Parent-Child Attachment Play: Using Reflective Functioning to empower parents and carers as change agents in their own families [first edition]

Parent-Child Attachment Play (PCAP) is an innovative and playful ten-step method to empower parents and carers as change agents in their own family home. It is a relational approach based on the very latest attachment research and designed to strengthen the relationship between parent.carer and child as the context in which interactions and behaviours take place. PCAP involves sharing three skills with parents and carers: play (and the creation of a shoebox or bag of toys/activities designed around the child's preferences); containment (creating physical and emotional safety for children); and a single attachment-generative mechanism known as Reflective Functioning. These skills are shared in playful and accessible ways with parents and carers. Once confident in the skills, parents and carers begin a short "You and Me" playtime at home with their child, creating a ring-fenced opportunity to practise the new skills. As parents and carers enjoy new ways of being with their child, they are helped to transfer the PCAP skills to problematic areas of family life. This book takes readers through the steps and skills of PCAP in a clear, concise format designed for a range of practitioners including social workers, family support workers, therapists, teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, charity workers and other professionals experienced in direct work with families. It contains everything needed by the budding PCAP practitioner including step-by-step guidance, practitioner and parent/carer handouts and resources, and details of access to an online resource back. The book is designed to answer those all important questions for practitioners: What is Parent-Child Attachment Play? Why and how does it work? Who does it work for, and in what circumstances and contexts? How do I deliver it? Funds raised by the sale of this book support international attachment and play projects in Africa and Asia.