Watch, Wait and Wonder

An Infant or Child-Led Intervention Aimed at the Troubled Parent-Child Relationship

Introductory (2-Day) Workshop in Watch, Wait and Wonder

Watch, Wait and Wonder is a child led psychotherapeutic approach that specifically and directly uses the infant’s spontaneous activity in a free play format to enhance maternal sensitivity and responsiveness, the child’s sense of self and self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and the child-parent attachment relationship. The approach provides space for the infant/child and parent to work through developmental and relational struggles through play. Also central to the process is engaging the parent to be reflective about the child’s inner world of feelings, thoughts and desires, through which the parent recognizes the separate self of the infant and gains an understanding of her own emotional responses to her child. Because of the central role of the infant/child in the intervention and the relationship focus, Watch, Wait and Wonder differs from other interventions which tend to focus primarily on the more verbal partner, the parent.

This empirically tested approach is now applied with a range of infants and young children with relational, behavioural, regulatory and developmental problems. The workshop will introduce participants to the theory of Watch, Wait and Wonder, and demonstrate practice through in depth case presentations. The training is suitable for those who work with young children and their families who are interested in expanding their knowledge and who have some experience with using psychotherapy/counselling. The workshop may also be informative to participants who would like to learn more about infant/child-parent relationship interventions and focusing on the relationship as an intervention. Although the focus of the workshop will be on young children (0-4 yrs.) and their families, WWW has been used with latency aged children and their parents quite effectively.

Facilitator

Mirek Lojkasek, Ph.D., C.Psych., is a psychologist in Private Practice and one of the original members of a team, which included Elisabeth Muir, who contributed to conceptualising and refining the practice of Watch, Wait and Wonder (WWW), and a co-principal investigator in a study which examined the outcome of the WWW model. Dr. Lojkasek has extensive experience in working with young children and their families and uses Watch, Wait and Wonder in his work. He co-authored the manual, Watch, Wait and Wonder: A manual describing a dyadic infant-led approach to problems in infancy and early childhood (Muir, Lojkasek, Cohen, 1999). He has presented on Watch, Wait and Wonder and other aspects of infant-parent therapy/intervention internationally. Dr. Lojkasek conducts research on early parent-child relationships, attachment, developmental psychopathology, early interventions and psychotherapy.

Goals of the Workshop

To provide participants with a basic theoretical and technical foundation in Watch, Wait and Wonder. Participants will need to purchase a manual, which is used to supplement the workshop.

Objectives

Participants will learn:

  1. A theoretical framework for conducting parent-child therapy in Watch, Wait and Wonder, including uses of attachment theory.
  2. History of infant/child-led approaches.
  3. How to create the therapeutic space for WWW, including set up and toys, the WWW instructions to the parent, therapeutic tasks of the parent and therapist.
  4. Link attachment theory to the practice of WWW. Be introduced to thinking relationally.
  5. Develop an understanding of the two main intervention components of WWW; changing patterns of relating and enhancing parental reflective capacity.
  6. Learn how to establish and maintain a therapeutic alliance in WWW.
  7. Through viewing videotaped sessions of WWW cases along with the training group participants will be introduced to the process of observing, reflecting on the dyads experience and their own experience.
  8. Explore the particular difficulties in the process of following the infant/child’s and dyad’s lead.
  9. Have an opportunity to see WWW in practice through videotaped case presentations including an example of an in-depth one-session (linking infant/child-led play to discussion with parent).
  10. To think along with the participant group about how to incorporate WWW into their practice.

The group work is experientially based, practicing Watching, Waiting and Wondering together while observing cases. Because of the experiential component of the workshop the group is limited to 40-45 participants so that each participant may benefit.

The workshop is the first in a training package which includes an Advanced workshop which is designed for individuals who want to go on and practice WWW. To enquire contact Dr. Lojkasek at mlojkasek@watchwaitandwonder.com.