About | Founder...

Qualifications | Clinical and Training Services | Teaching | Publications | Affiliations

STELLA ACQUARONE, PhD: Clinician, Academician, Researcher, Pioneer

Qualifications
Based in London for the past 35 years, Dr Acquarone trained as an Adult and Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist at the Research Centre for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina, completing her training at the Tavistock Clinic, London, England. Her specialisation is in Infant Mental Health and autism and she has a PhD in Psychology. Dr Acquarone's career spans over thirty years in a diverse environment of leading hospitals, clinics, associations and nurseries located in the UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, South America and USA.

Clinical and Training Services
Dr Acquarone is the founder and director of 3 key organisations in the field of child and infant mental health:
The School of Infant Mental Health -- offering a diploma in parent infant psychotherapy as well as a range of workshops and short courses in infant mental health, early signs of alarm and early intervention.
The Parent Infant Clinic -- providing specialised help to infants experiencing a range of issues from sleep and eating difficulties to special needs and disabilities.
Child Focus Consultancy -- providing consultation and treatment to children experiencing emotional distress.
Dr Acquarone is also the founder of The International Pre-Autistic Network -- an organisation (charitable status applied for) aiming to promote the detection and treatment of pre-autistic behaviours in infants, and to raise funds to assure access to such services for all.

Teaching Experience
Since 1970, Dr Acquarone has taught a range of subjects relating to infant mental health in a variety of academic institutions and hospitals. These have included: Autistic Behaviours in Children & Adolescents; Assessments and Early Psychotherapeutic Interventions with Mothers and Babies; Coping With a Cerebral Palsy Baby; Depression in Infancy; Theories of the Mind and its Application to Understanding Autistic Behaviour; Psychological Development in Small Children; and Infant Observation; Research and Intervention.

Publications
Dr Acquarone has had over a dozen papers published in various professional journals and she has contributed chapters in many books. She is the author of Infant Parent Psychotherapy: A Handbook for Professionals (Karnac, 2004) and is the editor of the upcoming Signs of Autism in Infants: Recognition & Early Intervention (Karnac, 2007). Shehas presented over 40 papers to professional conferences throughout Europe, South America and the United States and carried out research in infant mental health for the past 30 years.

Affiliations
Dr Acquarone is a member of the British Psychological Society; the Association of Child Psychotherapy; the London Centre for Psychotherapy; the United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy; the British Psychoanalytic Council and the National Assocsiation for the Advancment of Psychoanalysis.