Institute Workshop Descriptions

Opening Keynote: Thursday, September 2
Charles H. Zeanah, Jr., M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans
Early Experience and Brain Development:  The Bucharest Early Intervention Project
Infant mental health is predicated on the assumption that early relationship experiences matter�because of their implications for current distress and disability and because of their implications for the child�s future adaptation.  This presentation will provide an overview of a randomized controlled trial of foster care as an alternative to institutional care, conducted in Bucharest, Romania. After the study is described, participants will be able to compare and contrast institutionalized and family-reared children. Preliminary findings about the degree to which foster care has and has not ameliorated early deficits will also be discussed.

Breakout I Workshops

101: Infant-Parent Psychotherapy: Relationship-Based Intervention
In this session, we will discuss a method of psychotherapeutic intervention to address the behavioral and mental health issues of infants, toddlers and their caregivers.  This approach, based on attachment theory, involves treating the caregiver and infant together and focuses on links between the caregiver�s experience of her child and her own present and past relationship experiences.  Maladaptive behaviors of the caregiver, child, or in the relationship can be resolved as each partner�s problematic perceptions of the self, the other, and the relationship are modified through treatment.  Several clinical cases will be portrayed using videotaped dyads.
Julie A. Larrieu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans

102: Introduction to Reflective Supervision:  Listening With Your Body As Well As With Your Head (participation limited to 30 attendees)
The purpose of this workshop is to present and contrast two models of supervision: the quality control, or administrative model, and the reflective model.  Each model�s principles and purposes will be described and their complementary usage will be addressed.  Blocks and barriers to the reflective model will be presented, and ways to overcome them suggested. 
Bill Schafer, Ph.D., Private Practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan

103: An Introduction to Relationship Based Practice Part I
This is a two-part workshop designed to introduce infant and family professionals to the theories, principles and practices of infant mental health. Part I will acquaint participants with basic information about infant mental health practice and introduce relationship-based approaches that support social and emotional well being in the first years of life. The presenter will use case materials to illustrate effective work with infants and families.
Deborah J. Weatherston, Ph.D., Infant Mental Health Association Director, Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health/ Wayne State University, Detroit

104: Clinical Applications of Axis V: Functional Emotional Assessment
This workshop will present a reflective practice perspective on diagnostic thinking in clinical work with infants, toddlers, and their families.  This includes an overview of the Diagnostic Classification: 0-3 with an emphasis on the contributions of Axis V, Functional Emotional Developmental Level.   Functional emotional developmental level addresses the level at which an infant or toddler organizes experience.  Axis V organizes observations of functional levels, contributes to diagnostic thinking, and helps with intervention planning.
Donna R. Weston, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Washington, Seattle

Breakout II Workshops

201: Where Angels Fear to Tread: The Joys and Tribulations of Consultative Work
This session is founded on the belief that all learning takes place in the context of relationships and is critically affected by the quality of those relationships. Therefore, we will pay special attention to the ways in which the consultant can establish a positive and collaborative relationship with the receiving program or staff person. The session will be a combination of lecture, small group activities, and case study discussion.
Mary Claire Heffron, Ph.D., Clinical Director, Early Childhood Mental Health Program, Children�s Hospital, Berkeley, California
Trudi Norman-Murch, Ph.D., Director, Services for Children with Disabilities, Southwest Human Development, Phoenix

202: Post-Institutionalized Children:  What Do We See, What Do They Need?
Young children raised in orphanages have considerably different needs than children raised in families.  When adoptive families, educators or therapists are unfamiliar with the impact of neglect on child development, they run the risk of further traumatizing children by not adequately addressing their tremendous needs.  This workshop will examine the impact of severe neglect and suggest a paradigm to increase a child�s ability to use primary caregivers as a safe base.  The adoptive parents� hopes, dreams, longings and expectations will also be addressed. 
Julie M. Ribaudo, A.C.S.W., Infant Mental Health Specialist, Interdisciplinary Center for the Family, West Bloomfield, Michigan

203: Telling What Cannot Be Told: Treatment of a Toddler Who Witnessed Her Mother�s Murder
This session begins with a review of posttraumatic symptomatology in young children, and what is known about posttraumatic stress disorder.  Following this review, videotapes are used to illustrate treatment of a young child who witnessed her mother�s murder.  The overall approach of helping this young child develop a coherent narrative and to integrate her emotional experience with her implicit narratives is emphasized.  Work with the child�s grandmother is also detailed, including how the work was integrated into work with the young child.
Charles H. Zeanah, Jr., M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans

204: Perinatal Loss and Grief
Perinatal loss or the birth of a child with a medical illness disrupts parents� expectations about pregnancy, parenting and the self.  The normal grieving process, as well as atypical reactions, will be described.  Interventions that families find helpful, as well as implications for future pregnancies and parenting will be discussed.  
Paula D. Zeanah, Ph.D., MSN, RN, Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, Department of Psychiatry, Institute for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, New Orleans
Institute Workshop Descriptions

Friday, September 3, 2004

Breakfast with the Faculty
The Role of Fathers in Infant/Child Development - Mary Claire Heffron, Ph.D.
Screening and Assessment of Infants and Toddlers - Emily Fenichel, MSW, Editor, Zero to Three Press
Working with Infants in Foster Care and Their Caregivers - Julie A. Larrieu, Ph.D.
Reflective Practice � Infant Mental Health - Julie M. Ribaudo, A.C.S.W. and Deborah J. Weatherston, Ph.D.
Case Study with Discussion - Bill Schafer, Ph.D.
Advocating for Infants and Young Children in Foster Care - Patricia Van Horn, Ph.D. 
Directions in Professional Training - Donna R. Weston, Ph.D.  

Closing Keynote: Friday, September 3
Bill Schafer, Ph.D., Private Practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Can We Risk Greatness?
Dr. Schafer will continue to develop a theme he began three years ago at the 6th Institute in 2001.  The theme is about the "other" side of the prevention coin -- not about what we can teach infants, but about what they can teach us.  In developing that theme he will discuss the deeper reasons for caring about prevention, who actually benefits from the work, some of the false assumptions we carry into the work and their effects on families and ourselves.

Breakout III Workshops

301: Comparing and Contrasting Different Approaches in Infant Mental Health Treatment  
This workshop will look at current approaches in the prevention and treatment continuum. Participants will learn to explore some of the most prominent models of working that have been developed in the field of infant mental health, discuss situations in which some models have specific applicability or could be more suited to a set of circumstances, and examine the skills, knowledge and theoretical of particular models with the aim of self-reflection and planning for professional growth.  
Mary Claire Heffron, Ph.D., Clinical Director, Early Childhood Mental Health Program, Children�s Hospital, Berkeley, California

302: Attachment Relationships and Permanency Planning: Transitions During the Reunification Process
In this session, we will discuss a comprehensive relationship-based model of intensive intervention for maltreated infants.  Attachment theory provides our theoretical framework for permanency planning decisions, and from which our program develops an individualized, strengths-based plan to reunify children with their biological parents.  Dr. Larrieu will discuss how infants� attachment relationships developed with foster parents play a significant role in our decision-making, including formulating treatment goals, implementing therapeutic interventions, and developing transition plans that involve ongoing monitoring of all relevant relationships.  Information from multiple systems and contexts will be integrated, including cultural, legal, medical, psychological and social-emotional.  Videotapes vignettes of caregiver-child interventions will be used as a framework for discussion.  
Julie A. Larrieu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans