent dyadic assessments and interventions. Working within a right hemisphere developmental period requires clinicians to have a good enough natural relational style that moves easily between the nonverbal implicit worlds of the infant and parent while attending to the parent’s verbal narrative. The author suggests using an evidence informed neurobiological scaffold called Integrative Regulation Therapy (iRT) with evidence based Infant Parent Psychotherapy (IPP) and introduces an iRT assessment that creates a Probable Map of the parent’s neurobiological organization to facilitate intervention by assessing clinical impressions in nine key areas: 1) attachment experience, 2) self-concept, 3) arousal organization, 4) soothing of dysregulated states, 5) use of defenses, 6) use of instinct, 7) use of reflection, 8) hopes and desires, and 9) current level of agency. A composite case will be presented illustrating the clinical use.