Advanced Clinical Training (ACT) Program at the Barnard Center

The ACT Program is a 15-month, community learning structured, professional development program designed for post-graduate (Masters or PsyD) licensed and license-eligible mental health professionals. Our goals are to DIVERSIFY and EXPAND the clinical infant and early childhood mental health workforce which, in turn, expands more equitable access to clinical infant and early childhood mental health services in Washington State. In addition to the traditional focus on relational processes and perspectives and the reflective stance, the ACT Program integrates diversity-informed practice principles based on the Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children and Families (diversityinformedtenets.org) to prepare clinicians to address the influences of systemic and structural inequities on the lives of infants, children and families, themselves, and their practice. This includes the understanding of deeply rooted social and cultural influences of normative standards based on our history of colonization and the multiple intersectionalities of race, gender, class, ability, sexuality, age, and other social positioning factors and identities.