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Graduate Booster: Creating Laser-Focused and Family-Central Enactments

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, March 22, 2024, All Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-12:35pm

In ESFT, enactments are used to re-shape family negative interactional patterns (NIP). They are the ultimate tool for the family-based therapist. To make the experience meaningful and the changes sustainable it is imperative for the family members to be central and active in both the development and the process of the intervention. It is also crucial that the goal of the enactment be laser-focused and clearly defined. In today’s workshop, we will review and discuss the phases of enactment from an advanced ESFT therapists’ perspective. Interaction among participants will be facilitated around observations of a videotaped high-quality enactment from a family therapy session. The videotape is used to demonstrate both laser-focus and the family’s centrality in the enactment. Participants will be encouraged to discuss the strengths and challenges they have faced when conducting enactments and lessons learned from their years as a therapist in FBMHS.   

This workshop includes lecture, video-tape review, handouts, and breakout rooms for discussion and for practicing skills. Participants will be provided with a comprehensive list of resources for further study.

Objectives 

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

  1. Describe the phases of enactment (Preparation, Initiation, Facilitation, Meaning-Making
  2. Identify challenges and successes with keeping sessions present focused using enactments
  3. Identify three strategies that can be used to keep the interaction going in the facilitation phase of enactment. 

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals who have completed the three-year training 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 1-2
10:30am-10:40am: Break
10:40am-12:35pm: Focus on Objective 3

About the Trainer

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.

Graduate Booster: An Introduction to Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy

A Live, Interactive Webconference

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

Thursday, November 30, 2023, All Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-12:35pm

While the major focus of treatment in FBMHS is on the parent-child relationship, therapists often encounter significant conflict in the couple which undermines their ability to co-parent.  This workshop introduces an evidence-based approach to working with the couple subsystem, Emotionally Focused Treatment (EFT), developed by Dr. Sue Johnson. Like ESFT, EFT has its roots in Structural Family Therapy and Attachment theory.  In this training, the history and basic tenets of EFT are described, and the role of emotional experience in creating change.  Focus is also given to the EFT version of the negative interactional cycle, stages of treatment, and how enactments are used to facilitate the couple relationship. This workshop uses didactic presentation, case discussion, and review of videotapes to present the material.

This workshop includes lecture, video-tape review, handouts, and breakout rooms for discussion and for practicing skills. Participants will be provided with a comprehensive list of resources for further study.

Objectives 

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

  1. Describe the negative cycle in EFT
  2. Describe the stages of EFT treatment
  3. Recognize the role of underlying emotions in couples’ work
  4. Describe how enactments are utilized in EFT

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals who have completed the three-year training 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 1-2
10:30am-10:40am: Break
10:40am-12:35pm: Focus on Objectives 3-4

About the Trainer

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.

ESFT Start-Up: An Introduction to ESFT and FBMHS

Thursday, 9/21/23, Norristown (Montgomery County Intermediate Unit)
Thursday, 9/21/23, Harrisburg (Harrisburg Area Community College)
Thursday, 9/21/23 via Live Zoom interactive webconference
9:00am-1:30pm

This interactive, strength-based training provides an orientation to ESFT, FBMHS, and the training program. It is designed to set the stage for bonding with the job and growing into an effective FBMHS therapist.  The training begins with a description of the population served, describes the history of the program in PA, and reviews recent research demonstrating its effectiveness in keeping youth out of hospitals and RTFs. The second part of the workshop provides an overview of CFBT’s approach to training and normalizes the challenges therapists often face when stretching their skill sets. The third part of this workshop introduces ESFT, discusses videotapes of well-done ESFT treatment sessions, and differentiates relational from behavioral approaches to treatment.  The last 75 minutes of this workshop is experiential.  Everyone gets an opportunity to role play joining with family members and conducting a family session.

Objectives:

  1. Explain why your work in FBMHS is so important.
  2. Identify expected challenges in learning to be a family therapist.
  3. Introduce the ESFT model and how it differs from nonrelational, behavioral approaches.
  4. Practice joining with family members and conducting a family session.

Agenda
9:00am-11:00am: Objectives 1-2
11:00am-11:30am: Break
11:30am-1:30pm: Objectives 3-4

This is a beginner level workshop. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within an Ecosystemic Family Therapy Model. For those taking part in the Zoom Webconference option, 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 for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.

Foundations: Therapist Self-Awareness in Family Treatment

Thursday, May 9, 2024, Foundations Group A via Zoom
Thursday, May 9, 2024, Foundations Group C via Zoom
Friday, May 10, 2024, Foundations Group B via Zoom
8:25am-1:10pm

This workshop is designed to increase therapists’ awareness of themselves in sessions and strengthen their ability to avoid induction into individual family members’ emotional field. Self-awareness is a tool that helps therapists attune to their personalities, strengths, beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and motivation in treatment sessions. It also helps therapists to understand how different family members may perceive them, which is very important to maintaining a balance therapeutic alliance. Family therapy is particularly challenging because there are competing agendas, strong emotions, and histories of trauma and pain, all of which can activate sensitive issues within the therapist’s personal life. This workshop is informed by Harry Aponte’s ideas about “signature themes” and the person-of-the therapist, as well as Peter Rober’s ideas about fast and slow thinking. Case presentations, videotape analysis, and small group discussion are used to deepen the conversation about therapist’s self-awareness in day-to-day practice.

Objectives 

As a result of participating in this workshop, therapists will be able to:  

1. Describe the concepts of signature themes and person-of-the therapist why they are
important
2. Explain the link between therapist personal signature themes, induction, and
isomorphism in family treatment.
3. Describe the concepts of slow thinking and fast thinking and how they apply to
decision-making in family treatment

Agenda
8:25am-11:00am: Objectives 1-2
11:00-11:10pm: Break
11:10-1:10pm: Objective 3

This is a beginner 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 for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.

Foundations: Working in Teams

Thursday, April 11, 2024 Foundations Group B via Zoom
Thursday, April 11, 2024 Foundations Group C via Zoom
Friday, April 12, 2024 Foundations Group A via Zoom
8:25am-1:10pm

This workshop is designed to help lay the foundations for building a therapy team. Participants will learn the benefits and challenges of team development. Additionally, participants will receive information that pertains to stages of team development and how it applies to developing a family-based co-therapy team. Each stage will include information about steps to take toward team growth. During the workshop, participants will use a combination of large and small group discussions and videotape review to identify team development phases.   

Objectives 

As a result of participating in this workshop, therapists will be able to:  

  1. Describe benefits and challenges of working in a 2-person team 
  2. Define the stages of team development in FBMHS
  3. Identify roles that each therapist can take in session while doing co-therapy.

Agenda
8:25am-11:00am: Objectives 1-2
11:00-11:10pm: Break
11:10-1:10pm: Objective 3

This is a beginner 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 for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.