About this course
Please note - before booking your place on this course, you must complete an application form and have your place approved by a course tutor. More information on the application process can be found towards the bottom of this webpage.
This course is designed for professionals and clinicians working in infant and early years mental health who wish to take on a supervisory role or may have been in a supervisory role for some time but want to develop their skills in this area. Through teaching seminars and smaller work discussion groups, supervisors in training will have the opportunity to reflect on and develop their supervisory practice.
Early years mental health (or 0-5's) is a unique area of practice in which professionals simultaneously address the needs of the young child and wider family, whilst holding the needs of the former in the centre of their practice. It is well documented that it is an area of work that can be particularly emotionally taxing because of the vulnerability of the baby and the rawness of emotions in the perinatal period. Supervision of this area of practice therefore requires an additional skill set to enable supervisors to support supervisees to carry out their work with diverse families with complex needs, as well as to reflect on supervisees own experiences and emotional resonances.
Key learning topics include: the uniqueness of infant mental health supervision, transcultural supervision, supervision of cases which raise anxiety, parallel and group processes in supervision, supervising in mental health settings – mentalising the team, and using routine outcome measures in a meaningful way. These will be covered over a series of seminars.
Four follow up monthly work discussion groups will take place between January and April 2022 and will be led by experienced infant mental health supervisors. These will be smaller groups of up to 6, where participants will bring recordings of supervision to discuss and consider with the facilitator and their peers, so that you can learn about your supervision style and develop your supervisory practice. This part of the course prioritises experiential and reflective learning, rooted in real cases, thereby enabling participants to put their theoretical learning from the seminars into practice, to further develop their supervisory practice.
Please view the timetable for more information on the daily structure of the course.
- Who is this course suitable for?
This course is suitable for any mental health clinician or early years professional who is working with families with children aged 0 – 5 in a managerial and supervisory role. This includes professionals working in the following teams and services:
- Perinatal mental health
- Infant mental health
- Parent-infant
- Birth
- Parenting
- Early years
- CAMHS
- Family Nurse Partnership
- IAPT Under Fives
- Specialist health visitors
- Early Attachment Services
Requirements for this course:
- A core professional training for work with children in the early years (aged 0-5)
- 2 years’ intensive practice experience working in early years (0-5's, with at least some experience with 0-2's)
- Experience of multi-agency working with babies/young children, including knowledge and awareness of safeguarding practice
- Experience of consulting and/or supervising other staff
- Ability to present training cases within the workshops, including video of their own supervisory practice.
If you have any specific questions about the suitability of the module for your practice, please email training@annafreud.org.
- Application Process
Before booking your place on this course, you are required to complete this application form to allow the course tutors to assess whether you meet the requirements for the course.
Once completed, please send the application form via email to Savita Mistry, savita.mistry@annafreud.org
- Aims of the course
- To develop a pathway for experienced early years practitioners to move into supervision roles
- To develop specific skills for already experienced early years supervisors
- To equip supervisors with knowledge and skills particular to reflective supervision that supports the mental health and development of children in the early years
- To embed and enrich knowledge and skills in supervisory practice
- Course work
Bringing recordings of your supervision of an early years professional or clinician to work discussion groups.
- System requirements for online training
The online platform Zoom will be used to deliver this training. Prior to booking on, please ensure you meet the system requirements so you're able to join this training.
Before the training, please test your equipment is working by going to Zoom.us/test and follow the instructions.
The online platform Blackboard Learn will be used to deliver any self-guided learning and will provide access to handouts and materials. Most laptops/ PCs/ MACs/ IPADs and android devices work with Blackboard. Blackboard is best accessed through Google Chrome.
- 5 days (over a 4-month period)
Tutors
The Anna Freud Centre brings together those with a stake in the mental health of children and young people. Please subscribe to our mailing list to receive a bi-monthly e-newsletter and occasional updates about the Centre's training and events.