SYNERGY OF VERBAL AND NON‐VERBAL THERAPIES IN THE TREATMENT OF MOTHER‐INFANT RELATIONSHIPS

The patient in the treatment of troubled mother‐infant relationships is understood to be the lived relationship between mother and infant with the infant being an active participant in the relationship. As the infant is communicating in a non‐verbal mode, a treatment medium is used that allows for both the active non‐verbal contribution of the infant and the contribution of the mother, thus enabling both to work as their own therapists. Two different types of treatment modalities were combined: a psychoanalytically informed individual psychotherapy of mother and baby and a non‐verbal approach of mother‐infant dance therapy groups. An introductory overview of dance therapy specific to mother and infant is included as well as one case vignette and one case study. That it was the mother‐infant dyad's physically meaningful experiences in the dance therapy group which acted as a catalyst for change became evident. The verbal treatment modality, on the other hand, was the essential understanding, metabolizing and containing space that sustained and consolidated these changes.