Working with Parents and Infants

Working with Parents and Infants is aimed at understanding the process of psychosomatic illness, exploring the embodiment of psychosomatic health and illness, and the inseparability of psyche and soma. Within this book, the author highlights the beneficial function of psychosomatic symptoms, such as mastitis, in signalling to the counsellor or therapist as well as the patient the need for change and the path through which it may occur. Research and clinical literature have often overlooked the relationship between the woman's attitude to her bodyself, thus her mind-body integration, breastfeeding and the quality of interactions with her baby. A psychosomatic disturbance is in this book conceived as an impaired sense of bodyself, or in other words, a lack of psycho-soma integration. The author presents a new approach to health and the healing relationship emerging from a meeting between Eastern meditative disciplines and Western psychological practise.

Sansone, Antonella

Introduction -- A historical examination of the psyche-soma -- The psyche-soma within an object-relations framework -- The "bodyself" in early relationship -- Touch, movement, and integration of the psyche-soma -- Case illustration -- An east/west approach to working with parents and infants and the healing relationship -- Emotions and the primal brain -- The effectiveness of early support -- Infant observation -- Conclusions