ABSTRACT
The described treatment approach identifies that area of parent-child interaction in which dysfunctional parental responses reinforce the symptomatic child’s emotional problems. The therapist’s task is the diagnosis of the child’s system in depth and the particular vulnerabilities that had interfered with the parent’s ability to be in empathic touch with the child’s emotional pain. The most challenging aspect of the therapeutic task is to convey her understanding to the parents in such a way that it results in their increasing ability to appreciate the nature of the child’s anxieties rather than continue to try to correct the symptomatic behavior directly.
This paper was given at the 3rd Symposium (21 July 2006) at the Institute for Analytic Child and Adolescent Therapy, Heidelberg: Development and Trauma – Theoretical and Clinical Implications.
