Services
The Infant-Parent Institute was always best known for our clinical work with infants and their families.
Our services included:
- Supporting families in crisis as well as families who were working with long-term developmental or clinical problems with their growing children.
- Providing psychotherapy to families for whom the process of attachment with their baby had been difficult.
- Supporting pregnant women to pull closer to their unborn babies during pregnancy, and to prepare for delivery.
- Assessing babies and toddlers for problems ranging from feeding and sleeping disruptions to affective and growth problems.
- Providing training and consultation to those serving children in various capacities: Child Care Center and family providers, educators, parents, mentors & volunteers.
- Parent support and guidance groups and individual parent coaching.
- Helping families who were divorcing, who were part of the foster care system, who were adopting or who were otherwise struggling to make decisions that were in the best interests of their children.
Our interest in attachment and early social experience also led us into psychotherapeutic work with older children and grownups. It was not uncommon for us to help a forty-year-old adoptee understand newly-discovered depression rooted in early life experiences, or to counsel a new college student trying to understand why separation from home catapulted her into unexpected sorrow or rage.
With Mr. Trout's retirement from clinical practice (on May 30, 2014), and the closing of the rest of our clinical practice at the end of 2015, these clinical services are no longer offered at the Institute. Long-time friends and former Clinical Associates of the Institute, Dr. Martin Srajek (phone 217-637-2138 or email msrajekphd@gmail.com) and Jim Linder (phone 217-377-3317 or email jim@lindermediation.com), continue to provide these specialized and much-needed services. See their biographies in the "About" section.
For Families Expecting a Baby
Prenatal Bonding (BA) was developed in Hungary in the 1990’s as a method to support the connection between mother and unborn child. After research with 2,000 mothers in Hungary and Germany, it appears that this intervention substantially reduces the frequency and severity of perinatal depression, results in far-fewer premature deliveries and c-section deliveries, reduces the incidence of birth trauma and reduces the frequency and duration of infant crying in the first year after birth.
Michael Trout, Director of The Infant-Parent Institute, initiated the introduction of Prenatal Bonding (BA) to the United States by inviting Gerhard Schroth, MD, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst from Speyer, Germany, to train 14 specialists from around the nation in this new model of supportive intervention. Several clinicians from Illinois (including Mr. Trout) were part of this national training program.
For further information about this method, or to inquire about contacting a Prenatal Bonding (BA) facilitator in Illinois, contact Mr. Trout (mtrout@infant-parent.com).
Consulting Services
Through its consulting division, The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc. provides a variety of consulting and technical assistance services on behalf of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, centered around implementation of the Medicaid Community Mental Health Services Program, Part 132.
For additional information about the services provided by the consulting division, please visit www.infantparentconsulting.com, or email: training@infant-parent.com.