When you hear the phrase “infant mental health,” what comes to mind?  Does it conjure ridiculous images of a baby sitting on a couch across from a therapist’s chair?  If you primarily work with children, do you wonder, “How does one conduct therapy with a client who cannot yet talk… or even support the weight of his own head?  What does play therapy look like with a child this young?”  If adults are your primary client population, have you thought, “How can I support parents to raise emotionally healthy children?”  As clinicians, haven’t we all felt, “This person would be completely different today if only support had been provided sooner.”

In this workshop, a case example will be used to illustrate the foundations of infant mental health.  We will examine what it means to view clients through an infant mental health lens and identify common sources of difficulty.  We will discuss how to leverage relationships, both the relationship between the clinician and family and those within the family system, to promote healing and attunement.  We will explore ways to support families with babies, arming them with strategies and concepts that will promote their children’s socioemotional development across the lifespan.  Join us to expand your knowledge on how to keep our littlest clients in mind!

Objectives

Participants will learn:

• Ways to promote the socioemotional development of babies and young children
• Common sources of difficulty in the infant-parent relationship
• How to conceptualize cases taking multiple family members’ needs into account
• Strategies to support parents in order to support the growth of their children
• The role of the infant mental health clinician in a family system

Student discount and sliding scale available. Please contact us at chicagominds@gmail.com for details.

Workshop participants who opt to receive CE certification, please select the CEU option. This workshop fulfills requirement for 1 CE credit. CE sponsorship is approved by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), credits are applicable to LCSW and transferrable to LCPC in Illinois. If you have a different licensure or are licensed outside of Illinois, please check with your licensure body before purchasing. Please note that we require your live attendance in order to issue CE certificates. If you are unable to attend live, please let us know at least 24 hours before the event.

About the Speaker

Joanna Villacorta Griffin, LCSW , has spent the last ten years supporting Chicago families.  She is a children’s psychotherapist and mental health consultant with a specialty in early childhood mental health and interventions.  She holds a post-Master’s certificate in Infant Mental Health from the Erikson Institute and is trained in several relational modalities, including Child Parent Psychotherapy, Theraplay, and DIR-Floortime.  She practices both in private practice and community mental health and is passionate about infant mental health as a key to disrupting the intergenerational transmission of trauma.  She is also a parent and supporter of maternal mental health.