Looking from the outside in: the use of video in attachment-based interventions

Abstract

This paper provides an account of multiple potential benefits of using video in clinical interventions designed to promote change in parent–child attachment relationships. The power of video to provide a unique perspective on parents’ ways of thinking and feeling about their own behavior and that of their child will be discussed in terms of current attachment-based interventions using video either as the main component of the treatment or in addition to a more comprehensive treatment protocol. Interventions also range from those that use micro-analytic as compared to more global units of analyses, and there are potential bridges to be made with neuro-scientific research findings. In addition, this paper provides a clinical illustration of the utility of showing parents vignettes of video-filmed observations of parent–child interactions from the Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI) for vulnerable families. Emphasis is placed on the motivational force arising from seeing (and hearing) oneself in interaction with one’s child on video, thus serving as a powerful catalyst for reflective functioning and updating one’s frame of reference for how to think, feel and behave with one’s child.

Keywords:

• video feedback
• attachment-based interventions
• parent–child relationship
• Group Attachment Based Intervention
• reflective functioning

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the families who participate in the intervention at the Center for Babies, Toddlers and Families.

Funding

The work reported here was carried out while authors 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 were in receipt of grant [R40 MC 23629-01-00], over 2012–2015, from the Maternal and Child Health Research Program, Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Title V, Social Security Act), Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services. Support for authors 1, 2 and 8 for the preliminary work leading to this study came for the Einstein-Montefiore Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. The clinical work was funded by the Robin Hood Foundation.

Notes

^1. The therapist’s speech is shown in italics and bold, the parent’s speech is shown in italics.