Parent-Infant Psychotherapy

The Parent-Infant Program, under the direction of Talia Hatzor, PhD, provides an intensive two-year training in the normal development and disorders of infancy and toddlerhood, with a focus on parent-child relationships and treatments. A foundational component of this program involves weekly one-hour in-home baby observation; this unique experience, wherein PIP participants follow a newborn through the first two years of life, is based on the internationally renowned Tavistock method. In addition, each student will be assigned an individual supervisor and will gain experience in intervening with a parent-child dyad. We facilitate matching PIP participants with both the infant observation settings and with their clinical placements.   

Monday evening coursework comprises two sections. The first class, from 6:00-7:30PM, is a seminar devoted to the ongoing experience of infant observation. The second class, which is shared with CAPP participants for the first semester, meets from 8:00-9:30 and is organized around a series of scholarly and clinical topics.  In year 1, we read and discuss a range of psychoanalytic and attachment-based theories about early mental life, and begin to examine dyadic and other interventions that enhance parent-infant relationships and support babies’ developmental progression. Our syllabus includes readings from and conversations about major theorists and researchers (e.g., Winnicott, Mahler, Klein, Bowlby, Stern, Main, Fonagy). In year 2, we look more closely at the potential challenges and psychopathologies of parenting and early childhood, including topics such as problems of pregnancy and the postpartum period, grief and mourning in very young children, the emergence of separation anxieties, intergenerational trauma, and disorders of eating and sleeping.

The parent-infant program welcomes clinicians and scholars from a number of backgrounds who are interested in gaining in-depth knowledge of and experience with 0-3 populations and their parents; past participants have included psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, occupational therapists, and pediatricians.  Talia Hatzor PhD, Chair.

Program Fee

Child Psychotherapy Training tuition will be $4,000 per year for either program. This program does not qualify for the Columbia University Tuition Exemption Program.

Please review the Psychotherapy Division's Refund and Cancellation Policy.

ACCME Accreditation Statement

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 27 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. 
*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.
-Updated July 2021-