Integrating Family Therapy with Children and Adolescents

with W. Keith Sutton, Psy.D.

There has been significant research to show that family therapy is an effective treatment for working with children and adolescents, but many therapists don't provide family therapy because they feel undertrained or intimidated by working with more than one client at a time. In this workshop, we will ground ourselves in the family systems theoretical orientation, to see how it can inform case conceptualization of families and larger systems (e.g., extended family, community, schools, organizations). We will review core concepts in family therapy that guide assessment and treatment. We review principles of Behavioral Family Therapy, Attachment Based Family Therapy, Structural Family Therapy, Strategic Family Therapy, and how to use this principals to create lasting change in families, and provide tools in order for the therapist to know where they are and where they’re going when working with families. We will discuss various disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, eating disorders), and how these principles can help in creating lasting change, and additionally understanding how high Expressed Emotion is key in relationship to relapse prevention.

This six-hour workshop is geared both towards clinicians new to family therapy as well as those experienced with family therapy. We will review the basic concepts of family therapy, the theoretical underpinnings to our approach that incorporates structural family therapy, strategic family therapy, behavioral family therapy, cognitive behavioral family therapy, and attachment based family therapy. We will then teach practical skills for working with families and providing a road map to effective treatment. There will be opportunities for role play and learning creative, practical skills for helping families in order to have tools to use with clients.

At the end of this training, participants will be able to:
▻  Explain what family systems theory is and how it applies to families and larger systems.
▻  Assess the type of boundaries in a family they work with.
▻  Design a behavior plan for family with a child or adolescent.
▻  Describe the processes of Attachment Based Family Therapy for Adolescents.
▻  Explain how high Expressed Emotion is related to relapse.

W. Keith Sutton, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist and director of the Institute for the Advancement of Psychotherapy. He has been working with children, adolescents and their families since 1998 in teens shelters, a residential treatment program, a wilderness program, drug and alcohol outpatient program, schools, community clinics, an in-home therapy program, and in private practice. Dr. Sutton is trained in Narrative Family Therapy, Brief Strategic Family Therapy, Family Based Therapy for Anorexia, Attachment Based Family Therapy, Emotionally Focused Family Therapy, Strategic Family Therapy, MRI Model of Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Parenting with Love and Limits, and Behavioral Parent Therapy. Dr. Sutton was on the Strategic Family Therapy team at the Mental Research Institute, and currently teaches and supervises therapists and therapists in training in family therapy through his Institute for the Advancement of Psychotherapy and it’s associated nonprofit, Bay Area Community Counseling. He and his colleague, James Keim, LCSW, have developed their integrative, transdiagnostic four stage approach to working with families called Evolving Structural-Strategic Family Therapy (ESSFT).  

Curriculum

  • Licensed Clinician (without CE)

  • $150 USD

    Access
  • Student / Prelicensed Clinician

  • $75 USD

    Access

Institute For The Advancement Of Psychotherapy

© 2024 Institute for the Advancement of Psychotherapy