Volunteering myself & baby for psychotherapy observation?

[MrsD2021]

Baby #2 is due in February. My old psychology teacher shared a post from a friend of hers looking for a volunteer to be observed in their own home for 1 hour per week for the first 18 months of baby’s life as part of a psychotherapy training course. I’m considering volunteering myself and baby but just wondering if anyone here has participated in infant observation before or knows anyone that has? Is there anything about this that would put you off?

I’ve found loads of posts on MN of students looking for families but they never got many replies. Is this because this is a terrible idea that not many people would agree too? I’m just thinking it would be a nice interaction for me and a bit of routine to have something planned every week without having to leave the house. Of course I would fully vet her first and make sure I was comfortable with her before proceeding.

Any thoughts welcome!

Not done this, but a friend has done infant observation a part of her psychology training. I think the idea is that they let you just carry on as if no one is there/don’t intrude

Its a really valuable and irreplaceable part of training that allows therapists to be more effective so amazing to do if you can

PS - training institutes do prior vetting, DBS etc and you also get to veto if you are not happy with the match

Thanks for this. While it would be lovely to know I’m helping someone out with their training, I’d hope that I’d be able to get some interaction out of it. Hopefully we’d be able to have a cup of tea and a chat while I’m also still interacting with baby? If she’s just sitting in the corner being a fly on the wall then I think that would make me feel a bit uncomfortable to just be watched without saying much. 18 months is a really long time to commit to something like this so I guess I need to find out more about the level of interaction expected

I did it with DS1

She was very unobtrusive and just observed whatever was going on at that time - if he was asleep, she would watch him sleeping, if he was playing or eating, she would watch

it was usually a set day and time but we altered it if I had plans, and also altered it a few times so she could come to baby sensory or a playgroup to watch that

There is no payment but I occasionally was brought a takeaway coffee or cake as a little thank you..!
and there were a couple of occasions when she kindly took him for a walk on the pram for the hour to let me catch up on work or sleep

Im glad we did it, it was no hassle for me but I know the woman went on the quality and now works with families and children

I did it and enjoyed it! But it was mostly lockdown and I was very bored haha. She was lovely and when it was just us we'd have a chat. If my partner or friends were there too, or if the baby was playing on his own, she would just observe (and I'd be on my phone haha). It's nice because it does make you notice the changes in your baby yourself more.

Sorry, I should add, we did chat and interact..!

She was very nice and personable - it was part of her wider training to become a counsellor so she was very good at listening and talking. It wasn’t awkward at all

I did a speech and language one with DD2. It was mostly just observing and then a couple of activities as she got older. Everyone was very nice, i used to have a cup of tea and my travel expenses were covered.

@tenbob @Ally256 thanks so much for your replies. That’s exactly what I was hoping for and makes me feel a bit more confident about doing it. I’m going to have an initial chat with her and see if we’ll be a good fit together

That sounds interesting! This one is slightly different as it’s in my own home and they can’t offer an compensation for my time, but I’m hoping I might get a slice of cake every now and again 😂