Child Psychotherapy: From Initial Therapeutic Contact to Termination

Dr. Lovinger describes the initial contact and the initial session and discusses intake, setting, play themes, and issues of differential emotional and cognitive development from birth through age 12. Then, as her psychodynamic perspective unfolds, she focuses on resistance, dreams, interpretation, transference, and countertransference - the last so problematic in child therapy that there are few references to it in the literature. In keeping with her emphasis on connecting with the whole child, Dr. Lovinger seeks to engage the parents in the process as what she calls 'at-home co-therapists.' She makes a case for their informed participation to enhance and advance the therapy by establishing empathic communications with their children and stretching the therapeutic milieu.