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Perinatal Substance Use: An Update and Reflection on the Importance of Relationship
The mother-baby dyad is a beautiful yet vulnerable miracle of humanity that has tremendous potential to shape how infants will grow to view themselves, their relationships and the world. While birth and mothering are joyful events, substance use and addiction can complicate the time surrounding pregnancy and birth with guilt, shame and fear and may disrupt this dyadic process…
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Reflections on MI-AIMH’s History
In 1970, there were no infant mental health home visitors in community mental health (CMH) agencies in Michigan. But there was a growing body of information about infancy that developed during the 1960s and a growing number of professionals across the country seeking to apply this information in various fields of human services. In Michigan, there was Selma Fraiberg, a…
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Nineteen Protectors
After toiling for years in the minefield of nonprofit agencies, the courts, the juvenile justice system, schools, and community mental health, I eventually forayed into the land of private practice. I had been primarily trained as an infant mental health (IMH) specialist but had done some supervised play therapy training and work earlier in my…
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Grass Roots Growth and Change
For many decades, the creative energy of members of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH) has contributed to the knowledge and understanding of infant mental health principles and practices for thousands of professionals across disciplines in the infant and family field. Beginning with the first infant mental health conference in 1977 and continuing…
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Resilience
The first time I actually thought about resilience was while I was working as a psychologist at a Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital. I was asked to test the sister of a young child who had been diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia. The family structure consisted of the oldest daughter, age 9, who had been given…
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Disorganized Attachment: The Search for Light Between the Cracks of Pain and Hope
When a child has a secure attachment, he or she can explore the surrounding world safely, trusting and knowing that their parent or primary caregiver will welcome him or her back with open arms. When she lived with her mother and father, Eva’s parents were her primary attachment figures whom she would turn to in…
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Diversity-Informed Infant Mental Health Practice in Our Current Context
Active attention to diversity is essential to the field of infant mental health (IMH) where self-awareness and relationships are the core of our work. However, in light of the current ambiguous political context that highlights our need to protect threats to civil rights, fight the continued oppression of people of color and continue to advocate…
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An Ambivalent Attachment Reunification Story
Jacob was returned to his mother Kimberly’s care three days ago. They have had extended overnight visits for the past six weeks. This is my first visit since his return home. We met in the small living room draped off by a blanket in the doorway to keep in the heat from the space heater.…
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Legislators are People Too
Reprinted from The Infant Crier Fall 2012 For many of us, the idea of contacting our elected officials and/or key decision makers brings on a case of uneasiness; it’s a discomfort that often causes us to avoid making the contact at all! So let’s consider the work of an advocate from another perspective. What if…
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You Voted. Now What About the Babies?
As you know, in our wonderful and imperfect democracy that we call the United States of America, citizens get the opportunity to vote for elected officials who will then make decisions on our behalves. Many, many decisions. And while in our imperfect democracy about half of us eligible voters filled out a ballot on Nov.…