Department of Psychiatry

Irving Harris Program in Child Development
and Infant Mental Health

Infant Mental Health Training Philosophy & Goals

Clinical Definition of Infant Mental Health

• Relational construct that begins with the transition to parenthood.
• Theoretical framework is developmental from a psychodynamic orientation within a family systems perspective, with consideration of internal working models of relationships and sensitivity to attachment issues for all members of the family system.
• A psychodynamic family systems approach is best utilized.
• Clinical work includes:
  • Transition to parenthood
  • Infertility
  • Perinatal loss
  • Problems in young children from birth to 5 years of age

Training Philosophy & Goals

• Intended for advanced practitioners in mental health and related early childhood fields.
• Train professionals who teach and consult to infant programs and their staff as well as conduct direct intervention.
• Expected to work in academic and training settings, teach, supervise, consult, and pursue clinical research.
• Based on strong belief that there is an important role for highly trained infant mental health specialists to provide services to programs that serve infants, toddlers, and their families.
• Includes intensive clinical experience with infants and young children, extensive didactic course work in core issues of infant mental health, and clinical supervision in groups and individually.
• Key components: assessment, differential diagnosis, intervention, and academic scholarship.

Assessment

• Taught through didactic course work, group supervision of clinical cases, and "hands on" experience conducting assessments.
• Includes exposure to standardized infant and parent-infant assessment tools, discussing observations of infants and their families, and viewing videotapes of sessions with infants.

Differential Diagnosis

• Use a family-centered and family-strengths perspective as well as understand the difficulties, challenges, and disorders that afflict infants and their families diagnostically.
• Use DC: 0-3R to assess all areas of functioning (e.g., emotional, developmental, biologic, temperamental, and interactional capabilities) for a thorough evaluation of the child and family.

Intervention

• In-depth training on the numerous problems seen in infancy through course work, presentations by visiting experts, and clinical group supervision.
• Focus on what is known about the cause and phenomenology of disorders, what assessment tools and pathognomonic signs can help identify a disorder, and what is known about the natural history and treatment experiences of infants with various problems.

Scholarship

• Actively involved in planning and evaluating course curricula.
• Expected to become critical consumers of clinical and developmental research, and the research information is integrated and applied to interventions and philosophical thinking about infants and infant mental health.
• Opportunities also available to pursue clinical research training.

Additional Thoughts on Infant Mental Health Training

• Infants need close and secure interpersonal relationships.  
• Infants must explore the environment to learn and grow cognitively and develop a sense of mastery.  
• Infants learn through their interactions with adults how to regulate their emotions, attention and behavior.  
• Family, community and cultural expectations must always be considered in work with young children and their families.  
• Clinical infant mental health is a relational construct that begins with the transition to parenthood. (“Birth is too late and three is too early.”)  
• The theoretical framework for work with young children is developmental from a psychodynamic orientation within a family systems perspective.  
• The field of infant mental health continues to evolve, but the development of Diagnostic Classification 0-3 and its recent revision (DC: 0-3R) have been important first steps in understanding developmentally sensitive diagnostic issues in young children.