Changing Destinies

Stella Acquarone, PhD, is the Director of the Parent-Infant Clinic of the School of Infant Mental Health in London and its branch in the USA. She is a practising adult and child psychotherapist and has worked in the NHS for thirty-one years. She is a member of the British Psychological Society, the Association of Child Psychotherapists, and the London Centre for Psychotherapy. She has pioneered studies in early infant clinical research and development, and lectures internationally on all aspects of infant-parent development and psychotherapy. She has written extensively in professional papers, journals and chapters in books, and has taught infant observational studies and new clinical strategies in working with disturbed children.

'After decades developing an innovative parent-infant psychotherapy, Dr Acquarone responds brilliantly to up-to-date evidence from clinical work, developmental psychology, neuroscience and genetics, as well as parents' intuitions, to reveal how autism disturbs brain development before birth, affecting the baby's motives, awareness, and feelings in ways that distress the family and handicap development. With case studies of intensive and extended family therapy with infants she illustrates how mothers, fathers and siblings may be guided by a team of different professions to transform the affected child's openness to life. She calls this Re:Start, freeing the natural creative powers of growth in loving relationships.'- Colwyn Trevarthen, Professor Emeritus of Child Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Edinburgh'Professionals from many disciplines increasingly agree that early intervention is crucial for children at risk of autism, and Stella Acquarone has long been at the forefront of this work. Her clinical illustrations demonstrate what can be achieved through a psychoanalytically informed intensive intervention that addresses the needs of all family members, and how parents can be supported in establishing a relationship with a child who is unresponsive for whatever reason. This book will speak to professionals working with children on the autistic spectrum, and also, most importantly, to parents, who are often the first to realise that their child needs help.'- Maria Rhode, Professor Emeritus of Child Psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic/University of East London, and Associate of the British Psychoanalytical Society

• UKCP Series Preface , Foreword , Introduction , Underpinnings of Our Approach , Understanding early signs of autism in babies , A psychoanalytic approach to treating early signs of autism , Neurobiological development and autistic behaviours , How paediatric assessment helps in early diagnosis of autism , A Model for Treatment , Re:Start: an infant–family treatment programme for young children displaying pre-autistic and autistic behaviours , Joseph (aged two years): an in-depth case study , Geronimo (aged three years, two months): a complex child , Filippo (aged eighteen months): a focus on siblings , Nicola: an intensive treatment with an eight-month-old , The parents , Working with the children in their context: home visits and follow-up , Integration into mainstream education following the Re:Start intensive family treatment programme , Parents’ Feedback and Authors’ Conclusion , Testimonials: feedback from four families who have undergone the Re:Start programme , Conclusion , Scales and graphs: measuring the effect of the intensive intervention (the “numbers” and how they are calculated) , A glimpse inside the mind of a therapist working with children with autistic behaviours