Community of Practice

About Right Start's Community of Practice

From 2020-2023, Right Start for Colorado offered multiple cohorts of a year-long infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) community of practice for Colorado mental health therapists who serve children ages birth to 5.

Clinical IECMH Community of Practice Model

The Community of Practice is designed to impart knowledge across four main areas of IECMH clinical practice:

1. relationship-based assessment
2. developmentally sensitive diagnosis
3. evidence-based treatment of very young children
4. reflective practice

Over the course of a 12-month program, clinicians in the community of practice received monthly training as well as ongoing reflective supervision/consultation (both group and individual) with a seasoned infant mental health mentor.

Upon completing the community of practice, clinicians will be equipped with practical skills to implement best practice assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of young children and their families. All training components and reflective supervision/consultation are aligned with the Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-Focused Practice Promoting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IMH-E® or ECMH-E®).

Application Requirements

Requirements for the community of practice include being a mental health practitioner who is licensed or license-eligible. Clinicians must provide ongoing mental health therapy or parenting groups to families with children birth to five or the perinatal population.

Applicants must be able to commit to the time for training and supervision described above, and be able to provide a letter of support from their supervisor acknowledging approval for participation given the described time commitments. Priority will be given to candidates who provide services outside of metro-Denver, who come from diverse backgrounds and who are bilingual.

A complete application includes the following three items. Partial applications will not be considered. All applications materials are required to be submitted here.

Application form. A copy of the application questions/information is available here for your reference, but applications MUST be submitted here to be considered.
A current CV/resume uploaded in the designated space in the application.
A brief letter/email of support from your direct supervisor indicating you have the ability within your role to attend the activities as described above, uploaded into the designated space in the application. This can be an email sent to you that you save and upload. Please see example here.

Community of Practice Outcomes

Below are outcomes from the clinical infant early childhood mental health practices that occurred from 2020 to 2023.

Click on the images above to view them larger.

Previous Opportunities Offered to Community of Practice Participants

Relationship-Based Assessment & Clinical Diagnosis
Best practice in IECMH includes conducting a thorough relationship assessment and developmentally sensitive clinical diagnosis to inform treatment. These trainings will include:

Diagnosis: Official DC:0-5™ Clinical Training Institute
Overview of Relationship-Based Assessment
Crowell Parent Child Interaction Procedure Relationship Assessment
Working Model of the Child Interview

Applied Training in Evidence-Based/Evidence-Informed Interventions
A primary aim of the community of practice is to equip clinicians with the training to be able to provide evidence-based, relationship focused services to the children and families they serve. Participants will be guaranteed a seat to attend Right Start for Colorado trainings provided on evidence-based practices and other IECMH skill areas, as offered throughout the training year. These trainings include:

Diversity-Informed Practice
To support clinicians in self-reflection of their own implicit bias, systems of oppression, and dynamics of privilege and power that may be enacted in the therapeutic process, clinicians in the community of practice will attend:

Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children and Families

Reflective Supervision/Consultation
As reflective supervision/consultation is a hallmark of infant and early childhood work, all participants in the community of practice will participate in twice monthly group reflective supervision with the cohort, as well as monthly individual reflective supervision. This will be provided by an IMH® (IV) endorsed provider, so supervision hours will count towards RS/C requirements of the IMH® or ECMH® endorsement.

Additional Funding & Supports

In addition to the above training and reflective supervision/consultation, all clinicians in the communities of practice receive, at no cost to them:

Funding to obtain an IMH® or ECMH® endorsement
Funding for all travel related to the community of practice including mileage and hotel for in-person training events (Note: We will continue to follow guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic to determine if events are held virtually or in person). In order to ensure feasibility of participation for rural and frontier residing clinicians, all RS/C meetings will occur over Zoom
Training materials including but not limited to the following books: Handbook of Infant Mental Health, Psychotherapy with Infants and Young Children, Don't Hit My Mommy, DC:0-5 Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood and Circle of Security Intervention
Therapy supplies: developmentally appropriate toys and children's books for 0-5 clinical practice
Organizational Implementation: Consultation around subjects such as organizational billing practices or dyadic treatment (if needed)