The Impact of Parenthood on the Therapeutic Relationship

"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