Premium
The significance of reflective supervision for infant mental health work
Author(s) -
O'Rourke Patricia
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/imhj.20290
Subject(s) - preconscious , infant mental health , feeling , denial , psychology , mental health , work (physics) , developmental psychology , social psychology , unconscious mind , psychotherapist , psychoanalysis , mechanical engineering , engineering
Parent–infant work is inherently relational and occurs in the intersubjective space between parent, infant, and worker. This space can be charged with primitive, unmet needs of both parent and infant, and this in turn can trigger these same states in the worker. The challenge for workers is to remain open to being affected by and responsive to these feeling states when their own early and possibly preconscious responses and coping strategies are being stirred. If these remain out of awareness, they can manifest as avoidance and denial, and this can be reflected in the system and result in limited service delivery. This article emphasizes the significance of reflective supervision for parent–infant work and suggests that it needs to be an integral part of the system of service delivery. I am grateful to the infant mental health workers who allowed me to use examples of their work in this article, and thank Dr Jon Jureidini for his encouragement and support.