Abstract
Children in late latency through early adolescence can join in a partnership with their analyst to explore their dreams as important communications about themselves. The child is the bearer of the dream, the analyst the receiver, and their shared attention to something new presenting itself to each of them offers a unique opportunity to seek meaning together. This paper presentation provides clinical illustrations of work with the dreams of children in different phases of analysis and during developmental transitions. Technical approaches that invite a child’s interest in dreams are demonstrated.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:
1. Discuss how work with children's dreams differs in different developmental
phases and phases of psychotherapeutic treatment.
2. Apply clinical illustrations of children’s dreams to their own technical choices
related to dream work.
3. Describe how children combine play, drawings, and dreams as they work through trauma and conflict, or achieve developmental steps.
Biography
Denia Barrett is a child and adolescent supervising analyst on the faculty of The
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, as well as a child and adolescent geographic
supervisor for a number of other institutes. She trained at and previously served on the faculty of The Hanna Perkins Center in Cleveland, OH and was the editor of the Center’s journal, Child Analysis: Clinical, Theoretical, and Applied. She is Co-Editor-in- Chief of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child and is a member of the editorial review board of Psychoanalytic Social Work. She has written on clinical work, ethics, and supervision and has presented nationally and internationally. She served as President of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis from 2010 to 2012.
References
Anderson, S. (2020). A child analysis from childhood into adolescence: Elements of therapeutic action at different developmental stages. The Psychoanalytic Study
of the Child, 73(1), 133-145.
Barroso, A.M. (2025). Navigating infantile anxieties in a traumatized child and family. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 78(1), 181-190.
Rosenblitt, D. (2020). Discussion of Dr. Anderson's case with a focus on the child's use of the analyst at different developmental stages. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 73(1), 151-157.
