Love Well and Grow Well (with Alison Peak)

<p>In this episode, Dr. Matt Biel speaks with Alison Peak, a clinical social worker</p><p>specializing in early childhood mental health and the Executive Director of Allied</p><p>Behavioral Health Solutions, a behavioral health practice with sites across Tennessee.</p><p>Before any of that, Alison grew up deep in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, in a</p><p>place where predictable routines created safety even during times of scarcity, and</p><p>where relationships were the foundation of a wide web of informal support.</p><p>In their conversation, Alison and Matt explore the difference between formal systems,</p><p>the agencies with long acronyms and eligibility requirements, and the informal ones, the</p><p>networks of relationships and predictable rhythms that decide who shows up for whom</p><p>when times get hard.</p><p>Alison’s clinical anchor is a definition she returns to often. “My favorite definition of infant</p><p>and early childhood mental health is the capacity to love well and grow well.”</p><p>For young children, she explains, relationships are not one factor among many. They</p><p>are the thing that determines whether a child makes it to adulthood at all.</p>