Oral Presentation Introduction: Given the significant emotional and physical development that occurs in children as they become adolescents, therapy must also evolve to continue to engage and attune to these young individuals. The presentations will highlight different modalities for child psychiatrists to be more attuned to his or her patients and therefore improve the therapeutic alliance. The children discussed will have a variety of learning, speech and socialization obstacles and each having a unique experience relating to his or her current cultural setting. As a collaborative effort, the panelists will include mental health professionals from different disciplinaries and treatment settings including psychiatrists, a creative arts therapist and an occupational therapist in school, clinic and private practice settings.
Creativity itself is transformative. One of the most important aspects of improving the therapeutic alliance is through the conscious effort of fostering improved attunement in the doctor-patient dyad and ultimately the parent-child dyad. Four presentations will explore aspects of attunement with parent coaching, sensory integration, and explorations of culture and social ideals in different settings. The first presentation highlights the use of parent coaching with a same sex couple rearing a child of the opposite sex who had experienced significant non-verbal aggression relating to the misattunement. Third culture children, children who are from different backgrounds as their current environment, are becoming more prevalent in the world and an understanding of culture for parents and therapists are more important than ever. A case study highlights the struggles children in this group share throughout the world. Children from diverse backgrounds struggle with trying to acclimate to the home and social cultures. This is further explored through a particular case of a young girl with an eating disorder who experiences body dysmorphia relating to race. Given language barriers and delay in speech, non-verbal self-regulation is discussed to improve connection the physician-child dyad. The discussion will tie in the four cases relating to transition of age, cultural transitions, and collaboration between mental health disciplinaries from different settings of practice.