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CREATING A “NEST” OF EMOTIONAL SAFETY: REFLECTIVE SUPERVISION IN A CHILD–PARENT PSYCHOTHERAPY CASE
Author(s) -
Many Michele M.,
Kronenberg Mindy E.,
Dickson Amy B.
Publication year - 2016
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.21603
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , psychology , distress , mental health , psychotherapist , emotional distress , reflective practice , child psychotherapy , infant mental health , developmental psychology , psychiatry , anxiety , paleontology , biology
Reflective supervision is considered a key practice component for any infant mental health provider to work effectively with young children and their families. This article will provide a brief history and discussion of reflective supervision followed by a case study demonstrating the importance of reflective supervision in the context of child–parent psychotherapy (CPP; A.F. Lieberman, C. Ghosh Ippen, & P. Van Horn, [Lieberman, A.F., 2015]; A.F. Lieberman & P. Van Horn, [Lieberman, A.F., 2005], 2008). Given that CPP leverages the caregiver–child relationship as the mechanism for change in young children who have been impacted by stressors and traumas, primary objectives of CPP include assisting caregivers as they understand the meaning of their child's distress and improving the caregiver–child relationship to make it a safe and supportive space in which the child can heal. As this case will demonstrate, when a clinician is emotionally triggered by a family's negative intergenerational patterns of relating, reflective supervision supports a parallel process in which the psychotherapist feels understood and contained by the supervisor so that she or he is able to support the caregiver's efforts to understand and contain the child.