Building Programs Where We Grow and Thrive:
The Importance and Use of Reflective Practice and Mentorship
In this interactive workshop we will explore how child serving systems like ours function as “holding environments” for all who work within them, and review the foundations of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Through presentations, examples and interactive group work we will discover how reflective practices are critical to building environments where young children, families and staff can grow and thrive, and think together about how our programs can intentionally support staff’s ability to provide emotionally responsive, trauma and diversity informed care by scaffolding their reflective capacities through mentorship, supervisory and peer relationships.
Who is Anat Weisenfreund?
Anat Weisenfreund
Anat Weisenfreund, MS, IMH-E has worked in leadership roles with high-risk infants, caregivers, and practitioners in clinical, educational, government and community settings for over 30 years. She is the President of the Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health (MassAIMH) and holds Endorsement® as an Infant Mental Health Mentor for Policy. For the past 14 years, Anat has led Community Action Pioneer Valley’s Head Start and Early Learning Programs in Western Massachusetts, and since 2018, Anat has also worked as a National Facilitator for the Brazelton Touchpoints™ Center of Boston Children’s Hospital. Prior to her work in Massachusetts, Anat held clinical and leadership roles in New York City: she developed and implemented a NICU-based intervention and developmental follow-up program for substance-exposed infants and their mothers, oversaw the NYC Early Intervention Program in Brooklyn, NY, and worked as the Assistant Commissioner for Child Care Contracts for the NYC Administration for Children’s Services.
Anat is an experienced reflective supervisor and mentor, grounded in the understanding that best practice with the youngest children and their families demands that we transform child and family serving organizations into responsive, reflective, and relational systems of care. She brings a bicultural perspective and holds a profound commitment to social justice, and a deep appreciation of diversity of all kinds.