Dr. Kandace Thomas Delivers Keynote Address at 5th Annual Reflective Supervision Symposium
Dr. Kandace Thomas was invited to deliver the keynote address to 200 early childhood professionals during the Reflective Supervision Symposium on June 12th. The symposium is a collaborative event co-hosted by the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health.
The Alliance is a global organization that partners with state associations of infant mental health to help them support, grow, diversify, and advocate for their local infant and early childhood mental health-informed workforce. The annual symposium increases awareness about reflective supervision, a form of staff-supervisor supervision that centers on the importance of relationships when working with or on behalf of young children and their families. Reflective supervision emphasizes the importance of the relationship between practitioner and supervisor, which can parallel the relationship between the practitioner and parent, which can parallel the relationship between the parent and infant/toddler.
This year’s symposium was co-hosted by the Association of Infant Mental Health in Tennessee (AIMHiTN) and took place at the FedEx Institute of Technology on the University of Memphis campus. The event was attended in-person by 100 people and virtually by 100 more from across the United States and several other countries.
Dr. Thomas’ address, titled “‘Always take me a moment’: Reflective Practice Begins with Me.,” highlighted how parents have the skills to be reflective when protecting their children from stress and trauma.
Dr. Thomas’ presentation also focused on changes practitioners can make to incorporate critical self-reflection in their partnerships with families, including bringing unconscious biases to awareness and increasing empathy.
The Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health provided a $2,500 honorarium to First 8 Memphis (F8M). Additionally, all F8M staff had the opportunity to attend the AIMHiTN annual conference.
Learn more about the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health here.
Learn more about the Association of Infant Mental Health in Tennessee here.