Assessing levels of similarity to a "psychodynamic prototype" in psychodynamic psychotherapy with children: a case study approach (preliminary findings)

Abstract

Child psychotherapy theory and practice are not absolutely coincident. Real psychotherapy sessions do not necessarily resemble the ideal prototypes.

Development of Brazilian prototypes for child psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy

“…Agreeing with the findings of Gastaud et al, 13 In this case, a high level of similarity to all prototypes was also detected. The authors stated that the patient's symptomatology required the therapist to employ several different psychotherapy techniques.…”

“…8 The PDT and CBT prototypes developed by Goodman et al 8 were subsequently employed by other authors to analyze video-recorded psychotherapies. For instance, Gastaud et al 13 used them to investigate the first year of PDT with two children in Brazil. One of the patients in this study was a boy diagnosed with adjustment disorder and dysthymia.…”

“…The authors discussed how some characteristics of the patients and the therapists might have influenced these results. 13 According to Gastaud et al, 13 the presence of CBT features in the first treatment may indicate that children with a precarious psychic structure require greater support from the psychodynamic psychotherapist, allowing for development of a capacity to explore their feelings in depth in further stages of the treatment.…”

“…14 Similar to studies with adult patients, studies of child psychotherapy prototypes have indicated that psychotherapies do not always correspond to their theoretical assumptions and that one treatment may simultaneously exhibit characteristics of different approaches. 8,13,15 Likewise, there is evidence that characteristics of the dyad may influence the degree of similarity between the treatment and the prototypes. 13,15 However, despite development of the PDT, CBT, and RF prototypes by Goodman et al, 8 there are still gaps regarding prototypical psychotherapy processes with children.…”

Mentalization in Child Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

“…We observed in the present therapeutic processes, as well as in those reported by some previous studies (Goodman, ; Gastaud et al ., ), that for some children with different diagnoses, a difficult, angry, aggressive or resistant child can relate to a directive, didactic and limit‐setting therapist. Although these treatments were psychodynamically oriented, helping a child to identify or regulate dysregulated and strong emotions demands intervention strategies other than interpretive work, at least during some phases of the treatment (Hoffman et al ., ).…”