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Steps Towards Effective, Enjoyable Parenting (STEEP™) and Seeing Is Believing®

Our trainers are also available to conduct one-day and half-day workshops on the STEEP™  and Seeing Is Believing® models.

About STEEP™

Developed in 1986 by Drs. Byron Egeland and Martha Farrell Erickson, STEEP™ reaches out to parents even before their first child is born. STEEP™ works on the premise that a secure attachment between parent and infant establishes ongoing patterns of healthy interaction. A secure parent-child attachment lays the foundation for later competence and well-being.

Through home visits and group sessions, STEEP™ facilitators work alongside parents to help them understand their child’s development. Parents learn to respond sensitively and predictably to their child’s needs, and to make decisions that ensure a safe and supportive environment for the whole family.

Among the specific topics and strategies included in training are:

1) Making relationship-based practice real, from participant recruitment to program termination;

2) Using videotaping and guided viewing (Seeing Is Believing®) to promote parental understanding, sensitivity, and responsiveness;

3) Planning and leading parent-infant groups;

4) Challenging and supporting parents to reflect on their own relationship history and how it influences their attitudes, feelings and parenting behavior;

5) Using an ecological approach to help parents reduce risk and maximize support for themselves and their children; and

6) Using reflective supervision (or consultation) to sustain the hope and energy of service providers and ensure effective service for families.

STEEP-Related News Item

Nurses, visiting from Tokyo, enjoy their visit
to Mary Bridges Children's Hospital

Mary Bridge Parenting Partnership Program Hosts Nurses form Tokyo, Japan, March 24-29, 2008

The Partnership Program is an adaptation of the internationally recognized best-practice model STEEP

The Mary Bridge Parenting Partnership program hosted five nurses from Tokyo, Japan during the week of March 24-29. The nurses, who have backgrounds in public health, pediatrics and neonatal intensive care, visited to gain insight from Parenting Partnership staff at Mary Bridge Hospital.  

“It was so exciting to know that our program is so cutting edge and innovative that professionals would fly across the world to learn from us,” said Suzanne Baxter, M.Ed., Parenting Partnership Family Support Social Worker. “It was a long week for them , but they were so thirsty for the information that we had to offer.”

The visiting nurses, all of whom are currently enrolled in a master’s degree program at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, are researching programs designed to support premature infants, and are interested in implementing programs similar to Mary Bridge’s Parenting Partnership, in Japan.

The visiting nurses’ instructor, Motoko Okamitsu, Child and Family Nursing said, “I cannot thank you enough for providing us with the opportunity to have STEEP training.  STEEP is an excellent program.”

The Mary Bridge Parenting Partnership provides prevention services for families with medically fragile infants who are at risk for child abuse and neglect. Services include home visits, monthly support groups, and nurse services.

Parenting Partnership is an adaptation of an internationally recognized best-practice child abuse prevention model called STEEP (Steps Towards Effective, Enjoyable Parenting). Mary Bridge's unique application of STEEP, to families with fragile infants, has received international recognition in recent years for being an innovative emerging practice in child abuse prevention. 

Seeing Is Believing® training is automatically included as a component of STEEP™ training.  However, Seeing Is Believing® is also available independently from STEEP™.

About Seeing Is Believing®

Originally developed as part of the STEEP™  program, Seeing is Believing® is a unique practice that helps parents increase their sensitivity and responsiveness to their babies' cues by using a videotaping strategy.  Through videotaping and guided viewing,  Seeing is Believing® promotes perspective-taking by giving parents a chance to see, from the camera’s point of view, what happens between them and their baby. We have found video technology to be a remarkable tool in helping moms and dads gain new insight into their baby’s feelings and behavior.

The primary goal of using videotaping is to promote the parents’ self-observation and reinforce their growing knowledge of and sensitivity to their babies.  Using the videotape as a self-observation tool, we present parents with a way of seeing themselves and their babies from a new vantage point.  We urge parents to see their own strengths and those of their babies, and encourage them to consider their infant’s perspective as they interact with their babies. The parent keeps the video as a documented memory of the baby’s development.

Fees

STEEP™ OR SIB® Training

$2000: One Day
$3500: Two Days

Combined STEEP™/SIB® Training

These certification trainings must include both the initial two-day training and follow-up consultation. For other arrangements, contact Marti Erickson at mferick@umn.edu. A STEEP™ Facilitator's Guide and SIB® Training DVD are included in the price.

$3500: Initial two-day training
$1500: Follow-up Consultation
$5000: Total STEEP™/SIB® Certification

Note: These prices do not include travel expenses, which are an additional expense.

To make a request for this presentation:

Contact Sara Zettervall at 612-625-2252 or sarazet@umn.edu.

Related Resources

• Purchase the STEEP Manual and Seeing is Believing Training Manual and Practice DVD