ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the nature of the therapeutic process. The team of therapists that carries out the home-based treatments consists of six specialist paediatric nurses. The author outlines his view of its four aspects: containment of parental distress to help the parent become able to make contact with their child, reinforcing parental competence, sorting out inter-generational confusions and providing a model for the observing function. Each aspect is illustrated with case vignettes. As an intervention for potentially serious difficulties, this is a gentle but effective one as it recruits the parents' and the infant's wish for help. The effectiveness of the treatment is demonstrated not only by the disappearance of symptoms but also by parents' increasing ability to attend to the psychic development of their child, to communicate with him and to make appropriate responses to his or her demands.
