Mother-infant research informs mother-infant treatment

A brief mother-infant treatment approach using "video feedback" is described. This approach is informed both by psychoanalysis and by research on mother-infant face-to-face interaction using video microanalysis. Two cases are presented. In the first, descriptions of the videotaped interactions which informed the interventions are presented. In the second, knowledge of mother-infant microanalysis research informed the treatment, even though videotaping was not an option. The respective "stories" of the presenting complaints, the video interaction, and the parent's own upbringing are linked. Specific representations of the baby that may interfere with the parent's ability to observe and process her nonverbal interaction with her infant are identified. The mother has a powerful experience during the video feed-back of watching herself and her baby interact. Our attempts together to translate the action-sequences into words facilitates the mother's ability to "see" and to "remember," fostering a rapid integration of implicit and explicit modes of processing.