7-week Online Infant Observation Seminar at the Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Program and CFS

7-WEEK ONLINE INFANT OBSERVATION SEMINAR BEGINS OCTOBER 19, 2018 Offered by the Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Program in Conjunction with the Contemporary Freudian Society Instructor: Dorinda Welle, PhD

This experiential seminar provides an introduction to parent-infant observation. The skill of close observation of parent-infant interactions has proven to be valuable in making informed, sensitive and effective assessments and in developing new techniques and interventions in parent-infant work.

Through the practice of infant observation, participants can attune to the emotional states of the infant and parent and become more aware of how the individual clinician makes sense of their observations. We will explore how this observational stance may serve to contain the dyad and the infant’s development.

This seminar may be of interest to diverse practitioners wanting to build up their observational capacities, including psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, nurses, doulas, midwives, day care providers, preschool teachers, occupational therapists, social workers, child welfare providers, early intervention specialists and other providers serving parents, infants, and young children.

In each session, participants will learn and practice components of the observational process, including:

● Observing mothers and babies in artwork and videos. Participants will learn to closely track the beginnings of the mother-infant relationship through the ways that mothers and infants interact during feeding, bathing, gazing, comforting, diapering and sleeping. By viewing paintings and videos of mothers and infants spanning the first year of life, we will consider how parent and infant communicate through body-to-body early experiences that set the tone for the infant’s emotional life and perceptions.

● Writing detailed notes and impressions of what was observed from memory. Recreating the actions and sequence of what occurred between mother and baby provides a basis for reflection on developmental and relational processes.

● Presenting observation notes to the seminar group. Participants will develop comfort in presenting their work to a small group.

● Discussing and sharing impressions of observations in order to refine detail and reflect on personal reactions. Observation of mothers and infants, particularly mothers and infants in distress, can stir up feelings in the observer that are often difficult to identify and contain.. Participants can explore their own feelings and reactions and in doing so, increase reflective skills. Through discussion, an imagination for the mother’s and baby’s experience can be developed.

● Integrating psychoanalytic concepts of infant development and the parent-infant relationship with the observation material. Key theoretical concepts can be more clearly understood when they are seen in the observation material. We will discuss relevant applications of parent-infant observation to the treatment context.

Each 90-minute class will be held on Fridays, 11:00am-12:30pm EST, beginning October 19 and running through December 7, 2018. Seminar sessions will be held on the Zoom online platform.

Dorinda Welle, PhD is an anthropologist and graduate of the Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Program’s three-year training in Parent-Infant Studies. She is Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico College of Nursing, where her research has focused on culture-centered suicide prevention for American Indian children and hospital-based Native medicine services for Navajo patients. She has published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, the Journal of American Indian/Alaska Native Mental Health, and the midwifery textbook Care of the Well Newborn. Her program evaluation work informed early efforts to integrate trauma treatment into substance abuse treatment programs for women and to reduce racial bias in drug sentencing.. She has taught mother-newborn observation to midwifery students and teaches a ten-month infant observation course online to therapists receiving training through the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance.

The Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Program has offered training in infant observation for over twenty years modeled on the ideas of Esther Bick at the Tavistock Clinic in London and the work of Margaret Mahler and Anni Bergman in New York. Based on these pioneers’ observations, advances have been made in the theory of the psychological birth and development of self and the parent-infant relationship from infancy through early childhood.

After attending this 7-week seminar participants will be able to:
1) Observe nonverbal behavior and communication between mother-infant pairs.
2) Identify how the inter-generational transmission of trauma may occur in the parent-infant relationship.
3) Describe the observer’s role in containing the parent and infant relationship.
4) Articulate how parent-infant relationships support infant development.
5) Discuss possible applications of parent-infant observation in intervention approaches and techniques for conducting psychotherapy.

Who Should Attend: The instructional level for this activity is advanced. Mental Health Professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, e.g. LPs, LCATs, and pastoral counselors) and those with an interest in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic thinking and clinical applications.

Continuing Education Credits:

Social Workers: The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0087. CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance of the entire program and completed online evaluation form. No partial credits will be offered. It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements. Upon completion of this program and online evaluation form, participants will be granted 10 CE credits.

Psychoanalysts: The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-0021. CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance of the entire program and completed online evaluation form. No partial credits will be offered. It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements. Upon completion of this program and online evaluation form, participants will be granted 10 CE credits.

Important Disclosure Information:

None of the planners and presenters of this program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose

Program Fee:

Non-CFS Members – $300

CFS Members – $275

Candidates and Students – $250

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Online Infant Observation Seminar

11 Bunker Hill Drive

Manalapan, NJ 07726