Southwestern College
Infant Mental Health
Infant Mental Health Certificate Program
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The Infant Mental Health Certificate is designed to offer participants knowledge, insights, and skills related to working with infants/young children and their caregivers. These courses introduce students to the field of infant mental health and facilitate development of clinical skills, including observing, thinking, and reflecting while working with infants/young children and their caregivers in a family system. Students will explore their own internal process while working with infants/young children and family systems. They will be exposed to current research supporting early intervention, assessment and treatment approaches. A total of 80 continuing education credit hours are required to complete this certificate or a combination of quarter credits and CECs.
64-HOUR CERTIFICATE
4 required core courses
*Southwestern College students may take these courses at the Continuing Education price unless they are using the course to meet graduate program degree requirements.
Overview of Infant Mental Health: Neurobiology, Regulation and the Developing Brain
Focus on Attachment and Development: Use of Self, Theoretical Foundations, and Reflective Practices
Relationship as Client: Child-Caregiver Dyadic Interaction and the Family System
From Reflection to Action: Reflective Practice, Intervention, and Treatment
Skills you will learn
- How to recognize and work with infant mental health issues
- How to establish healthy boundaries as a practitioner supporting infant mental health
- How to become conscious of and assess one’s own internal process when working with infants and families
- To identify key domains of infant development while deepening sensitivity and awareness of child-caregiver interactions
- Strategies for assessing problems within the infant-caregiver relationship and selecting appropriate interventions
- To identify ethical issues in working with infants and their families
Where you might use these skills
- Behavioral health agencies serving infants and families
- Hospitals
- In-home settings
- Private practice
- Day care sites and preschools
Program Director
Michelle Daly, MSPH, M.A., LPCC, ATR, IMH-E, has engaged in specialized training in Art Therapy; Grief, Loss, and Trauma; Interpersonal Neurobiology, Somatics and Action Methods, Psychosocial Oncology, and Infant Mental Health as well as various integrative trauma treatment modalities including EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Michelle holds endorsement as an Infant Mental Health Specialist in the state of New Mexico and is working toward certification in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. She teaches all four courses, with a number of guest presenters from the community adding diversity to the experience. full bio
