Foundations: Using Motivational Interviewing
To Engage Reluctant Family Members

Friday, October 31, 2025
8:30am-1:00pm

This workshop focuses on the challenge of engaging peripheral and reluctant family members in family treatment. One of the core mechanisms of change in ESFT is ensuring that all key family members have been identified and are engaged and participating in the change process. Common reasons that a family member may be reluctant to participate in treatment are identified, along with Motivational Interviewing strategies for addressing these challenges. Resistance is described in terms of the Stages of Change and the relationship interactions between the family member and the ESFT therapist. Motivational Interviewing techniques such as Rolling with Resistance, Developing Discrepancies and Increasing Self-Efficacy are defined, discussed and then role played for skill development.

Objectives:

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

Define treatment resistance from a relationship lens.
Identify Motivational Interviewing strategies for increasing family member engagement in sessions.
Practice Motivational Interview strategies, such as rolling with resistance, developing discrepancies and increasing self-efficacy.

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

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: Establishing Leadership and Structure
In Family Treatment Sessions

Friday, January 9, 2026
8:30am-1:00pm

This workshop is designed to explore the importance of leadership and structure in family therapy, and the clinician’s role in this process. Participants in this workshop will learn about the benefits of structure and leadership in producing a safe environment for therapy and growth. Strategies for increasing predictability and structure will be discussed including orienting clients to treatment, facilitation, and debriefing/closure of sessions.

Objectives:

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

Describe two ways that structure promotes a positive therapeutic environment
Develop protocols for opening and closing therapy sessions
Recognize content and process as it relates to facilitating treatment sessions.

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

Foundations: Working with Reactivity & Strong Affect
In Therapy

Friday, January 23, 2026
8:30am-1:00pm

This workshop is designed to assist participants with decreasing emotional intensity to a productive level in sessions. During the workshop, participants will explore common themes, situations, and experiences that may contribute to reactivity in family sessions, as well as strategies to decrease intensity. The workshop will emphasize the clinician’s self-regulation as one of the key tools to successfully decreasing intensity. Karpman’s drama triangle will be introduced and participants will have opportunities to use presentations to identify how to provide therapy in high intensity sessions.

Objectives:

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

List three reasons why family members may react in therapy sessions
Identify two techniques to create emotional safety in therapy sessions.
Summarize Karpman’s drama triangle

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

Foundations: Boundaries and Triangles

Friday, February 6, 2026
8:30am-1:00pm

This workshop is designed to help participants identify, assess, and navigate common structural patterns in family therapy. Participants will explore the role of boundaries within ESFT, both as an area to be assessed and as a therapeutic tool. The workshop will focus on the role of boundaries in three common structural patterns: Triangulation, Enmeshment, and Disengagement. Case presentations, videotape analysis, and structural maps will be utilized to practice identifying and assessing boundaries and boundary violations. During the workshop, strategies for setting boundaries and the use of boundaries as a therapeutic tool will be discussed.

Objectives:

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

Define boundaries as related to ESFT treatment
Contrast enmeshment and disengagement as they relate to boundaries.
List two strategies for working with enmeshment

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

All-Site Supervision Forums

Each of these two 4.0-hour forums create an opportunity for all the supervisors currently in training at the Center for Family Based Training to 1) share current collective challenges they are facing as supervisors in FBMHS and 2) discuss creative strategies for addressing these challenges. Dr. Jones, the founder and director of CFBT facilitates the forums and is joined by other teaching faculty. One of the goals of the forums is to ensure everyone (supervisors and faculty) share a common understanding of the current context in which supervisors operate and deliver services. The forums are held at the beginning of the training year (September) and at the end (May).

This is a live synchronous distance learning activity conducted in real time, allowing for simultaneous participation of participants and instructors from different locations. The supervision forums count toward required annual supervision training hours in Family Based Mental Health Services. However, CE credit is not available.

Objectives:

As a result of participating in the forums, supervisors will:

Recognize common challenges in delivering FBMHS and supervising therapists
Identify strategies for effectively supporting therapists in training-related tasks

Forum 1: Guiding Therapists Through the Capstone Process

Facilitators: C. Wayne Jones, PhD and Adam Boguski, MDiv

Thursday, September 1, 2022
8:30am to 12:30pm
Location: All FBMHS Training Sites via Live Interactive Zoom

Forum 2: Building Effective Co-Therapy Teams

Facilitator: C. Wayne Jones, PhD

Friday, April 21, 2023
8:30am to 12:30pm
Location: All FBMHS Training Sites via Live Interactive Zoom

This is an intermediate level forum. 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.

Objectives:

Discuss recent findings about the effectiveness of FBMHS.
Discuss challenges currently facing supervisors in relation to staffing.
Discuss what colleagues are doing to address staffing challenges and maintain fidelity to the model.
Preview revised certification standards and processes.