ATTACHMENT-BASED ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION: USING PLAY TO
STRENGTHEN FAMILY BONDS

Workshop Overview:

This workshop includes strategies for assessing and working with children and families. Participants will learn to use video in both assessment and intervention. Also included will be practical and playful interventions to increase safety, connection, and healing in relationships.

Workshop Abstract:

This presentation will be based on attachment theory and research, interpersonal neurobiology
and current research on trauma and brain development. Instruction about the Marschak Interaction Method (MIM) emphasizesm providing parent feedback and effectively analyzing and using the MIM for treatment planning. A brief overview of the Marital MIM will also be included and using Video Intervention Therapy Techniques to enhance MIM parent feedback sessions. The importance of exploring the parent’s own history of being parented, ways to explore this history, and how to incorporate the parent’s own history into the therapy process along with the intergenerational transmission of attachment will be covered. The use of active play and the Theraplay Dimensions of Structure, Engagement, Nurture, and Challenge to deepen parent-child relationships and reduce stress and conflict in families will be practiced. Adoption-Specific Assessment and Ages and Stages in Adoption along with the 7 Core Issues of Adoption will be covered. The concept of “Blocked Care” and how to alleviate it will be included. Lastly, the skills of Wondering, Follow, and Holding will be taught and practiced as a way of deeply connecting with clients.

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Learning Objectives:

1. Name and describe the 4 Theraplay Dimensions as analyzed in the Marschak Interaction
Method.
2. Assess and analyze prominent relationship dynamics in the client videos.
3. Discuss and delineate the differences between disorganized attachment and Reactive
Attachment Disorder (RAD).
4. Explain the attachment theory concepts of safe haven and secure base and how to apply to the
therapy process
5. Define 4 Adult Attachment classification patterns and how they correspond to child
attachment patterns
6. Describe two common barriers to parent engagement in play therapy and ways to overcome
them.
7. Define Wondering, Following, and Holding and how they relate to client engagement in
therapy
8. List two reasons why it’s important to know a client’s own history of being parented.
9. Define mentalization and articulate one video-based intervention to increase mentalization
capacity
10. Name and describe 2 of the 7 Core Issues of Adoption and how they impact therapy.
11. Contrast the concepts of “inner and outer movie” as practiced in Video Intervention Therapy.