Containment is the core task of parenting/ raising children
Containment
* attunement, responsiveness, emotional resonance
* being in touch with child’s feelings, intentions,
communications
* attention to child’s communication vs. controlling
child’s behaviour
* being receptive to what child is feeling or trying to
communicate rather than: trying to control or
make child do something
* thinking about child’s thinking: what the child
is/ could be thinking NOT what we want him to be thinking or doing
The Containing Mind is
* active + responsive
* lovingly attentive to and interested in every detail
* caring for the concrete suffering of real individuals
* a vehicle for growth and development
* focussing, discriminating, feeling + integrating these functions
The Containing Process is the work of a Containing Mind and the Active Integration of
* Feelingful Observation (not clinical or detached)
- allowing emotional quality of the observation to resonate within
vs. clinical observation that is stripped of feeling/ emotional resonance
* Differentiating and Naming (not teaching or controlling)
sorting out one thing from the other, identifying, naming, especially anxieties
- effort to think about and to understand what child is attending to
- actively trying to make sense of what has been observed
* Emotional Resonance (not soppy or patronising)
- trying to put oneself into child’s place
- imagining what it feels like to be him
- being open to receiving communications/ feelings from child
- being in touch with child’s feelings, intentions, communications
* Appreciating that Growing up in a Struggle (+ doesn’t just happen)
- mental development needs careful attention and nurturing
- feeding the mind not just the mouth
- we can never know exactly what goes on inside another person
- adults/ parents need to be able/willing to tolerate the frustration of not-knowing to be
motivated for further observation + discoveries
Containment is bringing together what we sense with what this may mean and what we feel about it
References: Sorensen in Reid (ed.) 1997, Phillips 1999
* appreciating the difficulty
* bringing together what we sense with what this may mean and what we feel about it
the containing process is the active integration of
* observation (not clinical or detached)
* clarification (not teacherish)
* emotional resonance (not soppy)
* plus valuing the struggle, the difficulty
bringing together what we sense with what this may mean and what we feel about it
Email: info@reachingautism.org
Containment
* attunement, responsiveness, emotional resonance
* being in touch with child’s feelings, intentions,
communications
* attention to child’s communication vs. controlling
child’s behaviour
* being receptive to what child is feeling or trying to
communicate rather than: trying to control or
make child do something
* thinking about child’s thinking: what the child
is/ could be thinking NOT what we want him to be thinking or doing
The Containing Mind is
* active + responsive
* lovingly attentive to and interested in every detail
* caring for the concrete suffering of real individuals
* a vehicle for growth and development
* focussing, discriminating, feeling + integrating these functions
The Containing Process is the work of a Containing Mind and the Active Integration of
* Feelingful Observation (not clinical or detached)
- allowing emotional quality of the observation to resonate within
vs. clinical observation that is stripped of feeling/ emotional resonance
* Differentiating and Naming (not teaching or controlling)
sorting out one thing from the other, identifying, naming, especially anxieties
- effort to think about and to understand what child is attending to
- actively trying to make sense of what has been observed
* Emotional Resonance (not soppy or patronising)
- trying to put oneself into child’s place
- imagining what it feels like to be him
- being open to receiving communications/ feelings from child
- being in touch with child’s feelings, intentions, communications
* Appreciating that Growing up in a Struggle (+ doesn’t just happen)
- mental development needs careful attention and nurturing
- feeding the mind not just the mouth
- we can never know exactly what goes on inside another person
- adults/ parents need to be able/willing to tolerate the frustration of not-knowing to be
motivated for further observation + discoveries
Containment is bringing together what we sense with what this may mean and what we feel about it
References: Sorensen in Reid (ed.) 1997, Phillips 1999
* appreciating the difficulty
* bringing together what we sense with what this may mean and what we feel about it
the containing process is the active integration of
* observation (not clinical or detached)
* clarification (not teacherish)
* emotional resonance (not soppy)
* plus valuing the struggle, the difficulty
bringing together what we sense with what this may mean and what we feel about it
Email: info@reachingautism.org
