The Meaning of the Child Interview
Description
This handbook provides an accessible and thought-provoking guide to the Meaning of the Child Interview (MotC), a tool for understanding family relationships. It is edited and written by the MotC's developer, with contributions from leading researchers and practitioners using the MotC in innovative contexts to support families. The MotC uses a semi-structured interview in which parents talk about their child, their relationship with their child, and their parenting. A process of analysis is outlined, including using the method to plan intervention, guide practice, and conduct research. This book offers a practical guide to applying attachment and caregiving research for child welfare and mental health professionals. Prior knowledge is not assumed, and many examples and summaries are used to assist the reader. By focussing upon how parents story their experience, and their child's, in the context of ongoing challenges, this book facilitates practice based on understanding struggling parenting as a relationship situated in adversity, rather than an individual failing, worthy of blame.
Reviews / Votes
"The Meaning of the Child Interview is the most important development in the field of attachment and caregiving since the Adult Attachment Interview." (Dr Steve Farnfield, course founder, Attachment Studies postgraduate programme, University of Roehampton, UK, co-editor 'The Routledge Handbook of Attachment')
"Ben Grey's book offers a major contribution to our understanding of the attachment relationships between parents and children and is a substantial innovation for the field. It is an invaluable resource for researchers and clinicians working with children and families. If there is one book on attachment theory you purchase this year, make it this one!" (Rudi Dallos, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Plymouth UK, author of Attachment Narrative Therapy, and Don't Blame the Parents)
"Ben Grey has developed and researched the Meaning of the Child Interview over many years. The significance and reach of this compassionate and leading-edge approach to the assessment of parenting in child and family welfare practice is seen in this hugely informative, engaging and practical handbook. It outlines a clear path for how a systemic and ecological formulation of caregiving based in attachment dynamics leads to more nuanced choices for assistance and relationship repair." (Arlene Vetere, Professor Emeritus of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice, VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway)
"As a child protection social worker, I found The Meaning of the Child Interview transformational. Ben Grey masterfully and accessibly integrates attachment, mentalising, offering a practical guide to developing rich, systemic understandings of parent-child relationships. Through illuminating case examples, this book equips social workers with invaluable tools to enhance practice and truly help children and their families." (Richard Devine, Social Worker, UK and co-host of the Relational Activism in Social Work Podcast)
"Our current child protection contexts often let down both families and practitioners, setting up both to fail. Ben Grey's compassion shines through this book, whilst never shying away from fully considering the risks to the child or parent-child relationship. The Meaning of the Child Interview provides a meaningful alternative to current practice - it is a gift to those working with families facing adversity." (Dr Lizette Nolte, Research Lead, Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, University of Hertfordshire, UK)
"This book is essential and powerful reading for social workers, therapists and psychologists. The Meaning of the Child unlocks an understanding of attachment and caregiving for the reader and the effects of trauma and loss. The book will rightly play a part in shifting the assessment narrative on attachment to understanding and hope rather than blame and failure." (Barry Tilzey, Assistant Director, CAFCASS (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, UK)
"In this thoughtful and engaging book, Ben Grey harnesses the rich potential of the field of attachment research, moving beyond its tendency to obsess about types of individual child or adult insecurity. His work instead focuses on understanding relationships in their social environment. This enables creative, solution-oriented thinking about caregiving and relationships in child welfare practice." (Robbie Duschinsky, Professor of Social Science & Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, UK)
"Ben Grey and colleagues make a powerful case for recognising that relationships between parents and their children are best understood as a dynamic interplay of past histories, present socio-economic circumstances, and future hopes. It is within the context of family life that children take on meaning for their parents, and this underpins parental behaviour. Exploring the origins and nature of these meanings becomes the shared purpose of both practitioner and parent leading to safer and better relationships between caregivers and their children." (David Howe, Emeritus Professor (Social Work), University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK)
"In this manual, Ben Grey has not only succeeded in offering a compassionate and context-sensitive approach to understanding parent-child relationships, but also in elegantly charting an attachment-informed approach to qualitative analysis. This unique integration is a remarkable achievement, and I recommend it highly to all clinicians and researchers engaged in supporting parents with their challenging role." (Dr. Mark Hudson, Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Nottingham, UK)
"The Meaning of the Child Interview is a sensitive, nuanced, and practical means of developing a deeper understanding of caregiver processes - bridging the research-practitioner divide. This book is the definitive guide to this assessment practice: comprehensive, informed, and drawing on the latest research and theory." (Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton, UK)
"The MotC is incredibly helpful in our work with families, making sense of the strategies parents use to try to keep their child safe. Our team especially value the formulation model, linking parental defences to the family's wider context, so that interventions can be targeted, addressing parents' hopes and fears, and the deeper drivers of concerning behaviour." (Jen Swift, Social Work Team leader, Southeast England)
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Person
Dr Ben Grey is a social worker, psychologist, and Principal Lecturer (for Research) on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, University of Hertfordshire. He has conducted training, worked in, and published widely on attachment, parenting assessment, family court, and child-welfare practice, developing the Meaning of the Child Interview within this practice context.
Content
1. Introduction.- 2. Attachment Theory and the Self-Protective Transformation of Meaning. The Caregiving System.- 3. Parental Mentalising - Storying the Inner Life of Self and Child.- 4. Exploring the Dimensions of Caregiving - The Meaning of the Child Sub-Patterns.- 5. The Meaning of the Child Assessment Process.- 6. How to Code the Meaning of the Child Interview.- 7. The MoTC Assessment Process.- 8. The Case of Leah and Mason.- 9. Attachment-Based Interview Analysis - The MoTC and AAI as a Research Method.- 10. The Meaning of the Child in Qualitative Research - How to Do Attachment-Informed Qualitative Analysis.- 11. The Meaning of the Child in Families Living with a Child Diagnosed with Autism: Security, Exploration and Therapy.- 12. The Meaning of the Adopted Child - The "Knowing Me, Knowing You" Course (Victoria Barrow and Ben Grey).- 13. The Meaning of the Child in Sensory Attachment Intervention.- 14. The Meaning of the Child in an Irish Context - Bringing the Why into Parenting Capacity Assessments.- 15. The Meaning of the Child in Child Welfare: A Case Study of Assessment and Intervention in an Icelandic Context.- 16. The Meaning of the Child Interview - So What? Towards a Systemic and Ecological Assessment of Caregiving.