I took the plunge. I am enrolled to attend the 2022-2023 Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship at University of California Davis, in Napa, via Zoom of course. The effervescence I felt upon meeting a few of the people presenting can only be understood if I give a little context.
When I had my son in 2009 and went back to work as a midwife, I knew the unpredictable hours and work politics were not going to be conducive to the kind of family life I wanted. I was loosely throwing around becoming a counsellor because I wholeheartedly connected with families. I read a book called: ” The boy who was raised as a dog” by Bruce Perry and fell in love with the idea of childhood development, healing trauma, attachment and the neurosequential model. So to sit in class the first weekend of our fellowship and have Dr Bruce Perry casually sitting with us, helping us to sink our teeth in infant mental health and the neurosequential model, felt like my career had been suddenly book-ended by inspiration. Not going to lie, I was a little star struck and the word luminary was mentioned several times over the weekend.
My nerdy fan-girling aside, I am so excited to bring the tools and understandings from this program and these people to my practice and the Comox Valley. Our required reading includes a book co-written by Bruce Perry and Oprah (no, despite my joking that was my only criticism was there was no Oprah, she did not make an appearance) called: What Happened to You: Conversations on Trauma Resilience and Healing.
