Opie, Jessica E;
McHale, James P;
Fonagy, Peter;
Lieberman, Alicia;
Duschinsky, Robert;
Keren, Miri;
Paul, Campbell;
(2023)
Including the infant in family therapy and systemic practice: charting a new frontier.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy
, 44
(4)
pp. 554-564.
10.1002/anzf.1567.
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Abstract
This position paper from a core group of infant mental health academics and clinicians addresses the conspicuous underrepresentation of the infant in mainstream family therapy. Despite infants' social capacities and clear contributions to family dynamics, they remain largely overlooked within this therapeutic context. We suggest that family therapists have moral and professional responsibilities to support the participation, protection, and well-being of all family members, including the infant. Here, we emphasise the importance of including the infant in the family therapy setting. By highlighting their frequent omission, we aim to amplify infants' often unheard ‘voice,’ role, and contributions to family development, especially recovery from distress. A shift towards infant inclusion as the rule rather than the exception represents a new frontier of integration. We first highlight the relational nature of infant development with a focus on the infants' psychosocial capacities and vulnerabilities. We then consider reasons why the infant may be overlooked in family and systemic therapies and offer a rationale for inviting the infant into these settings, illustrated through the use of a clinical case vignette. To facilitate infant inclusion, we propose a series of guidelines to meaningfully incorporate infants into family therapy practices. We conclude by encouraging shifts in family therapy research, training, and practice to better incorporate and understand the unique contributions of the infant to family life.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Including the infant in family therapy and systemic practice: charting a new frontier |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/anzf.1567 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/anzf.1567 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Association of Family Therapy (AAFT). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
| Keywords: | Infant, infant mental health, infant communication, family therapy, infant participation |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10180821 |
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