UMass Boston Infant-Parent Mental Health Luminary Speaker Series

Lecture Description:
The speaker will explore the conceptual origins and developmental considerations of relationship-based psychotherapy and discuss the developmental processes in infancy and early childhood. The speaker will describe the concept of ‘intergenerational transmission of psychopathology’ and outline the way in which both parent and child make unique contributions to successful or maladaptive dyadic interactions.

Lecture Description:
The speaker will present the fundamental principles of human brain development and the tenets of Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT). Clinical situations appropriate to NMT will be discussed as well as the application of NMT to assessment, diagnosis, and therapeutic interventions with infants and young children who have been exposed to neglect, depravation, and/or trauma.

Lecture Description:
The speaker will present the extent of the community problem of postpartum depression and the basic facts of current research and outcome data; further the speaker will explore the range of treatment options for mothers and their infants and young children, and identify the broad classes of medications used in treatment and their known effects.

Lecture Description:
The speaker will propose that the capacity to mentalize is acquired in the context of the child’s early social relationships and will provide evidence for the association between the quality of the parent-child attachment relationship and reflective function in the parent-child dyad. The speaker will define and utilize clinical strategies to strengthen this capacity and relate key aspects of severe psychological disorders to a person’s attachment history.

Lecture Description:
TBA

Lecture Description:
The speaker will define the criteria of social communication disorders and present the basic challenges to children and their families who have severe impairments to relationship and communication. The speaker will present her current screening tools, the ITSEA and BITSEA, and outline their relevance to clinical practice.

Lecture Description:
The speaker will present the components of Video Intervention Therapy (VIT) for use with infants and young children in dyadic and triadic interactions with caregivers and/or therapist, and outline the principle domains for analysis of videotaped material demonstrating through use of brief video segments of family interactions from clinical case material.

Lecture Description:
The speaker will describe a brief mother-infant treatment approach using a "video feedback" approach that is informed both by psychoanalysis and by research on mother-infant face-to-face interaction using video microanalysis. Two cases will be presented and the respective "stories" of the presenting complaints, the video interaction, and the parent’s own upbringing will be linked. Specific representations of the baby that may interfere with the parent’s ability to observe and process her nonverbal interaction with her infant will be identified and the mother-therapist alliance will be discussed.

Lecture Description:
The speaker will describe an evaluation, intervention, and treatment model for young children adjudicated dependent and their families as well as the intensive multidisciplinary, relationship-based therapeutic services that are part of this comprehensive model of treatment. The speaker will stress the importance of advocating for the application of current infant mental health research upon legal precedents as a way to inform judicial decisions that can better ensure the well-being of children whose parents suffer from mental illness, substance abuse, and domestic violence.