Ed Tronick Live Legacy Interview

Event Summary

Join us for our live Legacy Interview with Ed Tronick, a groundbreaking figure in developmental psychology and pioneer of the ‘Still Face Experiment’. He’ll be joined by two outstanding leaders in the field – Bruce Perry, renowned psychiatrist, neuroscientist and trauma expert, and Claudia Gold, a distinguished paediatrician and infant mental health specialist.

This conversation will bring together decades of research and clinical experience in child development, neuroscience, and the parent-infant relationship. . Our Legacy interview with Ed will explore how his five decades of work has transformed our understanding of infant consciousness, meaning-making, and the impact of early relationships throughout the lifespan.

About Ed Tronick

Ed is Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and an influential teacher, clinician and researcher in children’s mental health and neuroscience. His ‘Still-Face Experiment’ has become foundational in understanding infant social and emotional development and parent-child relationships.

Through his collaboration with the renowned paediatrician Berry Brazelton, Ed helped develop the Newborn Behavioral Assessment Scale and the Touchpoints Project, significantly changing how we understand infant capabilities and development. With Barry Lester he developed the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale. He has developed norms for the neurobehaviour of clinically healthy newborns, and currently is developing individualized interventions for pre-term and at-risk infants based on their neurological and behavioural functioning.

Ed has also studied how women from different ethnic and racial backgrounds experience depression and seek help for it. We will be examining the implications for culturally sensitive approaches to mental health treatment.

A past member of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Ed’s research is wide-ranging, including microanalytic studies of infant-mother interactions to work on the effects of maternal depression on infant development. His studies on infant memory, stress responses, and epigenetic processes have also influenced our understanding of early childhood development and mental health.

With over 500 published journal articles and book chapters, Ed’s work emphasises the importance of moment-to-moment interactions between caregivers and infants, showing how these exchanges shape both immediate experience and long-term development.

Special Guests:

Bruce D. Perry

Bruce is Principal of the Neurosequential Network and Professor (Adjunct) at the School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Melbourne. His work on the neurobiology of trauma, neglect and child development has created a rich dialogue with Ed and his research. Bruce’s work on the impact of abuse, neglect and trauma on the developing brain has impacted clinical practice, programmes and policy across the world. He is the author, with Maia Szalavitz, of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog, a bestselling book based on his work with maltreated children.

Our conversation will discuss Bruce and Ed’s shared focus on how repeated experiences such as chronic stress, neglect and trauma shape development and the implications for more effective therapeutic approaches. While Ed focuses on moment-to-moment meaning-making and dyadic interactions such as his Still Face work, Bruce’s Neurosequential Model© is a practical framework for understanding how these early experiences organize the developing brain and has been integrated into practice in over 26 countries.

Bruce has examined the cognitive, behavioural, emotional, social, and physiological effects of developmental adversity such as neglect and trauma as well as the positive and resilience-building effects of healthy relational connections and has been instrumental in describing how childhood experiences, both negative and positive, change the biology of the brain – and, thereby, the health of the child.

His most recent book, What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing (2021), co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, has been translated into 26 languages and has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for over 100 weeks after becoming number 1 on the list in April of 2021.

Claudia M. Gold

Claudia is a paediatrician who brings developmental science to life in everyday clinical practice. Her collaboration with Ed, culminated in their book ‘The Power of Discord’ (2020). It asks us to reconsider our understanding of parent-child relationships and argues that moments of misalignment, when followed by repair, actually strengthen bonds and build resilience. The book, which was on bestseller lists for months, challenges how clinicians and parents view “perfect” parenting, showing that it’s the messiness, repairs, and reconnection that create healthy development.

Claudia has extensive experience with families hard hit by the opioid crisis in her community in rural Western Massachusetts, and currently works as a clinician with Volunteers in Medicine, Berkshires, serving a primarily immigrant population.

While working on the front lines in a busy rural paediatrics practice, Claudia “discovered” the world of research and knowledge in the field of infant mental health through her studies with the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute in the early 2000’s. The experience led to a profound transformation of her clinical work with families. She has devoted her professional life to spreading this knowledge through writing, teaching, and public speaking. She is on the faculty of the Brazelton Institute at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her most recent book is ‘Getting to Know You: Lessons in Early Relational Health from Infants and Caregivers’ (Spring 2025). Her other books include ‘The Developmental Science of Early Childhood’ (2017), ‘The Silenced Child’ (2016), and ‘Keeping Your Child in Mind’ (2011).

Bruce Perry and Claudia Gold’s contribution as special guests in this Legacy Interview with Ed Tronick, creates a rich conversation between three distinct yet complementary approaches to understanding human development. Bruce Perry’s pioneering work in developmental neurobiology and trauma, alongside Claudia Gold’s insights into infant-parent mental health, shows how Ed’s ideas about meaning-making and repair continue to evolve and influence both research and clinical practice.

Participants will gain insights into:

– The Still Face Experiment
– The significance of moment-to-moment interactions in child development
– How early relationships shape emotional regulation and resilience
– How culture impacts the experience of depression
– Applying developmental science in clinical settings
– The impact of stress and trauma on early development
– The role of repair in healthy relationships

More about Ed Tronick

Ed is an Honorary member of the American Psychoanalytic Society, the Freudian Society and has received honorary awards for his contributions from the Society for Research on Child Development and International Society for Infant, and Zero to Three. He received the Sigourney Award for contributions to psychoanalytic thinking. He lectures on the Still-Face, trauma, maternal depression and infant neurobehaviour to world-wide scientific and clinical audiences.

About MINDinMIND

What makes MINDinMIND events unique is our distinctive approach to bringing you insightful conversations with renowned clinicians and thought leaders in mental health. As former journalists turned psychotherapists, we draw on our skills in deep listening and storytelling to connect the threads of personal and professional experiences that have shaped our guests’ work and their clinical legacies, preserving their wisdom for current and future generations of mental health professionals.

The interview will be hosted by Jane O’Rourke.

Jane is a Psychodynamic Child, Adolescent and Family Psychotherapist and former award-winning BBC Producer, and founder of MINDinMIND. She creates rich, multi-layered conversations through carefully crafted live interviews with luminaries such as Arietta Slade, Anne Alvarez, Alicia Lieberman, Beatrice Beebe, Patrick Casement, and Miriam Steele. MINDinMIND’s in-depth approach helps to create a special feel to our live events, producing original, thoughtful and at times deeply moving conversations with our visionary legacy interviewees. We deepen these conversations with the inclusion of special guests chosen by our interviewees for the support or inspiration they have offered over their careers, creating a rich, multi-faceted exploration of their work and ideas—bringing to life not just the clinical work but the person behind it as well.

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