Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, and Relationship-Based Therapies: A Neurorelational Framework for Interdisciplinary Practice Connie Lillas and Janiece Turnbull |
Author BiosConnie Lillas, PhD, MFT, RN, private practitioner and Director of the Interdisciplinary Training Institute, provides training across disciplines and service delivery systems for local, national, and international audiences.
Janiece Turnbull, PhD, completed a residency in clinical neuropsychology at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital. She has conducted assessments and coordinated treatment for children in both hospital and private practice settings for ten years. |
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Description
The explosion of interest in child development across both research and clinical arenas has dramatically expanded our knowledge and provided exciting advances in assessment and intervention. At the same time, this progress has also brought ever-increasing fragmentation in service delivery systems, theoretical formulations, and even diagnostic nomenclatures. Currently, a number of concerns affecting both research and practice can be directly traced to this fragmentation, including: competing definitions of the meaning of a child's problem behaviors; assumptions of a singular cause with discipline specific solution(s) rather than multiple causes with cross-disciplinary solutions; and treatment of the child in isolation from the context of family relationships and other extenuating circumstances. If these concerns are to be adequately addressed, there is a pressing need for an approach that respects and integrates the specialized knowledge from various disciplines, while encompassing various systems of care, to ensure more efficient service delivery.
Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, & Relationship-Based Therapies: A Neurorelational Framework for Interdisciplinary Practicedirectly addresses this lack of cohesion among disciplines. Connie Lillas and Janiece Turnbull offer a unifying, interdisciplinary framework based on current neuroscience research into how infants and children develop in the context of relationships and their surroundings. This conceptual framework is organized according to four brain systems, each representing a set of individual and relational functions that acknowledges the unique contributions from each discipline, while also presenting guiding principles that are applicable across disciplines and methods of theory and practice. The authors also offer specific, practical applications of their approach throughout the book to assist in assessment and intervention: each brain system includes clearly defined treatment strategies as well as a case study drawn from and based on the authors' clinical practice.
The next advance in working with at-risk infants, children, and families calls for true collaboration. Ideally, each infant, child, and caregiver should have the opportunity to benefit from integrated professional knowledge and a stable yet adaptive set of shared goals for treatment, within a setting that appreciates each child or family member as a unique individual within a unique social and environmental context.Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, & Relationship-Based Therapies offers an innovative and relevant framework for achieving that goal.
Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, & Relationship-Based Therapies: A Neurorelational Framework for Interdisciplinary Practicedirectly addresses this lack of cohesion among disciplines. Connie Lillas and Janiece Turnbull offer a unifying, interdisciplinary framework based on current neuroscience research into how infants and children develop in the context of relationships and their surroundings. This conceptual framework is organized according to four brain systems, each representing a set of individual and relational functions that acknowledges the unique contributions from each discipline, while also presenting guiding principles that are applicable across disciplines and methods of theory and practice. The authors also offer specific, practical applications of their approach throughout the book to assist in assessment and intervention: each brain system includes clearly defined treatment strategies as well as a case study drawn from and based on the authors' clinical practice.
The next advance in working with at-risk infants, children, and families calls for true collaboration. Ideally, each infant, child, and caregiver should have the opportunity to benefit from integrated professional knowledge and a stable yet adaptive set of shared goals for treatment, within a setting that appreciates each child or family member as a unique individual within a unique social and environmental context.Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, & Relationship-Based Therapies offers an innovative and relevant framework for achieving that goal.
Reviews
"We are just beginning to understand the brain perspective on child development problems, physical as well as psychological. This clearly written and well organized book provides a road map for the field which will be indispensable reading for the varied professionals who work with these children: psychologists, child neurologists and psychiatrists, and education experts dealing with special learning needs. The book will also help parents who wish to learn more about the situation of their children. Highly recommended."
—Antonio Damasio, Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director, Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Author of Descartes' Error and Looking for Spinoza
"The authors of this important book have taken on a project of great size and scope in forging a neurorelational framework for use across disciplines. The neuroscience underpinnings guide the conceptual structure and explain how different brain systems impact early infant behavior as well as undergo reorganization as a result of these modified behaviors. This book should be of special interest to educators, therapists, psychologists, and physicians. I applaud the teamwork and sweat that the authors, from different disciplinary backgrounds, must have experienced to provide us with this very readable and informative book. I state with pride and enthusiasm that the two authors have met the challenge of scientist-practitioner with distinction."
—Paul Satz, Ph.D., ABPP/CN, Professor Emeritus, UCLA-Semel Institute and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital
"This book is an amazing synthesis, in which development, clinical experience, and neuroscience inform each other in a clear and applied way. As anyone who has worked with challenged infants, young children, and their families knows, understanding the complexity and interaction of all the components involved is a daunting responsibility. The authors' neurorelational framework reconciles theory, clinical observation, and research in a manner which inspires the reader's thought and insight. It is a guide to academic and clinical interdisciplinary practice which should become the standard for all!"
—Serena Wieder, Ph.D., Interdisciplinary Council for Development and Learning Disorders (ICDL), Co-Author of The Child with Special Needs and Engaging Autism and the DIR® Model
"The framework presented about neurorelationships is highly relevant to all disciplines focused on early development. This integration of theories about brain function within context, and particularly within relationships, is vitally important for understanding development, behavior, assessment, and intervention for all professionals in early learning, early intervention, parenting, and mental health. Numerous tables and guidelines summarize clinical applications. No one reading this will ever think or act without the perspective of brain, behavior, context, and relationships as the integrating framework for assessment and treatment of developmental concerns."
—Kathryn E. Barnard, RN, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus, School of Nursing, University of Washington
"This book is beautifully written and applies a non-linear dynamic systems approach to neurobiology, weaving together neurobiological concepts and contextual development into a coherent and integrated framework. It provides the theoretical foundation for professionals to shift from singular diagnostic categorizations in infant-parent work to a dimensional approach, where multiple dynamics that underlie all diagnostic categories can be considered simultaneously by professionals. The most significant contribution of this truly stunning book is the inter-disciplinary nature of the tone, discussion, and clinical applications, paired with a new perspective and new language. This book provides the complexity and cohesiveness that can advance all professionals endeavoring to shift from multi-disciplinary to inter-disciplinary theory and practice."
—Kristie Brandt, RN, CNM, MSN, DNP, Parent-Infant & Child Institute, Napa, CA, Director of the Infant-Parent Mental Health Post-Graduate Certificate Program, in collaboration with Dr. Ed Tronick, at the University of Massachusetts, Boston
"This is a timely book that offers us all a chance to do better work for children and families."
—T. Berry Brazelton, M. D., Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School and Founder, Brazelton Touchpoints Center
"This book is visionary! The authors have brought a depth of understanding to child mental health that is informed by their creativity, brilliance, and unwillingness to be confined to the views of any one discipline. Their work elaborates a new analytic model capable of integrating data critical to diagnosis and treatment as never before. The book offers exciting opportunities for meaningful collaboration in this complex field."
—Sara Latz, JD, M.D., Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Clinical Faculty, David Geffen School of Medicine , Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Child/Adolescent Division, The Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA
"Given the increasing interest in accountability in health care, one often hears of the need for 'evidence-based practice.' This is certainly a message imparted by the authors in their excellent review of the literature supporting their framework. However, what is truly impressive is their 'practice-based evidence,' with which they convincingly demonstrate the value of the clinical process in driving scientists' search for new knowledge. This is clearly a win-win situation for clinical practice and basic research. The authors are highly articulate in melding the clinician's 'art' with neuro 'science' in a way that will help to more clearly understand early developmental processes."
—Professor Patrice L. (Tamar) Weiss, Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel
"The authors have spanned the chasms between neurodevelopment, relational contexts, and clinical practice to describe a new and visionary model of comprehensive interventions for challenged infants and young children and their parents. This unique and brilliantly conceived book provides a groundbreaking and in-depth framework for the integration of neuroscience research, early childhood mental health, and early intervention services. The clarity, yet complexity, of this described model, along with its clinical application, combine to make this work revolutionary for the study of interdisciplinary, team-based care. This book will inspire all to adopt the neurorelational framework as guide for individualized and comprehensive brain and relationally-based interventions."
—David W. Willis, M.D., FAAP, Behavioral-Developmental Pediatrics, Medical Director Northwest Early Childhood Institute, Portland, OR
—Antonio Damasio, Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director, Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Author of Descartes' Error and Looking for Spinoza
"The authors of this important book have taken on a project of great size and scope in forging a neurorelational framework for use across disciplines. The neuroscience underpinnings guide the conceptual structure and explain how different brain systems impact early infant behavior as well as undergo reorganization as a result of these modified behaviors. This book should be of special interest to educators, therapists, psychologists, and physicians. I applaud the teamwork and sweat that the authors, from different disciplinary backgrounds, must have experienced to provide us with this very readable and informative book. I state with pride and enthusiasm that the two authors have met the challenge of scientist-practitioner with distinction."
—Paul Satz, Ph.D., ABPP/CN, Professor Emeritus, UCLA-Semel Institute and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital
"This book is an amazing synthesis, in which development, clinical experience, and neuroscience inform each other in a clear and applied way. As anyone who has worked with challenged infants, young children, and their families knows, understanding the complexity and interaction of all the components involved is a daunting responsibility. The authors' neurorelational framework reconciles theory, clinical observation, and research in a manner which inspires the reader's thought and insight. It is a guide to academic and clinical interdisciplinary practice which should become the standard for all!"
—Serena Wieder, Ph.D., Interdisciplinary Council for Development and Learning Disorders (ICDL), Co-Author of The Child with Special Needs and Engaging Autism and the DIR® Model
"The framework presented about neurorelationships is highly relevant to all disciplines focused on early development. This integration of theories about brain function within context, and particularly within relationships, is vitally important for understanding development, behavior, assessment, and intervention for all professionals in early learning, early intervention, parenting, and mental health. Numerous tables and guidelines summarize clinical applications. No one reading this will ever think or act without the perspective of brain, behavior, context, and relationships as the integrating framework for assessment and treatment of developmental concerns."
—Kathryn E. Barnard, RN, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus, School of Nursing, University of Washington
"This book is beautifully written and applies a non-linear dynamic systems approach to neurobiology, weaving together neurobiological concepts and contextual development into a coherent and integrated framework. It provides the theoretical foundation for professionals to shift from singular diagnostic categorizations in infant-parent work to a dimensional approach, where multiple dynamics that underlie all diagnostic categories can be considered simultaneously by professionals. The most significant contribution of this truly stunning book is the inter-disciplinary nature of the tone, discussion, and clinical applications, paired with a new perspective and new language. This book provides the complexity and cohesiveness that can advance all professionals endeavoring to shift from multi-disciplinary to inter-disciplinary theory and practice."
—Kristie Brandt, RN, CNM, MSN, DNP, Parent-Infant & Child Institute, Napa, CA, Director of the Infant-Parent Mental Health Post-Graduate Certificate Program, in collaboration with Dr. Ed Tronick, at the University of Massachusetts, Boston
"This is a timely book that offers us all a chance to do better work for children and families."
—T. Berry Brazelton, M. D., Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School and Founder, Brazelton Touchpoints Center
"This book is visionary! The authors have brought a depth of understanding to child mental health that is informed by their creativity, brilliance, and unwillingness to be confined to the views of any one discipline. Their work elaborates a new analytic model capable of integrating data critical to diagnosis and treatment as never before. The book offers exciting opportunities for meaningful collaboration in this complex field."
—Sara Latz, JD, M.D., Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Clinical Faculty, David Geffen School of Medicine , Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Child/Adolescent Division, The Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA
"Given the increasing interest in accountability in health care, one often hears of the need for 'evidence-based practice.' This is certainly a message imparted by the authors in their excellent review of the literature supporting their framework. However, what is truly impressive is their 'practice-based evidence,' with which they convincingly demonstrate the value of the clinical process in driving scientists' search for new knowledge. This is clearly a win-win situation for clinical practice and basic research. The authors are highly articulate in melding the clinician's 'art' with neuro 'science' in a way that will help to more clearly understand early developmental processes."
—Professor Patrice L. (Tamar) Weiss, Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel
"The authors have spanned the chasms between neurodevelopment, relational contexts, and clinical practice to describe a new and visionary model of comprehensive interventions for challenged infants and young children and their parents. This unique and brilliantly conceived book provides a groundbreaking and in-depth framework for the integration of neuroscience research, early childhood mental health, and early intervention services. The clarity, yet complexity, of this described model, along with its clinical application, combine to make this work revolutionary for the study of interdisciplinary, team-based care. This book will inspire all to adopt the neurorelational framework as guide for individualized and comprehensive brain and relationally-based interventions."
—David W. Willis, M.D., FAAP, Behavioral-Developmental Pediatrics, Medical Director Northwest Early Childhood Institute, Portland, OR