Upcoming Events
Whose Treatment is this Anyway?
Treating the Earliest Relationship in Infant-Parent Psychotherapy
Sarah Birss, MD and Ann Epstein, MD
8:00-9:30 p.m.
Dr. Birss will explore the importance of the earliest relationship as the foundation underlying development of: affect regulation, implicit memories, internalized early object relations, language development, self reflection, and cognitive development including understanding of mind and the importance of intersubjectivity in early development.
Dr. Epstein will present videotape of a mother-infant observation to illustrate this educational process in training for parent-infant psychotherapy. Attention will be given to the goal of increasing reflective functioning in the parent and the parallel process for the therapist with the parent/patient, with attention to countertransference.
Sarah Birss, MD is a child and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, with training in developmental pediatrics. She was Co-Director, with Dr. Epstein, of the Infant Mental Health Training Program at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy for four years, and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is on the faculty of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and has consulted to Early Intervention and to therapeutic preschools. Dr. Birss has a private practice in child and adult psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Cambridge.
Ann Epstein, MD is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst whose interest is in applying psychodynamic principles to clinical work wit h parents and young children. She has done research in attachment over the life cycle and has consulted t o Early Intervention programs, preschools, and a Pediatric Failure to Thrive clinic. She co-directed the Infant Mental Health fellowship at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy for five years. Dr. Epstein is a clinical instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and she practices adult and child psychiatry in Cambridge.
Place: Learning Center, Cambridge Hospital, 1493 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA
Easy access: For directions to Cambridge Hospital, please visit http://www.challiance.org Parking fee in the Cambridge Hospital garage will be approx. $5.00.