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, June 4, 2026, NC IIH ESFT Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-12:40pm

This workshop is part of our ongoing series devoted to clinical tools developed by the Center for Family Based Training and the Consortium for the Advancement of EcoSystemic Structural Family Therapy (CAESFT) designed to sharpen clinical skills through deliberate practice.  These clinical tools, which can be used in supervision or as self-ratings, support the development of clinical competencies by creating a growth promoting feedback loop wherein therapists compare their actions in sessions to those listed in the clinical tool, then self-correct as needed. This workshop introduces the ESFT Treatment Adherence Scale, a 22-item checklist that allows therapists and their supervisors to rate the degree to which their clinical work embodies the eight core ESFT mechanisms of change.  The scale answers the question, “What specific actions do I take in sessions to promote change?” Each of the eight core ESFT mechanisms of change and the actions associated with each are described in detail and demonstrated through videotapes of family therapy sessions.  Participants will practice using the ESFT Adherence Scale with videotaped family therapy sessions to identify therapists’ actions consistent with ESFT mechanisms of change.

Objectives 

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

1. Describe how to conduct a family session using ESFT.
2. Explain the nature of change mechanisms in treatment and the link with the ESFT Logic Model
3. Describe eight core ESFT mechanisms of change.
4. Recognize the presence or absence of ESFT mechanisms of change in videotaped family therapy sessions.

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within Pennsylvania’s Family Based program and 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-12:40pm: 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.

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, February 12, 2026, NC IIH ESFT Training Groups via Live Interactive Zoom
8:25am-12:40pm

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 originally developed by Salvador Minuchin and which still inform family assessment in evidence-based family therapy models, as well as the promising practice, Eco-Systemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT). The structural concepts introduced and described in this workshop include 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:

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

This is an intermediate level course. The target audience is behavioral health professionals working within Pennsylvania’s Family Based program and 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-12:40pm: 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.