‘How I wonder what you are?’: what infant observation offers family therapy

Abstract

Training in infant observation, highly valuable in the infant mental health (IMH) field, has an enormous amount to offer family therapists. These two fields of practice, both hold working with the relational world of their clients as central. As two senior family therapists who are also IMH practitioners, we invite those reading this paper to explore the possibilities inherent in undertaking infant observation training as a pathway to enriching and expanding their practice. We provide an overview of infant observation training, how this approach was conceived, and explore the benefits of honouring the subjectivity of the infant, that of bringing the infant's experience alive in the therapeutic space. We provide direct examples from our own practice. We conclude with how infant observation might be incorporated into family therapy training and practice.

Family therapy and infant mental health: exploring the potential space

“…We highlight gaps in clinical practices, research methodologies, and theoretical frameworks and moreover means of bridging these gaps. We seek to introduce or remind the family therapist of the power of observing the infant and of enabling the family to observe what the baby could say about the family's secure base (see Bunston & Jones, 2023;Opie, Booth, et al, 2023). Concurrently, we aspire to remind the infant mental health field of the value of the systemic frame, beyond the dyad (see McHale & Jenkins, 2023).…”