Capstone Certificate in Infant, Early Childhood and Family Mental Health

The Capstone Certificate in Infant, Early Childhood, and Family Mental Health from UWMadison is an interdisciplinary one-year academic program for practicing professionals who work with families in the prenatal and postpartum periods and with children ages birth through five years. Following a cohort model, enrolled participants will be provided with three days of class instruction each month as well as small group and individualized opportunities to reflect upon and integrate program content into their professional work experiences. These experiences will contribute to an increased knowledge base and skills in providing appropriate screening, assessment, diagnostic and therapeutic intervention services to support the mental health of infants, young children and their families.

This program is designed for:

• Licensed mental health and health care professionals* in clinical psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, social work, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychiatry, pediatrics or family medicine.
• Professionals from the fields of early childhood education, child development, family studies, occupational therapy, physical therapy, social work, or speech and language therapy. This includes those who provide direct services to young children and their families in Home Visiting, Birth to 3, Early Childhood Special Education, Early Head Start, Head Start, Childcare, and Child Protective Services programs who have a minimum of a bachelors degree.

* Participation in this capstone certificate Program fulfills a prerequisite for Mental Health Professionals who are also interested in applying to theWisconsin Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) Learning Community.

Students will have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and competencies to pursue Endorsement as an Infant Family Specialist, Infant Mental Health Specialist, or Infant Mental Health Mentor through the Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health (WI-AIMH).

Courses for the capstone certificate program meet three days a month during the academic year. All monthly sessions will be held face-to-face in Madison. Click here for the schedule.

Please visit the website for additional information, and contact Sarah Strong, LCSW, at [email protected] with questions.

1. Apply concepts of parent, infant, and early childhood mental health informed by developmental, neuroscience, and attachment research to support the social and emotional development and well-being of young children in the context of their family or caregiver relationships.
2. With a focus on parent-child early relationships, provide appropriate screening, assessment, diagnostic, and referral services for infants, young children, and families.
3. Provide therapeutic interventions and mental health consultation to families and professionals to reduce the impact of early-life trauma, loss, and disturbances before they become more serious disorders.
4. Use reflective practice and mindfulness strategies to support you and those you support in your work.

A bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or a comparable degree from an international institution is required. International applicants must have a degree comparable to a regionally accredited U.S. bachelor’s degree. You must have completed your undergraduate degree, or similar, before starting graduate school.

A minimum undergraduate grade-point average (GPA) of 3.00 on the equivalent of the last 60 semester hours (approximately two years of work) or a master’s degree with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 is required. Applicants from an international institution must demonstrate strong academic achievement comparable to a 3.00 for an undergraduate or master’s degree. The Graduate School will use your institution’s grading scale. Do not convert your grades to a 4.00 scale.

Every applicant whose native language is not English, or whose undergraduate instruction was not in English, must provide an English proficiency test score. TOEFL scores must be submitted electronically via ETS. IELTS scores can be submitted electronically or by paper.  Our office address is: UW-Madison Graduate School, Office of Admissions, 232 Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI 53706.  Your score will not be accepted if it is more than two years old from the start of your admission term. Country of citizenship does not exempt applicants from this requirement. Language of instruction at the college or university level and how recent the language instruction was taken are the determining factors in meeting this requirement.

Applicants are exempt if: