AC21 - IIA - Part 2: Holding Steady While Moving Ahead—Exploring the Process of Making Meaning

Mary Claire Heffron is a psychologist with a strong background in early development and infant mental health. She has held a variety of clinical, leadership, and teaching roles in diverse systems and recently has focused on the infusion of strengthening reflective approaches across leadership and supervisory roles in programs serving infants, young children and families working to infuse diversity and trauma informed approaches into these settings. Dr. Heffron is an author of multiple publications in her fields of expertise, a Fulbright Scholar, a program developer, and currently serves on the leadership team of the Reflective Supervision Collaborative.  

Aditi is a licensed mental health clinician and registered movement psychotherapist with more than fifteen years of experience in the field of mental health, in India and Boston. She is a MassAIMH Endorsed practitioner as an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Mentor- Clinical. She currently works at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC) as the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Partnership Manager leading a statewide partnership between MSPCC and the Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health (MassAIMH) focused on enhancing and supporting the infant mental health workforce with the goal of improving access to services for children age birth - 5 and their families. She is a national trainer at the Brazelton Institute at Boston Children's Hospital, for the Newborn Behavior Observation and at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center as a national Touchpoints trainer. She also serves as faculty at Jewish Family and Child Services in the Infant Parent Training Institute. Aditi presents on key topics including trauma informed care, infant and early childhood development, reflective supervision and practice, movement psychotherapy, building a culture of care, etc. Her experience includes dyadic early childhood work, family engagement, and working in systems to build capacity in early childhood mental health. She earned her MA in Mental Health Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University and MA in Clinical Psychology from the University of Delhi, India. The principles and practices of social justice and the arts in psychotherapy are embedded in her everyday work and lens. She lives in Boston, MA with her husband and five-year-old daughter and enjoys dancing, making art and is humbled in parenting and learning from the tiny wonders of childhood from her daughter.

Barbara Stroud, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with over three decades worth of culturally informed clinical practice in early childhood development and mental health. She is a founding organizer and the inaugural president (2017-2019) of the California Association for Infant Mental Health, a member of the Academy of ZERO TO THREE Fellows, and holds prestigious endorsements as an Infant and Family Mental Health Specialist/Reflective Practice Facilitator Mentor. In 2018 Dr. Stroud was honored with the Bruce D. Perry Spirit of the Child Award. Embedded in all of her trainings, clinical service models, and consultations are the activities of reflective practice and sensitivity to cultural uniqueness. Dr. Stroud's book "How to Measure a Relationship" [published 2012] is improving infant mental health practices around the globe and is now available in Spanish. Her newest text, an Amazon best seller "Intentional Living: finding the inner peace to create successful relationships" [an Amazon Best Seller] walks the reader through a deeper understanding of how their brain influences relationships. Both volumes are currently available on Amazon. Additionally, Dr. Stroud is a contributing author to the text "Infant and early childhood mental health: Core concepts and clinical practice" edited by Kristie Brandt, Bruce Perry, Steve Seligman, & Ed Tronick.

Nichole Paradis, LMSW, IMH-E (she/her) serves as the Executive Director of the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health leading infant and early childhood mental health workforce development strategies across the U.S. and abroad. She earned a bachelor's in psychology and a master's in social work from the University of Michigan and a graduate certificate in infant mental health from Wayne State University. Ms. Paradis began her career as a home visitor supporting families with young children involved in child protection proceedings. She has provided reflective supervision/consultation to professionals from child welfare and behavioral health, as well as students and faculty from several universities. Ms. Paradis has written and presented extensively about workforce development across all sectors who serve infants, young children, caregivers, and families. Her most recent publication, co-authored with Kira Johnson and Dr. Zsalanda Richardson, is titled "The Value of Reflective Supervision/Consultation in Early Childhood Education," published in the March 2021 issue of the ZERO TO THREE Journal.