Impact of Parenthood on the Therapeutic Relationship

April E. Fallon, PhD, is a faculty member of Fielding Graduate University and clinical professor at Drexel University College of Medicine. She has published books and articles on the adoptive parent, group psychotherapy, therapist pregnancy and body image. She has taught and supervised psychiatric residents and graduate students in clinical psychology for 30 years. Virginia Brabender, PhD, ABPP, is a professor within Widener University’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology. She has published books and articles on the adoptive parent, group psychotherapy and psychological assessment. She has taught and supervised graduate students in clinical psychology for over 30 years. She is on the editorial board of the International Journal for Group Psychotherapy and the Journal of Personality Assessment.

"What a lovely tribute to the therapeutic and transformative opportunities available to both the expectant parent-therapist and the client! In this, their 2nd edition, Fallon and Brabender outdo their excellent original exploration of this topic, with added knowledge, awareness, openness, and sensitivity. Their enhanced information on non-traditional families and adoptive situations provides thoughtful perspective on shifts away from family-role specialization. Ultimately, this book guides both the client and therapist toward honoring the richness of a special passage, thereby increasing the depth and breadth of the therapeutic collaboration."Diane H. Engelman, PhD, Center for Collaborative Psychology, Psychiatry, and Medicine, Kentfield, California; licensed psychologist, private practice"Fallon and Brabender’s book reflects the current relational trend in psychodynamic thinking which accepts that events in the therapist’s personal life can affect the patients and their ongoing treatment. It focuses upon one such exigency, namely, the therapist’s pregnancy, and carefully elucidates its far-reaching effects upon the clinical exchange. The authors’ contribution does not remain restricted to individual psychotherapy but addresses the therapist’s impending parenthood in the context of supervision, group therapy, and the slowly-unfolding developmental processes within the patient as well as the therapist. Their discourse is engaging, replete with clinical examples, and profoundly enriching for the therapeutic armamentarium of both the novice and the experienced practitioner."Salman Akhtar, MD, professor of psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College, training and supervising analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia

• 1. Introduction  2. The Developmental Journey From Pregnancy to Motherhood: Psychological and Physiological Changes and the Management of Their Impact on Treatment  3. Patients’ Reactions to Therapists’ Pregnancy  4. Therapist Reactions  5. Difficult Issues in Pregnancy and Parenthood  6. Therapist as Father  7. Non-Traditional Family Structures: Adoptive, Single, and LGBT  8. Developmental Status of the Patient  9. The Diagnostic Status of the Patient  10. Multi-person Therapeutic Modalities:  Group, Couple, and Family Therapies  11. Expectant Parents’ Relationships with Peers, Supervisors, and the Workplace  12. Conclusions and Future Directions  Bibliography