Working with Parents: Implications for Individual Psychotherapeutic Work with Children and Adolescents

Child psychotherapists recognize that working with parents is an indispensable part of working individually with child and adolescent patients. Children and adolescents are typically referred by their parents or other concerned adults. What tends to differ among clinicians is their approach to parents rather than the conviction of the importance of the parents’ involvement. Historically, it was the “child guidance” movement early in the 20th century that initially impacted how clinicians work with parents and how this parent work can be integrated with individual child work. A different, but equally significant, impact came from the field of child psychoanalysis, despite the fact that “parent work” had not been the primary interest of its authors. This paper reviews 100 years of clinical writings in child psychoanalysis, highlighting its legacy for modern psychotherapists. In addition, I present several cases that stress the parent-child relationship in individual child and adolescent treatment to illustrate a clinically flexible approach to involving parents.