This course is an adaptation for clinicians working with families and children with developmental and/or mental health challenges. The Touchpoints Approach can be integrated into mental health clinical therapeutic theory and practice, as well as into developmental evaluation and therapeutic services. This training applies Touchpoints to help providers nurture strengths-based collaborative partnerships with families especially when families are affected by children’s special needs.
Brazelton Touchpoints has proven to improve provider and parent knowledge of child development, reduce parental stress, and enhance collaborative family-provider partnerships in service of healthier family-child relationships. Touchpoints implements a deep understanding of children’s behavior as a primary family engagement and treatment strategy by anticipating known periods of increased stress in family functioning that are associated with developmental processes. Touchpoints employs developmental-relational care to effectively manage behavioral, emotional, or relational concerns that might arise about a child.
In this training, participants practice strengths-based strategies to nurture collaborative partnerships with families in service of emotional well-being and parental competence. They also gain knowledge of theory and practice in delivering culturally-humble, relationship-based, developmentally-informed psychotherapeutic services. While Brazelton Touchpoints is a preventive model of care, this adaptation for mental health and developmental clinicians incorporates its theory and practice into intervention and treatment, taking into account effects of trauma and healing upon development and family functioning. Touchpoints is designed to complement existing psychotherapeutic skills to enhance diverse clinical orientations and techniques. These may include infant and early childhood mental health dyadic and family systems, child-parent psychotherapy, interpersonal and psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, parent guidance, and developmental play therapy.
Course format: This course consists 28 training hours including six monthly one-hour virtual reflective practice sessions. Each of the five modules takes about five hours to complete, and includes a live, interactive Zoom session, assignments for independent practice, and online discussion. Attendance is required at all live sessions. Participants who complete the course will receive a certificate. This course is approved for 20.35 Continuing Education Credits for physicians, nurses, social workers, and psychologists. Learn more.
Session Dates and Times: Live sessions are on Mondays, 12:30-4:30 pm ET / 9:30 am – 1:30 pm PT
- 01/22/2024
- 01/29/2024
- 02/05/2024
- 02/12/2024
- 02/26/2024
- 03/04/2024
The live sessions will be followed by six monthly Reflective Practice calls, tentatively scheduled for the following Mondays, 12:30-1:30 pm ET / 9:30-10:30 am PT:
- 04/01/2024
- 05/06/2024
- 06/03/2024
- 07/08/2024
- 08/05/2024
- 09/09/2024
What you will learn:
- Strategies for building partnerships with parents that promote family strengths and emphasize preventive emotional health as well as therapeutic healing
- Techniques for integrating strengths-based attitudes and relationship-based practices into therapeutic care for individuals and families
- Strategies for strengthening parent-child relationships as a key influence on a child’s development and emotional functioning
- How to understand the processes of child development that create stress and conflict within families and how these offer opportunities for deepened relationship and healing
- Treatment techniques to address the impact of trauma and adversity within and upon the developmental process
- A framework to understand why children’s behavior can sometimes be challenging and confusing
- Techniques for talking with families about child development concerns
- How to actively listen to families and collaboratively solve problems related to child development or a child-family relationship
Number of participants:
Minimum of 10
Maximum of 20
Audience: This particular Touchpoints training is specifically designed for mental health clinicians, including psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, licensed mental health clinicians, and infant and early childhood mental health specialists.
Facilitated by Jayne Singer, PhD, Director of Developmental and Relational Health
BTC Learning Network members can save $25 on the course fee.