On September 22, 2020, Dr. Ben Grey will discuss new findings from his study of autism using attachment assessments. Dr. Grey’s study used DMM-based attachment assessments to look at parents who have autistic children (Meaning of the Child (MotC) and Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)). The session will briefly summarise the background to the study, and then focus on the parenting / caregiving formulations drawn from looking at AAI and MotC discourse in relation to each other.
Autism in a relational context, without blame
The study looked to explore a more systemic understanding of the problems faced by parents who have autistic children, which understands problems relationally without blaming either the child or parent.
AAI and MotC together: a powerful pair of attachment assessments?
Dr. Grey’s study is also the first systematic exploration of the relationship between DMM AAI discourse and caregiving narratives as analysed by the MotC so it raises interesting questions around the relationship between caregiving and attachment. Dr. Grey will explore how the two attachment assessments worked together to provide unique insights.
Foundations of Dr. Grey’s study
Dr. Grey’s research into discourse patterns of parents of children with autism was drawn from a wider project evaluating an intervention based on Attachment Narrative Therapy and multiple family therapy developed by Rudi Dallos and Rebecca McKenzie (Stancer), called SAFE (McKenzie et al. 2019, Dallos et al. 2020)*.
This is a follow up discussion from Dr. Grey’s DMM Coffee house #10 session where he introduced the preliminary findings of the study. Attendance at his previous session is not required. For anyone who wishes to see the recording of DMM Coffee House #10: Autism in children and the family system, contact us and we will set up a replay session.
Session details
Date: Tuesday, September 22 (live) & Thursday, September 24 (video replay), 2020 (Friday, September 25 in Australia/Asia)
Length: 60 minutes
Price: Free
Host/Facilitator: Dr. Benedict Grey
Platform: Zoom meeting
Sponsor: Conflict Science Institute
Multiple sessions: Each session will be unique, please join both!
Session times: Times listed below, PLEASE NOTE, some computer calendars do not automatically handle the time zone conversion correctly.
Session A (live) (EU/US): Tuesday, September 22, 2020, 9:00 a.m. Seattle (UTC -7) (12 noon Miami, and 5:00 p.m. London time.)
Session B (video replay) (AUS/Asia/US/EU): Thursday September 24, at 2:00 p.m. Seattle time (5:00 p.m. Miami, 10:00 p.m. London, and (in Australia/Thailand/China on Friday) at 9:00 a.m. in Auckland, 7:00 a.m. in Sydney, 5:00 a.m. in Perth/China, and 4:00 a.m. in Bangkok.
Dr. Grey is the Programme Convenor (Director) and Senior Lecturer for the Attachment Studies program, Department of Psychology, University of Roehampton, London. He is also co-director of Cambridge Centre for Attachment (www.attachment.services) and has been using the DMM in the family court arena for nearly 20 years. He also developed and validated the Meaning of the Child interview (www.meaningofthechild.org), a system of analysing parenting discourse based on the DMM.
MotC international online attachment training
Ben Grey and Juliet Kesteven are doing an online international zoom training of the full DMM attachment-based MotC coding system October – December 2020 designed to facilitate attendance from anywhere, with the facility to watch each session asynchronously and ask questions before the next session, for those who cannot attend live because of different time zones or will miss live sessions through other commitments. See http://attachment.services/event/online-international-motc-training
* SAFE, a new therapeutic intervention for families of children with autism: study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial, Rebecca McKenzie, Rudi Dallos, Jacqui Stedmon, Helen Hancocks, Patricia Jane Vickery, Paul Ewings, Andy Barton, Tara Vassallo, Craig Myhill, BMJ Open, March 2019.
See also, Doing things differently: Exploring attachment patterns and parental intentions in families where a child has a diagnosis of autism, Rudi Dallos, Rebecca McKenzie, and Nicholas Bond, Clinical Child Psychiatry, 1-12 (2020).