The establishment of an early intervention programme using parent–infant psychotherapy in South America

ABSTRACT

This paper shares some clinical thoughts obtained during the first years of an Early Intervention Programme in the Faculty of Psychology of a South American University. It includes a brief review of literature which supports the relevance of early interventions and discusses some of the theoretical concepts which guided the clinical work which the authors describe. The paper concludes with reflections on one of the team's first cases.

KEYWORDS:

• Parent–infant psychoanalytic interventions
• research evidence
• perinatal attachment disorders
• ghosts in the nursery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Javiera Navarro is both researcher and teacher at the University Alberto Hurtado, Chile. She has an MA in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and the University of East London, UK, and an MSc in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology from Kings College University, UK. Her book, Vínculos Tempranos: Transformaciones al inicio de la vida, (Early Links: Transformations at the beginning of life) was published by the University of Alberto Hurtado, Chile in 2017.

Mónica Martínez has a Doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. She is an Assistant Lecturer at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Chile, and a Neonatal behavioral assessor at the Brazelton Institute. She has a private practice in assessment and psychotherapy.

Notes

1. This theoretical review is not intended to be comprehensive; instead, it is only aimed at identifying some of the authors and theoretical concepts that have illuminated our work in the Program.

2. These theoretical concepts are those which the team have found useful in our clinical interventions.

3. This notion coexists with the fact that the baby is an active participant in early interaction. By highlighting the importance of the parents’ ‘ghosts’, we do not wish to underestimate the baby’s influence on the interaction, but simply to stress one of the poles of this reciprocal influence.

4. Since the publication of the work by Fraiberg et al., multiple authors have contributed to our understanding of the transgenerational transmission of the parent–child bond. Addressing these contributions goes beyond the objectives of this study. Nevertheless, it is necessary to highlight the pioneering research conducted by Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) and Mary Main (Main, Hesse, & Kaplan, 2005).

5. This case is presented with Julia's consent. Names and some information have been modified to preserve confidentiality. In the vignettes, the therapist is identified using the first person. The dialogue paraphrases the original conversation and does not employ verbatim quotations. The work was carried out by one of the authors, Javiera Navarro Marshall with supervision from Mónica Martínez Gertner.

6. She was referring to inherited Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.