Page 90 - Meeting with Children Book

P a ge | 88

tasks and support the formation of secure attachment
organization for their child.

The PRS is not a measure of attachment, rather it is a
practitioner scale to assist in scaffolding parents to
better respond and meet the needs of their children
post-separation. When you know what the parent is
struggling with, you can become better equipped to
engage the parent in discussions and interventions to
increase their view of their child and to protect the
bond between the child and parent. Tools like the PRS
can assist the family law practitioner to look for
change over time. Few people come in to a process
and leave completely unchanged. The PRS can be
useful in tracking change from one series of sessions
to another. An increase in the parent’s positive focus
on the child can in essence be the very changes the
child needs to be better supported in his/her
relationship with his/her parent(s). Our task is to
diminish conflict and to assist caregivers to provide
nurturing and emotionally responsive environments
where children can also explore their worlds. The idea
of the circle of security goes on over the span of
parenting. For example, the distance for exploring
becomes greater for a 12-year-old, and the emotional
safe haven becomes more complex with the child
having capacities now to also frame emotional
matters and make meaning in conjunction with a
caregiver. Regardless of the age and stage of
development of the child or youth, the caregiver
capacities must be part of the equation for the
ongoing development of attachment. Even if the child
is older, the caregiver’s ability to accurately interpret