Free 12-week online training program for child welfare professionals runs February 3 – April 26, 2025
From the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) and CEED, the Infant Mental Health and Reflective Practice training includes online modules, small group discussions, and reflective consultation for participants.
- Designed for child welfare professionals working with children in, or at risk of, out-of-home placement
- Earn 36 CEUs or 36 clock hours. (CEUs contingent on course attendance and completion)
Interested? Email Mary Harrison at mharriso@umn.edu by January 30, 2025.
How it works
- Complete 6 online modules spread over 12 weeks; content is available 24/7 and can be completed on your schedule
- Intro to Infant Mental Health and Cultural Considerations
- Early Brain Development and Serve and Return
- Attachment, Self-Regulation, Role of Relationships
- Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
- Trauma, Risk, and Resilience
- Introduction to Reflective Practice
- Participate in 6 small group discussions of content with fellow cohort members (scheduled based on your availability)
- Participate in 6 reflective consultation sessions with an Infant Mental Health-Endorsed provider (scheduled based on your availability)
Learning objectives
- Learn to define and describe an infant mental health framework including considering the role culture plays in your work
- Understand the development of infant and early childhood brain architecture including the impacts of positive, tolerable, and toxic stress
- Understand the theoretical foundations of different attachment styles/strategies and how they contribute to self-regulation
- Understand some possible impacts of neglect on development
- Understand the social and emotional development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers within the context of relationships including the concepts of temperament, goodness of fit, and joint attention
- Understand what constitutes a traumatic experience or set of experiences for an infant or young child either directly or indirectly
- Understand how the capacity to be resilient develops over time within a child based on interactions between the child’s capacities (as a reflection of his or her history) and the child’s current circumstances as supported by current relationships
- Become familiar with reflective practice using an infant mental health framework
