Date/Time
Date(s) - December 17
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Categories
REGISTER HERE – FREE FOR NYS-AIMH and NYZTT Members
Please join the New York State Association for Infant Mental Health (NYS-AIMH) and the New York Zero-to-Three Network (NYZTT) for this “BREAKFAST FOR BABIES” event.
The Loss-Grief Cycle: Coming to terms with the birth of a child with a disability
Presenter: Gilbert M. Foley, Ed.D., IMH-E
Friday, 12/17/21 9am to 12pm
The loss-grief cycle describes the emotional journey of adjustment of 21 families over the course of 24 months. Each of the families had given birth to child with severe neuromotor and global development challenges and the loss of the “hoped-for-child, characterized by Ken Moses, “As the Death of a Dream.” The central recurring themes from initial disequilibrium through searching, acknowledgment, recovery, and remission-from-grief will be described in this presentation. The resilience and adaptability of families to move beyond the fate of chronic grief and a description of the psychological tasks that mobilized their remission-from-grief are the central messages of this qualitative research and presentation. Implications for the role of clinicians will be discussed.
This oral presentation will be followed by a video, “This Child is Not Alone”, which illustrates the loss-grief cycle in parents’ own words and experiences through a series of interviews. A period of small group discussion, questions, and comments will follow the video.
___________________
ABOUT OUR SPEAKER
Gilbert M. Foley, Ed.D., IMH-E serves as Consulting Clinical Psychologist at the New York Center for Child Development (NYCCD) in New York City and Clinical Co-Director of the New York City Early Childhood Mental Health Training and Technical Assistance Center. He is Endorsed as an Infant Mental Health/ Clinical Mentor, Level IV, and is a founding board member of the New York and Pennsylvania State Associations of Infant Mental Health. He a senior faculty member of the DIR Profectum Academy and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Dr. Foley is a retired tenured faculty member of the program in School-Clinical Child Psychology at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology and Director Emeritus of the Graduate Program in Infant Mental Health and Developmental Practice at Adelphi University. He served as Visiting Fellow at the Yale Child Study Center and was Director of Psychology in the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. An innovator in reflective supervision, Dr. Foley served as Senior Clinical Supervisor at NYU/ Bellevue Hospital Center, Department of Pediatrics, and when Principal Investigator of the Federally Funded Family-Centered Resource Project, he trained early childhood professionals across the US. Dr. Foley is the co-author of three books and has written over 40 scholarly articles and chapters. Sensory Integration and Mental Health: Nurturing Self-Regulation in Young Children is soon to be published by National Zero to Three. Dr. Foley lectures widely nationally and internationally. His contributions to the field have been acknowledged by a Certificate of Recognition from the Connecticut Birth to Six Planning Committee, a Letter of Recognition from Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens, A Certificate of Commendation from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, a Certificate of Recognition from National Zero to Three and Honorary Citizenship of Springfield Missouri for contributions to young children with disabilities and their families. He served on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Child Development Committee, the Governor’s Task Force on the Family and has been included in Who’s Who in the East and Who’s Who Worldwide.
