Observational Study of a 5-week Baby Massage Group in a PIMHS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Psychoanalytic Observational Study of a 5-week Baby Massage Group provided in a Parent-Infant Mental Heath Service
IRAS ID
249161
Contact name
Julianna Katona
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Tavistock Centre/Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 2 days
Research summary
The project is a required part of my DProf final award and thus its scope and aim is for developing my knowledge and understanding of what research can entail.
My interest in conducting this project has come from a two-fold curiosity in what early intervention looks like in infant mental health and from the grounding of my training as a Child Psychotherapist in Psychoanalytic Infant Observation. I am particularly interested in exploring the group dynamics amongst the babies within the group and the interface between the body and emotions.
The question that I am aiming to answer is: What unconscious group mechanisms support/hinder the workings of a 5-week Baby Massage Group? The unconscious refers to the accepted Psychoanalytic concept that people often act and interact in ways that are not motivated by overt motives and wishes but often by other, hidden, forces within the personality.
The project will be running alongside an ordinarily run 5-week Baby Massage Group and the participants would be recruited with informed consent. The researcher/PI is not a participant or a leader, she will be observing as unobtrusively as it is possible.
The Baby Massage Group take place in one of two Children’s Centres in Guildford which are run by Guildford County Council. The Group itself is run by two facilitators who are both employees of SABP where the lead researcher is employed.
The study lasts for consecutive weekly 90-minute / 2-hour sessions. This is the only time the participants and the researcher are in contact. The design of the study does not require any changes to the way the group is run apart from allowing the researcher/observer to be present for the 5 sessions.REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EE/0140
Date of REC Opinion
8 Jul 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion