All Day Workshops |  Morning Only |  Afternoon Only

March 28

Download PDF Saturday Workshops here.

All Day Workshops

Morning - 10:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Afternoon - 2:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.

401 & 501 - Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, Part 1 and Part 2
A Moment-to-Moment Approach

* Susan Johnson

Unhappy couples are usually too defensive and caught up in their own drama to really listen to each other, much less engage in problem-solving or learning communication skills. Using attachment theory as its base, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), an empirically validated approach, provides a frame for understanding the underlying emotional dynamics of the couple and a step-by-step procedure for helping them reconnect and create a satisfying mutual bond. Through a live demonstration of EFT and discussion of its key features, you'll learn interventions for calming couples down, interrupting their destructive interactional cycles, helping them reengage, and showing them how to integrate their therapeutic breakthroughs into their daily lives. You'll witness firsthand how to stay with the couple's moment-to-moment emotional experience and facilitate the bonding events that can transform their relationship. (This session will continue with Workshop 501.)

Susan Johnson, Ed.D., is a professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa, director of the Ottawa Couple and Family Therapy Clinic at the Ottawa Hospital, and a research professor at Alliant University. Her latest book is Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love.

402 & 502 - Structural Family Therapy Today, Part 1 and Part 2
When Revolution Becomes Evolution

* Salvador Minuchin, Jay Lappin, Patricia Dowds, Martha Sullivan, and Jorge Colapinto

In the 1960s, structural family therapy, pioneered by Salvador Minuchin, became known for its tough and ruthless assault on old-style therapy. Today, its innovative therapeutic principles, such as doing enactments and looking beyond the individual to the system, remain components of the approach and have been integrated with contemporary clinical methods. In this workshop, four current practitioners taught or influenced by Minuchin will show videos of their cases to explore how they've refined structural methods. Salvador Minuchin will comment on his students' work and discuss the genesis of structural family therapy and the pros and cons of how it's practiced today. (This session will continue with Workshop 502.)

Salvador Minuchin, Ph.D., made the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center the world's leading family therapy training center and founded the Minuchin Center for the Family.

Jay Lappin, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., is the family therapy director for the group practice Centra.

Patricia Dowds, Ph.D., is executive director of the Minuchin Center for the Family.

Martha Sullivan, Ph.D., is executive director of the Fordham-Tremont Community Mental Health Center.

Jorge Colapinto, L.Psych., is a faculty member of the Ackerman Institute and the Minuchin Center for the Family.

403 & 503 - Tony and Dr. Melfi, Part 1 and Part 2
Boundaries and Ethics in the Therapeutic Relationship

William Doherty

Complicated ethical issues lay at the core of the unraveling clinical relationship between HBO's Mafia don Tony Soprano and his psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi. Not only did the show and Dr. Melfi win awards from the American Psychoanalytic Association, but Melfi's ethics became the subject of debate in online therapy chat-rooms all around the country. In this workshop, we'll explore the clinical and ethical complexities of treatment presented in The Sopranos,and discuss what it can teach us about the risks of blurred boundaries. We'll consider the limits of traditional "values neutral" psychotherapy in a world of convoluted loyalties, hyperindividualism, and moral danger, and explore ways to talk nonjudgmentally with clients about behavior that's hurting both them and others. Video clips of the show will spur the debate. Note: this workshop fulfills many state board requirements for training in ethics and risk management. (This session will continue with Workshop 503.)

William Doherty, Ph.D., is a professor and director of the Citizen Professional Center at the University of Minnesota and author of 12 books on families and family therapy, including Putting Family First, Take Back Your Marriage, and Take Back Your Kids.

404 & 504 - Advances in Trauma Treatment, Part 1 and Part 2

Liza Ferentz

Trauma therapists often focus on the emotional and somatic aspects of healing, but neglect the impact of trauma on brain processes. However, understanding trauma's effects on the brain can dramatically improve our ability to do safe, effective clinical work. In this workshop, we'll explore how recent discoveries about neuroplasticity can directly inform treatment methods. We'll translate this new knowledge about the brain into concrete strategies designed to activate left- and right-brain functioning and increase safety, containment, and grounding. We'll look at ways to improve experiences of attachment, affect regulation, and enhanced self-esteem, and discuss specific techniques for undoing destructive behaviors, managing arousal, and preventing flooding and flashbacks. (The session will continue with Workshop 504.)

Liza Ferentz, L.C.S.W.-C., a clinical instructor at the University of Maryland Department of Family Medicine, trains residents in the biopsychosocial model of trauma treatment. She's the founder of the Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education.

* Symposium Featured Speaker