Parent-infant art psychotherapy: a creative dyadic approach to early intervention

Art psychotherapy involves the use of the image-making process within a therapeutic relationship to help clients explore and communicate feelings and experiences. This article explores whether art psychotherapy groups can be an effective intervention for parent-infant dyads who may be involved with social work and health teams due to concerns about their relationship, possibly due to postnatal depression or attachment difficulties. We describe a model of parent-infant art psychotherapy groups and examine some of the key themes in this intervention alongside vignettes of case work and quantitative and qualitative evidence from the evaluations of two such groups. We believe that the Create Together group demonstrates how knowledge from research into infant mental health and attachments, together with an understanding of the creative process, can be applied in practice to offer a successful early intervention.