NEWS RELEASE
October 28, 2025
For immediate release
Media contact: Cara Scarola Hansen
Center for Child Counseling Public Relations Counsel
cara@yourmissionmarketing.com
Center for Child Counseling and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Palm Beach County hosted Dr. Nancy Byatt and Dr. Tina Payne Bryson as part of a virtual summit.
Every baby deserves a bright beginning, and every parent, caregiver, and professional needs the tools to make that possible. The earliest moments in life set the stage for lifelong health, relationships, and success. The 2025 Celebrate Babies virtual summit that took place on October 20 supported these ideas and highlighted the theme of “showing up.” Center for Child Counseling (CFCC) in partnership with Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Palm Beach County hosted the event during Celebrate Babies Week–a week dedicated to celebrating infants, toddlers, young children, their families, and early childhood professionals across the globe.
The summit featured Dr. Nancy Byatt, leading perinatal psychiatrist and researcher, and Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, world-renowned parenting expert and co-author of The Power of Showing Up. Former WPTV 5 News Anchor Jay Cashmere emceed the event which drew participants from across the U.S. and around the world, including Ireland, Nigeria, and Switzerland.
Science clearly confirms what our experience already knows: what happens early in life impacts everything. Strong attachment relationships in infancy—formed through consistent care, attention, and emotional attunement—have profound effects on brain development, emotional regulation, and social skills.
“By investing in these early relationships, we are investing in the future of our county, our schools, and our communities,” shared Cashmere in his opening remarks.
Through Dr. Byatt’s research, clinical work, and systems-level leadership, she has spearheaded efforts that bridge the gap between mental health and obstetric care–ensuring that perinatal individuals receive the compassionate, evidence-based care they need and deserve. In her presentation, she shared insights and innovations with respect to transforming perinatal mental health care. By building the capacity of obstetric settings to provide mental health care, mothers are able to get the resources needed to be healthy themselves in order to properly show up for their own children.
Dr. Bryson’s work bridges the latest neuroscience with practical tools for everyday parenting and caregiving. Her message was simple but profound: what kids need most is for adults to simply show up–consistently, authentically, and with emotional presence. In her presentation, she shared insights from her book and clinical work, exploring how meaningful connection lays the foundation for lifelong resilience and well-being.
Dr. Bryson emphasized that children feel safe when there is a grown-up who is in charge and the importance of adults being regulated when engaging with children: “Make sure you are not the storm but the safe harbor.”
In Palm Beach County, thousands of families face challenges such as access to prenatal care, maternal mental health concerns, and creating strong early attachments. Showing up for babies and their families from the very start helps build stronger communities, healthier economies, and a brighter future for all.
According to Renée Layman, CEO of Center for Child Counseling, “For better or worse, we carry our early events with us for the rest of our lives, and into our future families and communities. Society’s big, complex issues–the youth mental health crisis, crime and overflowing jails, uncontrollable addiction, and generational cycles of abuse and trauma–are often the result of unbuffered, untreated trauma experienced early in life. But there are solutions we’ve been building for more than 20 years, so we have reason to celebrate! In tandem with community partners like Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Palm Beach County, we can ensure that every child in Florida has the opportunity to thrive–starting before birth. When we show up for babies, we shape the future.”
Celebrate Babies is part of CFCC’s Fighting ACEs initiative to build trauma-informed communities and is made possible with the generous support of Quantum Foundation, Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, and private donors. Other event sponsors include: Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County, Palm Health Foundation, and Private Visionary Family.
For more information on upcoming events or Center for Child Counseling’s work with children and families, visit: centerforchildcounseling.org/leadthefight.
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