University del Pais Vasco Researches Incredible Years Parent and Child Programs

June 9, 2014

University del Pais Vasco

Consultation Workshop

On this day I am doing a consultation day with the Incredible Years parent clinicians in the morning and the child dinosaur clinicians in the afternoon.  

Parent Group Leaders 

Dinosaur Child Group Leaders

I am excited to meet these people as I have talked to them via Skype and know they are working hard to learn these programs. They are in the pilot phase of starting a research program planned by Professor Joaquin de Paul Ochotorena and his colleague Ignacia Arruabarrena in the social psychology department.  I have never met Joaquin but know he was guest editor of a special psychoeducation journal that I wrote an article for with two Portuguese colleagues about IY. His mission is to bring evidence-based programs to the child welfare population in the Basque region. I am excited about this project because the research design is well formulated and the population not one in which a randomized control group study currently exists.

While I am working John plans to bike into town and explore the area and basically “chill”.  He has not biked in a week and our lovely hotel does provide bikes although they are nothing like his Davidson and don’t even have gears!

San Sebastian 

For me, it is a great day and I hope for the clinicians as well.  Two very good translators (brothers) were provided who translated in real time. How they both listened to me while translating at the same time is a mystery to me. I think they must have two independent brain hemispheres working at the same time. The clinicians were wearing headphones listening to the Spanish translation while I had one translator next to me whispering English in my ear. Timing was impeccable.. with barely any extra time needed for the translation. The clinicians had prepared clips from their therapy groups to show me and they presented issues that were very familiar to me.  If they had been speaking English I would have thought they were parents and children in America. How universal parenting and child problems are!

It was a delightful day. We all had lunch together and I met two of the county and city administrators who have partnered with the university team to deliver these two programs. They seem like a dynamic team committed to evaluating their outcomes.

Back at the hotel I learn John has had a spectacular ride and he shows me his pictures with amazing views of the city and the beaches. However, I learn that when he went to the bank to withdraw cash he put the cash card in the wrong slot which ate up the card. It is a mystery why this slot is here but we plan to return to the bank the next day to see if we can retrieve the card.  When we tell Joaquin about this he offers to help us.

What slot would you use?

For dinner Ignacia and Joaquin took us to Hondarribia, a small village outside of San Sebastian. This is where Joaquin keeps his boat and Ignacia lives nearby. We enter what seems like an authentic Basque restaurant and order food shared by all of us ~ fresh tomatoes with tuna, the neck and chin from hake fish and a wonderful apple dish for the desert. The music is local and the oil and sauces “to die for” delicious.

We talk until nearly midnight and compare politics in Spain versus US and learn about the new Spanish king.  It is a delightful evening and we feel lucky to have been invited for a more local event.