Parent Work in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Narrative Review of the Literature

This literature review adopted a systematic approach to explore and review all of the existing journal literature on parent work in child psychotherapy; studies included span a range of approaches, settings and contexts for this work. Prevalent themes are identified and three main types of journal articles are classified, including an evaluation of the strengths and limitations of their validity as research and/or clinical relevance. Accounts of this work representing diverse parental experiences and exploring direct parental perspectives and opinions of this are identified as a significant gap in the literature. The experiences of parents facing severe and enduring mental health challenges in particular are found to be under-represented, and the case is made for more research in this area. The review was conducted to inform a research project undertaken by the author within their clinical training placement, which became the first of the new professional Doctorates completed at Human Development Scotland; some reflections are included about the challenge of undertaking a literature review of such broad scope while both child psychotherapy trainee and novice trainee researcher.