In 1986, I became a psychoanalyst and the following year, a licensed psychotherapist. At that time, I only worked with adult patients. Later, I became interested in working with younger patients and became a child psychoanalyst in 1997. I also took the opportunity to obtain what is called a step-3 training, which is supervision in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
My interest “shifted to younger ages,” and in 2000, I started working with parents and infants where there were postpartum depression and/or attachment issues. This led me to start a research education, which culminated in my doctoral thesis defense in 2010 and my appointment as an associate professor in child psychiatry in 2016 at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. The study showed that early-initiated mother-infant psychotherapy had positive effects on the mother’s depression and stress levels and her ability to perceive the child’s signals. A new doctoral dissertation (Winberg Salomonsson, 2017) showed that these early interventions had certain positive effects as the children grew and reached 4½ years old.
I then developed a method called SPIPIC (Short-term Psychodynamic Infant-Parent Intervention at Child Health Centres), which led to another doctoral thesis defense (Kornaros, 2020). The treatments were very brief but still managed to help mothers become less depressed and anxious about their infants.
My interest in parent-infant therapy was strongly developed through my consultancy work at Mama Mia Child Health Centers from 2008 to 2021. There, I helped the nurses to observe and talk to the parents when the situation became problematic. Likewise, I treated these families myself on-site. I have continued this practice, now at my private practice in Södermalm, Stockholm. You can reach me via the contact form on the website.
COUPLES THERAPY: The work at the Child Health Centers often involved couples counseling with the parents. This led to an interest in providing therapy to couples with various relationship difficulties. There is no age limit here; I pay great attention to difficulties in relationships among older individuals as well.
LANGUAGES: I also provide treatment in English, French, and German. You are welcome to contact me via the link on the website.
RESEARCH: I am a member of a research group based at The Anna Freud Centre, London. We study video recordings of mother-baby therapies and try to understand the often rapid interaction between the baby, the mother, and the therapist. It’s a very exciting and unexplored area! I also participate in a research project at the Unit for Perinatal Health, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet. It examines the effects of early initiated skin-to-skin contact for premature infants.