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Boston program helps cultivate B.C. pros

Three northern B.C. professionals are upgrading their skills and learning from some of the top minds in infant mental health research. Psychiatrist Dr. Rachel Boulding, psychologist Dr.

Three northern B.C. professionals are upgrading their skills and learning from some of the top minds in infant mental health research.

Psychiatrist Dr. Rachel Boulding, psychologist Dr. Joanne Crandall and therapist Dawn Sather are midway through an infant-parent mental health fellowship program being offered out of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

For three days each month, the group travels to hear from experts, learn from each other and find out the latest thinking in the emerging field.

Boulding said she'd been looking for some sort of program to delve deeper into the study of infant mental health and was struck by the lineup of speakers the UMass Boston fellowship offered, especially when she saw professor Ed Tronick was going to be giving a presentation.

"I'm a big fan, he's a pioneer in this field," she said.

Tronick's work has included studies on infant-parent reactions, most famously what happens when mothers use a "stone face" reaction to their child rather than showing engagement in what the child is doing or saying.

Boulding said that kind of behaviour can mimic how a depressed mother might interact with an infant and the study shows what kind of impact that might have on the relationship between the two.

The multidisciplinary training is broken down into three sections.

Beginning in January and continuing through this month the participants heard from experts in various aspects of infant development.

The next phase will allow everyone to bring forward some of their own cases to get input from the group.

Each participant is required to do a research project to wrap up the course and the three local participants are considering doing a joint project.