Abstracts / Objectives

2012 Conference Abstracts:

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ITEM 1: Afternoon Sessions – THURSDAY

 2:15 PM – 5:30 PM

100.  The Witchdoctor’s Manifesto (3 hours)

Tom Moore, MA

Today’s mental health professionals find themselves increasingly “oppressed” by a contemporary professional culture that seems to have lost it’s connection with certain timeless and vital elements of spiritual and emotional healing.  The presenter will explore reasons why “modern” people-helping techniques rooted in the medical model are unsuited to the needs of emerging post-modern society and how family therapists can learn to boldly practice as true healers in a professional culture that continues to be dominated by the medical model.
101.  Virginia Satir’s Therapy of Hope: Teachings That Enrich Our Life and Work (3 hours)

Johnny Faulkner, MA & Harper Gaushell, Ed.D.

Virginia Satir’s model of Family Therapy is a hope-based, solution-not-problem driven way of being with a client.  It is focused on health and possiblities–not pathology.  She believes that hope is a significant component for health and change. Among the goals of her way of working with clients is to focus on enhancing awareness, understanding patterns of communication, building self-esteem, and tapping internal resources to change external behaviors. This seminar will explore experientially, Virginia’s life, her core teachings, and implications and applications for the family therapist’s life and work with clients of all types.  She taught that the way to success in your work with clients is by enhancing your own life. Captured in her words is our hope for you in this seminar: “I want you to get EXCITED about who you are, what you are, what you have, and what can still be for you. I want to inspire you to see that you can GO FAR beyond where you are right now.”

  1. Participants will be able to understand and discuss Virginia’s life and contributions to Marriage and Family Therapy.
  2. Participants will be able to identify the basic concepts of her teachings.
  3. Participants will be able to explore implications of hope and solution-based methods in life and in therapy.

 

2:15 PM – 3:45 PM   

102.  Engendering Hope: Focusing on Resources, Resiliency, and Solutions to Construct Success With Clients in Crisis (1.5 hours)

Bethany Simmons, Ph.D. & Ashley Gilbert, MA

Focusing on solutions and resources in therapy has been shown to be successful with various populations and problem situations.  Participants will learn about utilizing clients’ resources, resilience and strengths to move them beyond a crisis and into constructive solution-building behavior, engendering hopefulness.  This presentation will mainly focus on a brief inpatient psychiatric hospital setting to demonstrate how these techniques can effectively be applied when therapist resources and time are limited with clients.

  1. Participant will briefly review theory/techniques of focusing on solutions, resources, and resiliency.
  2. Participant will learn the advantages of applying these techniques to engender hopefulness in crisis/inpatient situations.
  3. Participant will learn how to implement therapy techniques with clients in crisis.

 

103.  From Individualistic to Systemic:  A Journey Toward Systemic Clinical Practice (1.5 hours)

Matt Morris, Ph.D. & Roy Salgado, Jr., Ph.D.

We’re still trying to outgrow our training!  Join the systemic revolution as we discuss growing from an individualistic approach to counseling and into a systemically-grounded way of living.  This workshop will present a review of foundational systemic concepts (what’s a recursive sequence?) while applying the concepts to clinical (and non-clinical) situations.  We will also share our own stories of how our eyes are slowing opening to the inescapable systemic world around us.  Audience participation required!

  1. Greater clarity of foundational systemic principles and thinking
  2. Greater appreciation of the implications of systemically-informed clinical practice
  3. Identify areas for systemic growth in one’s own personal epistemology

 

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM   

104.  Solutions for Boys and Their Families (1.5 hours)

Marvin Clifford, Ph.D.

This 1.5 hour presentation will focus on teaching skills for marriage and family therapists to help boys and their families. The skills to be taught will be based upon evidenced based practices. The problems for boys ages 3 to 17 and their families to be addressed include ADHD, ODD, behavior, anger, defiance, aspergers, addictions, depression, anxiety, school, grades, self-esteem, and peer and family relationships. Combined models of therapy, individual, group and family therapies will be discussed using evidenced based practices. A team approach using varied resources and emphasizing wrap around concept will be integrated into the skills presented.

  1. Participants will learn to use evidenced based practice skills with boys and their families.
  2. Participants will learn new skills for helping boys and their families with varied problems including ADHD, ODD, aspergers, behavior, anger, defiance, depression, anxiety, addictions, family, school.
  3. Participants will learn how to use combined methods of individual, group, and family therapies for helping boys and their families.

 

105.  Making Sense of Bowenian Theory: Utilizing the 8 Major Concepts of Bowenian Theory (1.5 hours)

Howie Brownell, MS

This presentation will focus on pragmatic use of Bowenian Theory and how its concepts affect therapy.  These concepts will be defined and discussed during the course of the presentation.  Specifically, Differentiation of Self of the therapist will be reviewed to highlight its influence on the therapeutic moment.  The presenters and audience will also dialogue about other uses for the theory, including but not limited to other “family” systems.

  1. Define differentiation of self and apply that to the therapist and his/her role in therapeutic moment.
  2. How the differentiation of self of the therapist affects therapy.
  3. Make Bowenian Theory more palatable to clinical practice.

 

*SPECIAL PRESENTATION FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS  *This presentation is for graduate students only.

Thursday 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm   

An Introduction to MFTs and Their Role as a Therapist in the Mental Health Community

(Eddie Parish, Tim Dwyer, Jana Sutton, & Frank Thomas)

 

FRIDAY – AAMFT Approved Supervisor Refresher Course

8:00 am – 1:30 pm   

AS.  AAMFT Approved Supervisor Refresher Course (5 hours)

Jana P. Sutton Ph.D. & Wm. Eddie Parish, Jr., Ph.D.

* This course is for AAMFT Approved Supervisors Only.

 

This workshop is designed for the experienced AAMFT Approved Supervisor. It is a comprehensive review of:

  1. Methods of supervision.
  2. Ethical and legal considerations with special emphasis on Louisiana licensure concerns for MFTs.
  3. The continuing development of the supervisory relationship.
  4. Current literature on MFT supervision.
  5. The importance of contracts in supervision and the key elements necessary for creating a developmentally appropriate supervision contract.
  6. The current standards for becoming and maintaining the AAMFT Approved Supervisor designation, with particular attention to the Approved Supervisor’s role as a mentor.
  7. Being creative in supervision.

 

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the changing roles of AAMFT Approved Supervisors both philosophically and pragmatically.
  2. Articulate a personal model of supervision that indicates sensitivity to the ethical, legal, cultural, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic, and therapist-supervisor issues.
  3. Discuss the co-evolving therapist-client and supervisor-therapist-client relationships within a range of supervisory modalities (for example, live and audiovisual recordings of supervision).
  4. Clearly define the development of the supervision contract with the stated expectations of both the supervisor and supervisee related to the supervision and supervision mentoring process.
  5. Demonstrate knowledge of the requirements and procedures for supervision trainees for AAMFT Membership.


ITEM 2: Roundtable Luncheon Workshop – FRIDAY

Lunch: On your own or bring your own brown bag to a roundtable luncheon workshop.

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm   

200.  How Spiritual Traditions Define Relationships and Guide the Counseling Process (1.5 hour)

Nathan Koch & Justin Levitov, Ph.D.

 

This workshop will explore how various spiritual traditions define relationships. The impact that spirituality exerts on couples and on couples counseling will be studied from this perspective.  Ultimately participants will learn ways to better honor spiritual dimensions within the clients’ relationship and the couples’ counseling relationship.

  1. How spirituality impacts counseling.
  1. How spirituality defines counselor/client perceptions of relationships.
  2. How to effectively and objectively address/incorporate spirituality into couples counseling.

 

201.  Stop the World and Let Me Off: Solutions for Working in a Culture that Expects and Celebrates the Unreasonable (1.5 hour)

Robyn Jardine-Randal, MA

The workplace is a microcosm of a fast-paced, immediate culture with increasingly unrealistic expectations resulting in often extreme and untenable workloads and obligations, creating relational and emotional hardship.  Often professionals attempting to set reasonable work boundaries and become caught in a double-bind experience of “unreasonable” expectations often contributing to the perpetuation of the absurd as being the standard.  This presentation explores addressing and escaping this double-bind, cultivating new solutions and setting limits to create balance and hope.

  1. Participants will assess the level of balance in their own professional and personal life.
  2. Participants will dialogue about the double-bind of “unreasonable” expectations and how to address and escape it.
  3. Participants will learn how to cultivate new solutions for setting limits to create balance and hope.
  4. Participants will identify support systems and resources that will assist them in maintaining balance and hopefulness.

 

 

ITEM 3: Morning Sessions – SATURDAY

9:00 am – 12:15 pm   

300. The Ethics of Family Therapy—Humane Practice in a Dehumanizing World (3 hours)

Tom Moore, MA

Note: Ethics satisfies the MFT Ethics required for MFT licensure.

 

The discussion of ethics in mental health is often viewed as a topic disassociated from theory and practice, valuable only inasmuch as it helps the practitioner to limit his or her liability in an increasingly litigious society.  The presenter will instead offer a  view of ethics as a necessary context to the relationship between “prescription and action”  for the clinician that teaches the meaning of “healing practice” and why this view is of particular importance to the emerging role of the family therapist in post-modern society.

301.  Border-Crossing Conversations: Translating Narratives of Hopelessness/Solitude Into Narratives of Solidarity (3 hours)

Marcela Polanco, Ph.D.

One aspect that concerns to narrative practices is the development of rich stories that counteract the effects of social suffering on people’s lives.  This workshop introduces translation as an art and craft for rich story development that emphasizes not only the performative nature of language, but its poetic potential that render people’s lives into a work of art.

  1. Learn about translation as a therapeutic alternative that opens up options for people to take action in regards to their experiences of social suffering.
  2. Learn about the performative and poetic nature of language and its implications for practice.
  3. Learn about sets of inquiries informed by the premises of translation.

 

9:00 am – 10:30 am   
302.  Facilitation and Maturation of Clinician’s Heart and Soul for Fertilizing the Growth of Therapeutic Hope (1.5 hours)

Wm. Eddie Parish, Jr., Ph.D.

The concept of hope has been explored in the philosophical, theological, sociological, anthropological, and therapeutic arenas.  Hope is not an ingredient that can be ingested through clinical interventions but rather develops from within the client in the midst of the therapeutic relationship.  In this workshop, practitioners will explore and learn the relevance of nurturing and maturing their heart and soul for the purpose of fertilizing therapeutic hope.

  1. Participants will learn that heart and soul influence therapeutic hope.
  2. Participants will learn to be aware of their inner selves in the therapeutic session.
  3. Participants will know how to mature their inner life for greater therapeutic effectiveness.

 

303.  A Hopeful Approach: Using Motivational Interviewing With the Mandated Client (1.5 hours)

Jana Sutton, Ph.D., Bethany Simmons, Ph.D., Courtney Brasher, MA, & Katie Nelson, MA

Motivational interviewing (MI) is considered a most effective treatment model for therapists working with mandated clients.  Presenters will provide an overview of the guiding principles of MI, also discussing the similarities with other systemic treatment models.  Presenters will offer examples of MI application and provide current research regarding its effectiveness.  Resources will be given to assist implementation of MI skills and techniques in current treatment with clients, particularly those who have been mandated for treatment.

  1. Participants will learn an overview of the underlying philosophy and guiding principles of Motivational Interviewing, including the similarities to commonly used systemic treatment models.
  2. Participants will learn how to apply Motivational Interviewing skills and concepts in working with clients, particularly those clients mandated to attend treatment, by giving examples of the presenter’s current work, along with current research literature describing its evidence-based effectiveness.
  3. Participants will learn suggestions and resources for incorporating Motivational Interviewing skills into their current treatment practices.

 

10:45 am – 12:15 pm   

304. Non-traditional Protocols for Marriage and Couples Therapy (1.5 hours)

Mary DePartout, Christine Bagala, & Justin Levitov, Ph.D.

 Several very effective, yet non-traditional couples therapy protocols exist in the literature. These alternatives are useful for couples experiencing certain types of relationship problems. By varying (1) the number of therapists, (2) the gender of the therapists, and (3) the setting where the therapies take place, unique advantages surface. This workshop offers participants an opportunity to learn about alternative couples counseling protocols while providing a rationale for determining the circumstances where they should be used.

  1. Participants will have an up to date knowledge of specifically focused couples therapy protocols and techniques.
  2. Participants will better prepared to tailor treatment and needs.
  3. Participants will be able to identify when to use specific couples approaches.

 

 305.  Being a Successful Systemic Administrator in a Linear Organization (1.5 hours)

Amy Yates, Ph.D. & Florencetta Gibson, Ph.D.

This collaborative workshop is designed to bring together systemic administrators to engage in an open dialogue of challenges and successful practices for co-creating productive work environments.

  1. Participants will be able to identify the elements of systemic leadership.
  2. Participants will be able to identify professional networking opportunities.
  3. Participants will be able to identify effective systemic leadership practices.