The Experience of Learning in Infant-Parent Psychotherapy

Two clinical training cases, both beginning in pregnancy, are used to illustrate how infant-parent psychotherapy can positively influence the emerging self-representations of all 3 members of the therapeutic triad: infant, new mother, and therapist-in-training. Within the training program, emphasis is placed on developing capacities for the regulation of intense emotion, integration of affects, cognitions, and memory, and increased reflective function. Supervisory support is critical as it expands these capacities in the clinician, who can in turn support the growth of the parent and the infant.