Minding The Baby®: The impact of threat on the mother-baby and mother-clinician relationship

Moments such as these are ubiquitous in “good enough” (Winnicott, 1965) parent-infant relationships. In families with legacies of trauma (Lieberman, this volume; Lieberman & Van Horn, 2008) and toxic stress (Shonkoff, 2012), however, the regulation of threat, attachment, and exploration becomes much more complex. Ongoing and unresolved fear in primary relationships, in the family environment, or across developmental periods (Courtois, 2004), increase or decrease sensitivity to danger, and disrupt the dyad’s capacity to negotiate moments of threat and fearful arousal.