Part II Introduction

Part II: INTRODUCTION
Sharing Mindful Talk

After the heart of our assessment process, the initial meeting, we focus on mindful conversation. Our goal is to find ways of hearing what is said and to exchange information. If new ideas can flow between both parties, they may be shared with others as well.

We begin our analysis by focusing on several areas in the experience of child and family concerning the existing physiological and medical realities and how they interact with wider social, community and cultural realities.

Initially, because we would forget, we began by using a crib sheet so we wouldn’t omit any of the eight biopsychosocial and cultural points of view, but now we can incorporate these easily and routinely. Noting the way the problem stands in relation to many other variables helps us think in novel ways that are more holistic and constructive. We are much more likely to arrive at mutually satisfactory multiple-viewpoint solutions with parents over their child’s problem rather than merely suggest single causes and over-simplified answers. Ultimately, our goal is a “goodness-of-fit,” or high degree of matching temperaments between the child and the social expectations of his/her social-physical environment. To the degree these “biopsychosocialcultural structures” are aligned, positive outcomes prevail.

A “sparkling outcome” from these eight levels of transactions would accurately assess the level of the child’s experience. Each level of transaction is built upon a previous hierarchical and sequential one, starting with the most simple and elemental: biophysical constructions, such as bodily physiology affecting vitality, sleep, toileting and eating. The next level involves constitutional temperament features influenced by modulating sensory sensitivities and movement. Before organizing mental abilities and symbols, important attachment and two-way contingent emotional communication are prerequisites. Further and higher levels include magnified impacts of telling and retelling of family stories and optimal stimulation by complexities of school, and cultural communities which further emotional, cognitive and identity development into formal and systemic proportions. Accurately assessing a child’s level allows interventions that support scaffolding to gain higher or newer levels of development.

This section reveals for us the balance of risks and corresponding child-protection factors from which alternative stories can be drawn. Consider how much more compelling the outcome-stories from the child and family’s lived experience are than the more reductionistic labels or over-simplistic, but expertly constructed, descriptions which can overwhelm an individual’s sense of agency. A diagnosis is helpful but insufficient to answer all questions about a person’s identity, relationships and life stories. Sometimes a “family experience diagnosis” is all that’s needed for a general understanding of conditions without compromising individual volition and agency that would be oppressed by a DSM 1V diagnosis. This is our second building block of resiliency.