AIMH UK is delighted to announce our first joint conference with the Infant Mental Health Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (IMHAANZ). Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand, meaning the Land of the Long White Cloud.
The conference takes place in Mental Health Awareness Week and we will be bringing awareness to the impact of trauma on the mental health of both parents and infants and the work that is being done in the UK and in New Zealand to protect the well-being of both current and future generations.
Our conference starts at 7pm in the UK and before daybreak in New Zealand! It will open with a traditional Māori ceremony, with Karakia (a blessing to invoke spiritual guidance and protection) and Whakawātea (clearing of space for the sharing of knowledge).
Please join us for this special event.
This conference will share knowledge and practice from both New Zealand and the UK.
7.00pm to 7:05pm – Traditional Māori Welcoming Ceremony
7:05pm to 7:25pm – Professor Jane Barlow ‘Introduction to Trauma in Infancy.’
Jane will bring us an update on the latest research into the impact of trauma on infancy: how infant trauma can be recognised and what can be done to prevent trauma being passed through generations.
7:25 pm to 8:15pm Coretta Ogbuagu ‘Racial Trauma: Working with the Impact of Systemic Racism on Parental and Infant Mental Health.’
Coretta, a psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapist in the UK, will describe her work with a parent and infant over time, where systemic racism has affected the mental health of both the mother and baby. She will use video and case material to show how this dyad were supported to thrive.
8:15 pm to 8:25pm Break
We will then hear from our colleagues in New Zealand.
8:25 pm to 9:15pm Luke Sniewski ‘The Essence of Compassionate Inquiry ‘ and Maria Mareroa ‘Integrating Compassionate Inquiry with Māori approaches to heal the Epigenetic Trauma of Colonisation.’
Luke Sniewski, will be describing the essence of Compassionate Inquiry and how it can be incorporated into professional practice. Following this, Maria Mareroa, who integrates both Māori and western models into her practice, will describe how she uses compassionate inquiry in her work with indigenous parents in the Ohomairangi Trust where she also helps run Mellow Parenting programmes.
9:15pm to 10.00pm Sarah Haskell & Heidi Pace ‘Healing Intergenerational Trauma by Understanding & Transforming the Ghosts of Traumas Past.’
Sarah and Heidi will describe work with a lone father and his infant daughter and how they were able to scaffold the healing of intergenerational trauma, Sarah through a relationship-based intervention, helping the father understand and thereby transform the ghosts of his unremembered past and Heidi through psycho-education, helping the father to understand the effects of trauma on the developing brain and the needs of his young daughter.
There will be time for questions to our speakers throughout the event.
10pm Kaumātua / Closing Māori incantation.
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