ABSTRACT

Working with Parents and Infants is aimed at understanding the process of psychosomatic illness, exploring the embodiment of psychosomatic health and illness, and the inseparability of psyche and soma. Within this book, the author highlights the beneficial function of psychosomatic symptoms, such as mastitis, in signalling to the counsellor or therapist as well as the patient the need for change and the path through which it may occur. Research and clinical literature have often overlooked the relationship between the woman's attitude to her bodyself, thus her mind-body integration, breastfeeding and the quality of interactions with her baby. A psychosomatic disturbance is in this book conceived as an impaired sense of bodyself, or in other words, a lack of psycho-soma integration. The author presents a new approach to health and the healing relationship emerging from a meeting between Eastern meditative disciplines and Western psychological practise.

chapter 3|14 pages

The “bodyself” in early relationship

chapter 5|27 pages

Case illustration

chapter 7|21 pages

Emotions and the primal brain

chapter 8|8 pages

The effectiveness of early support

chapter 9|14 pages

Infant observation

chapter 10|12 pages

Conclusions