WORKSHOPS >>
 
Imagination, Play, And Possibilities:
Solution-Oriented Brief Family Therapy with Children

Historically, children presenting with emotional and behavioral difficulties have been treated in an individual play therapy context in which the therapist served as the main healing agent and the privileged expert. Parents are either peripherally involved and occasionally seen by the child’s therapist or seen separately by another therapist. Treatment tends to be a long-term endeavor. Many play therapists argue that the child’s family environment may be quite toxic and their therapeutic relationship with the child can be curative without direct family member participation in the therapy sessions. Family therapy purists, on the other hand, contend that by simply altering problem-maintaining family interactions and beliefs, the child’s symptoms can be rapidly stabilized. What is clear, however, is that both clinical approaches have their strengths and limitations and when combined, can offer the child and his/her family a much more comprehensive and effective treatment experience.

In this “hands-on,” practice-oriented workshop, participants will learn an integrative Solution-Focused Brief Therapy approach that capitalizes on the strengths and resources of the child, family members, key members of his/her social network, and involved helping professionals from larger systems to rapidly resolve their presenting problems. A variety of highly effective family play and art therapy techniques and strategies will be presented.

As a result of attending this workshop, participants will learn the following:

• A Solution-Oriented Family Assessment Framework
• Therapeutic questions that elicit family members’ expertise, untold family members’ stories, and well-formed behavioral treatment goals
• Conquering ferocious tempers and oppressive DSM-IV disorders: Externalizing conversations and rituals to liberate families from the clutches of their problems
• Effective engagement strategies with children
• Parent management skills training tools
• Guidelines for designing and selecting therapeutic experiments that match family members’ unique stages of readiness to change, cooperative response patterns, and learning styles
• Several effective family play and art therapy techniques and strategies
• Goal-maintenance and solution-enhancement strategies to use in second and subsequent family sessions
• Co-constructing change: Tools for facilitating transformative dialogues with concerned and involved helping allies from larger systems
• Use of the child’s friends in treatment
• Creative uses of therapeutic consultation teams
• The celebration party: Honoring families victories over their oppressive problems

The workshop format will combine information-rich didactic presentation, videotape examples, and skill-building exercises.