Parental and grandparental stories of parent work in child psychotherapy, with families affected by mental health difficulties: a psychoanalytically informed narrative inquiry.

Eriksen, Nikki

Abstract

This study presents narratives about the experience of parent work undertaken separately, but alongside child psychotherapy, with parents and carers in a specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (hereafter abbreviated to CAMHS) for families impacted by severe and enduring mental health difficulties. Beginning with a thorough review, scoping the existing literature on parent work in child psychotherapy, included studies span a range of child psychotherapy research approaches. Prevalent themes in the literature are classified, with direct and diverse parental experiences of and perspectives on this work identified as a significant gap. In particular, the experiences of parents facing mental health challenges are under-represented. This study generated direct accounts of parent work with a sample of three parents and carers: One parent with severe anxiety and depression, another with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and one grandparental kinship carer, whose daughter had severe mental health difficulties. Narratives were generated using Free Association Narrative Interviewing (Hollway and Jefferson, 2013), combined with a narrative inquiry approach, which allowed for further discussion of meanings of interview transcripts to be undertaken with each participant, facilitating co-composition with the researcher in the process of telling their stories (Clandinin 2016). A process of psychoanalytical reflection and dialogue on resulting research texts was applied in supervision, considering the unconscious aspects of meaning and communication arising, utilising the psychoanalytic method of reflection developed through infant observation, as a method of research (Rustin 2012). Themes within each individual narrative, as well as across all three participant narratives are identified, adopting a rigorous psychoanalytic observational approach, arriving at significant findings in relation to delivery of parent work: the distressing mental impact and trauma of experiences endured prior to entry into parent work within the specialist service; vagueness in terms of memory of the original setting up and understanding of parameters of parent work; feelings of exclusion, disconnection and discomfort linked with long periods between review meetings; anxiety and feelings of loss linked to changes in parent worker; epistemic mistrust and the (gradual) development of trust; appreciation of containment of strong emotions in the work; greater capacity for mentalizing becoming internalised and compassionate, non-judgemental attitudes being highly valued. Where participants expressed feelings of complaint, these focused on practical issues to do with travel and access, poor facilities in the clinical environment, and a lack of clarity about goals and aims in the work. An unanticipated outcome of the research was the degree of enthusiasm elicited by the study, with participants engaging thoroughly and finding a voice through the process and production of personal narratives. Consideration is given to how the quality of the experience of parent work could be improved for parents, both within the service context of the particular study, as well as more widely. This is the first study to present direct experiences of the parent work that is carried out separately but in parallel with child psychotherapy, exploring first person, in- depth narrative accounts of this work; recommendations are made for further participatory research.

Citation

ERIKSEN, N. 2023. Parental and grandparental stories of parent work in child psychotherapy, with families affected by mental health difficulties: a psychoanalytically informed narrative inquiry. Robert Gordon University, DPsychPsych thesis. Hosted on OpenAIR [online]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-2270745

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Mar 12, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 12, 2024
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-2270745
• Keywords: Parenting; Mental health; Mental illness; Child psychotherapy
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2270745
• Award Date: Oct 31, 2023