The Balancing Act: Concurrent Parent-Child Work

This article examines some of the challenges of parent work and the historical roots for why parent work has assumed a more marginal role in the treatment of children. The author contends that parent work is critical in the overall structure of a child’s treatment. The article describes concurrent parent psychotherapy, a psychoanalytically informed approach developed by Jack and Kerry Novick that emphasizes dual goals, two systems of self-regulation, and a framework for building and maintaining multiple therapeutic alliances. These principles are illustrated with a discussion of concurrent work with parents and their young son, who was prone to explosive behavior in school. Addressing parenthood as a developmental phase, the article covers typical anxieties parents bring to treatment and shows how the ongoing involvement of the boy’s parents helped him develop and consolidate inner controls and a more benign superego.