Promoting Attachment and Mentalization for Parents and Young Children in the Foster Care System: Implementing a New Training and Treatment Approach in an Agency

ABSTRACT

The Building Blocks Program is an innovative psychodynamic treatment approach that was designed to fit within a social service agency structure. It is based on concepts of attachment, attunement, and mentalization and builds on the research of Beatrice Beebe (2003), Peter Fonagy and colleagues (2002), Arietta Slade (2005), Howard and Miriam Steele (2008), and Dan Stern (1985). The Building Blocks Program targets birth mothers and their young children under age 5 who have been or are in danger of being removed from their families. In the beginning of the program, the Building Blocks therapists faced many challenges. As noted (Remez, this issue), many of the therapists were unfamiliar with a Reflective Supervision model of learning. They were accustomed to a more traditional pedagogical approach that emphasized critiquing their work, with a focus on their clients’ pathology. The Building Blocks model focuses on therapist and client safety and support, prompting a paradigm shift in the therapists’ thinking about supervision and how to conduct therapy.

Notes

1. The supervisors who worked with these therapists are Drs. Roanne Barnett, Jill Bellinson, Phyllis Cohen, and Andrea Remez, consultants from the New York Institute for Psychotherapy Training in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence (NYIPT).

2. This paper is based on a panel that was presented at the 2014 spring meeting of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association, on April 25, 2014, in New York City, entitled: “Conflict-Free and Securely Attached: Fostering Attachment and Reflective Functioning While Reducing Conflict in Training and Treatment.” In addition, various versions of the internal papers have also been presented at the World Association of Infant Mental Health Congress (WAIMH), in Edinburgh, Scotland, June, 2014, at the American Psychological Association conference in Washington, D.C., August, 2014, and at the International Attachment Conference in New York City, August, 2015.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Phyllis Cohen

Dr. Phyllis Cohen is the director of the New York Institute for Psychotherapy Training in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence. She has a private practice in Brooklyn, teaches child and family therapy, and since 2013, she has been the NYIPT Clinical Coordinator of the Building Blocks Program at the New Alternatives for Children.

Andrea Remez

Andrea Remez, Ph.D. is on the teaching and supervising faculty at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies. Dr. Remez sees adults, couples and parent-infant dyads in her private practice.

Rachel C. Edelman

Rachel Edelman received her Psy.D. at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University. She is currently a Clinical and Research Postdoctoral Resident at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.

Ashley Golub

Ashley Golub, Psy.D., is a staff psychologist at New Alternatives for Children. She is also in private practice in Brooklyn, New York.

Amy Pacifici

Amy Pacifici, LCSW-R, currently works as a clinical supervisor at Western Queens Consultation Center. She is a graduate of the Child Psychoanalytic Study Program at William Alanson White, and she also has a Private Practice in Manhattan, specializing in children and young adults.

Yadira Santillan

Yadira Santillan, LMSW, CAS, is currently practicing as a bilingual psychotherapist at New Alternatives for Children in New York, where she offers a broad range of therapeutic services to adults, children, and families. She has an M.S.W. and Certificate of Advanced Studies, in Women Studies, from Syracuse University.

Lisa Wolfe

Lisa Wolfe, LCSW, was the co-director of the Families in Transition Program at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital in Manhasset. She is currently a staff psychotherapist and parent-child psychotherapist in the Building Blocks Program at New Alternatives for Children in New York City, and she has a private practice in New York City specializing in children, adolescents and emerging adults.