Bright Beginnings: Parent-Child Group Component Training

 Earn 16.5 CE Contact Hours

This three-day course prepares participants to implement Bright Beginnings, a comprehensive, research-based curriculum of group discussions and parent-child activities designed to help parents and/or caregivers promote their children’s mental health and school readiness. Bright Beginnings is currently implemented in Early Head Start programs around NYC and in community agencies serving families with infants and toddlers.

Participants will receive the Bright Beginnings Manual which includes 36 detailed session guides for conducting parent-child groups for parents with children 2 to 36 months of age. Participants will also receive the Bright Beginnings Video Review Manual and the Bright Beginnings Home Visiting Manual (but neither of these will be the focus of the training).

This course will include a combination of lecture, discussion, videotape, role play, and experiential exercises.

Learning Objectives – Participants will be able to:

• Conceptualize parenting as a set of processes encompassing attachment, learning and exploration, and guidance;
• Understand the micro-processes of parent-child interactions and child outcomes;
• Hone skills in observing parent-child interaction;
• Develop skills to facilitate groups.

Date / Time:

July 17, 18, and 21, 2025
9:30 am–4:00 pm daily
Participants will receive 16.5 CE Contact Hours

Meet the Facilitators:

Martha E. Edwards, PhD is Founder and Director of the Center for the Developing Child and Family and creator of the Bright Beginnings Parent-Child Program. As a psychologist, family therapist, and researcher, she has focused on integrating theory and practice from family systems, developmental neurobiology, and psychoanalysis. She also developed clinical and preventive interventions for children and their families. She received the 2015 award from the American Family Therapy Academy for “Innovative Contributions to Family Therapy.” She presents nationally and internationally and maintains a private practice in New York City. She has served as Board Member and Vice-President for the American Family Therapy Academy. Currently she is a Board Member and Co-President of the NY Zero to Three Network, and advisory editor for Family Process.

Sabina Fila, LCSW is a mother and grandmother, a psychotherapist and a consultant. Over the last thirty years she has accompanied a wide range of individuals and families. It has taught her humility, the beauty and suffering of human life, and that the most important task for her as a therapist is to reconnect the person to themselves, and to the people they love. She is affiliated with the Ackerman Institute, and with several non-profit organizations locally and internationally, and practices mindfulness-centered somatic psychotherapy (http://hakomiinstitute.com).