Lecture: Joanna Tucker

“Match, mismatch and rematch”: an exploration of the interactive processes between parent and baby, and therapist and parent.

What does it mean for a parent and infant to fall out and make up? How, as practitioners or therapists, do we manage falling out and making up with our clients? In this talk, Joanna will focus on the importance of being able to repair ruptures in a relationship, and how this leads to growth and is essential for development of the individual. Her primary focus will be the regulatory systems in the parent-infant relationship, with some references to the therapist/patient relationship. She will illustrate Beatrice Beebe’s theory of intersubjectivity with video clips and still pictures, and discuss various kinds of “mismatches”: from the subtle, to bigger “disruptions” in interactions. Her particular focus will be on sequences of interactions which Beatrice Beebe has called ‘chase and dodge’. Joanna will also explore how professionals can help a parent who is upset or angry when their baby apparently does not want to look at them, and what in the parent’s own early experiences might make it difficult for them to respond contingently to their baby.

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Joanna started her professional life as a probation officer, moving later to work with parents and babies as a psychiatric social worker in the field of child abuse. Her desire to work in a preventative capacity and in more depth led to her training as a psychotherapist.

She has been involved with the Oxford Parent-Infant Project since 1999, in a variety of roles. She has had two stints of being Clinical Director, finally retiring from this in April 2016.

Joanna continues to enjoy doing some clinical work, supervision, and training. She is a qualified Guider and Supervisor in Video Interaction Guidance and is currently working on ways to help families through integrating Video Interaction Guidance and Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy.