Containment and Reciprocity ─ Integrating Psychoanalytic Theory and Child Development Research for Work with Children

Containment and Reciprocity shows how the psychoanalytic concept of containment and the child development concept of reciprocity can be used together to inform clinical work with young children and their families. Using extracts of mother/child and therapist/child interactions, Hazel Douglas explores, for the first time, the relationship between these concepts, and shows how they underpin the quality of an attachment.

Using clinical examples from the author’s own psychoanalytic work with very young children as well as her recent research, the book explores these two concepts with important implications for psychotherapeutic technique. Containment and Reciprocity will make valuable reading for all those working in the field of infant mental health.

Hazel Douglas trained first as a clinical psychologist and then as a child psychotherapist. She has always had an interest in early intervention and prevention. She began working with adults but she is now working with infant mental health. She leads the development of the Solihull Approach, an integrated method of working with children and their families