Aims in parent work: a brief qualitative survey

ABSTRACT

Child psychotherapists’ views of the treatment aims of parent work in a community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) were explored. Parent work undertaken by the child psychotherapy team in one calendar year was analysed. The parent worker was asked to describe the primary aim of the work for each case. The resulting thematic analysis found that the main aims of parent work were: increasing empathy with the child; decreasing enmeshment; and containing anxiety. Linking with Alvarez’s notion of a hierarchy of interpretative approaches, the study’s findings suggest that there are parallel ‘levels’ of intervention in parent work, where therapists work in ways appropriate to the parent’s psychological functioning.

KEYWORDS:

• Parent work
• hierarchy of interpretation
• thematic analysis
• qualitative research

Acknowledgement

I thank the JCP peer reviewing team and Maria Papadima for help in strengthening this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Although, it should be noted, Klein’s conversations with Richard’s mother were an important part of that work (Klein, 1961/1998).

2. CAMHS professionals often have different views about the role and function of parent work, which can sometimes lead to complex situations within professional teams. Rustin (1998, 2009) discusses different disciplinary approaches to parent work, and how these fit within multidisciplinary CAMHS.

3. See Birksted-Breen (1996) for a discussion of paternal and maternal function.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua Holmes

Joshua Holmes is a fourth-year trainee child and adolescent psychotherapist at the Independent Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Association. His book A Practical Psychoanalytic Guide to Reflexive Research: The Reverie Research Method will appear in 2018. Before training, he lived in Lima, Peru, working with children and their parents in ‘La Casa de la Familia’.