Supporting and Strengthening Relationships   

Infant Mental Health is synonymous with how well a young child develops socially and emotionally. Our focus is on helping young children and their families recover and heal after stressful and traumatic events through Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) while respecting family and cultural values. CPP is therapy for young children (birth to age 5) and their parents/caregivers. CPP focuses on the following:

Caregivers are the Most Important People in their Children’s Lives:

• Parents/caregivers know their children best and are central to their development

• Stressful experiences affect the parent-child relationship

• Young children rely on their parents/caregivers to feel safe

When Difficult Things Happen, Young Children Need Parents and Caregivers to Help Them:

• Make sense of what their family went through

• Know what they can expect in the future

• Learn to cope with challenging negative emotions

CPP may help when:

• Children have been through scary or painful events such as

• Loss of a loved one

• Separation

• Serious medical procedures

• Abuse or violence at home or in the community

• Children show difficult behavior

• Children have a change in placement or caregivers

• Family members have physical health or mental health difficulties

• Caregivers would like help with parenting and improving parent-child relationships

During CPP, we work together through the following 3 stages:

STAGE 1: Getting to know the family

• We spend time meeting alone with parents/caregivers to understand the family's

• Need and challenges

• Strengths and values

• History and experiences

• We may use questionnaires to make sure we don't miss anything

• If needed, we connect families to resources and services

• We make a plan for how CPP will help your family

STAGE 2: Addressing the family’s needs

• We usually meet once a week with the parent/caregiver and the child

• If old enough, we first help children understand

• Who we are

• Why we are meeting

• What we will do together

• We often use toys because young children show feelings and thoughts through play

• We may meet alone as adults

We help parents and children to

• Understand each other

• Talk and play about difficult experiences

• Respond to difficult feelings and behaviors

• Create a family story that leads to healing

When children are very little, we help parents/caregivers understand

• How what they've been through may affect their development and their relationships

• Ways to help them feel safe

• Ways to strengthen caregiver-child relationships as a way to help the child heal

STAGE 3: Wrapping up and planning for the future

• We celebrate changes families have made

• We talk about how parents/caregivers made changes happen

• We consider how endings and goodbyes may bring up different feelings

• We talk about what will be needed in the future