Visionary Lecture Series

A free community learning event highlighting the work of innovative thinkers in the field of child development, families, and relationships.
The Visionary Lecture Series is funded in part by The Profectum Educational Endowment Fund Honoring Serena Wieder, PhD.
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The Profectum Visionary Lecture Series had its inaugural season in 2023-24, and drew audiences of thousands across the globe throughout the year. Join us for our free public lecture series, running between November 2024 - May 2025, live online via Zoom. Everyone is welcome - the series is open to all! We invite everyone who is interested in DIR and related areas of knowledge and practice to attend.

Last year's series (2023-24):

  • Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD and Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD
  • Nucha Isarowong, PhD, LICSW, IMH-E®
  • Pradeep Gidwani, MD, MPH
  • Kieran Rose and Amy Pearson, PhD

Demystifying Reflective Practice and Supervision Across Service Sectors

Mary Claire Heffron, PhD

January 23, 2025 | 8:00 to 9:30 pm eastern

Mary Claire Heffron, PhD

Reflective supervision and practice are essential to the delivery of all kinds of attuned relationship focused services that serve families and children in the prenatal-6 age range focusing on the development of healthy relationships to both promote well-being in a preventative sense and to treat current child and family distress, trauma, and developmental needs. 

If you can’t make it due to scheduling or time zone differences, don’t worry! A recording will be available for one week after for anyone who signs up.

Recent studies have shown both the promise of reflective practice and supervision in terms of improving service quality and increasing staff retention, but also the difficulties of implementation. As leaders evaluate the impact of reflective practices and supervision in existing programs and as services expand to new arenas, it is essential to consider how these services can be adapted and tailored to specific service sectors and populations and through this process creating inclusive and more effective ways of building awareness and the skills to work in a variety of settings with diverse populations.

This lecture will explore the role of leadership and supervisors involved in implementing, supporting, and strengthening the structures, processes, and values that facilitate development of reflective practice and supervision systems and skills in multiple systems and settings. The lecture will be informed by findings from current research and evaluation of reflective practices and supervision, a focus on building understanding about the role of supervisors and consultants and alleviating the frequent us versus them struggles between mentoring and monitoring functions of supervision.

Mary Claire Heffron is a psychologist with broad experience locally, nationally, and internationally in the infant family and early childhood field including clinical work, supervision, program development, consultation, professional training, teaching, and research. Her work crosses disciplines and she has a particular interest in the ways that reflective practice and supervision can support equity, diversity and inclusion among staff and leaders, as well as trauma informed care at the individual and organizational level. She has authored numerous publications aimed at practitioners and leaders who support early relational health and well-being and currently is on the faculty and leadership team of the Reflective Supervision Collaborative https://www.swhd.org/rsc/ and acts as a consultant and trainer with a variety of community mental health, child welfare, and training programs. Dr. Heffron is a former Fulbright Scholar and is medical staff emeritus at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.

The Border is Here: A Family Preparedness Plan in the Face of Imminent Separation and Loss

Carmen Rosa Noroña, LICSW, MSW, MS. Ed., IECMH-E®
Ivys Fernández-Pastrana, JD

March 27, 2025 | 8:00 to 9:30 pm eastern

Carmen Rosa Noroña, LICSW, MSW, MS. Ed., IECMH-E® and Ivys Fernández-Pastrana, JD

Anti-immigration ideology and nativism have permeated all corners of political and media discourse in the United States, making the socio-political climate the most hostile towards immigrant communities in modern history.  The impact of displacement and the fear and effects of deportation are multifaceted, multi-generational, systematic, and detrimental to the mental health and well-being of young children in immigrant families and communities regardless of immigration status. With increasing numbers of families forcibly displaced from Latin America and the Global South, it is urgent, timely, and essential for early childhood providers and caregivers to understand the unique needs of caring for newly arrived immigrant families and their young children.

If you can’t make it due to scheduling or time zone differences, don’t worry! A recording will be available for one week after for anyone who signs up.
This presentation will provide a brief overview of the relationship between immigration policies and systems of oppression for particular immigrant groups who have been historically and currently targeted, including Latin Americans. Furthermore, the presentation will raise awareness about the historical, socio-economic-political context forcing families to leave their home countries and the implications of pre-, during, and post-migration traumatic stressors. A brief overview will be provided on the traumatic nature of threats of separation, forcible separation, and the compounding effects of systemic oppression on the well-being of very young children. The presenters will conclude by introducing the “Family Preparedness Plan,” a developmentally, trauma and diversity-informed tool, to support and empower immigrant families addressing fears of separation-related to immigration policy.
Carmen Rosa Noroña, LICSW, MS. Ed., IECMH-E® is originally from Ecuador. She is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Immigrant Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and the Boston Site Associate Director of the Early Trauma Treatment Network at Boston Medical Center. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, a Child-Parent Psychotherapy National Trainer, and an expert faculty of the DC: 0-5 Training. She co-developed the Diversity-Informed Tenets Initiative, the BMC Family Preparedness Plan for Immigrant Families and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Being Anti-Racist is Central to Trauma-informed Care: Principles of An Anti-Racist, Trauma-Informed Organization. Ms. Noroña’s work has focused on understanding the impact of historical trauma, displacement and colonization in young children in marginalized families and implementing interventions tailored to their unique strengths, needs and socio-cultural-historical, racial ethnic and linguistic contexts. Ms. Noroña is committed to addressing the intersection of systemic inequities and secondary traumatic stress in the workforce via promoting diversity-informed reflective consultation/supervision, skills training, Radical Healing strategies and organizational accountability. At the NCTSN she is a member of the Steering Committee, a core faculty of the Being Anti-Racist is Central to Trauma-Informed Care Initiative, and co-chair of the Latin American Families Collaborative group. She has contributed to the literature in infant mental health, diversity-informed reflective practice and immigration and has culturally validated and translated materials for Spanish-speaking communities.
Ivys Fernández-Pastrana is the Program Manager for the BMC Center of Excellence in Immigrant Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. In this role, she has been working alongside a team of mental health clinicians, developing resources for frontline providers supporting displaced immigrant families.An attorney by training, Ivys' background spans the fields of immigration, special education, neurodivergence, and family support. Her research interests focus on the impact of community health workers, social determinants of health, mixed-status immigrant families, and increasing access to special education services.Ivys is also the co-investigator and co-founder of the EASE Clinic, which provides clinical support to families facing challenges accessing special education services. She co-authored the Family Preparedness Plan for immigrant families facing potential detention or deportation due to their immigration status.

Neuroinclusive Healthcare Across the Lifespan 

Mel Houser, MD

May 1, 2025 | 12:00 to 1:30 pm eastern

Mel Houser, MD

The average life expectancy for an Autistic person is 36-54 years, with premature cardiovascular disease and suicide as leading causes. The Autistic community has poor access to healthcare, and there is little to no medical education on the healthcare needs of Autistic adults.

If you can’t make it due to scheduling or time zone differences, don’t worry! A recording will be available for one week after for anyone who signs up.

This session will review the literature on barriers to healthcare access for Autistic adults. We will also present a novel model for healthcare delivery, using universal design principles to provide neurodiversity-affirming patients across the lifespan. We will discuss lessons learned from the experience of providing healthcare for a community of Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent patients whose needs are unmet by the traditional healthcare system. We will also discuss strategies for Autistic people to be able to access the healthcare they need.


Mel Houser, MD (she/they) is the Founder and Executive Director of All Brains Belong VT, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to support the health and belonging of people with all types of brains. All Brains Belong has pioneered an innovative model that integrates medical care with social connection, employment support, and community education. Dr. Mel Houser is a Board-certified family physician with particular expertise in child development and the brain science of co-regulation and mental health. Dr. Houser received her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Vermont College of Medicine, and completed her residency training in Family Medicine at Middlesex Hospital in Connecticut, where she served as Chief Resident. She also completed a Fellowship in Medical Student Education from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, in addition to post-graduate training in neurodevelopment, autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, and learning differences. Dr. Houser provides neurodiversity training to healthcare practices and workplaces around the country about how to create environments where people with all types of brains can get their needs met and thrive.

Follow the Joy: How to Use Joy to Promote Development

Betty Peralta, MIT, MS-MHC, IMH-E (III)

November 7, 2024 | 8:00 to 9:30 pm eastern

Betty Peralta, MIT, MS-MHC, IMH-E (III)

Joy is the fuel that propels development. Learn how to respond to hard behaviors from children that will help grow their social-emotional development, gain executive function skills, and increase joy for everyone.

Betty Peralta, MIT, MSc, IMH-E (III) is a relational health consultant at Alta: Alternative Learning and Therapeutic Avenues. After 14 years of teaching in K-12 schools in Seattle, The Dominican Republic, Kuwait, and Tanzania, she became an infant and early childhood mental health specialist. She now works with a domestic violence shelter and family court dependency as a parent coach and staff trainer, for home visitors as a reflective consultant and trainer, and for individuals seeking relationship help with children. Betty provides equity, trauma-informed care, and self-care trainings using the NeuroRelational Framework and Facilitating Attuned Interactions. Betty received her BA from The Evergreen State College in 1992, her Masters In Teaching from Seattle University in 1999, and her Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling in 2014. She is endorsed by the Washington State Infant Mental Health Association and faculty advisor for the NeuroRelational Framework Institute.

About Profectum Foundation

Profectum Foundation is the premiere organization for DIR®, the Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based Model that is an interdisciplinary approach for enabling developmental progress. Focusing on individual profiles and strengths, and building robust connections through relationships, DIR® honors neurodiversity and assists individuals of all ages to develop to their full potential.

Profectum provides DIR® certification training and education for licensed professionals and educators, and also provides extensive resources for parents and caregivers. DIR® and Profectum provide education, tools and resources to navigate diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorders, Sensory Processing Disorders, and other learning and developmental challenges, enabling progress for children, families, and the professionals who work with them.
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