Microanalysis of Multimodal Communication in Therapy: A Case of Relational Trauma in Parent-Infant Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

This article explains the role of multimodal, microanalytic examinations of the therapeutic process in parent-infant psychotherapy. The work described involves the adaptation of the microanalytic approach that has been applied to exploring the dyad and the rich interactional sequences of behaviors that constitute the parent-infant relationship. The approach in this article widens the focus to include the therapist’s interactions with parent and infant in considering how parent-infant psychotherapy works. Using a clinical case study, several perspectives of the therapeutic processes, including transcripts from videoed sessions, microanalysis of a brief five-second event; clinical session notes, and the therapist’s own narrative, are drawn upon to follow the therapeutic encounter and to consider how the micro-interventions on the part of the therapist, often in the form of subtle embodied communications, interact with the evolving interactional behaviors of the dyad to bring about change in the parent-infant relationship.