Revitalizing How We Serve: Sitting at the Feet of the Storyteller
Dr. Dominique Charlot-Swilley
Colonialism has been a defining force in our world for more than 500 years. It established hierarchies, systems of power and the dominance of European perspectives and values in countries, societies, and disciplines. Decolonization is work that belongs to all of us, everywhere. Dr. Charlot-Swilley will describe findings from an investigation of thoughts, observations, and experiences of African American families with Early Relational Health screening. A family- and culturally-centered approach to ‘screening’ early relational health (ERH) can create opportunities for universal family engagement in promotion, prevention, and intervention. The appraisal of family-baby relational health is more trustworthy and useful when there is attunement to family voice and facilitator bias. A model for promoting ERH, called Early Relational Health Conversations (ERH-C), that is anchored in eight components, is presented. ERH-C is a way of revitalizing ‘being with’ families. It is a way of supporting families’ culturally-grounded visions of their relationships with their babies and children. ERH-C are anchored in the commitment to an anti-bias approach to working with families historically impacted by structural inequities.
Dr. Dominique Charlot-Swilley has been a lead psychologist in the implementation of HealthySteps in the District of Columbia (HS-DC). HealthySteps is a national evidence-based model that promotes nurturing parenting and healthy development for babies and toddlers through the integration of an early childhood specialist into the pediatric primary care setting. Dr. Charlot-Swilley has over 25 years of experience working with communities impacted by inequitable conditions in diverse settings in Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, and Miami, FL. Her expertise is in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH). She places culture at the nexus of her work. Dr. Charlot-Swilley co-developed the IECMH Family Leadership Certificate Program at Georgetown University which aims to build and diversify the mental health workforce by increasing the knowledge and skills of individuals with no or minimal post-high school education. She also designed CPR2, Compassion, Practice, Relationship, & Restoration, a wellness, group-based intervention to promote the wellbeing of pediatric and early childhood providers. Her wellness work has extended to a partnership with University of Maryland School of Medicine to co-create an online platform for behavioral health providers to assess individual and organizational wellbeing and engage in continuous quality improvement (https://www.providerwellbeing.org/). Dr. Charlot-Swilley completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Howard University. She has provided reflective supervision and consultation to graduate and post-graduate students as well as to seasoned mental health providers. Dr. Charlot-Swilley is of Haitian descent and has conducted training on wellness, trauma and youth violence prevention in South Africa, Ghana, and her home country, Haiti.
View the recording of the webinar here.
Dr. Dominique Charlot-Swilley kindly shared these research articles:
Charlot-Swilley, D., Condon, M. C., & Rahman, T. (2022). At the feet of storytellers: Implications for practicing early relational health conversations. Infant Mental Health Journal, 43(3), 373-389.
Condon, M. C., Charlot-Swilley, D., & Rahman, T. (2022). At the feet of storytellers: Equity in early relational health conversations. Infant Mental Health Journal, 43(3), 390-409.