The Power of Discord in Relationships

 Featuring: Ed Tronick, PhD and Claudia M. Gold, MD

Originally recorded on Monday, June 15, 2020

LiveTalks are hour long audio-only podcasts. Part of the ‘Nurturing Relationships through Periods of Change’ series. Click here to purchase to full series.

Description: Periods of change invite discord. Is this good or bad for our relationships? Dr Tronick and Dr Gold make a case in their new book, The Power of Discord that discord is not only normal but is essential for growth and change. This talk will delve into the concepts of mismatch and repair that were developed through Dr. Tronick’s Still Face Paradigm. In the words of the authors:

“Repair teaches a critical life lesson: The negative feeling that arises from a mismatch can be changed into a positive feeling when two people subsequently achieve a match. One does not have to get stuck in a negative feeling state. Understanding how our earliest experiences become part of us, as elucidated by insights from the still-face paradigm, can guide us in a direction of healing and growth at six months, sixteen years, or sixty years.”

This talk is meant to help caregivers, as well as clinicians, to embrace the messiness of our current environment, as well as any period of change, and find ways to repair and build stronger relationships with one another.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this LiveTalk listeners will be able to:

1. Describe how relationship as a building block in growth and development at any age.
2. Identify the connection of relationship to behavior.
3. Explain how resilience can be a result of mismatch and repair.
4. Recognize the pros and cons of technology in relationships.

Course Level: Introductory. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Suitable For: Occupational Therapists, OT Assistants

AOTA
Domain: Context and Environments
Process: Intervention

Contact Hours: This course is worth 1.0 contact hour or 0.1 AOTA CEUs.

Completion Requirements: To receive contact hours for this course you must listen to the recorded LiveTalk in its entirety, and complete the accompanying assessment.

About the Speakers: Ed Tronick, PhD, is a developmental and clinical psychologist and University Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is chief faculty of the Infant Parent Mental Health Program. He is a Research Associate in Newborn Medicine at Harvard Medical School and author of five books, including The Power of Discord(2020) and more than 450 scientific papers on social-emotional development, parenting, and the still-face paradigm, which he developed.

Claudia Gold is a pediatrician and writer who practiced general and behavioral pediatrics for over 20 years and currently specializes in infant-parent mental health. She is the author of The Developmental Science of Early Childhood, The Silenced Child, and Keeping Your Child in Mind. She is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Boston Infant-Parent Mental Health program, the Brazelton Institute, and the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute.

ADA/Section 504: If you require special accommodations, please contact the Spiral Foundation at admin@thespiralfoundation.org or (617) 969-4410 ext. 231.

Continuing Education:

Occupational Therapy Practitioners/ Occupational Therapy Assistants:  The Spiral Foundation is an Approved Provider of Continuing Education for occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants by the American Occupational Therapy Association.  The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.