Psychotherapy in Achieving Health and Well-being for Children and Young People

Editorial

Dubravka Kocijan Hercigonja, Mirela Badurina — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 09:10:52 -0800

We hope that the articles of contemporary scientific and professional methods and approaches to children and young people in the areas of children’s and adolescent psychotherapy, health, social protection, education and juvenile justice will be a source of search for unique standards of health protection and the well-being of every child. The future of every individual and the humankind in general depends on the child, its development, and the creation of self and the world around it. This knowledge and belief create the personality of each individual and its functioning, relating to the family, environment, itself and the world in general. The aim of the journal, through the dissemination of research conclusions and experiences is to help educate people who are responsible for the development of each child through adulthood and the functioning of the world. A special problem is the ethical principles in working with children, which, although very clearly are defined by numerous conventions and laws, often cause numerous dilemmas and attitudes and are not incorporated in the life of the child. The aim of the journal is not only education and exchange of experience, but also stimulating the existing experiences and influencing the development of ethical attitudes, all to prevent mental problems in children and young people.

Prof. Dubravka Kocijan Hercigonja, MD-PhD

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Dear readers,

With great pleasure, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Integrative Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Association - BHIDAPA presents the Interdisciplinary Journal of Psychotherapy: Psychotherapy in Achieving Health and Well-being for Children and Young People. The journal aims to present, through original scientific, review, expert articles and case studies, multidisciplinary approaches to the recognition and understanding of the mental health problems of children and young people, and optimal prevention, therapeutic and rehabilitative activities that promote the Healthy development of the child. We hope that the articles of contemporary scientific and professional methods and approaches to children and young people in the areas of children’s and adolescent psychotherapy, health, social protection, education and juvenile justice will be a source of search for unique standards of health protection and the well-being of every child.

With respect,
Mirela Badurina, PhD - editor

Significant factors in the treatment process of children and adolescents

Vesna Hercigonja Novković, Suzana Jurač Štefančić, Dubravka Kocijan Hercigonja — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

The success of treatment outcomes, especially in children and adolescents, depends on a number of factors; from the etiology of the disease itself, the influence of the environment, the approach to understanding the needs of the child in relation to the stage of development and mental functioning. In this process, apart from the disease process itself, the relationship between parents and health care staff, the way of establishing a relationship, ie communication, plays an important role. In working with sick children, especially those who were involved in many forms of medical interventions due to the type of disease, we gained insight into the dissatisfaction of children, parents and health professionals regarding organizational and professional needs, which reflects on the treatment process and requires additional education and help.

Alienated Parents’ Experiences - Other Side Perspective

Mia Roje Đapić, Gordana Buljan Flander, Ana Raguž — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

Alienated / targeted parents are a relatively neglected population in scientific and practical terms, although it is estimated that more than 10% of parents experience or have experienced this form of domestic violence. Few studies to date have shown serious consequences for their mental health of with the perception of insufficient system support. The aim of this paper is to deeply explore the experiences and emotions of alienated / targeted parents before, during and after separation / divorce, stressing their cooperation with institutions and their needs in Croatia, given that no such research has been conducted in the region yet. Based on in-depth interviews with 17 alienated / targeted parents, this paper provides an overview of their experiences: (a) the influences of primary families; (b) unclear circumstances of the termination of the romantic relationship; (c) false accusations of violence; (d) the path to helplessness; (e) reflection on other aspects of life; and (f) needs by the system.

Life in quarantine as a possible cause of psychological identity crisis in development

Vera Daneš-Brozek — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

The subject of the exposition is the impact and consequences of crises in the environment on the child’s psyche. The topic of this article is the growth and psychosocial development of children in a pandemic with COVID 19, which includes, among other things, life in quarantine.

The introductory part of the article contains data on the modern understandings of disease and health. According to the World Health Organisation, the premise of its action is to achieve the highest possible degree of absence of the disease, with the necessary treatment, that is, the emphasis is placed on prevention. In this part of the article, the World Health Organisation predicts that in the twenty-first century, mental disorders, primarily depression, will break out in a high place in the overall disease prevention. This is more of a reason for the professional public to pay attention to the influence of unfavourable external living conditions on the human psyche.

The presence of the COVID 19 virus in the general population is further elaborated, with emphasis on the specifics of the subpopulation of children. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that it is about, a previously unknown, strain of a virus from a certain known group of viruses, as well as its undetermined origin in the living environment of the population. Another difficulty from the same is the open question of how to suppress its effect which is a new challenge for scientists. A noteworthy problem is that there is no scientific experience gained so far on this problem for this strain of virus because it is new.

The next part of the article lists the specifics of the child’s psyche that increase sensitivity to life in crises, with emphasis on structural changes in children’s ego under the influence of unfavourable living conditions caused by the crisis in society, and the evolution of this transformation is currently largely unknown to experts. The answer may be given by future scientific research. In the same context, different features of the clinical picture are elaborated, as well as the available possibilities of diagnosis and prognosis of such a mental state.

The article provides recommendations for strengthening the possibility of recognising this new mental disorder, such as:

assessment of the client’s ability to adapt to changes in life habits that are inevitable in quarantine.
assessment of the effectiveness of the use of defence mechanisms in an individual client, as a measure of a person’s ability to defend themselves from stressful actions from their immediate environment.
notice the existence of a latent mental disorder that poses a risk for the development of manifest disease.
assess the potential of the family and its response to the crisis as a (dis)functional unit, that is to assess whether the living conditions of the child in question are sufficient for the young psyche to resist the changed living conditions brought by quarantine.

The article concludes by stating that at this moment it is not yet possible to make a decisive professional elaboration of these premises and the distinction between the immediate reaction to insufficient life activities caused by quarantined life and the occurrence of permanent mental disorder. This will be possible only after a certain amount of time has passed, as is the case in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder which is a consequence of the action of nosological factors, but to which life in quarantine does not belong. The conclusion is followed by a special appendix in which the conditions of children with special needs and children of divorced parents in quarantined living conditions are elaborated.

Growing-Up in a Family or Alternative Care

Mirjana Graovac, Mirela Badurina, Jelena Rebić — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

Growing-up consists of complex processes of growth, development and maturing. A child can`t grow- up alone; a child needs its family to feel loved, safe and accepted. Parents create a family and they are the ones that create emotional climate – the most important factor in healthy development. Parenthood is the most complex mission life can offer us. Most parents achieve that «mission» with love and success, unconditionally and constantly, «learning» parenthood lessons day by day.

Some parents fail in doing it. Emotional climate created in insufficient parenthood is not a safe environment for children and adolescents to grow-up in. In such families the climate is filled with conflicts, and developmental processes follow «wrong paths», slow down or are stopped. Clinical practice in child and adolescent psychiatry demonstrates a spectrum of psychological/ mental difficulties in children that grew up in such families.

Some disfunctional parents can learn to be better parents, often with help of experts in the field. Some parents accept «parenthood lessons» with difficulties.

In such situations, institutional interventions, that have to evaluate parental competencies and decide on alternative models of care, are complex and demanding tasks that seek high level of expertness in all members included in the process. Isolating a child from its primary family is not an easy decision. It is even harder to yield that decision in the right moment and not harm developmental processes in child/adolescent that are already «undermined».

Parents and Adolescents

Mirjana Graovac, Sanja Brozan, Daniela Petrić — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

When a child reaches the developmental stage of adolescence, a new dynamic emerges in the family between parents and adolescents. The developmental tasks of adolescence bring new and different relationships to which both parties need to adapt.

During the process of growing up and separation from parents, in an adolescent’s life new significant others appear. These new object relations and new connections create a very slippery field between the adolescent and his or her parents. The generational gap among parents and adolescent is inevitable.

However, adolescence does not happen only to adolescents, it also affects parents in a different, specific way. Developmental tasks and developmental processes in adolescence require high capacities for adjustment from both, the adolescents, and their parents. Along with the adolescent growing up, his parents are experiencing changes.

Parents of the adolescent, just like a mother for a little baby, must be present so that their adolescent could separate from them and develop, grow up.

Childhood Trauma and Developmental Processes

Sanja Brozan, Ana Kaštelan, Mirjana Graovac — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

The importance of childhood trauma on development processes are described in numerous studies. Traumatic childhood experiences have a profound impact on many different areas of child/adolescent functioning - on an emotional, behavioral, physical, cognitive, and thought level.

Clinical entities associated with the traumatic experience in children and adolescents are common in psychiatric practice. Frequent manifestations of these experiences are described as PTSD, but also as depression, as anxiety, or somatization, as behavior disorders or dissociative reactions. In clinical work with children and adolescents, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of understanding traumatic experiences through the dimensions of developmental processes.

This article illustrates the complexity of the clinical presentation of adolescents with a traumatic experience during childhood.

Psychotherapeutic Treatment of The Boy with School Phobia

Jelena Subašić — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0800

In this case study I am going to represent my work with a boy aged 13, who is, at the first place, included into a psychotherapeutic treatment because of his school phobia. However, in the background of this school phobia, there were separation anxiety, early trauma experiences and the issue of attachment. This writing presents the importance of differential diagnostics when psychotherapeutic treatment with children and adolescents are in focus, as well the fact that in work with children and adolescents, we must be aware of the fact that the development of symptomatology lies in different samples and that is very important to look broader picture in treatment and not to bring conclusions too fast. Psychotherapeutic treatment was held in a continuous manner, 18 months, through 50 meetings. I used the principles of integrative psychotherapy. When choosing methods of my work and choice of interventions, I used theory and approaches od different psychotherapeutic directions, and the psychotherapeutic work with this boy was based on awareness, reparation, and integration of alienated parts of self, strengthening Ego and routing to present day and identity, as well as strengthening of his self-awareness in interaction with other persons. In this essay, the importance of bringing changes in the most important boy’s environments: family and school, together with providing psychotherapeutic help to the boy, is emphasized too.