Co-parent therapy and the parenting plan as transitional phenomena: working psychoanalytically with high-conflict separating and divorcing couples

High-conflict separating and divorcing couples often struggle with unconscious conflicts that are projected onto arguments about the children resulting in interminable disputes. Approaches that primarily emphasise parenting and communication skills, without a more in-depth focus, are insufficient to address these complicated dynamics. In contrast, I offer a model of psychoanalytic co-parent therapy that enables the promotion of containment, reduces splitting, destructive aggression, and defensive projection, helps the partners become more psychologically separate, and allows access to feelings of loss. A key component of this model is the development of the parenting plan, a shared agreement about coparenting the children that functions on both a conscious and unconscious level. The therapist works with high-conflict couples to create the parenting plan, whilst at the same time addressing the underlying psychological vulnerabilities. The parenting plan may serve as a type of transitional object for the couple, facilitating their psychological development, and aiding in their transition from a separating or divorcing couple to a co-parent couple. This process can be internalised, communicated to the children, create less conflict, mitigate the enduring impact of the loss, and benefit the entire family.

Child-Parent Relationship Therapy: Child-Parent Interaction Therapy of Sheila Eyberg (on foreign sources)

The article based on English sources is devoted to child-parent therapy method which is a training of child-parent interaction, developed by Dr. Sheila Eyberg (USA). The training is designed to correct the behavior of preschoolers aged 2–7 and reduce the level of parental stress. The method combines the traditional playing therapy with the behavioral child-parental therapy tools. The training consists of two stages of work – child-centered interaction and parent-centered interaction. The detailed protocol of the Training which is the therapist's guide for each session of each stage of work was elaborated. The number of meetings varied from 8 to 12, the duration of each stage is about 5-6 weeks. The training is well known and used by psychologists and researchers abroad in their work with families displaying a wide range of problems, such as children with problem behavior, autism spectrum disorders, families from at-risk groups.