Engaging Caregivers in Family Treatment

A Live, Interactive Webconference
Wednesday, November 2, 2022, North Carolina Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom Webconference
Thursday, November 3, 2022, North Carolina Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom Webconference
8:25am-12:35pm

In ESFT, efforts to help children with serious emotional problems mostly flow through the caregivers. Therefore, a critical task in the first stage of treatment is engaging caregivers and building a strong therapeutic alliance. Even in the best of times, this can be challenging for therapists working with disadvantaged, multi-stressed families, where caregivers often have a history of traumatic stress. Many caregivers of the children treated in intensive in-home services are distrusting of mental health professionals and are reluctant to participate or engage in family sessions. They tend to see problems and solutions behaviorally, existing separately from themselves and family relationships. Common barriers to caregiver participation and engagement are identified and explored within the social context of the family and community. The Stages of Change model is introduced to guide therapists’ conceptualization and approach to addressing caregiver treatment-hesitancy. Videos are utilized to demonstrates how to apply Motivational Interviewing strategies and emotional support to strengthening trust and move caregivers toward greater engagement in family treatment and a relational focus.

Objectives

As a result of attending this training, participants will be able to:

Explain the rationale for family therapy and the relational focus of change in ESFT
Describe the tasks and goals of the first stage of ESFT treatment, creating the therapeutic system.
Identify the most common reasons caregivers are reluctant to participate and fully engage in family treatment
Apply a Stages of Change and a Motivational Interviewing approach to engaging caregivers more fully in family treatment

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within North Carolina’s Intensive In-Home program. This is a live synchronous distance learning activity conducted in real time, allowing for simultaneous participation of participants and instructors from different locations.

Agenda

8:25am-10:30am: Focus on Objectives 1 & 2
10:30am-10:40am: Break
10:40am-12:35pm: Focus on Objectives 3 & 4

Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our Policies & FAQs on Live, Interactive Webconferences for additional information regarding CFBT live interactive workshops, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the training, instructions for registering for a training, etc.

Ethical Uses of Power
In the Therapeutic Relationship

A Live, Interactive Webconference
Wednesday, September 14, 2022, via Zoom Interactive Webconference
8:25am-12:35pm

Power is a highly misunderstood and loaded word, but one highly relevant to the therapeutic relationship. A power differential is always present in the therapeutic relationship, and can be used effectively, ineffectively, or even abused. The ‘right’ use of power in the therapeutic relationship involves developing an awareness of the power differential, the implications for clients and families served, and a thoughtful application of our ethical codes.

This training will challenge clinicians to rethink the definition of power and dispel myths and biases around the word that can hinder the ethical, right use of power in therapy. Clinicians will learn about relevant research about power imbalances between counselors and clients and common misuses and abuses of power. Clinicians will be provided with interactive case studies, discussions, and breakout groups to further explore the ‘right’ uses of power in a variety of clinical situations.

As a result of participating in this training, attendees will be able to:

Participants will learn about common myths and biases about power that can undermine the effectiveness of individual and family therapy and develop a more adaptive definition of power
Participants will learn about the research on power differentials in the therapeutic relationship and common ways counselors underuse, overuse, misuse and abuse power with clients and families
Participants will learn about the link between the ‘right’ use of power in relation to strong rapport and therapeutic alliances, engagement in treatment, and positive outcomes in individual and family therapy
Participants will apply the APA and ACA code of ethics to demonstrate the right uses of power in realistic case studies, ethical dilemmas, and clinical situations relevant to family and individual counseling

Agenda

8:25am-8:45am: Introductions & overview of agenda & course format
8:45-10:30am:
– Clarifying what power is, dispelling common biases, myths and misconceptions about power that can undermine treatment, and reviewing research on effective and ineffective uses of power in the therapeutic process
– A review of common myths and biases about power that can undermine outcomes in therapy with individuals and families
– A working definition of power as the ability to influence and direct change and literature on the power differentials present in the therapeutic relationship
– A self-assessment of power aimed at helping attendees identify the power they have in their personal and professional lives
– A review of 9 different types of power and those most relevant and useful to the therapeutic process, with examples and emphasis of effective/ineffective uses of power
10:30-10:40am: Break
10:40-12:00pm:
– Examining power differentials in therapy, common uses, misuses, and abuses of power in the therapeutic relationship, and effective uses of power that are guided by ethical codes and guidelines
– A discussion about the actions and approaches of effective therapists including when, why and how they use their power according to research
– A review of the impact of right uses of power on therapeutic rapport and alliance, engagement in treatment, and outcomes in individual and family therapy
– A review of common misuses and abuses of power in the therapeutic relationship including ethical and boundary violations
– An examination of key components of the APA and ACA code of ethics with interactive discussions on how these apply to the ‘right use of power’ in realistic case studies, ethical dilemmas, and clinical situations
12:20-12:35pm: Wrap up, summary, and Q & A

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within an Ecosystemic Family Therapy Model. This is a live synchronous distance learning activity conducted in real time, allowing for simultaneous participation of participants and instructors from different locations.

About The Trainer
Hailey Shafir is a licensed clinical mental health counselor, a licensed addiction specialist, and a board-approved clinical supervisor for newly licensed mental health and addiction counselors. She has more than a decade of experience providing counseling, developing programs for at-risk youth, people struggling with addictions, and providing training and supervision for clinicians. She is the owner of several businesses including Keep Counsel, Plan-it Therapy, IndyWind, and Therapy Cred. Hailey is also a content writer and medical peer reviewer for Addictions.com, the National Drug Helpline, Choosing Therapy, Rehab Adviser, Searchlight, Social Pro Now, and other sites, and has worked to develop online recovery apps and programs for people struggling with addictions and impulse control disorders.

Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our FBMHS Policies & FAQs on Live, Interactive Webconferences for additional information regarding CFBT live interactive workshops, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the training, instructions for registering for a training, etc.

Supervision Strategies to Help Therapists work Structurally in Sessions

A Live, Interactive Webconference
Wednesday, 6/8/22, via Zoom Interactive Webconference
Thursday, 6/9/22, via Zoom Interactive Webconference
Friday, 6/10/22, via Zoom Interactive Webconference
1:00pm-4:00pm

Objectives:

Identify the benefits of using structural maps for guiding family therapy sessions
Identify strategies for fostering therapists’ competence in creating and using structural maps in treatment

Agenda
1:00pm-4:00pm: Objectives 1-2

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health supervisors working within North Carolina’s Intensive In-Home Program. This is a live synchronous distance learning activity conducted in real time, allowing for simultaneous participation of participants and instructors from different locations.

Recognizing Maladaptive Structural Patterns in Families

Cost: This training is free but open only to supervisors and behavioral health professionals working in agencies contracted with CFBT

A Live, Interactive Webconference
8:30am-12:30pm
Wednesday, 6/8/22, via Live Interactive Zoom
Thursday, 6/9/22, via Live Interactive Zoom
Friday, 6/10/22, via Live Interactive Zoom

In systemic therapies, a major focus of assessment when treating children and adolescents with severe emotional and behavioral problems is the relational context of the family. The link between family functioning and the course of child problems is well-established in the empirical literature. While there are numerous available questionnaires and rating scales for assessing family relationships, this workshop focuses primarily on informal direct clinical observation of family interactions. This training introduces a conceptual framework for describing dimensions of family structure that was originally developed by Minuchin and which still informs family assessment in several evidence-based family therapy models (e.g., ABFT, MDFT, and BSFT), as well as the promising practice, eco-systemic structural family therapy. The structural concepts introduced and described in this workshop are subsystem boundaries, hierarchy and power, and closeness distance.

An overarching goal of this training is to help therapists working in intensive, in-home treatment programs to recognize structural patterns organizing parent-child relationships which have been linked to exacerbation of child problems in the empirical literature. These broad patterns include enmeshment, under organization, and coercive/authoritarian parenting. A typology is introduced as an informal heuristic clinical tool for facilitating observations of family interactional patterns. Throughout the training, videotape examples are utilized to help participants identify and differentiate these different patterns. Implications for family treatment direction is provided for each of the three maladaptive structural patterns described in the training.

Objectives

As a result of attending this training, participants will be able to:

Explain the nature of family structure
Identify three maladaptive family structures linked to SED in children and adolescence.
Describe interactional patterns that distinguish each maladaptive family structure
Describe how family structure can be used to organize treatment

Agenda
8:30am-12:30pm: Objectives 1-4

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within North Carolina’s Intensive In-Home Program. This is a live synchronous distance learning activity conducted in real time, allowing for simultaneous participation of participants and instructors from different locations.

Supervising Well During a Workforce Crisis

A Live, Interactive Webconference
Friday, May 20, 2022
8:30am to 12:00pm
Location: All FBMHS Training Sites via Live Interactive Zoom

Community based behavioral health services, such as FBMHS,
successfully survived COVID only to find a different more serious
threat in their midst – not enough staff to do the job. Some FBMHS
programs report more than a third of staff positions currently
open and few qualified applicants. It is truly a crisis, affecting not
only families’ access to services but also the morale of those
remaining in their jobs.

Learning Objectives:

The primary objectives of this bi-annual meeting of FBMHS supervisors and training faculty is to

1. Create a collaborative eco-systemic understanding of the depth and breath of the problem,
2. Determine possible ways to preserve therapists who remain
3. Ensure they are growing and developing as family therapists so they can provide high quality care to children

This is an supervisor level workshop. The target audience is behavioral health supervisors working within an Ecosystemic Family Therapy Model. This is a live synchronous distance learning activity conducted in real time, allowing for simultaneous participation of participants and instructors from different locations.

This clinical series counts toward required annual training hours in Family Based Mental Health Services Supervision, but is not currently available for CE credit.