Abstract

The present inquiry investigates how interaction between mothers and their infants in families experiencing gross difficulties in parent-child relations could be improved through a group art therapy. I describe and discuss the group process with the focus on my work with one particular dyad, and the changes in communication, which occurred as a result of the dyad's participation in the art therapy groups. The review of the literature on various aspects of infant development sets the theoretical frame for an art therapy dyadic work as a form of early prevention of later problematic behaviors and disorders, which begin within the first few years of child's life and could be determined through observations over infant-parent interaction. The present inquiry examines how, through a consistent frame, an alignment between the therapist and the participant, and pleasant experiences, art therapy helps to develop attunement, responsiveness, and social skills of both mothers and their infants, and in this way increases mutual communications between mothers and their children. It shows some of the advantages of the application of art therapy such as a non-didactic way to educate mothers, allowing them to lessen responses to the intervention. This study could make a valid contribution in the development of the clinical methods directed at the improvement of interactions between mothers and their infants in families experiencing difficulties in parent-child relations. It could also make a contribution in the development of the treatment of the early signs of different disorders in early childhood. I see as one of the advantages of art therapy its flexibility and relatively low cost comparing to other treatment modalities.