Benjamin E. Fife, Psy.D.

Consultation

Consultation Groups

Work in the field of early childhood presents special challenges. Families are often highly stressed and ruptures with providers can feel difficult to understand and repair. Consultation groups offer a space for professionals working in early childhood to hone and maintain skills in serving families with infants and toddlers.

Groups meet at my office and provide members with opportunities for case consultation. Groups will meet for 90 minutes and will have 4-6 members. Groups will meet every other week for one year. Group members are asked to commit at the outset of the consultation to consistent attendance.

Groups will focus on using reflective practice and infant mental health interventions to support client growth and sustainable practice.

Site visit based early childhood mental health consultation

Professionals in social service agencies, daycare programs, physicians' offices, family law practices, and behavioral health programs sometimes notice patterns in the difficulties they run into while serving families.

Concerning patterns take many forms. Perhaps you notice increasingly tense interactions between staff and the families they are committed to serving. Maybe dedicated professionals in your agency are having difficulty keeping families engaged in processes they know could be helpful. These kinds of relationship strain can be upsetting and lead to concerns about staff burnout, client attrition, and even safety.

Through a focus on relationships and their development, early-childhood mental health consultation can help agencies and businesses keep clients and can help staff meet the challenges inherent to their work in sustainable ways.

I offer site visit based consultation tailored to your agency or business. Consultation may include staff trainings, regular small group consultations, and observation followed by feedback sessions.

If you think consultation might help your agency please contact me for an initial meeting. We can think together about what sort of ongoing relationship might meet your needs.