Abstract:
The establishment of epistemic trust in the NICU Unit is essential in creating the best relationships between the baby in the NICU unit and the caregivers. Preservation from death is linked with fostering empathic, attuned links between the NICU baby and the caregivers (the parents, nurses and doctors). A child psychotherapist is very useful to support the nurse- parents-child relationships. In particular, the child psychotherapist who has studied the Bick Method of baby observation taught at the Tavistock Clinic is extremely well equipped to enlist the parents, nurse and paediatricians to for a core team to promote physical and emotional connectedness with the caregivers. Being present as much as possible to quietly observe the baby’s state of mind and provide encouragement to two key nurses and the parents to emotionally and physically attune to the baby is crucial. Such emotional and physical presence promotes the baby’s wish to live and struggle to stay alive. Therapeutic endeavors with Siamese twins and other twins will also be discussed. The therapeutic work in the NICU can be crucial to preventing emotional difficulties and defences inhibiting the child’s emotional development later in life.
Biography:
Dr. Jeanne Magagna, Tavistock trained child, adult and family psychotherapist, has worked with children and their parents as a nursery teacher, secondary and university teacher as well as subsequently being Head of Psychotherapy Services at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children for 24 years. She has also worked as a consultant to Family Futures Adoption and Fostering Consortium and previously Coordinator of Training at Centro Studi Martha Harris in Florence and Venice, Italy, where she now continues to teach.
Throughout her professional life her aim is to help parents and professionals observe the deeper aspects of infants’ personality in order that infants can be better understood and have more rights to good parenting. Her books The Silent Child: Communication without Words and Being Present for Your Nursery Age Child discuss how important it is to collaborate with parents to support and understand their children and parents have been involved in these writing projects. With the collaboration with Roz Read she has edited Contemporary Child Psychotherapy. Other collaboratively edited books include: Psychotherapy with Families, Intimate Transformations, Creativity and Psychotic States and A Psychotherapeutic Understanding of Children and Young People. Jeanne currently works on most continents teaching infant observation, discussing collaborative work with parents, and engaging in clinical discussions.
