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This is a 2 day virtual training
August 26-27, 2021

Pregnancy is a period where emotional relationships (mother-fetal attachment, MFA) and prenatal reflective functioning are formed. They serve to prepare for the early caregiving, a system that overrides ones own attachment needs (a.ka. motherhood constellation, D. Stern) t a certain extent. Parental own attachment models are activated and re-worked during the psychological preparatory process of becoming a parent. Prenatal MIM work may be especially helpful in enhancing the emotional availability and increasing both the attachment as well as reflectiveness (i.e., treating the baby as a separate person).

Unique features of of early emotional interaction, including the nurturing elements, rhytmich synchorizing, may be especially relevant when the pregnant parent has own trauma history, suffers from depression/anxiety which preclude the normal emotional sensitization towards the fetus. Prenatal MIM examples are presented, along with qualitative consideration how to assess the early signs of sensitivity.[1]

Working with infants using the MIM/DEIS requires developmental understanding in assesment. Normative socio-emotional development needs to be put into a context of normative vs. harmful interaction patterns. Especially relevant is to assess parental emotional engaging and nurturing capabilities. Finally, toddlerhood brings out new demans for the parents: namely, structure and challenge. Case examples will be given from various age points along with assesment practices and clinical case description.

Saara Salo, PhD, has worked with infants and young children over 15 years at the University of Helsinki, Outpatient Psychiatric Unit for Small Children and their Families. She also works with pregnant couples and families at her private clinic over 10 years (www.pilkeklinikka.com). Saara has published articles in refereed psychological journals and written chapters in text-books about the significance of early emotional parent-child interaction and parental reflective functioning in especially high-risk samples (substance –abusing parents, depressed parents). She has supervised and trained professionals in social and mental health for parent-child interactional assessment, intervention and therapy (e.g., Theraplay) both in Finland and abroad (Denmark, Norway, UK). She as co-developed a preventive intervention model called the Nurture and Play which is derivative of Theraplay-therapy and mentalizing techniques with special emphasis in working already starting prenatally. She has co-written a handbook of the MIM (Marschak Interaction Method; Salo & Booth, 2019) as well as developed a rating system for the MIM procedure (D-EIS). Saara trains the MIM method, and Nurture and Play in Finland and internationally. She has extensive interest and knowledge on early parent.-child emotional relations, how to assess it, and improve it using various therapeutic modalities especially in high-risk populations, such as traumatized families.