This workshop (conducted over two sessions) offers delegates an experience of live and real-time supervision. Reflective Supervision is a cornerstone for enhancing a practitioner’s effective work with infants, very young children and their families. Reflective supervision focuses on: “the shared exploration of the emotional content of infant and family work as expressed in relationships between parents and infants, parents and practitioners, and supervisors and practitioners” (Weatherston & Barron, 2009, p. 63). Following a brief introduction to the concept of reflective supervision, a live supervision session (approximately 60 minutes) will be conducted. This will involve two senior infant mental health practitioners, respectively, taking the role of supervisor and supervisee. They will engage in a reflective partnership concerning a current clinical intervention with an infant and his/her family, through discussing detailed clinical material. The supervision session will be followed by a facilitated group reflection on the supervision experience and process. This workshop is suitable for anyone who works with infants, toddlers and their families. It is specifically offered in response to educational needs expressed by the Affiliates of WAIMH who have requested learning opportunities about Reflective Supervision in conjunction with opportunities for therapeuticallyoriented discussions, to bring back to their communities.
Session 1 (June 14, 8.30 – 10.00 am).
Senior clinician acting as supervisor:
Dr Louise Emanuel (Phd) is a Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She is the Under Five Lead for Camden Services in the Child and Family Department. She is Course Organiser for the PGdip/MA in Infant Mental Health (M9), teaches on the clinical training for child psychotherapists, and she has been the co-convenor of the Infant Mental Health Workshop for many years. She also has an interest in work with fostered and adopted children, children with learning disabilities, and consultation to organisations. She has numerous publications in the infant field and she has notably co-edited the book “What can the matter be?’ Therapeutic Interventions with Parents, Infants and Young Children, Emanuel, L. & Bradley, E. eds. (2008) London, Karnac Books. She has lectured in South Africa, Brazil, Taiwan, Australia, Israel, Holland – and taught on observational and clinical courses in Florence and Athens.
Senior clinician presenting case material and acting as supervisee:
Ms Patricia O’Rourke (BA, MGuidCouns, GradDipIMH)
Patricia O’Rourke is a Child Psychotherapist and Psychodramatist. She has worked as a consultant, supervisor and trainer in the public and private sectors in Australia and New Zealand. For the past ten years she has provided individual and group reflective supervision to infant mental health workers from a range of organisations and settings. She is particularly interested in child protection and preventative work with infants, toddlers and their families and she co-ordinates the Infant Therapeutic Reunification Service in the Department of Psychological Medicine, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide. She is currently completing a PhD researching how mothers look at their newborns and whether this can be characterised to assist earlier intervention.
Session 2 (June 14, 12.30 – 2.00 pm)
Senior clinician acting as supervisor:
Pamela Segel (Ed.S, DS III (Developmental Specialist), IMH-E-IV(Mentor/Clinical) is an Early Childhood developmental specialist. She practices as a home visitor and works with families with children aged birth to three who are at risk for disorders in emotional and social development. Her clients are primarily self-referrals or paediatrician referrals. Families are diverse in culture, ethnicity, and socioeconomic backgrounds. She is an Adjunct Faculty in the Education/ Early Childhood department at Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque, New Mexico. USA. Additionally, as an endorsed Infant Mental Health mentor, she provides Reflective Supervision to practitioners in New Mexico.
Senior clinician presenting case material and acting as supervisee:
Ms. Sarah J. Jones is a Member of the Australian Association of Social Workers, a Clinical Member of the Victorian Association of Family Therapists, and a Member of the Australian Association of Infant Mental Health.
Her background was originally in Psychiatry Social Work. She trained in Family Therapy at the Tavistock for several years. On her return to Melbourne she trained with as a Couples Therapist and worked for 15 years at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. She now teaches on the Graduate Diploma of Infant Mental Health/RCH University of Melbourne.
As part of her own private consultancy practice she works closely with three teams of Maternal and Child Health Nurses and is the external consultant/ supervisor to Maternal and Child Health Nurses, employed by the Council. She is also employed by different departments of the Royal Children’s Hospital, in particular the Paediatric Palliative Care Program and Paediatric Psycho-Oncology. She wrote two papers in the book, «Baby as Subject; New Directions in Infant Parent Therapy», edited by Frances Thomson Salo and Campbell Paul, Stonnington Press, Melbourne, 2007.
Co-chairs: Maree Foley, Affiliates Council Representative, Martin St-André, Affiliates Council Chair
Authors
Foley, Maree,
St-André, Martin,
New Zealand and Canada
