Course Description
This course will provide a framework for engaging in resource work with vulnerable families. Included in each session will be practical tips and a deeper discussion of clinical issues that often arise and inform our work. Topics will include the concept of “scarcity,” clients experiencing multiple stressors, building a toolbox with a full panoply of available resources, creating a resource library and a resource intake tool. Included in each session will be practical tips, and specific pointers to manage multiple challenges. The public benefits and resources discussed will be applicable to people working across the United States. An exploration of clinical issues, including setting reasonable expectations with clients, building trust, managing our own feelings, and issues of fairness and equity will be explored.
Instructor
Ellen Jawitz, JD and Tiffany Clark, LICSW
Ellen Jawitz, JD has served as the Family Resource Coordinator at the JF&CS Center for Early Relationship Support since 2013. In this role, she has helped hundreds of families access public benefits, including SNAP, TANF, Child Tax Credits, affordable childcare, rent assistance, shelter, and more. She regularly leads trainings, both for professionals and volunteers, on public benefits and working with clients who are experiencing poverty. Ellen is also a licensed attorney with many years of experience in appellate practice and criminal law. Prior to coming to JF&CS, she represented indigent criminal defendants on appeal, and she has argued more than 40 cases before the Massachusetts and Connecticut Appeals Courts. Ellen has devoted her career to helping underserved populations, and she finds great satisfaction in her current role assisting families who are trying to navigate complex systems.
Tiffany Clark, LICSW is a Maternal Recovery Specialist Supervisor and Parent-Child Clinician for multiple projects and interventions at the Center for Early Relationship Support at Jewish Family & Children's Service of Greater Boston. Tiffany has received extensive training in Infant-Parent Mental Health and additional evidence-based practices such as Child-Parent Psychotherapy and Circle of Security. Her expertise is in treating parent-child dyads impacted by trauma and adversity. Prior to her role at JF&CS, Tiffany provided residential and outpatient clinical services to children and families impacted by domestic violence. In that role, she also provided training and consultation to community service providers, volunteers and staff. Tiffany was the 2014 recipient of the Shelter Liaison of the Year recognition through Horizons for Homeless Children for her dedication to improving the lives of young homeless children.
Who Should Apply
Social workers, clinicians, para-professionals, home visitors and others who work with vulnerable families.
Class Size
60
Date and Time
Tuesday, April 12, 1-2:30 pm
Tuesday, April 19, 1-2:30 pm
Tuesday, April 26, 1-2:30 pm
Location
Online via Zoom
Tuition
$300
CEUs
We will be applying for 4.5 CEUs from the NAWS-MA chapter.
Application
Download the Beyond Emotional Support course application. For more information, email your questions to ipti@jfcsboston.org.
Course Description
This yearlong course combines guest lectures and small group discussions to explore foundational topics in infant mental health and the ongoing impact of historical trauma and social, educational, and health disparities on a baby’s development, relational health and wellbeing. Concepts of vulnerability and resilience, stress, trauma, emotional regulation and attachment will frame discussions of such questions as: How does a reproductive justice framework help us better meet the needs of vulnerable families in the perinatal period? What are the strengths and limitations of attachment theory? The course includes examination of the complex intersectional effects of social and political power hierarchies, race, culture, and ethnicity on human development.
Each monthly meeting presents new opportunities for learning, group exploration, and discussion—all in an environment welcoming of diverse voices in the context of a shared commitment to ongoing growth and diversification in the field.
The series is appropriate for new practitioners as well as experienced professionals.
2021/2022 Dates
Sept 17
Infant Mental Health overview: Historical assumptions, Roots & Questions: Where do we stand today? A critical look at policy and science with presenters Caroline Phillips, Ann Epstein, Sarah Birss, and Aditi Subramaniam.
Oct 15
Disparities in infant mental health, maternal health, and post-partum care: Reproductive Justice as a framework for practice. Presented by Stefanie Belnavis.
Nov 19
Reflective supervision and practice: issues of power, difference. Presented by Aditi Subramaniam.
Dec 10
Re-examining Attachment Theory from a diversity-informed perspective: Integrating Historical Trauma and Infant Mental Health, with presenters Ann Epstein with Jessica Boyatt.
Jan 21
Supporting Fathers to Play a More Active Role in Early Development presented by Haji Shearer.
Feb 18
Immigration Trauma, Separation and Loss: The role of IECMH in disrupting the etches from the past. How structural racism affects young children in immigrant families and implications for IECMH practitioners. Presented by Carmen Rosa Noroña and Ivys Fernández-Pastrana.
Mar 18
Families in Recovery: an infant mental health lens, presented by Danya Handelsman with Tiffany Clark.
April 8
Autism spectrum disorders: the development of intersubjectivity in neuro-typical and neuro-atypical children with Tal Baz with Ann Epstein.
May 20
Intervention - Circle of Security, presented by Lisa McElaney with Laura Gomez Machiavelo.
Learn about our presenters
Time
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. EST
CEUs
We will be applying for 13.5 CEUs from the NASW- MA chapter and MaMHCA.
Tuition
$725 for the series.
In an effort to advance equitable access to training in Infant Mental Health, our donors have earmarked limited partial scholarship funds for students from racial and ethnic minority groups. Please contact IPTI for more information.
Location
Zoom (Link will be sent once you register)
Registration
Download the Conversation and Controversies course application. For more information, email your questions to ipti@jfcsboston.org.
Course Description
Substance use, misuse, and dependence impact the perinatal and early parenting period significantly. Rates of substance use disorders continue to rise in the population of women of child-bearing age. Mental health professionals, medical providers, and allied health professionals increasingly encounter mothers, fathers, infants, and alternate care providers who can benefit from attuned and responsive practices. This course will offer a review of the latest research on the links between attachment theory, neurobiology, and addiction; opportunities to learn about the various ways of supporting families; and a forum in which conversations about complex policies, practice choices, and ethical dilemmas can be rich opportunities for growth.
Instructor
Danya Handelsman, BScPT, LICSW
Danya is a clinical social worker with a background in child development, pediatric physical therapy, and early intervention. She is a graduate of the Infant Mental Health Fellowship at the Infant-Parent Training Institute at Jewish Family & Children’s Service (JF&CS). She currently works as a clinician with Project NESST at the Center for Early Relationship Support at JF&CS, where she provides attachment-centered, trauma-informed, dyadic therapy for mothers with substance-use disorders and their infants, attachment-based group work and training.
Who Should Apply
Providers from various disciplines who work with parents and infants impacted by parental substance use. The course will provide a rich learning opportunity for clinical social workers, psychologists, licensed mental health counselors, allied health professionals, and paraprofessionals, including addiction treatment professionals, visiting nurses, Early Intervention providers, and maternal health/mental health providers.
Date and Time
8 Thursdays
March 24th-May 12th, 2022
2:00pm - 4:00pm EST
Location
Online via Zoom
Tuition
$875
CEUs
We will be applying for 16 CEUs from the NASW-MA chapter. LMHC CEUs through MaMHCA available upon request.
Application
Download the Families Impacted by Addiction course application. For more information, email your questions to ipti@jfcsboston.org.
A mother's mental health affects her own sense of self, the well-being of her children, her close relationships, and the functioning of the family. A mother of an infant or young child who is struggling with depression, anxiety, or other emotional difficulties faces multiple challenges in coping and parenting. This course will examine the profound emotional transformation of becoming a mother, the influence of culture on maternal mental health, and the impact of mental health on the parent-child relationship. Included in the class sessions are issues of trauma, intergenerational parenting patterns, research on maternal depression, and mothering under special circumstances. Use of video and opportunities for exploring case material will be provided.
Course Description
Reflective supervision is an essential component of programs providing direct services to young children and families. It has become the gold standard of supervision within early education and care settings. Decades of research and practice have demonstrated that reflective supervision increases the quality of care, improves job satisfaction, and increases staff retention in early childhood programs.
The reflective supervision framework creates a supervision environment that supports staff capacity-building and professional growth, leading to improvements in staff learning, decision-making, and job performance. Through a collaborative process, reflective supervisors provide staff with an opportunity to identify, explore, and reflect on their experiences in their work, increasing their capacity to problem-solve and act intentionally.
In this virtual course from the Infant-Parent Training Institute of Jewish Family & Children’s Service, supervisors will learn the process of Reflective Supervision with opportunities to practice new skills using real-life supervisory challenges from their workplaces. The course will utilize direct instruction, readings, and discussion.
Required Text
Reflective Supervision and Leadership for Infant and Early Childhood (2011), by M. C. Heffron and T. Murch, Zero to Three Publishing.
Who Should Apply
Supervisors in management and leadership positions in early education and care programs, including program directors, assistant directors, and upper-level supervisors.
Date and Time
8 Wednesdays
February 2nd-March 23rd, 2022
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EST
Location
Online via Zoom
Tuition
$875 for the series
CEUs
Procurement of MAAEYC Continuing Education Credits are in process.
MassAIMH IECMH Endorsement®
IPTI's Reflective Supervision in Early Education and Care course has been crosswalked with the Competency Guidelines® towards MassAIMH Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement® and is available for use/reference within the state of MA.
The following are the competencies that this course fulfill:
Working with Others: Building and Maintaining Relationships- Supporting Others- Collaborating- Resolving Conflict- Empathy and Compassion
Communicating: Listening- Speaking- Group Process
Thinking: Analyzing Information- Solving Problems- Exercising Sound Judgement- Maintaining Perspective- Planning and Organizing
Reflection: Contemplation- Self Awareness- Curiosity- Professional/Personal Development- Emotional Response- Parallel Process
To learn about MassAIMH IECMH Endorsement®, please visit: https://massaimh.org/endorsement/
Registration
Download the Reflective Supervision course application