{"title":"Clinical and Ethical Considerations in the Treatment of Gender Dysphoric Children and Adolescents: When Doing Less Is Helping More","authors":"David Schwartz","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1997344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1997344","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Through an analysis of recently published treatment protocols, research findings and clinical experience, and guided by the principle of “first, do no harm,” the author argues that the use of pharmacological and surgical interventions in the treatment of gender dysphoric youth, especially in light of what is known about the transience of cross-gender identification in children, is mistaken both clinically and ethically. He further argues that psychotherapy, neglected by most of those advocating pharmacological and surgical interventions, is the best treatment option for these patients. The author elaborates some of the modifications of psychotherapeutic technique with both patients and their parents that he has found to be most effective with this population.","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"75 1","pages":"439 - 449"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73446643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In Honor and Loving Memory of Anni Bergman 1919-2021","authors":"Sally Moskowitz, Inga Blom","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.2005427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.2005427","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"34 1","pages":"335 - 351"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74478216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sabrina Udwin, Tatianna Kufferath-Lin, Tracy A. Prout, L. Hoffman, Timothy R. Rice
{"title":"Little Girl, Big Feelings: Online Child Psychotherapy during the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Sabrina Udwin, Tatianna Kufferath-Lin, Tracy A. Prout, L. Hoffman, Timothy R. Rice","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1999158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1999158","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The COVID-19 crisis has provided unique opportunities for the expansion of telepsychotherapy services. To date, the extant literature on telepsychotherapy has not included many strategies for effective telepsychotherapy with youth and families. This paper examines the evolution of a play psychotherapy case conducted fully online amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A review of the telepsychotherapy literature is provided and multiple aspects of online psychotherapy are explored within the context of a completed, online psychotherapy treatment with one eight-year-old girl with externalizing symptoms. This case study is the first start-to-finish online case of Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children, and to our knowledge one of the few known case studies of a completed, fully online, child psychotherapy case. Clinical vignettes illustrate how the therapist’s interpretation of the child’s defenses within an online modality allowed the child to progress in her ability to tolerate painful emotions. In addition, countertransference reactions of a novice therapist, treating her first psychotherapy patient, are highlighted. This unique case study provides support for the value of an online, play-based treatment for children with behavioral issues and their families.","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"14 1","pages":"354 - 371"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74993433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Parisa Sadat Seyed Mousavi, E. Vahidi, S. Ghanbari, Saba Khoshroo, Seyede Zoha Sakkaki
{"title":"Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ): Psychometric Properties of the Persian Translation and Exploration of Its Mediating Role in the Relationship between Attachment to Parents and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Adolescents","authors":"Parisa Sadat Seyed Mousavi, E. Vahidi, S. Ghanbari, Saba Khoshroo, Seyede Zoha Sakkaki","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1945721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1945721","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to adapt the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ) into Persian and to test the mediating role of Reflective Functioning (RF) in the relationship between attachment to parents and internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescents. 369 adolescents completed a Persian-translation of the RFQ, the Relationship Structures questionnaire of the Experiences in Close Relationships Revised (ECR-RS), a battery of scales that assess constructs related to RF, and the Youth Self Report questionnaire (YSR). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the two-factor model consisting of certainty and uncertainty about mental states. Construct validity was examined by the correlation between RFQ and related constructs and maladaptive psychological functioning. Structural equation modeling showed that uncertainty and certainty about mental states both mediated the positive relationship between attachment anxiety and internalizing and externalizing problems. This mediating effect was not found in the relationship between attachment avoidance and internalizing or externalizing problems. These findings provide support for the notion that the Persian-translation of the RFQ can be an applicable and reliable tool to assess RF in non-clinical adolescents. In conclusion, this questionnaire represents a valid measure for Persian-speaking clinicians and researchers.","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"6 1","pages":"313 - 330"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80699081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dyadic EMDR: A Clinical Model for the Treatment of Preverbal Medical Trauma","authors":"Barbara Wizansky, Ester Bar Sadeh","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1940661","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1940661","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the dyadic experience of Preverbal Medical Trauma as a factor in sharpening understanding of symptomatic behavior in young children. It highlights the connection between implicitly encoded relationship memories and the development of the child-caregiver attachment relationship before, during and following the medical trauma. Literature relating to the effects of early trauma on the child’s neuropsychological development is discussed, together with a closer look at the unique effect of early medical trauma on the attachment system. A dyadic psychotherapeutic treatment model is proposed, anchored in the EMDR Protocol and the attachment relationship. The case example provides a structured guide to processing of the early medical trauma and treatment of present symptoms, with a suggestion for future research.","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"15 1","pages":"260 - 276"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83631119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Engaging Racial Identification in Children in the Classroom: Commentary on Archangelo and O’Loughlin: Exploring Racial Formation in Children: Thoughts from an Encounter with Black Children in Brazil","authors":"Neil Altman","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1963114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1963114","url":null,"abstract":"With the world in turmoil on so many fronts, psychoanalytic psychology, indeed all of psychology that focuses on the individual mind and individual behavior, faces challenges in maintaining its relevance to the social world. The past 2 years of widespread suffering related to the COVID pandemic, to resurgent political violence, and to racial injustice have upended billions of lives, while exposing how many people have always had to struggle to keep their heads above water. Prominent among the many new challenges facing the mental health fields is how to help children cope with such times of general upheaval. There are aspects of a contemporary psychoanalytic sensibility that can be of use in decoding children’s reactions to their social world, pointing the way toward remedial engagement with ongoing destructive elements. Ferenczi (1933) introduced us to the notion of “identification with the aggressor”; Fanon (1963) put that concept to work in the context of colonial aggression, part of which is the denigration of the subdued population by the colonial occupier. Colonized people, per Fanon, will identify with the aggressor and the denigrated image of themselves propagated by the colonizer. Racial disparities are evident in media coverage, in health care, in the administration of justice, and elsewhere. Children notice these things and adults, especially those who don’t live with protection from these calamities, don’t know how to help them interpret what they see. The effect on children appears in evidence of anti-dark-skinned prejudice in the work of Kenneth Clark and Mamie Clark (1939) and, daily, in classrooms in examples like those cited by Archangelo and O’Loughlin (2021) Their work launches us on a vital consideration of how teachers and others who interact with children can engage with their internalized prejudice and with the socially pervasive projection of “undesirable” characteristics into relatively dark-skinned bodies. I suggest that the preference for white dolls over black dolls noted by Kenneth and Mamie Clark, and by Archangelo and O’Loughlin, is the racially coded tip of the iceberg of children’s reactions to what they see and hear. Furthermore, that the responses they give to researchers’ questions reflect their assumption that grown-ups in authority, especially but not only, white ones, also have a preference for white coloring and expect the same from children. In short, I am suggesting that there is nothing inborn about preference for light-skinned dolls and people; their preferences reflect what they have taken in of nearly ubiquitous prejudice in their social world. I must add, however, that during 3 years during which I worked as a psychologist in the Newark N.J. Head Start program, in which 3and 4-year-old children and families were nearly universally dark skinned, not a single child commented on skin color in my light-skinned presence. I would not doubt that I was discouraging such comments in some way of which I was un","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"38 1","pages":"230 - 232"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81431236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Change in the Play of Children Who Experienced Early Relational Trauma: Theoretical and Clinical Reflections on Psychodynamic Intervention","authors":"Miguel M. Terradas, Antoine Asselin","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1945729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1945729","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Children who experienced early relational trauma resulting from chronic exposure to maltreatment and neglect within the parent-child relationship in the early years of life are often trapped in traumatic play with no possibility of psychic elaboration or have difficulty using play in a manner that is beneficial to them in traditional play psychotherapy. The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, it describes how play changes in the course of psychotherapy with children who experienced early relational trauma. Secondly, it demonstrates how therapists must use different types of interventions to meet the needs of traumatized children, particularly their capacity to play to overcome the deleterious effects of trauma. A four-stage model of how play changes over the course of psychotherapy with children who suffered from early relational trauma is proposed. Finally, each stage is analyzed regarding the features expected in the play and the psychotherapeutic interventions that should be used accordingly. A clinical illustration is also discussed.","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"16 4 1","pages":"290 - 312"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86754868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring Racial Formation in Children: Thoughts from an Encounter with Black Children in Brazil","authors":"Ana Archangelo, M. O’Loughlin","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1950485","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1950485","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this work, using spontaneous expression of white skin color preference by Black Brazilian children as stimulus, we seek to examine the construction and performance of racial subjectivity in Black children. Drawing on a range of psychoanalytic theories, we strive to develop a psychoanalytic understanding of racial formation that is complex and non-essentializing. The paper concludes with an examination of the possibilities of pedagogical interventions that might provide space for Black children to occupy and perform more expansive racial identities, assisted by teachers who embody receptivity, a capacity for positive mirroring, and an ability to practice mentalizing pedagogies.","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"19 1","pages":"215 - 229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77065957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Racial Melancholy and the Need to See. Commentary on Archangelo and O’Loughlin’s Paper “Exploring Racial Formation in Children: Thoughts from an Encounter with Black Children in Brazil”","authors":"Ionas Sapountzis","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1965433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1965433","url":null,"abstract":"Archangelo and O’Loughlin’s beautifully written paper begins with a reference to the experiments by Kenneth and Mamie Clark on Black children’s preference for white dolls. This preference has always been understood to reflect the conflicted racial identities of Black children who are raised in a society that devalues individuals with darker skin and treats them as inferior. The preference for white dolls and the conflicted racial identities they denote point to deeply oppressive racial policies that have left Black children and everyone around them with “deep racial scars” (p. 1). They also point to a level of biracial awareness that white children do not typically demonstrate. Unlike Black children, many of the white children grow up without ever having to question the glaring racial inequalities in the world and the painful realities that maintain them. Sadly, the Black Brazilian children Archangelo and O’Loughlin present in their paper demonstrate the same troubling preference for white dolls. Much like the children in the Clarks’ study, nine-yearold Sarah finds white dolls to be prettier and more intelligent. Listening to her words makes one wonder where her faith in the superiority of the white dolls comes from. One can ask the same question in the case of the four-year-old-girl who compares her nail polish to Archangelo’s and says, “Your color is the color of happiness, mine’s of badness.” It is a painful statement to read as she associates the darker color of her nails and most likely, of her skin, with badness. In it one can read not just a silly equivalence or a reference to a more desired identity of an adult woman with wellmanicured nails, but her quick association of dark color with badness. Research shows that children between the ages of 3–4 make the connection between appearance and color but have no understanding of race as a social construct (Goodman, 1952; Stoute, 2019). What have these girls experienced that has contributed to such beliefs? What have they internalized that has led them to these symbolic equations and statements of negation? Racial formation, Archangelo and O’Loughlin note, is a complex process that involves more than adopting “wrong beliefs” and holding “wrong attitudes” (p. 6). It is a process that operates on a conscious and unconscious level and is shaped by socio-historical developments and the racial inequalities that emanate from them. Archangelo and O’Loughlin do not dwell on the history of racial oppression and exploitation and the effect of these realities on the formation of racial identity over generations. Instead, they turn their lens on the experiences of racial grief and melancholy and the role they play in the formation of racial identity for children who live in racially oppressive cultures. The skin color of children who are raised in such cultures is “stained with grief,” they state, and has an “intergenerationally transmitted racial melancholy” (p. 14). The grief they experience is derived f","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"10 1","pages":"233 - 238"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87869056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Soma, J. Sloan, Sara Garipey, Gabriela Mueller, Rebecca Gerlach, Holly Sanders-Cobb, Dominique Mason
{"title":"STARR: Sensory-based, trauma assessment, and intervention to restore resilience","authors":"C. Soma, J. Sloan, Sara Garipey, Gabriela Mueller, Rebecca Gerlach, Holly Sanders-Cobb, Dominique Mason","doi":"10.1080/15289168.2021.1945728","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15289168.2021.1945728","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article features Sensory-based, Trauma Assessment and Intervention to Restore Resilience (STARR), a multi-modal, interdisciplinary approach that utilizes a sensory-based, mind-body and attachment-focused framework to healing trauma and restoring resilience in children and families. A family case example highlights and explores the integration of sensory-based and mind-body interventions throughout treatment, which compiles a holistic assessment inclusive of strengths, resources and opportunities for healing from trauma rather than a sole focus upon deficits. STARR offers an ally to children and parents and provides safety, attachment, connection, empowerment, and knowledge sharing through experiential, resilience-building experiences. Best practice recommendations for practitioners who work with at-risk and traumatized children and families in various settings including virtual platforms, are presented.","PeriodicalId":38107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy","volume":"43 1","pages":"277 - 289"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85811968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}