Tessa Baradon - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Tessa Baradon

Research paper thumbnail of Addressing the baby and atypical maternal behaviour in psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy

Journal of Child Psychotherapy

Research paper thumbnail of Observing and interpreting clinical process: Methods and findings from ‘Layered analysis’ of parent–infant psychotherapy

Infant Mental Health Journal

This paper describes a method for investigating clinical process, Layered Analysis, which combine... more This paper describes a method for investigating clinical process, Layered Analysis, which combines therapist countertransference reports and multi‐faceted microanalytic research approaches. Findings from the application of Layered Analysis to video‐recorded micro‐events of rupture and repair in four psychoanalytic parent–infant psychotherapy sessions are presented. Layered analysis showed that countertransference and observation are complementary perspectives, which enable concomitant study of interactive events, conscious internal experiences, as well as nonconscious and unconscious elements of therapeutic interaction. Interactional rupture and repair were found to constitute co‐constructed micro‐events that occurred fleetingly and often implicitly, and differed in the structure, coherence and flow of interactions and in the relationship between verbal and nonverbal communication. Furthermore, interactional ruptures were found to sometimes ‘get into’ the therapist and transiently d...

Research paper thumbnail of Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy and Mentalization

Research paper thumbnail of Theoretical framework

Routledge eBooks, Oct 31, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Working With Fathers in Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy

Research paper thumbnail of Three themes about fathers in parent-infant psychotherapy

Working With Fathers in Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Working with the triad

Working With Fathers in Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Psychoanalytische Psychotherapie mit Eltern und Säuglingen

Research paper thumbnail of The theory of psychoanalytic parent–infant psychotherapy

Research paper thumbnail of Mothers and babies in prison: a psychoanalytic approach supporting attachment

Research paper thumbnail of Contributions of, and divergences between, clinical work and research tools relating to trauma and disorganization

Research paper thumbnail of Epilogue: ‘Ghosts and angels in the nursery’ – Windows of opportunity and remaining vulnerability

Research paper thumbnail of And what about mothers?

Working With Fathers in Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Studying the process of psychoanalytic parent–infant psychotherapy: Embodied and discursive aspects

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2020

This paper presents findings from an intensive, mixed methods case study of one session of psycho... more This paper presents findings from an intensive, mixed methods case study of one session of psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy (PPIP) addressing early relational trauma, and aims to shed light on the multimodal interactive processes that take place in the moment-to-moment exchanges comprising the therapeutic encounter. Different research methods were used on video material from PPIP sessions, including microanalysis of adult-infant interactions, discourse analysis of talk, and coding systems developed to study parent-infant interaction. These different perspectives were brought together with the clinical narrative to illuminate the complex, dynamic processes of parent-infant-therapist interaction. More specifically, the detailed analysis of one interactive episode revealed brief behavioral manifestations of fearful and disoriented states of mind, reflecting dysregulated interaction between mother and infant, which also powerfully affected the therapist. The processes through which the therapist gradually resolves this rupture are also described in detail. Through this pilot study, we were able to show that it is possible to systematically study the process of PPIP. The study contributes to the growing psychotherapy research literature that takes into account both the verbal domain and implicit, interactional processes in therapeutic practice, and underscores the therapist's comprehensive engagement in the therapeutic process.

Research paper thumbnail of Microanalysis of Multimodal Communication in Therapy: A Case of Relational Trauma in Parent-Infant Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Lay counselors: Thoughts on the crossing of ecological frameworks and the use of lay counselors in the scale up of early infant mental health interventions

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2019

ABSTRACTThe recent call for the scale‐up of evidence‐based early childhood development interventi... more ABSTRACTThe recent call for the scale‐up of evidence‐based early childhood development interventions, in lower and middle‐income countries and for minority groups in high‐income countries, has seen numerous suggestions to train greater numbers of lay mental health workers to fulfill these functions. While studies have found that concepts from developed country settings, such as attachment, parental sensitivity, and containment, find purchase and relevance within developing settings, the management of contextual and cultural factors and the tensions of cultural interfacing in the rollout of these programs in developing country settings require consideration. Drawing on the experiences of two successful South African mother–infant home‐visiting programs as examples, this article discusses some of the challenges in provision of attachment‐based infant mental health programs and highlights the need for careful consideration of a number of factors pertaining to the recruitment, supervisi...

Research paper thumbnail of Interfacing Infant Mental Health Knowledge: Perspectives of South African Supervisors Supporting Lay Mother-Infant Home Visitors

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of “What Is Genuine Maternal Love?”

The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 2005

The question of what is genuine maternal love was posed by a mother struggling to understand and ... more The question of what is genuine maternal love was posed by a mother struggling to understand and value the nature of her bond with her small baby. The question surfaced time and again in the context of this dyad's long-term parent-infant psychotherapy and has challenged me to examine my thinking and, indeed, has produced impassioned discussions within the Parent Infant Project team at The Anna Freud Centre. In this paper I will address this question through sessional material of this mother and baby and discuss issues of technique in response to it, including my countertransference and conceptualization.

Research paper thumbnail of “What support would you find helpful?” The relationship between treatment expectations, therapeutic engagement, and clinical outcomes in parent–infant psychotherapy

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2019

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of pretreatment expectations on clini... more ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of pretreatment expectations on clinical outcomes and engagement in Parent–Infant Psychotherapy (PIP). Sixty‐one mothers who were experiencing mental health difficulties and who were receiving PIP with their young infants participated in the study. A mixed‐methodology was used to examine participants’ expectations through transformation content analysis of pretreatment interviews; recurring themes were classified and quantified. Further statistical analyses explored relationships between the quantified themes of parental expectations and clinical outcomes and engagement in treatment. No significant correlation was found between expectations and engagement. One of the six clinical outcomes significantly correlated with parental expectations. Improved reflective functioning (RF) was predicted by participants describing expectations of wanting to improve their parent–infant relationship through the treatment, and expressing co...

Research paper thumbnail of Interfacing Infant Mental Health Knowledge Systems: Reflections on the Narratives of Lay Home Visitors’ Experiences of Learning and Applying Relational Concepts of Development in a South African Intervention Program

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2016

ABSTRACTThe question of interfacing research and clinically generated knowledge in the field of i... more ABSTRACTThe question of interfacing research and clinically generated knowledge in the field of infant mental health (IMH) with local cultural knowledge and belief systems has provoked extended discussion in recent years. This article explores convergences and divergences between current research‐based, relational IMH mental health models and “community” knowledge held by a group of South African lay home visitors from a socioeconomically deprived township. These women were trained in a psychoanalytic and attachment‐informed infant mental health program that promotes a relational model of infant development. They provide an intervention that supports high risk mother–infant relationships in the same locality. A two‐tiered approach was taken to the analysis of the home visitor interviews and focused on the home visitors’ constructed narratives of infant development posttraining as well as the personal impact of the training and work on the home visitors themselves. The study found th...

Research paper thumbnail of Addressing the baby and atypical maternal behaviour in psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy

Journal of Child Psychotherapy

Research paper thumbnail of Observing and interpreting clinical process: Methods and findings from ‘Layered analysis’ of parent–infant psychotherapy

Infant Mental Health Journal

This paper describes a method for investigating clinical process, Layered Analysis, which combine... more This paper describes a method for investigating clinical process, Layered Analysis, which combines therapist countertransference reports and multi‐faceted microanalytic research approaches. Findings from the application of Layered Analysis to video‐recorded micro‐events of rupture and repair in four psychoanalytic parent–infant psychotherapy sessions are presented. Layered analysis showed that countertransference and observation are complementary perspectives, which enable concomitant study of interactive events, conscious internal experiences, as well as nonconscious and unconscious elements of therapeutic interaction. Interactional rupture and repair were found to constitute co‐constructed micro‐events that occurred fleetingly and often implicitly, and differed in the structure, coherence and flow of interactions and in the relationship between verbal and nonverbal communication. Furthermore, interactional ruptures were found to sometimes ‘get into’ the therapist and transiently d...

Research paper thumbnail of Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy and Mentalization

Research paper thumbnail of Theoretical framework

Routledge eBooks, Oct 31, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Working With Fathers in Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy

Research paper thumbnail of Three themes about fathers in parent-infant psychotherapy

Working With Fathers in Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Working with the triad

Working With Fathers in Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Psychoanalytische Psychotherapie mit Eltern und Säuglingen

Research paper thumbnail of The theory of psychoanalytic parent–infant psychotherapy

Research paper thumbnail of Mothers and babies in prison: a psychoanalytic approach supporting attachment

Research paper thumbnail of Contributions of, and divergences between, clinical work and research tools relating to trauma and disorganization

Research paper thumbnail of Epilogue: ‘Ghosts and angels in the nursery’ – Windows of opportunity and remaining vulnerability

Research paper thumbnail of And what about mothers?

Working With Fathers in Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Studying the process of psychoanalytic parent–infant psychotherapy: Embodied and discursive aspects

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2020

This paper presents findings from an intensive, mixed methods case study of one session of psycho... more This paper presents findings from an intensive, mixed methods case study of one session of psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy (PPIP) addressing early relational trauma, and aims to shed light on the multimodal interactive processes that take place in the moment-to-moment exchanges comprising the therapeutic encounter. Different research methods were used on video material from PPIP sessions, including microanalysis of adult-infant interactions, discourse analysis of talk, and coding systems developed to study parent-infant interaction. These different perspectives were brought together with the clinical narrative to illuminate the complex, dynamic processes of parent-infant-therapist interaction. More specifically, the detailed analysis of one interactive episode revealed brief behavioral manifestations of fearful and disoriented states of mind, reflecting dysregulated interaction between mother and infant, which also powerfully affected the therapist. The processes through which the therapist gradually resolves this rupture are also described in detail. Through this pilot study, we were able to show that it is possible to systematically study the process of PPIP. The study contributes to the growing psychotherapy research literature that takes into account both the verbal domain and implicit, interactional processes in therapeutic practice, and underscores the therapist's comprehensive engagement in the therapeutic process.

Research paper thumbnail of Microanalysis of Multimodal Communication in Therapy: A Case of Relational Trauma in Parent-Infant Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Lay counselors: Thoughts on the crossing of ecological frameworks and the use of lay counselors in the scale up of early infant mental health interventions

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2019

ABSTRACTThe recent call for the scale‐up of evidence‐based early childhood development interventi... more ABSTRACTThe recent call for the scale‐up of evidence‐based early childhood development interventions, in lower and middle‐income countries and for minority groups in high‐income countries, has seen numerous suggestions to train greater numbers of lay mental health workers to fulfill these functions. While studies have found that concepts from developed country settings, such as attachment, parental sensitivity, and containment, find purchase and relevance within developing settings, the management of contextual and cultural factors and the tensions of cultural interfacing in the rollout of these programs in developing country settings require consideration. Drawing on the experiences of two successful South African mother–infant home‐visiting programs as examples, this article discusses some of the challenges in provision of attachment‐based infant mental health programs and highlights the need for careful consideration of a number of factors pertaining to the recruitment, supervisi...

Research paper thumbnail of Interfacing Infant Mental Health Knowledge: Perspectives of South African Supervisors Supporting Lay Mother-Infant Home Visitors

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of “What Is Genuine Maternal Love?”

The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 2005

The question of what is genuine maternal love was posed by a mother struggling to understand and ... more The question of what is genuine maternal love was posed by a mother struggling to understand and value the nature of her bond with her small baby. The question surfaced time and again in the context of this dyad's long-term parent-infant psychotherapy and has challenged me to examine my thinking and, indeed, has produced impassioned discussions within the Parent Infant Project team at The Anna Freud Centre. In this paper I will address this question through sessional material of this mother and baby and discuss issues of technique in response to it, including my countertransference and conceptualization.

Research paper thumbnail of “What support would you find helpful?” The relationship between treatment expectations, therapeutic engagement, and clinical outcomes in parent–infant psychotherapy

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2019

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of pretreatment expectations on clini... more ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of pretreatment expectations on clinical outcomes and engagement in Parent–Infant Psychotherapy (PIP). Sixty‐one mothers who were experiencing mental health difficulties and who were receiving PIP with their young infants participated in the study. A mixed‐methodology was used to examine participants’ expectations through transformation content analysis of pretreatment interviews; recurring themes were classified and quantified. Further statistical analyses explored relationships between the quantified themes of parental expectations and clinical outcomes and engagement in treatment. No significant correlation was found between expectations and engagement. One of the six clinical outcomes significantly correlated with parental expectations. Improved reflective functioning (RF) was predicted by participants describing expectations of wanting to improve their parent–infant relationship through the treatment, and expressing co...

Research paper thumbnail of Interfacing Infant Mental Health Knowledge Systems: Reflections on the Narratives of Lay Home Visitors’ Experiences of Learning and Applying Relational Concepts of Development in a South African Intervention Program

Infant Mental Health Journal, 2016

ABSTRACTThe question of interfacing research and clinically generated knowledge in the field of i... more ABSTRACTThe question of interfacing research and clinically generated knowledge in the field of infant mental health (IMH) with local cultural knowledge and belief systems has provoked extended discussion in recent years. This article explores convergences and divergences between current research‐based, relational IMH mental health models and “community” knowledge held by a group of South African lay home visitors from a socioeconomically deprived township. These women were trained in a psychoanalytic and attachment‐informed infant mental health program that promotes a relational model of infant development. They provide an intervention that supports high risk mother–infant relationships in the same locality. A two‐tiered approach was taken to the analysis of the home visitor interviews and focused on the home visitors’ constructed narratives of infant development posttraining as well as the personal impact of the training and work on the home visitors themselves. The study found th...