DEVELOPING AN EMOTIONALLY SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIP

Current attachment research on infancy highlights the vital importance of the mother/child relationship in the first year of the child for his/her future emotional and social development. My approach is based on observation of and interaction with the spontaneous activity of the infant, which I then use to enhance maternal sensitivity and responsiveness. I will encourage  you as a parent to be reflective about the child's inner world of feelings, thoughts and desires. Specific activities will help you gain an understanding of your own (sometimes complex) emotional responses to your child. 

A typical session will enable your child to actively participate through his or her own evolving communication system. Activities will encourage your child to experience and learn about their sensory system. As a parent, you will enter into a verbal and non-verbal dialogue with your child to develop an emotionally supportive relationship. The activities are a way to gain insight into your infant‘s world. Attention will be paid to those aspects of the experience that may be emotionally challenging for your child or yourself. My role as a therapist is to help you share and decode the child'’s expressions through these explorations.

Enabling the young child to actively participate in the environment in a communicative way through nonverbal, movement expression enhances not only social/emotional development but motor, cognitive and verbal development as well. Encouraging a positive social interaction can be the primary motivating force for achievement on all other levels of development. Dr. Suzi Tortora, Dancing Dialogue: Healing & Expressive Arts (2009) http://www.dancingdialogue.com/drsuzitortora.html