The Development of Reflective Functioning in a Mother Traumatized by Past and Present Events: Facilitating Change in the Parent-Infant Relationship

Abstract

This article presents clinical work with a woman who experienced trauma in both her childhood and adult life and who demonstrated poor reflective functioning. Treatment began during the patient’s pregnancy and continued with dyadic work with mother and baby in an effort to help the patient address and reflect on past and current life stressors and to develop a healthy mother-child relationship. A review of reflective functioning precedes the case material.

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Notes on contributors

Tricia Stern

Tricia Stern is a psychotherapist specializing in working with young children and their families. She received a dual Masters degree in Social Work and Public Health from Columbia University and trained at New York University Psychoanalytic Institute in Child and Adolescent Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Ms. Stern completed the Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Training Program of the Contemporary Freudian Society and the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) as well as a fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco in the evidence-based model Child-Parent Psychotherapy.