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September 9-10, 2021
6:00AM – 12:00PM CDT

Trainers: Saara Salo and Hanna Lampi

Nurture and Play – parent-child intervention is a short-term intervention based on Theraplay-therapy (www.theraplay.fi) and mentalizing theory.  Through active, playful interaction sessions utilizing embodied mentalizing, e.g., reciprocal activities focusing on synchronicity and mirroring, and explicit mentalizing through reflective videofeedback  with the parents the aims are:

• To help parents to set limits and provide an appropriately ordered environment and encourage the child’s agency through developmentally attuned play
• To engage the child in interaction while being attuned to the child’s state and capability of repairing
• To meet the child’s needs for attention, soothing and care
• To facilitate the child’s ability to respond to the caregivers’ efforts
• To increase parental understanding of the child’s needs and feelings

Nurture and Play can be delivered to one parent-child dyad, family setting (Nurture and Play- Family) or in a group, starting already in pregnancy (Nurture and Play- Group). It is designed as an easily delivered preventive intervention applicable to be used in various settings (home visits, clinical settings). It  can be combined with other ways of working with parents and children, or as a mini-intervention in itself.  In Nurture and  Play there are ca. 6 meetings (NP-F), or 4 (pregnancy)+ 8  (parent-infant) meetings (NP-Group).  The age group is between 0-3.

Objectives:

The learning objectives of the 4 day (Central European Time 12-18) training are:

• Theoretical basis of intervention (attachment framework, emotional availability theory, mentalizing theory)
• Empirical basis of Nurture and Play -intervention (results from RCT study with depressed pregnant mothers; Salo et al., 2020; Salo & Poutiainen, 2015)
• Knowledge of how to conduct pre-Assessment phase: Nurture and Play -interview
• Knowledge of how to conduct Nurture and Play in practice: play sessions and reflective video feedback