APA Dictionary of Psychology

a psychodynamically informed, attachment-based intervention for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers whose behavior and emotions have been adversely affected by negative relationships with their parents or primary caregivers. Common difficulties in these young children include oppositional behavior or aggression, frequent tantrums, eating problems, and sleep disturbances. In this approach, the therapist offers guidance to help parents recognize and understand how their own recurring perceptions, attributions, affects, and behavioral responses influence the child and contribute to current relationship difficulties. In achieving this understanding, parents theoretically become better able to grasp what the young child is experiencing, to respond more sensitively to their needs, and to forge a healthier, more loving relationship with the child that will improve their socioemotional functioning. Parent–child psychotherapy is an extension of parent–infant psychotherapy, developed in the 1970s by U.S. clinical social worker Selma H. Fraiberg (1918–1981). [created by Paraguayan-born U.S. developmental psychologist Alicia F. Lieberman (1947–  )]