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The seminar will focus on aspects of the new research in developmental neurobiology, prenatal and perinatal psychology, psychoneuroimmunology, and trauma theory, and will suggest implications for a new way of understanding the behavior of both children and adults. In particular, it will be suggested that most behavior—including behavior that typically evokes a diagnosis—often turns out to be strikingly adaptive, evidencing resilience, and is, therefore, worthy of respect.
Is there a way to get a child who has experienced loss or trauma to change his mind? The afternoon session will be devoted to imagining how it might be possible for us to have an impact on the stories children have devised to explain their lives to themselves. We will consider a strategy for coaching foster and adoptive parents on how to tell stories to their children that might actually break through the incoherence, and give the child a chance to build new ideas about self and self-with-other. Case examples will be offered, and participants will work on formulating interventions, in small groups.
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