Functional Family Therapy (FFT): An evolving Evidence-Based treatment for contemporary family issues (Live Online)

Registration Opens: June 29, 2022

Live interactive webinar: Participants will have the opportunity to engage in discussion by unmuting and directly asking questions or through the chat feature in Zoom. 

Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is one of the early systemic Family Therapy models that helped establish family therapy as a mainstream treatment approach. In the 1990-the 2000s, FFT gained the title of an "Evidence-Based" treatment and was at the center at the beginning of the Evidence-Based practice movement that revolutionized Juvenile Justice treatment. Twenty years later, is one of the premiere treatment models for adolescent conduct problems, drug use, and mental health concerns for youth in child welfare & foster care. Today FFT adaptions in Foster Care (FFT-FC) and in Child Welfare Prevention Services are being used around the US.

FFT was recently listed on the US Family First Prevention Act as a well-supported treatment for use in Child-Welfare As an "Evidence-Based" FFT has evolved to fit diverse community contexts and the unique clinical needs of families in these contexts. Whether in a mental health setting, a child welfare setting, or in therapeutic foster care, FFT uses a family focused relational “lens” and a specific phase-based map of change. These adaptations allow FFT brings together the best of our science, theory, and clinical practice when implemented in community settings, allowing each to be constantly tested with complex families in difficult settings with a wide range of problems.

This makes FFT far from just a theoretical guide but a practical, comprehensive, clinical approach for helping families in natural community settings. FFT is also unique in how it leverages technology to promote Evidence-Based decision making and to allow client voices to enter treatment through measurement feedback. Our Evidence-Based decision-making process makes it possible to integrate real time family feedback along with therapists their own focused reflections to provide information to help creatively craft treatment and session plans.

In this way, treatment increasingly fits the unique nature of the client and lets FFT be applied in increasingly helpful ways that “fit” the client. This workshop will illustrate the use of Functional Family Therapy in a variety of contexts including mental health, child welfare and therapeutic foster care. Using video tapes, and case examples the focus will be on the unique application of the core principles of FFT to complex mental health problems of young. We will illustrate Functional Family Therapy and how its integrated measurement feedback system can help guide treatment, adjust treatment, improve outcomes, and further engage clients in treatment.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the systemic foundations of family therapy.
2. Analyze a case form systemic principles of systemic family therapy.
3. Apply core systemic interventions to engage families in treatment.
4. Explain the clinical model of Functional Family Therapy.

Research:

• Hatlett, D, Carr, A., Sexton, T. L., (2016). The Effectiveness of Functional Family Therapy in Reducing Adolescent Mental Health Risk and Family Adjustment Difficulties in an Irish Context. Family Process, Vol. 55, No. 2, 2016 © 2015 Family Process
• Sexton, T. L. (2019). Functional Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. In J. Lebow, A. Chambers, & D. Beurlin (Eds). Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy.
• Sexton, T. L. (2017). Functional Family Therapy. In The Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency and Justice (eds C. J. Schreck, M. J. Leiber, H. V. Miller and K. Welch). doi:10.1002/9781118524275.ejdj0073
• Sexton, T. L. (2019). Functional Family Therapy: An Evidence Based, Family Focused Systemic Approach for Working With Adolescents and Their Families. In B. Friese (Ed) APA Handbook of Contemporary Family Psychology.
• Sexton, T. L. (2017). Functional Family Therapy. In The Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency and Justice (eds C. J. Schreck, M. J. Leiber, H. V. Miller and K. Welch). doi:10.1002/9781118524275.ejdj0073
• Sexton, T. L. (2019). Functional Family Therapy: An Evidence Based, Family Focused Systemic Approach for Working With Adolescents and Their Families. In B. Friese (Ed) APA Handbook of Contemporary Family Psychology. Institute doi: 10.1111/famp.12195

Target Audience: Social workers, mental health counselors, case managers, marriage and family therapists, creative arts therapists, addictions professionals, psychologists, and other interested parties.

We are happy to respond to any concerns or questions you may have. Please contact us at by email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu or by phone at 716-829-5841.

ADA Accommodations: If you require any support for your ADA needs in the United States, please contact us by email at least 3 weeks prior to the event by email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu or by phone at 716-829-5841.

Registration open until: August 10, 2022