Hello from Cape Town, South Africa! What an incredible journey it has been to be part of the Perspectives family. Recently, my role has changed from Intern Editor to Assistant Editor and I would like to share a little about myself, my journey and experience thus far.
I am Salisha Maharaj, a clinical psychologist and lecturer working at Tygerberg Hospital Child, Adolescent and Family Unit/Stellenbosch University. I completed my undergraduate and post-graduate training at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and worked for over a decade at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital. During this time my own family grew, and I am the mother to two very special boys. They humble me each day to the work that I do, and specially to the importance of psychological wellness for the people of South Africa who have been inflicted with so much pain of the past.
Spending time working in a community rife with socio-economic challenges, intergenerational trauma and recurrent cycles of violence, abuse and attachment disruptions I began to focus on developing my skills and clinical work with children under the age of 3 years. I discovered the WAIMH community when the congress was hosted in Cape Town in 2012 and found myself being drawn to a local and international community of like-minded individuals who despite various geographical and professional backgrounds keep the baby at the forefront of heart and mind.
After moving to Cape Town, I had the pleasure of working alongside Professor Astrid Berg who encouraged me to join Perspectives as an Intern Editor. This when I was introduced to Dr Maree Foley and the larger Perspectives family. My role was to assist with ongoing editorial tasks during the Perspectives publication seasons. During this time, I had a window into monumental sacrifice and effort made by the entire Perspectives editorial staff, and the WAIMH board members in their continued efforts to engage and encourage the development of infant mental professionals from around the world.
As Perspectives has grown, so has the need for administrative support. This is when I moved into an Assistant Editor role. There has been incredible support from Maree, and Minna at the WAIMH office in guiding me into this new position, and with that a feeling of being able to tackle challenging tasks during a time of trepidation for what this new role will mean for me. Primary, I will be responsible for assisting Maree with editorial tasks, managing the Perspectives email and communication with current and prospective authors who contribute to the Perspectives issues. I am also working alongside the team in the development of the Infants in Crises webpage, which has never been more relevant with the war in Ukraine and the tragedy in Syria and Turkey.
I am looking forward to continuing this year-long journey with the Perspectives team and hoping for many more years of serving the WAIMH community and its continued efforts for babies and their caregivers worldwide. As one of my first tasks I would like to remind authors of Perspectives in Infant Mental Health Submission Guidelines
- APA 7 th Edition.
- 12-point font.
- 5 or double spaced.
- Maximum 3000 words, including references.
- All in-text citations, references, tables, and figures to be in APA 7th edition format.
- Papers with tables and figures. Please submit the paper as a word-format document with separate files attached for each table and/or figure.
- We welcome photos of babies and families.
- All photos need to be sent in a separate file with a resolution of at least 72 pixels/inch.
- All photos need to include a permission statement from the author for WAIMH to publish the photo in Perspectives and also on WAIMH online social media platforms.
Questions and comments can be directed to: perspectives@waimh.org
Authors
Maharaj, Salisha,
Assistant Editor,
Perspectives in Infant Mental Health
