Mother and Infant Observation

Course Overview

The Mother and Infant Observation short course will provide insights to psychodynamic and psychoanalytic concepts and theories for understanding infant development. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of the critical role of early infant development and relationships, as well as the lasting impact of these relationships in the later stages of development.

The course will cover:

• how to set up and conduct infant observations
• how to establish boundaries for observations
• the role of the observer and how to adopt this in practice
• the developing relationships between infant and caregiver(s)
• psychodynamic approaches to analysing observations.

You will be required to complete 30 hours of mother-infant observation outside of the allocated course hours. While Birkbeck can assist in identifying available families, participants are also expected to independently find suitable families for their observation work. You will take turns in presenting the insights of your observations to peers on the course.

This course will provide professionals and trainee counsellors and psychotherapists with the essential skills for undertaking infant observations, and you will gain a practical understanding of the theory and concepts that underpin infant development.

We offer several entry points to the Mother and Infant Observation course; please see the timetabling information above for an indication of the available course start dates.

As a student on this course, you will study alongside Birkbeck students enrolled on one of our undergraduate or postgraduate courses, giving you the opportunity to network with a range of Birkbeck current students while you learn.

You will receive a Birkbeck certificate of participation upon completion of the course.

Please note that all entry points of this course will have 30 sessions. The timetables above provide the schedules for the course entry points until the end of the current academic year. Sessions that continue into 2027/28 (beyond July) will be provided at a later date. 

This course is non-credit bearing, so carries no credit points.