April 2025: Engaging Caregivers 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, April 25, 2025, FBMHS Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-1:10pm

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, community, and referring agencies. 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 our focus on caregivers in ESFT.
Recognize the difference between caregiver involvement and caregiver engagement.
Identify the most common reasons caregivers are reluctant to participate and fully engage in family treatment
Describe six strategies for engaging caregivers in treatment.

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 1-2
10:30am-10:40am: Break
10:40am-1:05pm: Focus on Objectives 3-4

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March 2025: Recognizing and Treating Enmeshment in Families

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 7, 2025, FBMHS Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-1:10pm

In ESFT, children’s presenting problems are understood and treated in the context of their family’s structure. Enmeshment is one of four structural patterns most associated with serious emotional disturbance in children. This workshop describes the characteristics of enmeshment and how this interactional pattern shapes children’s development of social-emotional competencies and their response to treatment. Treatment guidelines are highlighted, as well as common clinical traps therapists are likely to encounter when working with enmeshed relational patterns. Tips are provided on how to maximize the use of enactments to create more functional relationships.

Objectives

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

Recognize the markers of enmeshment in families.
Describe how enmeshment impacts youth symptom development.
Recognize four maladaptive strategies used to minimize conflict in enmeshed families.
Identify the targets of change when working with enmeshment and how to incorporate enactments.
Describe common clinical traps when working with enmeshed systems.

Agenda

8:25am-10:30am: Focus on Objectives 1-3
10:30am-10:40am: Break
10:40am-1:05pm: Focus on Objectives 4-5

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:

Describe the nature of executive functioning skills and why they are important in family treatment.
Recognize signs that a caregiver is struggling with their executive functioning skills.
Identify the major mental health and neurodevelopmental issues underlying problems of caregiver treatment follow through.
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

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:

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

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.