Working with parents in child psychotherapy is often considered a challenging and complex dimension of working with children. Psychodynamic approaches offer many unique attributes that greatly enrich the clinician’s ability to understand and effectively meet the needs of parents of children in treatment. Psychodynamic concepts such as parenthood as a developmental phase, intergenerational transmissions, therapeutic alliance, resistance, transference, and countertransference are some of the many ideas covered in this course.
After building a depth of understanding about who parents are to the child’s therapist and the general therapeutic stance of the clinician, we will examine specific methods of engaging with parents. We will cover the significant modalities of parental involvement in a child’s treatment and how to determine which is most appropriate for individual cases. After establishing the basic framework for such engagement, we will explore how, what, when, and whether to communicate with parents. Finally, we will examine common areas of complexity and difficulty, including confidentiality, working with highly conflictual parents and families, and working with parents who intrude upon, interfere with, or undermine the child’s therapy.
This presentation aims to provide information relevant to all practitioners working with children and parents. However, it is most accessible to those with a basic level of familiarity with psychodynamic theory. It is intended to provide a well-rounded overview of the approach, practices, and theoretical foundation of working with parents.
The APA category this presentation content will cover:
- Program content focuses on topics related to psychological practice, education, or research other than the application of psychological assessment and/or intervention methods that are supported by contemporary scholarship grounded in established research procedures.
The NBCC category this presentation content will cover:
- Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship.
- Human Growth and Development
- Assessment
The target audience and the instructional level of this program:
X Intermediate (teaching how to apply a known terminology or technique to different scenarios)
X Post-maters and post-doctoral level clinicians