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November 2024: Getting Staff Buy-In to a Relational Treatment Approach

A Live, Interactive Webconference
Friday, November 1, 2024, North Carolina via Live Interactive Zoom
8:30am-10:30am

New intensive in-home staff as well as those who have held the job for many years using more traditional approaches often have very little experience or training with systemic, relational treatment, which can be a challenge for supervisors and Trainor Mentors.  And it interferes with the implementation of ESFT with fidelity.  This training focuses on strategies supervisors and Trainor Mentors can use to stimulate staff’s curiosity and openness to learning ESFT and working from a systemic, relational perspective.

Objectives:

  1. Describe the most common reasons staff may resist shifting their approach     
  2. Identify a strengths-based relational approach to supporting staff buy-in to ESFT

Agenda
8:30am-10:30am: Objectives 1-2

This is an intermeidate level course. The target audience is behavioral health supervisors working within an Intensive In-Home 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. 

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.

Graduate Booster: Suicide Assessment and Treatment through an Interpersonal Lens

A Live, Interactive Webconference

Cost: This training is free but open only to Family Based Mental Health therapists working in agencies contracted with CFBT

Friday, November 22, 2024 via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-12:35pm

This workshop is intended to advance the participants suicide assessment and safety planning skills. Participants will be introduced to Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicidality, demonstrate strengths-based techniques to enhance their assessments, and analyze current safety plans looking for strengths and opportunities to enhance the plan. Participants will have opportunities to share strategies with each other through small and large group discussions.

Objectives 

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

  1. Summarize Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicide
  2. Demonstrate 2 Strengths Based Assessment Techniques
  3. Analyze a current safety plan for strengths and opportunities for enhancement.

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within in-home behavioral health programs. 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

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.

October 2024: Supporting Caregivers with Compromised Executive Functioning in Family Treatment

A Live, Interactive Webconference

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

Friday, October 25, 2024, All FBMHS Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-1:05pm

Also offered on these dates, for 4.0 CE:
Thursday, October 17, 2024, Venango County via Live Interactive Zoom
Thursday, October 31, 2024 North Carolina IIH Training Group
8:25am-12:35pm

In EcoSystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT), therapists focus on strengthening the caregivers’ emotional support for the child as well as helping caregivers create more consistent structure in the home.  Both treatment objectives lean heavily on the caregivers’ executive functioning skills. These are mental processes that help us to manage everyday tasks such as planning and problem-solving. The caregivers served by community-based programs live with multiple stresses, under-treated mental health problems, and trauma – all of which can significantly compromise executive functioning skills. This can leave caregivers reactive, having trouble prioritizing and remembering treatment themes, and not following through with agreed upon treatment tasks. 

This workshop presents a strength-based framework that considers the individual and contextual contributions to caregivers’ executive functioning. Some of the major disorders affecting executive functioning skills are reviewed, such as ADHD, Major Depression, Anxiety Disorders, and Complex Trauma. Strategies for adapting family interventions to support the caregivers’ success in stepping more effectively into a parenting role are highlighted. This training uses lecture, group discussion, and videotape clinical examples to teach the major concepts.

Objectives 

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

  1. Describe the nature of executive functioning skills and why they are important in family treatment.
  2. Recognize signs that a caregiver is struggling with their executive functioning skills.
  3. Identify the major mental health and neurodevelopmental issues underlying problems of caregiver treatment follow through.
  4. Identify specific supports and treatment adjustments that can enhance caregiver engagement and effectiveness in the parenting role. 

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within in-home behavioral health programs. 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-1:05pm: 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.

December 2024: Treatment for Families on the Autism Spectrum

A Live, Interactive Webconference

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

Friday, December 6, 2024, All Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-1:05pm

Children and adolescents on the Autism Spectrum, already at risk, become exceptionally vulnerable when the family is struggling to function, relationships are fragile and negative emotions are rampant. For caregivers to effectively parent the child or for therapists to effectively help the family with the child, actions must be grounded in an understanding of the psychology of the child on the spectrum (e.g., cognitive rigidity, difficulty with perspective taking and emotion processing).  This workshop, therefore, provides an in-depth overview of what autism is, how it impacts social-emotional processing and emotion-regulation, and the challenges this can create for the child, the siblings and the caregivers.  Also identified are common negative family patterns that can exacerbate the social-emotional and behavioral problems of the child on the Spectrum.   

Although the primary focus of this workshop is on how the family-based therapist can facilitate more functional family relationships and improve parenting functions, a review of evidence-based interventions currently used to support children on the Autism Spectrum will be provided.  The child is likely to have an IEP at school and be involved with other service providers.  This means the case management (service coordination role of the family-based therapist) is often critical when working with a family who has a child with a developmental disability. Videotape segments will be used to demonstrate 1) the challenges of family life with a child on the spectrum and 2) the clinical directions of working with caregivers who have a child on the spectrum. Strategies adapted from Greene’s Collaborative Problem-Solving approach are introduced that can help caregivers become more effective in managing meltdowns.

Objectives 

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

  1. Describe the traits of Autism Spectrum Disorder
  2. Explain the link between common behavioral problems and the psychology of the child on the Spectrum 
  3. Identify individually focused supports and treatments that have evidence of being helpful to the child on the Spectrum
  4. Utilize the Autism Trait Scale for discussing the strengths and weaknesses of a child on the autism spectrum.
  5. Describe strategies for supporting caregivers to become more effective in de-escalating and soothing the child who is having a meltdown 

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within Pennsylvania’s Family Based 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 1-3
10:30am-10:40am: Break
10:40am-1:05pm: Focus on Objectives 4-5

About the Trainer

Dr. Browning is a professor in the Department of in the Department of Professional Psychology at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.  He is a noted authority on psychological treatment with stepfamilies, families of homicide, and families on the spectrum.  He has published numerous books, chapters and articles on these topics, as well as on the genogram.  Dr. Browning is a diplomat in couple and family psychology and is part of the clinical training team of the National Stepfamily Resource Center.  In 2017 Dr. Browning was given an award for Distinguished Contributions to Family Psychology by division 43 of the American Psychological Association. other concerns.

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.

Living Our Codes: Boundaries and Ethics with Youth and Families

A Live, Interactive Webconference
September 18, 2024, via Zoom Interactive Webconference
8:25am-12:35pm

Living out one’s ethical code is a challenge when a practitioner wants to engage youth and their family in a therapeutic context. The complexity of interactions and boundaries can confuse any practitioner, especially when conducting services in the community or home setting. Living Our Codes looks at ethics in the context of family therapy and how to use established decision-making strategies to maintain professional integrity. An emerging focus for ethical practice is establishing the practitioner’s self-care routines as an essential component for strong therapeutic alliances and outcomes. The workshop will help practitioners examine how self-care impacts their ability to create strong alliances while maintaining professional boundaries.

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

  1. Differentiate between ethics, law and morality
  2. Demonstrate the use of Rossey’s 5 Steps to Ethical Decision Making.
  3. Distinguish the difference between boundary crossing and boundary violations.
  4. Summarize the importance of self-care in establishing a therapeutic alliance with youth and families

Agenda

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

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.

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.