A study of process in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children: the development of a method

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this article is to present the development of a method of analysis of the process of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children (MAPPP-C) that is relevant for the study of the psychotherapy process from the perspective of the object relations theory. The process was studied by analysing changes in child patients' anxieties, defence mechanisms, object relations and unconscious phantasies, in each psychoanalytic psychotherapy session and throughout their entire psychotherapy. Method: MAPPP-C is both a qualitative and quantitative method of analysis of child psychoanalytic psychotherapy processes. This article will describe the stages in the de-velopment of the method, how the indicators were determined, the units of analysis in the study, the development of analytical codes, the training of raters in this method and inter-rater reliability and agreement tests. Results: This article describes the tasks that compose MAPPP-C, examples of its application and presents some hypotheses that arose from the analysis of the pilot study. Discussion: The preliminary results show that MAPPP-C is a method that allows one to assess the psychotherapist's interventions and the patient's responses in order to enable the analysis of the psychotherapeutic process. The results of the reliability test of the method will allow it to be applied to other types of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with both children and adults.

Methods used for evaluation of psychotherapy treatment

“…A review of the available scientific and professional papers published so far, dealing with procedures to evaluate psychotherapy treatments, indicates the significant interest shown by researchers and professionals in this field of research [63]. For more than three decades attempts have been made to develop new methods to research the outcomes of therapeutic treatments and methodological improvement [3,64,65].…”

Exploring In-Session Process with Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Psychotherapy with an Adolescent

“…Psychotherapists sometimes find it challenging to talk about the transference to adolescents, and likewise adolescents may find it awkward to become aware or discuss their feelings toward their therapists (Coren, 1996;Golombek & Korenblum, 1995;Sarles, 1994;Swift & Wonderlich, 1990). In a study of children suffering from anxiety, transference and extra-transference interpretations seemed to be an affective technique (Luzzi, Bardi, Ramos, & Slapak, 2015). The cognitive maturation of adolescents may allow mid-adolescents (15)(16)(17)(18) to be better at abstract thinking and more easily adjust to a therapeutic relationship than those in early adolescents (12)(13)(14) (Ginsburg & Opper, 1988).…”

Analysis of the therapeutic change process in the context of a child group psychoanalytic psychotherapy: a single case study / Análisis del proceso de cambio terapéutico en el contexto de una psicoterapia psicoanalítica grupal de niños: un estudio de caso único

“…Se trata de un estudio de caso único desde el marco de la Teoría de las Relaciones Objetales. Para el análisis se emplea el Método de Análisis de Proceso Psicoterapéutico Psicoanalítico en Niños y Padres (MAPPP-N/P, Luzzi, Bardi, Ramos, & Slapak 2015), construido por el equipo de investigadores de una cátedra universitaria.…”

“…It was a single case study based on the perspective of the Object Relations Theory framework. The Method of Analysis of the Process of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Children and Parents (MAPPP-C/P) (Luzzi, Bardi, Ramos, & Slapak, 2015), created by the team of researchers from a university chair, was used.…”