Since 2005, Alicia Asman Mallo, MD, child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, has served as the Director of Cornerstone Argentina in Buenos Aires. Her work is supported by a Cornerstone Service and Research Fellowship from The International Psychoanalytic Association and funding from The Children’s Psychological Health Center. Currently ten children are being treated five days a week at this service site, in two classes.

Positive mental health gains (evidenced by CGAS testing and Childhood Autism Rating Scales) have been documented for most of the children treated by Dr. Mallo and her team. Many of the children served at Cornerstone Argentina are severely autistic and as a consequence have mental retardation. These children are sometimes so developmentally delayed or regressed that they cannot be IQ tested. We are very encouraged by the results so far. Dr. Mallo has documented significant positive test results, including a rare achievement. There has been an IQ rise for a very severely retarded child.

In-classroom treatment sessions are captured on video with parental permission (as is true for other Cornerstone service sites). These videos become an important part of CPHC’s video archives for training and independent scientific study. Dr. Mallo’s video of her 2-year follow up with a child patient who has apparently almost completely recovered from Autism and who is transitioning into regular school was presented and discussed at a major Psychoanalytic Conference in Santiago,Chile at the FePAL Congress (Federación Psicoanalítica de América Latina), September 24, 2008. Dr. Mallo is often invited to speak about the Cornerstone Method. She was a presenter at two major events in 2007: the Annual Symposium of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytical Association and the Flappia psychotherapy conference in Uruguay.

See the Research section of this websitefor detail about cognitive and mental health improvements.

SEATTLE  CORNERSTONE − FAMILY SERVICES

CPHC provides ongoing training, supervision and consultation

Linda Hirshfeld, PhD (Senior Cornerstone therapist and Certified Cornerstone Trainer) visited Family Services of King County during July and August to augment previous on site and remote supervision and training in delivery of Cornerstone treatment. She worked with Family Services therapist Judy Burr-Chellin who provided an overview of program start-up and detail about the unique circumstances of the population she's working with. Dr. Hirshfeld video taped 3 treatment sessions on this visit. Dr. Hirshfeld was able to provide some markers about the set-up of the sessions, (briefing and de-briefing) as well as offer welcome advice regarding some challenges presented by classroom dynamics. As is typical of ongoing training support, they viewed taped sessions together and discussed clinical considerations of the work. Dr. Hirshfeld was pleased with how Judy then applied insights gained from their discussion of technical aspects of the method. Similarly, Dr. Gilbert Kliman was very impressed with the quality of the work going on when he performed follow up consultation and onsite supervision in September. Additional supervision is provided remotely using high quality video conferencing.

Cornerstone in Seattle Key staff members of Family Services of King County helped to create a successful orientation for parents of child patients newly afforded the opportunity to receive Cornerstone treatment or Personal Life History Book therapy. Gilbert Kliman, MD met with parents in two separate 90-minute sessions to present Cornerstone treatment options and have a dialogue. Parents learned how the two methods help children with emotional and cognitive disturbances. Getting their personal concerns addressed by the CPHC Medical Director was helpful to orient parents of children additionally traumatized by homelessness. Parents learned how reduction of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder is a common benefit with both methods.

Phyllis Fullmer, long time member of the CPHC Board of Directors, accompanied Dr. Kliman to the Parent Orientation. She was able to share first hand knowledge of the effectiveness of Cornerstone in-classroom treatment, based on personal experience with her own two daughters who successfully graduated from Cornerstone several years ago with significant cognitive and mental health gains.

Click here to Donate. Please help support Cornerstone scholarships for needy children, training and research.

A NEW WAY TO HELP HOMELESS AND TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN

CPHC Trains Fourteen Teachers and Therapists in Cornerstone Methods

Gilbert Kliman, MD, CPHC's Medical Director reported that he really enjoyed a marvelous experience applying the Cornerstone method to children in a shelter classroom last December demonstrating the techniques to 7 therapists and 7 teachers. The Seattle staff is very excited about treating homeless preschoolers at Family Services of King County's preschool where there are 30 homeless and highly traumatized preschoolers at any one moment. They plan to serve 90 homeless preschoolers a year using both the Cornerstone Method of Reflective Network Therapy and a shorter derivative, The Personal Life History Book Method. (Both methods are maualized.)

ANN MARTIN CORNERSTONE

 

Cornerstone therapist Linda Hirshfeld, PhD, a very talented and experienced Cornerstone therapist, conducts in-classroom treatment sessions at this service site. An early childhood education specialist is part of the reflective network for the children learning and being treated in a play group setting. Dr. Hirshfeld's practice is an important addition to the program offerings at the prestigious Ann Martin Center in Piedmont, California. The Ann Martin Center is known for its emphasis on both emotional and educational support.

Dr. Hirshfeld continues to document consistently strong results for both cognitive and clinical improvements among the children she treats, including IQ rises for children treated at Ann Martin Cornerstone. She is often tapped by Dr. Kliman to explain the Cornerstone method to others. Dr. Hirshfeld served as co-presenter with Gilbert Kliman at the four-day training intensive conducted last year for teachers and therapists at Family Services in Seattle and continues to help conduct ongoing training at the newer Cornerstone service site. Video of Dr. Hirshfeld's in-classroom treatment sessions at Ann Martin Cornerstone was a particularly valuable training tool to help explain the treatment work going on in the classroom.

 

Ann Martin Cornerstone recently moved into a more spacious classroom, right across the street from the Ann Martin Center. The larger venue helps accommodate frequent visitors who wish to learn more about the method. Ann Martin Cornerstone has become a valuable demonstration laboratory for mental health professionals who visit to see The Cornerstone Method of Reflective Network Therapy in action.

In her experience using Reflective Network Therapy, Dr. Hirshfeld treated two child patients with selective mutism and serious developmental delays who recovered from their selective mutism very quickly during Reflective Network Therapy sessions. One of these children recovered during the debriefing following a single therapy session. This story is captured on a video of a conversation between Dr. Hirshfeld and Dr. Kliman recorded in 2007. In this DVD, "A Cornerstone Conversation" they discuss the Cornerstone Method, how it is carried out and which distinctive features of the method seem to help children most.

(Copies of the video A Cornerstone Conversation are available at no cost from CPHC and do not require a Confidentiality Agreement.)

CAMBRIDGE CORNERSTONE − PILOT PROJECT

CPHC has established a special fund for the Cambridge Cornerstone Pilot Project, directed by Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Alexandra Harrison, MD, to support scholarships and other associated costs.

CORNERSTONE IN-CLASSROOM TREATMENT SERVICE ESTABLISHED BY ALEXANDRA HARRISON, MD

The Cambridge pilot project took off early this year and is coming along in an innovative way. Alexandra Harrison, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is consultant to a private nonprofit preschool. After two children from the school were referred to her for evaluation, she decided to follow the Cornerstone design of treating them with play therapy sessions in the classroom and narrating their experiences before and after the play sessions with the teacher in the presence of the child. She has found that these two interventions, in addition to direct assistance in peer interactions, make it possible for the children to engage in the pool of cultural knowledge held by their classmates. The classroom teachers have become Dr. Harrison’s close collaborators. The head teacher proved to be a talented and perceptive co-therapist. Dr. Harrison has also worked with the parents of the children to support their individual playtimes, with the goal of developing reciprocal pretend play. Both of these interventions have been very useful to the children in their developmental progress. Alicia Mallo, MD, Cornerstone Argentina Director’s visit to the school in June was a wonderful opportunity. Not only did she have a chance to tour the school and talk at length with the director, but she and Ms. Demko began discussions about a possible teacher exchange between the Cambridge school and the Buenos Aires school. Ms. Demko, who holds a degree in special education, already has established teacher exchanges with schools in China. Dr. Harrison is eager to continue her work at the school in the Fall. CPHC is very excited about this project’s potential to further research about several unusual features of the Cornerstone Method associated with our results. The first is that the therapy takes place in the school, within the classroom group. The second is that the child’s parents, teacher, and therapist are in contact about the child multiple times a week. The third, and perhaps the most remarkable, is that the therapist (and teachers) reflect on the child’s relational experience, out loud in front of the child, both to the child and to all these important people in the child’s life many, many times a day.

Alicia Mallo, MD Reports: IQ and mental health gains for  very severely autistic and retarded child patients treated using Cornerstone in Buenos Aires

A CPHC certification course for new therapists and teachers training in the Cornerstone Method of Reflective Network Therapy is being planned with curriculum oversight by Gilbert Kliman, MD. In South America, this will occur under the leadership of Alicia Mallo, MD. Dr. Mallo recently reported IQ progress for children treated at Cornerstone Argentina who could be tested. She noted that she is now receiving referrals of children who are or who become testable by IQ. A pledge has been received of an additional gift to CPHC for the purpose of continued testing to measure progress at this service site. It will be used for independent diagnosis, Childhood Autism Rating Scale and CGAS rating and an additional series of the same measures at one year follow ups.

MENTAL HEALTH GAINS - CORNERSTONE ARGENTINA CHILD PATIENTS