Patricia Crittenden - Attachment And Family Therapy

Attachment and family therapy

Attachment and family therapy

Patricia Crittenden, Rudi Dallos, Andrea Landini and Kasia Kozlowska

Open University Press

McGraw-Hill Education

McGraw-Hill House

Shoppenhangers Road

Maidenhead

Berkshire

England

SL6 2QL

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world wide web: www.openup.co.uk

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First published 2014

Copyright Patricia Crittenden, Rudi Dallos, Andrea Landini and Kais Kozlowska, 2014

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS.

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

ISBN-13: 9780335235902

ISBN-10: 0335235905

eISBN: 9780335239337

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Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that may be used herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to represent any real individual, company, product or event.

Praise for this book

This book is a tour de force! The authors have contributed one of the most significant theoretical developments within the family systems field for some time. Their book is part of a blossoming movement to integrate attachment theory with systemic theory and practice. They offer a powerful explanatory alternative to a DSM based description of distress in children and families that not only offers a compassionate, causal framework for the development of problems in families but also provides clear guidance for tailored assistance and intervention with children and their families.

Arlene Vetere, Professor of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice, Diakonhjemmet University College, Norway

I have long looked forward to this book and it in no way disappoints, combining as it does engaging clinical material with a clarity of conceptualising that has become regrettably rare in the world of contemporary family therapy. Crittenden and Dallos bring alive the remarkable explanatory power of the DMM in a synergy with family systems therapy, to produce a readable therapeutic guide that is truly more than the sum of its parts.

David Pocock, Systemic Family Therapist and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, and Trainer in independent practice, UK

This book presents a much-needed shift from infant-mother attachment to consideration of the wider family and professional system including Dad! It offers an accessible, thoughtful and at times provocative approach to helping families struggling with a wide range of problems including those where children have autism or ADHD. The emphasis on assessment as a means of formulating an intervention plan, rather than diagnosis and prescription, is particularly welcome.

Steve Farnfield, Senior Lecturer and Director of the MSc in Attachment Studies, University of Roehampton, UK

We dedicate this volume to the families who have shared
their distress and hope with us, enabling us to help other
families through sharing their experience.

Contents

Patricia McKinsey Crittenden is a developmental psychopathologist. During her doctoral work under Mary Ainsworth, she began to develop the Dynamic-Maturational Model (DMM) of Attachment and Adaptation. She pioneered video-feedback with maltreating mothers in the early 1970s, ran a family support centre, trained as a behavioural and family systems therapist, was the Director of the Miami Child Protection Team, and consulted to family courts in several countries. She has developed a life-span series of assessments of attachment. In 2004, she was given a Career Achievement Award by the European Family Therapy Association. She has published more than 100 empirical papers and chapters, as well as several books, and is the founding Chair of The International Association for the Study of Attachment.

Rudi Dallos is Professor and Research Director on the Clinical Psychology Training programme at Plymouth University. He works as a family therapist using an attachment narrative therapy approach which he has developed. His recent book publications include: Attachment Narrative Therapy (Open University Press, 2006), An Introduction to Family Therapy, Third Edition (Open University Press, 2010) and Reflective Practice in Psychotherapy and Counselling (Open University Press, 2009).

Andrea Landini is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. For two decades, he collaborated with Patricia Crittenden in the development of the Dynamic-Maturational Model. He teaches the DMM and its assessment methods internationally, has published many articles and edited volumes on the DMM. He is on the faculty of several Italian schools of cognitive and family systems psychotherapy.

Kasia Kozlowska is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at The Childrens Hospital in Sydney, Australia, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Paediatrics and Child Health, and Clinician Researcher at the Brain Dynamics Centre, all in the University of Sydney Medical School. She has published numerous papers, particularly on the topics of mind body interactions, treatment of children with somatic symptoms, multimodal approaches for complex presentations, and the integration of DMM and systems thinking into clinical practice.

Most of all we are appreciative of the families whose stories form the basis of our understandings and help bring our book to life. In addition, we gratefully thank the following people who have helped us in many different ways: Clark Baim, Chip Chimera, Robert Duschinsky, Charles Nelson, McKinsey Pentland, Verter Pregreffi, Trina Robson, Nicola Sahhar, Blanche Savage, and Arlene Vetere.

What this book is about

This is a book about how people adapt to the challenges of their lives and the ways that mental health professionals can assist them when they are in trouble. Conceptually, it is a book is about the interconnectedness of life processes within and among individuals. These processes are multi-layered and reciprocal, with communication occurring both laterally and vertically through the layers and across individuals. It is a book about complexity, but an ordered, comprehensible, and functional complexity. To address the complexities of life of survival and reproduction we gather together an array of systems theories, from genetic and epigenetic to neurological, psychological, relational (dyadic and familial), and cultural. From these theories, combined with case study evidence, we will derive an approach to treatment that combines ideas from attachment and family systems.

Interpersonal neurobiology

Within that array, we focus most intensively on the bridge that connects one person to another in ways that shape the neurological development and functioning of each (Siegel 2012). It is at this point, where two minds converge in time and topic, that brains are shaped. This is the transfer point in childrearing, where the parents genetic and experiential heritage coalesces in protective behaviour directed toward a specific child in response to the childs signals. The parent acts and the childs brain is differentially activated, leading to a situation-specific response. Across cycles of similar interactions, the childs brain is shaped, adapting the child to his or her unique family context. The parent is changed as well.