IPA Webinars Covid-19 Series: Schooling During Covid Lockdown and Beyond




Panellists: Minnie Dastur,  Jacqueline Mark, Nell Nicholson
Moderator: Talia Hatzor 

The Covid-19 virus has created an unparalleled challenge for society all over the world.  Families with school age children have been specifically impacted by its consequences.  The lockdown and the severe socio-economic consequences have wreaked havoc and presented challenges that could never have been imagined by educators, parents, and children of all ages.  This has forced schools and families to adapt and create new ways of offering support, staying connected, and continuing teaching and learning during this current new reality of lockdown and online learning.   The challenges schools and families face vary depending on the age group, different cultural and socioeconomic realities, and learning ability.  This Webinar is intended to be a conversation between educators and psychoanalysts who are seeking to further understand and support both the external and internal issues children, parents, and educators face.  The educators and psychoanalysts participating in this webinar will engage in a conversation with each other and the audience with the goal of furthering thinking and understanding of the challenges families and educators face in different regions. 

Minnie K Dastur (download paper)  has a background  in Economics and Commerce, Law and Human Relations. Minnie is a Tavistock trained Child Psychotherapist, a Training Analyst (Adult and Child) with the Mumbai Chapter of  the Indian Psychoanalytical Society and a member of the IPA China Committee. She has lectured extensively at international conferences. She currently supervises and teaches chinese psychotherapists. She is also the course  Organizer for the Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy run by our Mumbai Chapter and conducts  regular CPD (Continuous Professional Development) events for the Mumbai Chapter of the IPS (Indian Psychoanalytical Society). 

Jacqueline Marks (download paper) has been a passionate and dedicated early childhood educator for over fifteen years. As the Senior Director of Early Childhood at The Manny Cantor Center of Educational Alliance, Jacqueline has built a nurturing and inclusive preschool, nestled within a downtown community center. Under her leadership the school has grown to include 250 children ages 0-5, and has pioneered a blended funding model, combing tuition and Head Start funds, to serve families across the socioeconomic spectrum. Jacqueline holds an MS from Bank Street College in Early Childhood General and Special Education, a BA in Art History from Columbia University.

Nell Nicholson (download paper) has been a teacher since 1992 starting her career in the East End of London. She  worked in inner city mainstream schools learning. In tume she took on a headship in a Pupil Referral Unit supporting children with behavioural issues to get back to mainstream education. She is currently the headteacher of Gloucester House, the Tavistock Children’s Day Unit and Outreach Service. She has been in post since 2005 and has passion and commitment for education and mental health collaborations to support the development of children with complex and severe social, emotional and mental health difficulties.


Talia Hatzor is a psychologist and a psychoanalyst in NYC, working in private practice with adults and children, and families with babies.  She is a member and a training analyst at the Contemporary Freudian Society, and a faculty of the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center for Training and Research, where she co-directs the Parent Infant Psychotherapy Training Program.  She has a special interest in the impact of trauma and adversity on families with young children and in training clinicians via Bick’s method of Infant Observation.