This conference has been designed to provide a forum in which participants can learn about the important ethical principles involved in considering the incorporation of the faith-related issues in the context of therapy.
This article is a presentation made to a team of professionals involved with a family embroiled in a high conflict divorce. In addition to a brief review of the literature pertinent to families in the throes of difficulty, recommendations are made in order to work effectively with these families and assist them in achieving family stability.
I am a family sociologist teaching in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Utah. My research has explored marriage and divorce, the changing economics of single motherhood, work-family issues among higher education faculty, and how religion affects marriage and other intimate relationships.
I am the author of Understanding the Divorce Cycle: The Children of Divorce in Their Own Marriages (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and the editor, with Lori Kowaleski-Jones, of Fragile Families and the Marriage Agenda (Springer, 2005). Two additional books are under contract: Soulmates: Religion and Relationships among African-Americans and Latinos (Oxford University Press), with W. Bradford Wilcox, and Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower (Rutgers University Press), with Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden.
Post-conference Workshop on Emotion Focused Family Therapy (continued)
Gail Palmer continues her 1:30 session in a special workshop that focuses on core skills and tasks in therapeutic practice,corresponding interventions, change events that foster a secruebond between family members, and interventions to help families re-process negative affect and restructure negative interactins.
Facilitator/Presider: Jeffry Larson, Family Therapy Section Chair
Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) is a model of intervention that helps build strong and cohesive families from the inside out, according to presenter Gail Palmer, MSW, RMFT. The EFFT approach uses new insights from attachment theory to understand distressed and satisfying relationships within a family. Palmer has worked closely with EFFT co-creator Sue Johnson and has trained therapists across Canada and the United States. She is a founding member of the Ottawa Couple and Family Institute and a family therapy professor in the School of Social Work at Carleton University, Ottawa.
In this Saturday special session, Palmer will review relevant research, discuss family distress from an attachment perspective, and identify EFFT stages including key change events and clinical interventions. The workshop that follows (3:15-6:45pm) will focus more closely on the core skills and tasks in therapeutic practice, corresponding interventions, change events that foster a secure bond between family members, and interventions to help families re-process negative affect and restructure negative interactions.
Facilitator/Presider: Jeffry Larson, Family Therapy Section Chair
Building Bridges to Support Military and Veteran Families: A Multi-Agency, Civilian/Military Collaborative Approach
CDR Brenda L. Gearhart, Division Chief, Outreach Clearinghouse, Outreach and Advocacy Directorate Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE).
Multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the expanded role of the National Guard and Reserve in these conflicts have placed great stress on families and communities. As military and veteran families transition to different systems of care and move to new communities, care and support often becomes fragmented. Communities want to help but often are unfamiliar with military culture and systems, and may be unsure how to reach out to the military installations and Guard and Reserve Units to offer support. This presentation will describe a multi-agency, civilian/military collaborative group, “Building Bridges,” whose goals are to develop networks for informationsharing, initiate joint planning efforts, and increase the capacity of communities to support military and veteran families.
Brenda Gearhart is a licensed clinical social worker with 11 years of military experience, both as an enlisted service member and as an officer, and has served as a U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Officer since 2002. CDR Gearhart has worked at DCoE since July 2008 and facilitates the multi-agency, multiservice group.
Research on Relationship Dissolution: A Brief Overview, Paul R. Amato
Signs the End is Near: Causes of Relationship Breakups in Young Adults, Kay Pasley, Amber Vennum How Divorced Parents Manage Co-parental Relationships and Make Decisions About Their Children, Lawrence Ganong After the Divorce: How do Women Cope? Marilyn Coleman Theoretical Developments Related to Variability in Responses to Divorce, Mark A. Fine, David Demo
Charles R. Figley, Ph.D. is Kurzweg Chair (distinguished professorship) in Disaster Mental Health, Professor and Co-Director for Graduate Programs in the Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, Director of the Traumatology Institute, and Senior Professor in the Tulane University Graduate School of Social Work. He is a pioneer in the field of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As a returning veteran from Viet Nam, he saw the connections between the traumas of both rape and war and out of this, came new and more general theory. This theory and diagnostic guidelines now guide many professionals in working with people debilitated by various kinds of trauma.
