Therapeutic play within infant-parent psychotherapy and the treatment of infant feeding disorders

Abstract

This clinical article presents an infant mental health approach to the treatment of feeding disorders in infants and toddlers that involves the infant-parent psychotherapist directly working with the infant's representations within infant-parent psychotherapy sessions. The treatment is informed by an assessment of the infant's emotional development, subjective experience, and the dynamics of the infant-parent relationship. This model involves therapeutically using play and words with infants and draws upon concepts from D.W. Winnicott and attachment theory as well as principles from the psychodynamic treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in infants. The model was developed from clinical..