Registration, accommodation, program, social program, travelling to South Africa

Look in the Cape Town Congress website.

Master Classes

Tessa Baradon (UK)

Embodied communications in working with parents and infants: a subject for clinical study

The practitioner-client (therapist-patient) relationship uses similar channels as the parent-infant relationship to express texture, intensity, nuancing of emotion. But the quality of the practitioner’s/therapist’s bodily presence tends to evade detailed recognition and description in our reflective practice. This interactive, video-based lecture will attend to implicit procedures within the practitioner-client/patient relationship.

Peter Cooper (UK), Mark Tomlinson (South Africa) and Lynne Murray (UK)

Mother-infant relationships in South Africa: Khayelitsha as a case study

Evidence will be presented on the quality of early mother-infant relationships in Khayelitsha, the influence of maternal depression on such relationships, and the implications for child development. The findings of a trial of an early mother-infant intervention will be presented. Finally, the results of a pilot study on the impact of an early book sharing training programme in Khayelitsha will be presented.

Louise Emanuel (UK)

Working in the ‘Here and now’:  Making use of the ‘transference’ and ‘counter-transference’ experience in clinical interventions with parents, infants and young children

In this paper I will explore the clinician’s use of the  ‘transference’ and ‘counter-transference’ as a tool for understanding the meaning of what is being communicated in the consulting room, on a conscious and unconscious level.  I will draw on long term work with a bereaved couple whose baby died at six weeks, exploring the complexity of their reaction to this trauma and their mourning process, as they moved towards readiness to conceive another baby. My second case example will describe  a piece of short  term family work where the child was suffering from severe constipation, illustrating how psychoanalytic approach to brief interventions may be effective in alleviating symptoms with an emotional basis.

Hiram Fitzgerald (USA)

Father involvement from birth to five: Do fathers matter?

What impacts do fathers actually have on early child development?  We will examine evidence which suggests that their positive and negative impacts are far more influential than currently represented in the literature.  We will review evidence from two major longitudinal studies (The Michigan Longitudinal Study, and the National Evaluation of Early Head Start) within the contexts of family systems, boundary ambiguity, neurobiological organization, and culture.  

Nicole Guedeney (France)

Attachment, caregiving and the first meeting in Infant Mental Health Clinic: how to make possible a second session?

To Consider the motivational dilemma between parent’s attachment and caregiving systems is a priority in a first  meeting with an infant mental health professional . Integrating theoretical approach and knowledge about attachment measures, a new semiology is described which can help the professional to reduce parent’s feeling of danger and risk in such a meeting.

Susan McDonough (USA)

Interaction Guidance:  Translating Theory into Clinical Practice

Key concepts of the Interaction Guidance Model for improving early parent-child relationships and infant-family mental health will be demonstrated through videotaped clinical vignettes.  Included is a review of the theory, research and practical implication of the approach.  Use of the model in multicultural settings in different countries will be illustrated.

Lynne Murray and Peter Cooper (UK)

The intergenerational transmission of anxiety disorder: processes and implications for treatment

Parenting practices have been implicated in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety, but studies have been largely cross-sectional. Evidence will be presented from a longitudinal study, with the development of children of anxious mothers tracked from infancy to five years of age, and causal anxiogenic processes elucidated. The implications for treatment of child
anxiety will be discussed, and evidence from two randomised controlled trials will be presented.

Joy Osofsky (USA)

Expanding clinical work with traumatized young children

Many people continue to believe that young children are not impacted by exposure to trauma and that they are immune to the effects of early adversity. A common misunderstanding is that they will “grow out of” the behavioral and emotional problems that may result from exposure to trauma.  A major reason for this misunderstanding is that in fields of study that include mental health such as psychology, social work, and psychiatry, infant development and infant mental health are not generally included in the curriculum. Therefore, even for those who understand that young children are impacted, few know ways to evaluate, intervene, and provide treatment.  This presentation will focus on ways to develop increased collaboration with child-serving systems of care such as courts, child welfare agencies, and those who work in natural disaster areas to consider new models of prevention and intervention for young traumatized children.

Arnold Sameroff (USA)

Overcoming developmental risk:  A biopsychosocial foundation for early interventions

Infant mental health will be discussed from a transactional perspective emphasizing the parent-child relationship.  A variety of interventions and treatments will be described in three categories of remediation, redefinition, and reeducation directed at the infant, the parent, and the relationship.  Questions to be discussed include 1) how do we understand infants, 2) how do we improve their lives, and 3) who is responsible for early intervention.

Björn Salomonsson (Sweden)

Talk to me baby, tell me what´s the matter now? Investigating mother-infant psychoanalytic treatments

A randomized controlled trial was recently performed in Stockholm, Sweden. It compared the results of Mother-Infant Psychoanalytic treatments with standard treatments at Child Health Centres. I will present the therapeutic method. In brief, the analyst directs his/her attention not only to the mother but s/he also enters into a "dialogue" with the baby. I will also present the quantitative results of the study. I am hoping for a discussion both with clinicians and researchers.

Tuula Tamminen (Finland)

Culture sensitive support to early parenthood

This lecture discusses issues we need to consider when working with families from different cultures.

Suzi Tortora (USA)

Understanding the unspoken: Nonverbal expression and the felt-sense of attachment

The embodied experiential nature of interactions occurs beyond the realm of verbal conscious awareness. This master class will discuss the essential role of the body and movement in all areas of infant development with an emphasis on the primary role of nonverbal experience in the developing attachment relationship. This material will be presented through a nonverbal analysis system that can be used for clinical observation, assessment and video-feedback parenting- infant education and intervention.

Hisako Watanabe (Japan)

'Enhancement and disruption of Amae in the aftermath of the East Japan great earthquake'

On March 11, 2011, the northeastern coast of Japan was devastated by the earthquake, the tsunami, and the subsequent nulear crisis in Fukushima. How the natural disasters and the man-made disaster are affecting infants and families differently in regard to the Japanese sociocultural system of Amae will be discussed.       

General info

Look for general info about Cape Town congress.