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This article outlines a conceptual framework for assessing personal and emotional functions of a person’s zone of proximal emotional development. The framework is based on the integrative theory Neuroaffective Developmental Psychology (NADP), which brings together attachment theory, neuropsychology, developmental psychology, and trauma theory. Within the NADP framework, this article describes a way of understanding children’s normal emotional mental organization and of examining how this mental organization may be developed or disturbed by relational issues. It also describes how a child’s mental organization can be disturbed and thus, without intervention, disturb the child’s personality development on a lifelong basis. The article presents three case vignettes, describing three children growing into adolescence with three different attachment patterns and suggested individually tailored intervention plans for each of them, relevant and useful for clinicians working with vulnerable children and families. Because the nervous system retains its plasticity throughout life, attachment is not necessarily an unchangeable pattern. That is why we as clinicians should develop psychotherapeutic methods and a research-based way of determining “what works for whom” by assessing the zone of individual proximal emotional development. The text outlines the characteristics of NADP and how it can be used to structure an intervention plan.

This article outlines a conceptual framework for organising an intervention plan for family therapy before starting the sessions. This is based on an integrative coherent theory or frame of understanding called neuroaffective developmental psychology (NADP) (Hart,). NADP is an integration of attachment theory, neuropsychology, developmental psychology, and trauma theory. It has been developed as a tool to navigate in the complex world of emotional development, intersubjectivity, family therapy, and psychotherapy to create relevant intervention plans to meet the needs of an individual family or client. NADP is used as a theoretical frame of understanding, (a) to understand emotional development, personality vulnerabilities and disorders, and the maturation of emotional capacities within attachment-based relationships, and (b) to translate this understanding into intervention plans discretely adjusted to the complexity of human development and the skills and agency of the professionals working with the families. The theory and clinical application of NADP as an organising frame within a family therapy setting is illustrated by a case example.

Zusammenfassung Dieser Ubersichtsartikel gibt eine Einfuhrung zum »Assessment of Parent-Child Interaction« (APCI), einem neu entwickelten musiktherapeutischen Beobachtungsverfahren zur Eltern-Kind-Interaktion. Der Fokus dieser Methode liegt auf der Einschatzung von Abstimmungsvorgangen zwischen Elternteil und Kind, Autonomieentwicklung und Bindungsverhalten. Die Begleitforschung zu APCI sowie zukunftige Forschungsvorhaben werden skizziert. Vorteile und Herausforderungen, die sich aus der Verwendung einer nonverbalen und auf emotionale Interaktion bezogenen Methode in der Diagnostik von Eltern- Kind-Beziehungen und elterlicher Kompetenzen ergeben, werden diskutiert. APCI erlaubt ein zugleich spielerisches und standardisiertes Vorgehen und bietet somit wertvolle Informationen fur Familien und Familientherapeuten sowie fur andere soziale Berufsgruppen. APCI stellt damit ein Untersuchungsinstrument dar, das gleichermasen ethisch angemessen, verlasslich und ansprechend ist, und dabei helfen kann, sowohl die Si...

For parents who have experienced childhood interpersonal trauma, the challenges of parenting an adolescent may trigger memories of abuse, intensifying conflict, resulting in negative cycles of relating and poorer responsiveness to emotions when parenting. This study examined whether Tuning Relationships with Music, a dyadic therapy for parents and adolescents, increased responsive parent-adolescent interactions and parent emotion coaching whilst reducing conflict and adolescent mental health difficulties. Twenty-six parent-adolescent dyads were recruited if parents had a trauma history and the dyad were currently having high levels of conflict. Dyads were randomly allocated into intervention or wait-list control and completed questionnaires and observation assessments at baseline and 4-month post-baseline follow-up. Those allocated to the intervention condition participated in 8 sessions of Tuning Relationships with Music. Trial registration: ANZCTR: 12615000814572. Parents and adolescents reported significant reductions in conflict. Parents in the intervention condition were observed to significantly improve their nonverbal communication, emotional responsiveness and non-reactivity toward their adolescent. Although parents reported they were less dismissive and punitive, and more encouraging of their adolescent’s emotions, and both parents and adolescents reported improvements in the adolescent’s mental health, these were not statistically significant. Findings suggest Tuning Relationships with Music may assist parents with a history of childhood interpersonal trauma and their adolescent to reduce conflict and increase responsive ways of relating that may positively impact the young person’s mental health. Future trials with a larger sample are warranted.