C. Lillas and J. Turnbull: Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, and Relationship-Based Therapies: A Neurorelational Framework for Interdisciplinary Practice

Abstract

This well-written, excellent book involves a neurorelational framework, complexity, reciprocity, dynamics, integration, and interdisciplinarity. However, just as Lillas and Turnbull argue that child development cannot be seen as the sum of its parts because that does not do justice to the whole, these few words also do no justice to the whole of this book. The authors succeed beautifully in intertwining neuroscience with interpersonal theories, grounded both in evidence-based findings and their clinical work. Starting from the simple question ‘‘What is the meaning of the behavior(s) we see?’’, the authors take the reader on a fascinating journey through the world of infant/child mental health, by which they gradually unravel the complexities of infant/child behavior. I think this book will strike experienced practitioners working in the field of infant/child mental health as a worthy contribution to the literature regarding infant/child development and early intervention. The book outlines important theories and empirical findings and is at the same time very practical, making use of diagrams, step-by-step interventions and worksheets (with a supplementary CD that provides summaries and background information as well as blank ready-to-print worksheets). By applying theoretical frameworks to case material, the authors succeed in offering a very comprehensible and useful book to the practitioner. In my opinion, this volume can also be used as a handbook for graduate students, which I hope will contribute to a more dynamic, integrative thinking in the training of social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, occupational therapists, and medical practitioners. The American Psychological Association’s definition of ‘‘psychology’’ (American Psychological Association 2010) states, ‘‘[T]oday, as the link between mind and body is well-recognized, more and more psychologists are teaming with other healthcare providers to provide whole-person healthcare for patients.’’ However, daily practice sometimes proves otherwise. The authors, writing from their own experiences, address this lacuna and formulate possible answers to this problem in their book. In the first chapter, they define the problems that many parents and professionals experience in the current era of mental health practice, namely the lack of interdisciplinary collaboration. By describing themes of fragmentation, isolation, hierarchy and specialization, the authors pinpoint some of the most important gaps in contemporary clinical practice. A brief history of assessment and intervention approaches in this chapter, also provides insight in the development of the field. The authors argue that the trend in public policy and academic research toward interdisciplinarity (collaboration between disciplines)—which is not the same as multidisciplinarity (each discipline has its specificity but there is no interaction between them)—is a good thing. However, a clinical case transcript presented in the book, interpreted from different viewpoints, underscores that more implementation of interdisciplinary ideas in clinical practice should be realized. The neurorelational framework presented in the second chapter aims to provide a solution by bridging the gap between different disciplines focused on child development. In fact, what the authors accomplish in their book is a good example of what perhaps should be called ‘‘transdisciplinarity’’ (Choi and Pak 2006), namely the integration of the natural, social and health sciences in a humanities context. In their neurorelational framework, the authors integrate insights from neuroscience, relational, and S. Casalin (&) K. U. Leuven (University of Leuven), Leuven, Belgium e-mail: sara.casalin@psy.kuleuven.be