Child and Adolescent Analysis - Under 3's | 28th March

Parental denial of their baby’s innate emotional needs:  some thoughts.

Amanda will discuss parental denial: how it can manifest in entrenched and momentary ways, the challenges and pain from both the parent and the baby's point of view, and how a therapist can try and work with such important unconscious self-protective processes.

Dr. Amanda Jones is a consultant perinatal psychotherapist known for her contributions to the field of perinatal mental health and psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy.
Amanda is aware of the complex therapeutic skills involved trying to help parents and babies who have usually experienced intergenerational emotional pain. 

As a leader of a multi-professional community Perinatal Parent Infant Mental Health Service, Amanda has always advocated for publicly funded perinatal psychotherapeutic and psychiatric care. She recognizes that parents and babies often present with a diverse range of symptoms and suffering, frequently beginning before or during pregnancy. Amanda believes it is necessary for a variety of different psychotherapy and medication treatments to be accessible to address these challenges effectively.

Amanda also teaches about psychodynamic parent-infant therapy, which focuses on the therapeutic engagement of both parents and babies together. She has articulated the powerful impact this approach can have on fostering healthy relationships and addressing the intergenerational influences that may affect the new parent-baby relationship.

Amanda was the psychotherapist in the Channel 4 programmes “Help me love my baby’ (2007).  These programmes helped to widen societal understanding about the ways parents and babies can suffer and respond to psychodynamic therapy.