The ADHD Compassion Project Case Consultation with Dr. Karin Ensink: Using Reflective Functioning in the Treatment of a Gender Non-binary ADHD Child

ABSTRACT

This paper documents a case consultation by Dr. Karin Ensink for the ADHD Compassion Project at Rutgers University using a psychodynamic, family-based, mentalization based treatment for children (MBT-C). Dr. Ensink serves as consultant on the case of a gender non-binary child with ADHD being treated at the clinic. Through this consultation, Dr. Ensink demonstrates the clinical utility of reflective functioning to a training clinician. By pairing the clinician’s conceptualization of the client with questions aimed to encourage reflective functioning she provides a path for the clinician to deepen the work with the child. The consultation highlights the importance in mentalization focused treatment of pinning down the episodic and using the therapeutic process to both join with the client and scaffold mentalization in real time.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Please note that the pronouns ‘they/them/their will refer to the child throughout the discussion of the case.

2. A reference to The Squiggle Game, described by D. W. Winnicott

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francine Conway

Francine Conway, a scholar and clinical psychologist recognized for her work in child psychopathology, is a distinguished professor and dean of the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Conway, a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia University, earned her doctoral degree from the Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University where she later served on the faculty for 13 years. Conway has treated children in hospital settings and private practice for over 20 years. She has gained national and international recognition for her work on the psychodynamic treatment of children with ADHD and serves as the research editor for the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Conway has presented her work at a TEDx talk “Cultivating Compassion for the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Child: Shifting Our Stance from Moral Indictment to Empathy” and through her book “Cultivating Compassion: A Psychodynamic Understanding of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Karin Ensink

Karin Ensink is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychology in Canada. She is the director of Mentalization Based Treatment Canada, the founder of a Clinic for the treatment of Complex Trauma, and is an Anna Freud Center recognized MBT supervisor (Child, Adolescent, and Adult) and MBT-C trainer. The author of a number of books on the treatment of children and adolescents, including Mentalization Based Treatment for Children, Karin has published widely on the development of mentalizing, the role of mentalizing as a resilience factor in the context of trauma, and personality disorders in adults, parents, adolescents and children. She has active research collaborations in the UK, US, Italy, Spain, France, Norway and Chile. Karin completed her PhD at UCL with Peter Fonagy and Mary Target on mentalizing in children while working at the Anna Freud Center in London. She provides trainings for the assessment of mentalization in therapists, children and parents.

Melissa Farsang

Melissa Farsang is a graduate student attending the Clinical PsyD program at Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and working at the university's ADHD clinic. She has a special interest in working with adolescents, trauma, and LGBTQ+ identity.

Stephanie Lyon

Stephanie Lyon is an assistant professor of clinical practice at Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, and a clinical psychologist in private practice in South Orange, NJ. Dr. Lyon is co-director of the ADHD Compassion Project at Rutgers and specializes in treating adolescents and young adults from psychodynamic and mentalization-based perspectives.

Mirjam Burger-Calderon

Mirjam Burger-Calderon is a graduate student at the Clinical PsyD program at Rutgers University's Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. She graduated with a master's degree from New York University. Her research and clinical interests include developing effective prevention and interventions for externalizing and internalizing disorders in children, child development outcomes in the context of parenting, as well as the development of effective treatment and intervention for disordered eating.