Date: Tuesday, May 26, and Thursday May 28, 2020 (Friday, May 29 in Australia/Asia)
Length: 60 minutes
Price: Free
Host/Facilitator: Session A is hosted by Benedict Grey. Session B is facilitated by Mark Baumann with a video clip of Ben Grey from session A.
RSVP: required, meeting is open to everyone
Platform: Zoom meeting
Sponsor: Conflict Science Institute
Session A: (EU/US): Tuesday, June 9, 2020, 9:00 a.m. Seattle (UTC -7) (12 noon Miami, and 5:00 p.m. London time.)
Session B (Aus/Asia/US/EU): Thursday June 11 2:00 p.m. Seattle time (5:00 p.m. Miami, 10:00 p.m. London, and (in Australian/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.
Multiple sessions: Each session will be unique, please join both!
How can the DMM, and attachment theory and science, be used to help in court cases? Disorganized attachment is generally not a useful concept in the course of litigation, and is probably always used incorrectly in litigation.* The Family Functional Formula (FFF), using attachment assessments for all people in the caregiving environment, is a beautiful and rich concept which provides professionals significant information and guidance, but is currently impractical in most cases. What are some practical alternatives to a full FFF? If an attachment assessments is available (still rare in most cases), how can it best be used? How can attachment and DMM theory be used to support social workers, clinicians, lawyers, clients, and decision makers? Can it support closer inter-disciplinary cooperation among professionals involved in a case to work toward an optimal, or at least a good-enough family life?
Dr Ben Grey is the Programme Convenor and Senior Lecturer for the Attachment Studies program, Department of Psychology, University of Roehampton, London. Ben 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 (MotC: www.meaningofthechild.org) a system of analysing parenting discourse based on the DMM. benedict.grey@roehampton.ac.uk
www.roehampton.ac.uk
* The theoretical concept of disorganized attachment was introduced by Mary Main and Judith Solomon in 1990. In 2017, 41 leading attachment experts joined them in a seminal article (led by Pehr Granqvist) to say disorganized attachment can only be used by trained attachment assessment coders in a Strange Situation Procedure, can only be applied to children between the ages of 12-20 months. The disorganized concept has other limitations. Two Washington State Supreme Court cases demonstrate the misunderstanding and misuse of disorganized attachment, In Re the Matter of the Parental Rights to B.P., 186 Wn.2d. 292, 376 P.3d 350 (2016), and In Re the Matter of the Parental Rights to K.M.M. 186 Wash.2d 466, 379 P.3d 75 (2016).