Thursday, May 8, 2025, Foundations Group C via Zoom
Friday, May 9, 2025, Foundations Groups A & B via Zoom
8:30am-1:00pm
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
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.