An empowering approach to crisis intervention and brief treatment with preschool children

This paper presents an approach to crisis intervention and brief treatment for young children based on the new psychology, intrapsychic humanism. After presenting central theoretical principles, these principles are applied and treatment guidelines demonstrated in the treatment process of a three-year-old child named Paul. The research design for the case study is naturalistic uses qualitative methods of data analysis, and draws from the heuristic paradigm (a postpositivist metatheory of social and behavioral research). YOUNG CHILDREN OFTEN are confronted with stressful events that have profound implications for their lives and can precipitate psychological crises. For example, their parents may divorce or die, the child or those close to the child may be injured or develop a serious illness, or the child may have been abused or neglected and need to be removed from the home and placed in foster care (Fatout, 1993; Freud, 1952; Freud & Burlington, 1943; Zambelli & Clark, 1994). Although there is a growing body of research about children in crisis, including their capacity to report the crisis event (Sorenson & Snow, 1991) and the often devastating long-term psychological consequences of trauma (Berliner & Wheeler, 1987; Famularo, Kinschereff, & Fenton, 1990; Juhasz, 1995; Lewis, 1992; Terr, 1990), that research generally does not offer social workers guidelines for how to respond to children in crisis. Moreover, practice guidelines that have been presented generally do not include evaluations of treatment responses. In particular, there is a dearth of research about individual psychosocial treatment of children under six. This paper presents and evaluates an approach to crisis intervention with preschool children based on the new psychology, intrapsychic humanism (Pieper & Pieper, 1990). Intrapsychic humanism offers a compassionate and rigorously scientific reconceptualization of child development, psychopathology, and treatment and leads to an understanding of children's subjective experience and to effective clinical interventions with children and families (Ishibashi, 1991; Pieper & Pieper, 1992; Tyson, 1991).' This approach is helpful for treating clients deemed untreatable under other approaches (Pieper & Pieper, 1995), and treatment principles based on intrapsychic humanism have been used effectively in treating clients of all age groups, backgrounds, and diagnostic categories. Intrapsychic humanism offers a therapeutic approach that can be used in treating individuals, and families, and for-group and milieu therapy. Evaluations of treatments based on intrapsychic humanism have been published previously (Pieper & Pieper, 1995; Tyson, 1995). This new psychology is increasingly attracting the interest of scholars and practitioners in this country and abroad (Fenby, 1992; Tyson, 1996a, 1996b). In addition to reconceptualizing child development, psychopathology and treatment, the Piepers also have developed a compassionate and effective approach to parenting that has been tested in numerous settings and will be available in published form soon (Pieper & Pieper, 1999). Previous versions of this article were presented at 1 ) The International Conference on Innovations in Clinical Social Work Practice, co-sponsored by the School of Social Work, Loyola University, the Universitta Cattolica, Milan, Italy, and the School of Social Work, L.U.M.S.A. Rome, Italy, in May 1993 and 2) The National Association of Social Workers, Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 1995. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services Copyright 1999 Families International, Inc.