Infant Observation

The practice of Infant Observation Tavistock Model is a specific modality which uses naturalistic observation of an infant in its family setting to help students develop skills that are part of the “psychoanalytic attitude,” and a basis for clinical work in parent/infant psychotherapy, or psychoanalytic practice with children or adults.
 
Each student visits a family with an infant for an hour a week starting from just before the birth through the baby’s first two years. In the home, observers take up a background stance of friendly attentiveness, taking in whatever is happening in the ordinary life of the baby for that hour without taking notes.
 
Because of this unique experience, the student is able to observe a mother and baby, living through and resolving routine and difficult situations in their own ways. With the help of the seminar, the observer learns to process the inclination for judgmental and blaming thoughts which arise when anxiety is stirred.  Often, the observer’s containing presence can have a positive effect on mothers, enabling them to think for themselves about their babies, and to respond to their baby from that empathic place.
 
Along with developing sensitivity and precision in observation, the course teaches how to think freshly and inductively from observation, including trying to understand how the developing infant is making sense of his world.  
 
There are usually no more than five people in a group so that each one is able to present monthly. This allows the group members to follow five babies and their families in depth.
 
For further information regarding Infant Observation, contact course instructor Dr. Talia Hatzor at thatzor@gmail.com