The University of Roehampton Attachment Studies programme is hosting an online training for the DMM attachment-based Meaning of the Child Interview, specifically designed to be available for people in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia time zones. This small-group program will begin October 5, 2020.
The program will be online via Zoom from 1:00 pm to 6:30 LONDON time, and recorded. Recorded class sessions can be viewed at any time, so attendance at the live class room sessions is not required. If a sufficient number of participants from Australia/Asia/Pacific rim countries register, live sessions convenient for these time zones may be added to the live-class schedule.
The program will be taught by Dr. Ben Grey, co-developer of the MotC Interview, and convenor of the Attachment Studies programme at the University of Roehampton in London, UK, and Juliet Kesteven of Cambridge Centre for Attachment (www.attachment.services).
What is the MotC Interview?
The Meaning of the Child (MotC) Interview is a brief DMM- based attachment assessment which can be conducted by any professional working with parents. It assesses:
- The parent’s attachment pattern
- The parent’s level of sensitivity and responsiveness to their child
- The degree and form of control a parent may use with their child
- The ability of the parent to reflect on their parenting experiences and their own childhood experiences and how those might impact their parenting.
The MotC procedure informs professionals about how the parent feels about their child, what a particular child means to the parent, and what kind of hidden dangers a child might represent to the parent. With this information, professionals can help parents target specific changes to improve their parenting style and parenting experience, and increase healthy neuro-development for their children.
The MotC uses a variety methods, including the DMM Adult Attachment Interview (DMM-AAI) and DMM Infant CARE-Index (DMM-ICI). Also included are Peter Fonagy’s mentalization (reflective function) assessment concepts. These methods are reoriented to focus on the relationship between the parent and child.
The MotC is increasingly of interest to researchers interested in parent-child relationships or parenting. As a form of Discourse Analysis informed by attachment theory, it looks at how the meaning of caregiving experiences are transformed to allow the parent to feel safe and function as a parent, in ways that shape the developing relationship with the child. It enables the experience of the parent to be thought about with a more systemic lens; considering the parent in the light of the child and other relationships. As a research method in its own right, it can be combined with other qualitative methods, as well as researched quantitatively using categories generated.
Training information
There are no prerequisite trainings required to take the MotC Interview training. Thus, this is a good first DMM-science program for anyone interested in learning about the DMM. It is also considered, by experienced forensic professionals using advanced DMM assessments for family reports, to provide unique and key pieces of information for understanding overall family dynamics.
There are six training days conducted by video conference (Zoom meetings). These will be split into two or three blocks over a several month period, with practice interviews in between training days. For those people interested in certifying in the MotC, a certification test will be provided after the training. The training will be fully online and organized so live video sessions will be at convenient times for attendees in central and east Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific ocean countries/states. The specific schedule will be announced soon.
For more information:
For more information see the attachment studies short courses page at https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/professional-development-courses/attachment-studies-short-courses/. Contact Dr. Ben Grey directly for more information at benedict.grey@roehampton.ac.uk.
The Meaning of the Child Interview homepage is at http://www.meaningofthechild.org/.
For a live (or video replay) introduction to the MotC join DMM Coffee House session #14 on July 7 and 9 (July 10 in Australia/New Zealand), 2020. (Contact Conflict Science Institute to set up a video replay of the session). If you are new to the DMM or unfamiliar with this advanced model of attachment, contact Conflict Science Institute to set up a free Zoom Coffee House session for your office/group.
A Conflict Science Institute perspective and overview of the MotC is available at Meaning of the Child interview:a dmm-attachment and systemic science assessment to understand parent child relational challenges.
Dr. Grey and Dr. Steve Farnfield introduced the interview in the journal article: Grey B, and Farnfield S, (2017), The Meaning of the Child Interview: A new procedure for assessing and understanding parent-child relationships of ‘at-risk families, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol 22, Issue 2, pp. 204 – 218, DOI: 10.1177/1359104516633495. Available here through Research Gate.
The Family Relations Institute offers other, formal, trainings in DMM-based attachment assessments. For more information see their course page.
The Conflict Science Institute offers DMM-based attachment, information processing, and discourse analysis training for legal, mental health, and other relational professionals.