Adelphi University Institute for Parenting

Did You Know?

Infants are born with their brains wired to be engaged in important nurturing and protective relationships. From birth, infants begin to develop an understanding of themselves, their parents and the world, based on their experiences in their earliest relationships.

When babies are held and soothed, they learn to feel loved!

When babies feel safe and protected, they learn to trust!

When babies are attended to, they learn to feel worthwhile!

The young children who come to our attention have not had nurturing protective relationships. They have complicated histories which include poverty, neglect and traumatic experiences such as physical and sexual abuse, parental substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence or incarceration. Their world is often scary and dangerous. They don’t feel loved and worthwhile. Furthermore, the stress of their disrupted parent-child relationship often derails their language, cognitive, and social emotional development; impairing their ability to explore and learn about their world.

The parents of the children that come to us have often suffered from the same types of traumatic experiences in their own childhood. Our goal at the Adelphi University Institute for Parenting is to stop this intergenerational cycle of trauma and help parents and their very young children heal and go on to lead successful and productive lives.

At the Institute for Parenting we have a range of intensive programs to support young and developing families. We offer direct clinical services provided by our well-trained staff, continuing education and post graduate training programs for multidisciplinary professionals, a new cutting-edge graduate degree program, an M.S. in Infant Mental Health-Developmental Practice, and a range of clinical training opportunities.

Through community collaborations in Nassau County with the Department of Social Services and the District Attorney’s Office, we have developed and tested specialized pilot programs for young families in the Child Welfare System and the Criminal Justice System that address parents’ and children’s trauma. We have created on-site Early Childhood Mental Health Services at a local Pre-Kindergarten program and provide Infant Mental Health services in collaboration with Winthrop University Hospital Pediatrics.

As you can imagine, the ability to provide this level of intensive and quality services requires immense resources. Won’t you please join us with a generous gift today that will allow us to help our families in need achieve the brighter futures they deserve?

Many thanks,

Marcy Safyer, PhD, LCSW–R, IMH -E®(IV-C)
Director