La Maison buissonniere off the beaten track

With its preventive approach, La Maison buissonniere has been welcoming babies and pre-oedipal-aged children, accompanied by their families, for the past 30 years in Montreal. It has always taken an "off the beaten track" perspective-both with respect to current psychoanalytic practices and in terms of the prevailing socio-educational practices in Quebec. Our manner of hosting families is based on the teachings of Francoise Dolto and on early developmental theory. Our practice aims at allowing the baby or toddler to "unwind their question" and at helping the parent hear it. This way, misunderstandings between the baby and their family are cleared up in a timely fashion and do not carry the risk of turning into symptoms later in the child's life. This article aims to describe the principles underlying the work of this institution's "hosts" and to illustrate these principles with examples drawn from our daily practice. It will also present some of the theoretical underpinnings of our work.