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International Training School for Infancy and Early Years

The Anna Freud Centre (UK), the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust (UK) and Yale University Child Study Centre (USA) have formed a unique collaboration in establishing the International Training School in Infancy and Early Years (ITSIEY). ITSIEY opened its doors to students in January 2012 and take up from students across a range of disciplines has been good. The modules are running in the UK (London) and USA (New Haven) sites.

The three organisations are internationally acclaimed contributors to the clinical, academic and research fields of infants’ and young children’s mental health. ITSIEY has drawn on the expertise of these Centres of Excellence to set expert-agreed standards of knowledge and skills that the broad range of professionals and practitioners need in order to work confidently with infants, young children and their families.

The ecological model, which focuses on the child and their family within the context of the wider communities in which they live, is at the heart of the Institute’s vision and teaching. Drawing on neurobiological, psychoanalytic, attachment and family systems ideas and evidence, ITSIEY endeavours to impart to the students:

• An enquiring observational and reflective mental stance in relation to knowledge and clinical practice
• An understanding of normative development and disturbance within an ecological perspective (relational, social and cultural)
• Knowledge and skills to work collaboratively with families and their children which is relevant to the practitioners’ particular work contexts
• An experience of multidisciplinary and multiagency working in the student group that creates a shared culture in relation to the domain of early years’ mental health

Feedback

Student feedback from the modules run to date suggests these aims are being realised: ‘.. I found it invaluable to have neurological, practical, psychoanalytical and environmental elements seamlessly interwoven into a shared conceptual framework’. ‘new material and thinking introduced with a thoughtful blend of different schools of thought now coming together and really complementing each other’. ‘I felt challenged, thought about, and invited to develop my own thinking’.

Modules

With six modular courses, ITSIEY offers tiered continuing professional development to all practitioners working with parents and young children.

Module 1: Introduction to Infant and Early Years Mental Health (compulsory*)

Module 2:The Developing Infant, the Couple and the Family: Understanding Relationships within a Social and Cultural Context

Module 3: Assessment of Strength and Risks for the Infant/Young Child in their Developmental Context

Module 4: Parent-Infant and Systemic Observation Skills: the Role of Observation in Clinical Practice

Module 5: The Practitioner-Clinet Relationship as a Vehicle for Change

Module 6: An Introduction to Planning for Evidence-Based Practice

Please see the ITSIEY Course Brochure 2013 for more information.

* Module one is the core, required module for the ITSIEY programme and a requirement to participate in any of the subsequent modules, 2-6. In some cases if potential students feel confident that their existing experience and training would already prepare them to undertake subsequent modules without Module 1 then we ask you to complete the APEL form.

Accreditation

ITSIEY is in the process of establishing university accreditation.

How to apply

Please complete and return the ITSIEY Application Form using one of the following options below.

Return the completed form and payment to:

By Post: Conference, CPD and Events Unit 
             The Tavistock Centre
             120 Belsize Lane
             London NW3 5BA

By Email: ITSIEY@tavi-port.ac.uk

By Phone: Please contact Max Fendrich on 0208 938 2548 to book and pay over the phone.

To register in the US, please see the Yale University Study Centre

Please e-mail itsiey@tavi-port.ac.uk for further information.