Family Therapy: Using a Systemic Lens to Engage Families and Co-parents in their Children and Adolescents Treatment

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

This course will present core theories and practices framing the foundation of clinical practice with families and co-parents. The course objectives will assist participants in understanding, assessing, formulating and treating children, youth and families through a systemic lens. The workshop will include:

1. How human problems are conceptualized using relational, family process, structural and systems theories.
2. The relationship between the family and the socio-cultural environment,

Including the Impact of intergenerational family process, trauma, family structure, culture, family organization, structural and systemic process on the development and maintenance of family strength, resilience and problem formation.

3. How to effectively Assess and Formulate presented problems into a systemic plan of care? Including understanding and incorporating diverse family structures, meanings, and narratives that are inclusive of multiple identities, contexts, and life experiences across the world. 
4. Strategies to engage families and co-parents in treatment including engagement and treatment strategies for high conflict families and couples.

Attention will be given to foundational theory and practice that contribute to the development of family therapy as well as newer epistemological positions and concepts deriving from post-modern, feminist, and social constructionist theories. Our exploration of family theory and practice will include crosscutting issues of culture, ethnicity, race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation, age, and disability. We will discuss the changing definition of family forms and social norms. This course will stimulate participants to think about human behavior and relationships through a family systems perspective.  Ultimately the class will focus on integrating theory and practice in order to give participants a working understanding and strategy to engage, formulate, assess and treat co-parents and families.

Learning Objectives:

1. Examine structural and relational theories of family therapy and analyze them in relation to families;

2. Demonstrate understanding of methods for assessing, formulating, engaging and intervening with families and co-parents;

3. Demonstrate understanding of family systems with respect to development, attachment, structure, trauma and the impact of mental illness, substance abuse and family conflict on family functioning;

4. Recognize the importance of family social networks and community systems (genograms, ecosystems and ecomaps) affect understanding and treatment of mental and emotional problems in families and couples;

5. Compare, contrast and outline strategies for supportive, educational, and therapeutic interventions for working with families.

Research:

Dr. Epstein’s work is rooted in structural family therapy with a systems approach. Information on structural family therapy can be found on Google scholar. Information on systems theory can be found on Google scholar.

Content level: beginning and intermediate

Target Audience: social workers, mental health therapists, and other clinicians providing mental health services to children, youth, and families who meet the NYS OMH training grant eligibility criteria

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-ebp@buffalo.edu  or by phone at 716-829-5843.

Customer Service:  We are happy to respond to any concerns or questions you may have. Please contact us at by email at sw-epb@buffalo.edu  or by phone at 716-829-5843.