In press 

The NBO: a clinical tool to enhance the infant parent relationship in the perinatal period

Nugent, J. K., Nicolson, S., Paul, C. (in press). The NBO: a clinical tool to enhance the infant parent relationship in the perinatal period.  In Kristie Brandt, Bruce Perry, Stephen Seligman, Ed Tronick (Eds.). Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.  2nd Edition, Washington, DC., American Psychiatric Publishing.

Abstract

Every parent is in a state of potential disequilibrium and reorganization through the transition to parenthood with the attendant possibility of crisis and opportunity for development (Belsky & Kelly, 1994; Cowan & Cowan, 1995; Osofsky & Thompson, 2000). There has been a wealth of research into parents’ psychic processes, how they shape the parent-infant relationship, and how they might be supported, but the NBO clinician may be quite new to the rich theoretical underpinnings of Infant Mental Health. The Parent AMOR acronym is therefore intended as an aide memoire for some key psychic regulatory processes in parents that promote reciprocity in the relationship. These are: Affect regulation, Mentalising, Openness, and Responsiveness. Using the Parent AMOR framework enables the NBO clinician to be alert to ‘what might be going on’ in the parent’s mind as they observe and interact with baby. This helps the clinician to harness potential moments of change, by recognizing and working with behavioral or spoken clues to regulatory processes that are helping or hindering the relationship so far.