Conference Program
Join us for the 2025 UAIMH Annual conference – “Open Eyes, Open Possibilities: The Dance of Attunement to the Babies' World"! This year, three nationally recognized speakers will focus on how to support providers in the important work of serving infants young, children, and their caregivers, specifically related to increasing caregivers' attunement to the baby and the baby's world. Participants will learn how to understand a baby's cues and how this relates back to how to utilize reflective supervision (RS) and reflective practice (RP) to better sit with and work through the discomfort and difficulty that can arise during work with young children and families. More specifically, our presenters will discuss how to utilize RS and RP to better understand and think about young children's behaviors and promote equity to improve Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH).
Meet the Presenters
Mary Dozier is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware. She obtained her Ph.D. from Duke University in 1983. She was named the Amy E. DuPont Chair in Child Development in 2007, and in 2016 was named the Francis Alison Professor, the university’s highest faculty honor. Over the last 25 years, she has studied the development of young children in foster care and young children living with neglecting birth parents, examining challenges in attachment and regulatory capabilities. Along with her graduate students and research team, she developed an intervention, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up, that targets specific issues that have been identified as problematic for young children who have experienced adversity. This intervention has been shown to enhance children’s ability to form secure attachments, and to regulate physiology and behavior normatively, among other things. She received the International Congress on Infant Studies’ Translational Research Award in 2018 and has been named the 2019 recipient of the APA Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution in Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society.
Dr. Beatrice Beebe is a developmental/clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst doing basic research on mother-infant communication. She did her dissertation and postdoctoral research fellowship with Dr. Daniel Stern. She is known for her research on microanalysis of early infant-parent communication and its implications for attachment and cognition. She is a Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University and the director of the Communications Science Lab at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI). Her work helped established the importance of nonverbal communication in infant development. Beebe and Lachmann have made unique and fundamental contributions in describing the relevance of mother-infant communication for therapist-patient communication in adult treatment.
Dr. Mitchell is a licensed clinical psychologist, specializing in Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health. She is a member of the ZERO TO THREE National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families Academy of Fellows. Dr. Mitchell is trained in multiple evidence-based treatments for trauma and a certified trainer/supervisor in multiple treatments and early childhood models. She currently serves as the Vice President of Clinical Strategy and Innovation at The Children’s Center Utah, a non-profit mental health agency serving children birth to six years and their families. She holds an Adjunct Faculty position in the University of Utah’s College of Social Work. Dr. Mitchell is a current board member and Past President of the Utah Association for Infant Mental Health and a board member of the Utah Psychological Association. She serves on numerous committees and councils aimed at supporting young children and their families. Dr. Mitchell’s work is focused on working collaboratively with public and private partners at the local and state level to ensure families with young children have access to the mental health services they need, and that the providers serving families have the training and support necessary to delivery high quality, evidence-informed services.
Conference Schedule
This conference is scheduled over the course of two days.
Day 1: Thursday, February 6th (8:30am-12:30pm)
Dr. Mary Dozier will open the conference by inviting us to learn more about the Evidence Based Treatment (EBT) Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) that targets increasing a caregivers’ attunement to their baby and/ or young child. ABC is a brief, strength-based, home visiting program that targets specific issues identified as problematic for young children who have experienced adversity. ABC is designed to help parents behave in nurturing ways with their children so that children develop organized attachments to parents; to follow children’s lead to enhance children’s developing regulatory capabilities; and to behave in non-frightening ways which serve to support secure attachments and regulatory capabilities. This talk will describe the rationale for the selection of the three intervention targets, present findings regarding the efficacy of the intervention, and discuss issues involved in implementing the program with fidelity to other sites.
**From 12:30-1:30PM we will be holding our annual board meeting for all those interested in learning more about what UAIMH does and how you can become more involved. We hope to see you there!
Day 2: Friday, February 7th (8:30am-12:30pm)
On the second day, Dr. Beebe will present her pioneering work on microanalysis of parent-infant interactions at 4 months, demonstrating subtle, often unseen communication patterns. Because human nonverbal communication is so fast, many subtle but critical movements cannot be seen by the naked eye in real time. Slowed viewing or frame-by-frame analysis is essential. For example, an infant who looks withdrawn and gaze-avoidant in real time is discovered by frame-by-frame analysis to be continually reaching for his mother despite looking away. This discovery changes the treatment approach of the mother-infant therapist. Moreover, the insights of microanalysis have allowed her group to identify rapid out-of-awareness patterns of communication at 4 months that predict secure vs. disorganized attachment at one year. She will present films on the 4-month origins of secure vs. disorganized infant attachment at one year. She will differentiate patterns of maternal intrusion from patterns of maternal threat. She will illustrate patterns of “joining” infant distress, critical to secure attachment.
There will no recording of the lectures this year as presenters will be showing recordings from their own research.
Reflective Practice Review & Discussion
Each day, the Keynote presentation will be followed by a presentation by Dr. Jennifer Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell will provide an overview of the Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) model and how it is designed to support providers and the clients they work with. Attendees will will gain an understanding of the primary components of the FAN model and how to recognize how the use of reflective practices, including use of the FAN model, demonstrates alignment with SAMHSA’s key principles. Participants will also learn how to identify benefits of the use of the FAN for both clients and providers.
Break Out Sessions
Following Dr. Mitchell's presentation each day, we will have "round table" discussions. Within Breakout rooms, you will have a chance to consider how the information from the presentations applies to your own work. We will end each day with a Q&A with the presenters of the day, followed by concluding remarks.
All in all, we aim to offer you tools to take back into your everyday work with the youngest members of our society and their caregivers. Our presenters are each highly esteemed experts in their fields, and they are excited to bring their work to you!
Ticketing Information
Registration is for both days. The conference will be held online. You will receive a link to join shortly before the event.
Membership Discount: If you are a UAIMH member, you are able to select our members only ticket options for the conference for a discounted price.
Scholarship Information:
UAIMH is excited to offer scholarships again this year to offset the cost of the conference for eligible attendees. These scholarships are intended to increase accessibility for attendees who are interested and engaged in work related to infant mental health but for whom the financial cost of registration would be a barrier to attending the annual conference. Please email uaimh.info@gmail.com if you are interested and include in the subject “UAIMH Scholarship Interest" with an answer to the question, "How would a scholarship to this conference support you in your professional goals?" We will then send you what you need to complete registration.
Students:
Again this year we are offering discounted tickets for students who wish to attend our conference. If you are a student and interested in purchasing a ticket for a discounted rate of $25.00, please send your name, the university you are attending, and a picture of your student ID card to uaimh.info@gmail.com. You will receive directions at that time for how to purchase a ticket. Please include "UAIMH Student Interest" in the subject of your email.
CEU Opportunities:
There will be opportunities for CEUs for the conference for Psychology and Social Work.