The Importance of Working with Families

Gilbert M. Foley, EdD, IMH-E, currently serves as Consulting Clinical Director at The New York Center for Child Development (NYCCD) in Manhattan and Consulting Psychologist and faculty member of the Institute for Parenting at Adelphi University. He is a retired tenured faculty member from the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he taught for 20 years in the Department of School-Clinical Child Psychology and coordinated the Infancy Early Childhood track. For 13 years, he was Senior Clinical Supervisor in the Department of Pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine, Bellevue Hospital Center following his tenure as Chief Psychologist in the Department of Pediatrics’ Special Needs Preschool Program at Schneider Children’s Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center.Dr. Foley has focused his entire career as a psychologist and educator primarily in the field of infancy and early childhood. He began as the psychologist for the Berks County (PA) Preschool, Head Start and Childcare Programs. Following this position, he directed and served as Principle Investigator of the Family Centered Resource Project, a federally funded model/ demonstration, outreach and technical assistance agency that provided training and consultation to Infant/ early-childhood professionals and programs across the nation. While serving as the Chief Psychologist in the Pediatric Department of the Medical College of Pennsylvania, he trained in psychoanalysis and also completed a fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center with the late, Sally Provence. Dr. Foley is co-author of the Cognitive Observation Guide(Communication Skill Builders/Psych. Corp),The Supportive Play Model(Teacher’s College Press) and with Dr. Jane Hochman, Mental Health in Early Intervention: Achieving Unity in Principles and Practice(Paul H. Brookes). The Loss-Grief Model developed by Dr. Foley, is the official approach adopted by the State of Colorado Department of Education, Division of Exceptional Children’s Parent Program. He is the author of numerous articles and has lectured nationally and internationally recently returning from a lecture tour in South Africa and was an invited speaker at the first international conference on preschool education in China sponsored by UNICEF and Nanjing University. Dr. Foley serves as a faculty member at the Parent-Infant Study Center of The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services (JBFCS), New York City; The Institute for Parenting, Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health, Adelphi University; The DIR/Floortime Institute of Profectum Foundation, The Interdisciplinary Council for Learning and Developmental Disorders(ICDL)/Fielding University Ph.D. program in Child Development and the College of Education and Human Services, Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health at Montclair State University in New Jersey. He is a founding board member of the Pennsylvania Association of Infant Mental Health and has served as a co-president of the New York Zero to Three Network and president of the Association of Early Childhood and Infant Psychology. His work has been acknowledged by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, The State of Connecticut Birth to Six Planning Committee, The State of Kansas and the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens. He served as a member of the State of Pennsylvania Task Force on the Family.

Ruby Salazar is a child and family psychotherapist who has worked with children and families for over forty years. She is the Founder and Director of Pennsylvania Lifespan Services, a family-focused practice of developmental and mental health professionals with offices in Clarks Summit and Narberth, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Lifespan Services has nationally lead excellent care and provided services for many since 1982. Mrs. Salazar received a BS from New York University and MSS from Smith College, followed by a post graduate psychoanalytic certificate in the treatment of children from the Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Institute, New York City. Having practiced, consulted, published, lectured, and trained with a focus on developmental and family care, and taught at Columbia University, Marywood University, Keystone College and ICDL Graduate School, she currently is on the faculties of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Medical School, Fielding University, Profectum Academy (and was a founding member), The Infant-Parent Mental Health Post-Graduate Certificate Fellowship Program at UMass Napa. Mrs. Salazar is PA Touchpoints site coordinator, having co-founded, the first medical Touchpoints program. She worked in the office of three PA governors as a child-care consultant and was appointed to the Pennsylvania Governor’s Council for Children. Mrs. Salazar was also appointed to the PA Department of Welfare Workgroup to establish Autism Assessment Policy and clinically directed both the ASD Comprehensive Assessment Project and the PA Department of Early Intervention Reflective Supervision Project. Proudly, Mrs. Salazar chaired candidate Obama’s first Autism Workgroup who drafted the bill which became ASD Federal Law. Mrs. Salazar has received many professional awards, among them the first Sally Provence Award for excellence in infant and family practice from Zero to Three, National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, Girl Scouts of America Professional of the Year award and National Guidance Counselors Association Professional Excellence award, all Washington, D.C.