The Infants, Children and Young People Special Interest Group aims to draw together counsellors and psychotherapists working in a wide range of settings and with diverse training and experience who have a strong interest in professional practice and professional development relevant to this cohort.
The group aims to draw together counsellors and psychotherapists working in a wide range of settings and with diverse training and experience who have a strong interest in professional practice and professional development relevant to this cohort.
About the Infants, Children and Young People Special Interest Group
The group will bring focus to early intervention and prevention as priority areas; however, will also aim to promote the effectiveness of developmentally appropriate and self-deterministic therapies including play therapy, creative arts therapy, parent-child therapies, group therapy, and bush adventure therapy as examples.
The group will focus on the following objectives:
Clinical Practice
To develop low-cost PD’s to support Counsellors and Psychotherapists already working with, or looking to learn how to work effectively with infants, children, and young people and their families and/or carers.
To offer a community of practice that promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and consultation, and provides opportunities to share information, knowledge, and expertise.
Leadership
To provide consultation to PACFA regarding Federal and/or state policy and legislation concerning the mental health and emotional well-being of infants, children, and young people, and assist with drafting documents.
Partnership
To partner with other key agencies and bodies and build a stronger reflexive alliance and strategic partnerships that enable us to achieve the goals of the SIG.
Education
To develop and extend the practice knowledge and expertise of counsellors and psychotherapists at any stage of their career.
Advocacy
To elevate the voices of infants, children, and young people, and act as their advocates for their inclusion in society, policy, and initiatives that impact or involve them. Promoting infant and child-centred or led frameworks, policies, and practices will be a key priority. This might include innovative projects that focus on amplifying their voices in spaces where they are silenced or overlooked.
The group will be framed up from several pillars of practice that will orient 'why we do,' 'what we do,' and 'how we do it,' and continually reviewing this. They are:
• Infant/child/YP-led practice
• Trauma-informed practice
• Healing-centred engagement
• Cultural safety
• The rights of the child
• Infants, children and young people are understood as having capacity to be agents of change.
• Infants, children, and young people are held in mind and kept in view.
The Infants, Children and Young People Special Interest Group meets in June. Contact Dr Emma van Daal at [email protected] to register your interest.