Abstracts / Objectives

Detailed abstracts and objectives for the multiple session choices during the 2010 LAMFT Annual Conference are listed below:

Thursday February 18, 2010

Morning Sessions

TIME: 9:00 – 12: 15

PRESENTATION

100 (3 hours) Thomas Estis: The Crisis Experience – A Systemic Catalyst for Transformation

ABSTRACT

This qualitative research explored the specific crisis phenomena of twenty-seven physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and attorneys with chemical and process addictions. Rather than the crisis proving to be negative, the crisis turned out to be the primary contributing force for the identified participants’ willingness to enter treatment and ultimately embrace recovery.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The Participants will be able to understand the potential stages of the crisis progression from defeat and/or limitations to transformation.
The Participants will be able to have a greater consideration of the demise of the personality for persons/families with chemical and process addictions.
The Participants will be able to identify specific tasks to address in a recovery program related to the emotions being experienced by the person being counseled or treated with a chemical dependence problem.

PRESENTATION

101 (3 hours) Sue McCann & Jill Peyton: Running on Empty – Using Play-Based Interventions to Strengthen Family Systems during Troubled Time

ABSTRACT

Play therapy interventions provide a dynamic alternative to traditional talk therapy when dealing with families affected by extreme stress, grief and loss, or traumatic events. This presentation will provide an exciting overview of three evidenced-based play therapy interventions that strengthen relationships between children/adolescents and their parents and couple relationships: Filial Play Therapy, Experiential Play Therapy, and Sand-Tray World- Play Therapy. Participants will learn through lecture, demonstration, and video clips of client sessions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After this presentation, clients will be able to:

Recognize the value of using play therapy interventions to strengthen family relationships.
Develop a basic understanding of Filial Play Therapy, Experiential Play Therapy, and Sand-Tray, World-Play Therapy.
Access additional information and resources about specific play therapy interventions to further professional development.

TIME: 9:00 – 10:30

PRESENTATION

102 (1.5 hours) Matthew Thornton: Mind the Difference – The Complexity of Therapeutic Change

ABSTRACT

Mind is a matrix of pathways along which transforms of difference are communicated. Difference according to Gregory Bateson can not be located in this or in that, but rather encompasses the entire system of interactions relevant to a particular phenomenon. This presentation will explore implications of Gregory Bateson’s definition of mind in the therapeutic process. The presentation will sharply contrast various directions in family therapy that attempt to pinpoint difference rather than accounting for complexity.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will be able to articulate Bateson’s definition of Mind.
Participants will gain an appreciation for the complexity of therapeutic change by applying Bateson’s understanding of Difference and Mind to the therapeutic process.
Participants will be able to articulate current debate regarding the effective practice of family therapy.

PRESENTATION

103 (1.5 hours) Marvin Clifford: A Model of Family and Group Therapy for Working with Latency Age Boys (7 to 13) and their Families

ABSTRACT

This presentation will provide knowledge, skills, theory, evidenced based practices about a specific model that is useful for working with boys’ ages 7 through 13. The model combines family therapy and group therapy for the boys in a format that helps the boy who participates in group therapy while the family works on issues in family therapy. The family therapy secessions are separate from the group therapy sessions so the boy clients participate in the family sessions as well. The major emphasis will be upon teaching skills that will be useful for counselors working with this population. The teaching methods will include didactic, case examples, interactions with the audience, sharing from the audience, emphasis upon theoretical approaches, skills for counseling and evidenced based practices. Family therapy and group therapy theory will also be highlighted.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will learn to apply a treatment model combing family therapy with group therapy.
Participants will learn skills for helping boys ages 7 to 13 and their families.
Participants will learn theoretical models and evidenced based practices models for helping this population group.

PRESENTATION

104 (1.5 hours) Christian Dean: Everyday Chaos – Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Systemic Understandings of Karpman’s Model of Manipulative Drama

ABSTRACT

Karpman’s model of manipulative drama will be explored providing examples of such dynamics within individuals, families and other systems. Applications of interventions for individuals, couples, and families will be identified while addressing increased awareness through audience participation and sharing of experiences.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

How to identify and understand the dynamics associated with Karpman’s Model of Manipulative Drama.
How to develop awareness and methods to increase awareness in self and others associated with such manipulative dynamics within and between individuals.
How to integrate systemic and linear interventions to reduce the chances of engaging within manipulative drama.

TIME: 10:45-12:15

PRESENTATION

105 (1.5 hours) Tim Dwyer & Frank Thomas: Just Do It – The Therapist’s Recursive Relationship of Being and Acting with Couples in Therapy

ABSTRACT

A rare conference presentation addresses theory, experience, and clinical practice. In this workshop, the presenters – with a combined 60 years of clinical practice and 35 years of university teaching and supervisory experience – will lead participants in comparisons clinical of styles and therapeutic stances related to couples therapy. The presenters’ differences/similarities sets the stage for participants’ identification of their personal clinical stances, systemic assumptions, use of self, and what works with couples in the therapy context.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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

Identify three of their own personal assumptions regarding systemic couples therapy
Identify five ways of conceptualizing differences between couples therapy approaches, with an emphasis on systemic views
Identify three techniques or interventions tied to their personal therapeutic stance which they see as ‘making a difference’

PRESENTATION

106 (1.5 hours) Marc Fager: The Systemic Funnel – A Contextual Look into Adolescent Substance Abuse

ABSTRACT

This presentation will highlight underlying factors of adolescent substance abuse (ASA) as a way to help clinicians work more effectively with this population of clients. As clinicians, our responsibility is to be educated on deeper systemic issues that develop, maintain, and perpetuate problems of ASA. Clinicians will be exposed to new ways of working within family systemic context to help promote effective change. Clinicians will work on creating new ways to approach the adolescent and family on issues surrounding this topic.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will learn about systemic contextually issues that maintain and perpetuate adolescent substance abuse.
Participants will learn new and innovative strategies for working with adolescents in a therapeutic setting.
Participants will learn about theoretical frameworks that aid in helping adolescence maintain a sober lifestyle after treatment.

PRESENTATION

107 (1.5 hours)

Adam Mathews, Johnathon Robert, Richard Sheridan, Kevin Shelby & Todd Gunter: Great Escape – What Five Therapists Learned in Prison

ABSTRACT

The presenters will discuss their work as therapists with Family Foundations Reintegration Program (FFRP). The therapists at FFRP are dedicated to implementing creative systemic therapy with the youth and their families. The presenters will describe transformative experiences that have happened as they looked for ways to share moments of creativity with the youth. Presenters will describe case examples and techniques used while discussing the emerging theory that is the basis of their work.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will learn a number of strategies to engage adolescents in the therapeutic process.
Participants will practice developing creative interventions to be used with adolescents.
Participants will learn ways to facilitate the therapeutic process in nontraditional settings.

TIME: 12:30 – 2:00

LMFT/LPC/MFTAC Board Update – LPC Board and MFTAC Members

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will be updated on current information regarding LMFT licensure in Louisiana.
Participants will be updated on current information regarding LPC board work regarding both LMFT and LPC licensure in Louisiana.
Participants will be updated regarding current information regarding national work through the Association for Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards.

Afternoon Session with Bradford Keeney

TIME: 2:15 – 5:30

200 (3 hours) Bradford Keeney: New Developments in Creative Therapy

ABSTRACT

Bradford Keeney, Ph.D. and his colleagues will present new developments in creative therapy. Clinical sessions will be shown and discussed that demonstrate the “therapy of therapy” – helping awaken a therapist’s creativity. In addition, the recent discovery of historical materials in a rural Mexican village will be shared for the first time, suggesting a radically different understanding of the origins of family therapy and its major contributions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Demonstrate higher order therapy – the therapy of therapy, a method to awaken and utilize the therapist’s natural resources.
Presentation of cutting edge developments in the creative application of therapeutic work.
A strategic examination of the historical roots of family therapy.

Evening Plenary Address

TIME: 5:45-6:45

(1 hour) Bradford Keeney: Creative Therapy with Cancer

ABSTRACT

Bradford Keeney, Ph.D. will present a videotaped session with a woman who interrupted a workshop announcing she was dying of cancer and needed immediate attention and help. The session demonstrates the basic principles of creative therapy and shows that all human experience can become transformed into a resource.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Demonstrate the application of creative therapy to living with a serious medical condition.
Outline the basics of creative therapy in working with individuals, couples, and families.
Teach the utilization of client communication as a resource.

Friday February 19, 2010

Morning Keynote Address

TIME: 8:30-11:45

(3 hours) Michele Weiner-Davis: One Foot out the Door, Part 1

ABSTRACT

Couples seek therapy for assistance in making the most important decision of their lives – whether or not to divorce. Given the current research on the benefits of staying married and keeping families together, it behooves therapists and counselors to be skilled in techniques that can bring together two distant and warring spouses before choosing divorce as a viable option. This can be incredibly challenging, particularly when one spouse has lost interest in working on the marriage. However, there is much that can be done to stack the deck in the favor of the marriage, even in these “last ditch” marriages.
This workshop offers practical strategies for helping couples move beyond blame, infidelity, a lack of forgiveness, ambivalence, and self-righteousness. It draws on Solution-Oriented Brief Therapy, a strength-based model, as well as cutting-edge research on marriage education, which is aimed at teaching couples concrete relationship skills. Additionally, since even the most effective techniques in the world cannot break through walls of resistance when people’s hearts are closed, Michele Weiner-Davis will offer attendees effective tools for doing “open heart surgery.” After years of specializing in work with “couples on the edge,” Michele has learned how to reach inside the hearts of even the most distant spouse and motivate him or her to give the marriage another try. Her model is designed to be effective even if only one spouse attends the session.

This down-to-earth, practical workshop incorporates many video examples of Michele’s work with on-the-brink couples.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Use techniques that build desire to reconcile
Be aware of common techniques that polarize couples
Reduce client resistance and increase cooperation
Effect positive change within the first session
Be clear about your own core beliefs and values about marriage
Go beyond neutral, non-directive therapy
Avoid working harder than they do
Help couples heal from infidelity

TIME: 12: 00 – 1:00

PRESENTATION

300 (1 hour) Tim Dwyer, George Hay, & Eddie Parish: From Many Paths, a Sacred Unity – Interconnection in Systemic Practice

ABSTRACT

Second-order cybernetics informs our view that any conceptual map of the mind – like the interactions in therapy – must include our self. That is we must account for our own thoughts, actions, feelings, and histories for their influence on the work we do in systemic therapy. The presenters will invite participants in this dialogic and experiential workshop to explore the routes and developmental unfolding of their unique clinical paths in their identity as systemic therapists.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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

Articulate their own unique developmental pathway – and some of the key nodal elements – as a systemic therapist.
Identify 3 relevant themes between their unique personal histories and their maps of systemic therapy
Identify 3 clinical and/or relational implications for the interconnection between what they think and what they observe in therapy
Experience and integrate “difference” within a larger contextual view of unity and wholeness

PRESENTATION

301 (1 hour) Florencetta Gibson & Tonnessa Gibson: Helping Professionals Access to Care – Transition from Linear to Systemic Thinking

ABSTRACT

Helping professionals practicing in medical settings often work and think in a linear model. When these professionals seek help from a professional who views situations systemically adjustment is required. Useful strategies to identify problems and promote change will be presented.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Compare and contrast linear and systemic thinking in helping professionals
Awareness of roadblocks to care that may arise
Identify therapy strategies that support change and broaden views

Afternoon Keynote Address

TIME: 1: 00 – 4: 15

(3 hours) Michele Weiner-Davis: One Foot out the Door, Part 2

ABSTRACT

This down-to-earth, practical workshop incorporates many video examples of Michele’s work with on-the-brink couples.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Use techniques that build desire to reconcile
Be aware of common techniques that polarize couples
Reduce client resistance and increase cooperation
Effect positive change within the first session
Be clear about your own core beliefs and values about marriage
Go beyond neutral, non-directive therapy
Avoid working harder than they do
Help couples heal from infidelity

Saturday February, 20, 2010

TIME: 8:00 – 9:00

Poster Session (1 hour)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will be able to identify emerging trends in MFT research.
Participants will become familiar with the latest MFT findings.
Participants will become familiar with current methodologies used in the research reported.

Morning Sessions

TIME: 9:00 – 12:15

PRESENTATION

400 (3 hours) Lamar Woodham: Ethics

ABSTRACT

This workshop will present the process of making ethical decisions in the practice of Marriage and Family Therapy. While the AAMFT and LMFT codes of ethics will be discussed, the emphasis will be on the larger process of “being ethical.”

The meta- ethics of the practice of Marriage and Family Therapy and supervision will be focal including how to develop and implement a personal program to maintain professional competency. Continual professional development through self supervision, collegial consultation, and continuing educational activities will also be emphasized.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Be able to define the ethical practice of Marriage and Family Therapy.
Be able to discuss the concept of meta-ethics.
Be aware of the need of a personal program to maintain professional competency as a Marriage and Family Therapist.
Be able to identify meta-ethical parameters of continued professional development as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

PRESENTATION

401 (3 hours) Kathy Steele & Cristina Paredes: Making a Difference with Hispanic Clients and Families: Learning, Evaluating and Treating

ABSTRACT

The fastest growing segment of American population is Hispanic. By 2020 it is estimated that Hispanics will be the majority race in the USA. It is imperative that therapists learn about the Hispanic culture, learn to identify the myths surrounding the Hispanic population, characteristics specific to the Hispanic culture, distinctive between various Hispanic nationalities, and the best practice techniques and therapy models for working with Hispanics.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Increase in knowledge about
1. The worldview of Hispanics
2. Common emotional and behavioral patterns and how those patterns vary in different ethnicities and nationalities within the Hispanic population
3. Hispanic family structures and functioning and how families are impacted by immigration in the first, second, and third generations
4. Therapy models and techniques that best fit the Hispanic worldview and family structure.

Assess your own potential biases toward Hispanics and/or beliefs in myths concerning Hispanics and their family functioning
Practice skills in working with Hispanics in
1. Building rapport
2. Case conceptualization
3. Treatment planning when working with Hispanic families

TIME: 9:00 – 10:30

PRESENTATION

402 (1.5 hours) Rita Cook & Tom Moore: Confessions of a Closet MFT – Working Systemically in a Non-Systemic World

ABSTRACT

Assisted by her Board Approved Supervisor, the presenter, a Counselor Intern who is also working as a marriage and family therapist in training and a practicing school counselor, will offer case presentations that illustrate successful systemic interventions with school children and their families. In addition, the presenters will provide a candid look at the pitfalls, triumphs, and frustrations of a MFT in training as she attempts to come out of the closet in a work setting in which systemic practice is often misunderstood.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will learn how to utilize a family therapy approach in assisting children in resolving school related problems.
Participants will learn how to anticipate and avoid road blocks in the work environment that can hinder successful therapeutic outcomes.
Participants will become acquainted with the role of the approved supervisor in assisting the Counselor Intern in functioning in an effective and lawful way in his or her job setting.
Participants will learn the value of consultation and team work in developing therapeutic strategies for change.

PRESENTATION

403 (1.5 hours) Nicole McMyne & Brittany Clement: Implementing Multidimensional Family Therapy Post-Katrina in St. Charles Parish

ABSTRACT

This presentation examines the implementation of evidence-based family interventions utilizing the MDFT research study in St. Charles Parish as an example, to demonstrate research into practice. This study presents a rare and unique scientific opportunity to examine an innovative family-based substance abuse and trauma-focused intervention for youth in the wake of the country’s most devastating catastrophe, Hurricane Katrina. The presenters will draw from their own practical experience of implementing MDFT in a post-Katrina world and their role as family therapists in this study. Additionally, details related to the challenges of the implementation process will be discussed including the efforts to overcome these barriers thus achieving success in adapting MDFT in a post-disaster clinical setting.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Provide an overview of Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) outpatient model including basic objectives, framework, and techniques.
Examine the recent implementation of the MDFT model in St. Charles Parish along with a review of the research study used to measure the effectiveness of MDFT.
Review at least two St. Charles Parish case studies, emphasizing the basics of the MDFT approach, why it is unique and effective and what it’s like to implement the framework and techniques.

PRESENTATION

404 (1.5 hours) Joan Fischer & Cheryl Lacoste: A Client’s Journey through Incest – What Can We Learn?

ABSTRACT

This workshop will offer counselors the opportunity to discuss incest and sexual abuse with a survivor of incest and a counselor who works with clients struggling with sexual abuse issues. Focus will be on aspects of the counseling relationship, specific strategies, timing considerations, involvement of the family and members of the client’s system, and the importance of language in therapy in facilitating positive change for the client.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will be able to discuss important considerations in working with clients who have experienced incest/sexual abuse.
Participants will be able to list specific strategies that can be utilized when working with clients who have experienced incest/sexual abuse.
Participants will be able to address important issues related to family support of clients who have experienced incest.
Participants will have access to a list of resources to further their own understanding as well as to use with clients.

TIME: 10:45-12:15

PRESENTATION

405 (1.5 hours) Kathleen Schexnayder & Jewell Brown: Married to the Military

ABSTRACT

With the ongoing Overseas Contingency Operations and the prospective increase in deployments of Louisiana’s National Guard and Reserve, it’s important to understand the unique stressors facing military families. The JFSAP Team, comprised of Military Family Life Consultants, Military OneSource, The American Red Cross, and Operation: Military Kids, works together to help communities assist military families where they are through trainings and providing resources regarding military culture, stress management, grief, the deployment cycle, and more.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The participants will learn/know:

Several unique stressors facing military families
Resources available to military families and those who work with them
Specific strategies and tools to help military families in their own neighborhoods.

PRESENTATION

406 (1.5 hours) Eddie Parish & Justin Levitov: In Relationships, Love is not enough

ABSTRACT

Friedman believed the universal problem for all partnerships, regardless of family customs, gender, or cultural issues, was not getting closer but rather preserving self in a close relationship. When living in relationship with others we are dealing with the tension between individuality and togetherness. This workshop describes these relational tensions and offers the concept of differentiation as a method for responding to them.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Identify the tensions inherent in all relationships.
Illustrate why love alone cannot effectively manage the anxiety produced by being in relationship
Define differentiation.
Offer various methods for differentiation

PRESENTATION

407 (1.5 hours) Matthew Thornton: Therapy Road – Evolving Platforms for Distance Therapy

ABSTRACT

Human interaction is shifting towards an ever growing integration of technology. From social networking to online education, the way we communicate in changing. Therapeutic discourse, regardless of voiced reservation from our field, must evolve to incorporate technology into practice. This presentation will address ethical considerations of online and distance therapy and limitations by virtue of medium. The presentation will also demonstrate the potential in utilizing current platforms for internet therapy.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will be able to articulate expressed ethical concerns regarding online therapy.
Participants will gain an appreciation for both the limitation and potential of online therapy.
Participants will be able to navigate potential platforms available for use in current practice.

TIME: 12:30 – 1:30

LAMFT General Business Meeting (1 hour) – LAMFT Board

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will be updated on current information regarding issues facing MFTs in LA and the LAMFT.