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Doing What Works:
ADVANCES IN SYSTEMIC FAMILY THERAPY WITH ADOLESCENT SUBSTANCE ABUSERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Adolescent substance abusers and their families can be challenging to work with. Often, family therapists and other mental health professionals have had limited training and experience in treating adolescent substance abusers. Addiction professionals, on the other hand, may have a wealth of experience working individually and running groups with substance-abusing adolescents but have had little training or experience in doing family therapy with their clients. For these reasons, many adult and adolescent substance abusers prematurely drop-out of treatment, have returned back to using shortly after concluding a course of treatment or being in a program, and family problem-maintaining patterns and outmoded beliefs are left intact.

Over the past two decades, there have been significant advances in family therapy and innovative systems-oriented therapy groups for adult and adolescent substance abusers and their families. Empirically-validated family therapy approaches have demonstrated their effectiveness with substance abusing, delinquent, and other severely acting out adolescents. In addition, research indicates that treatment programs that adopt a systemic therapy perspective tend to have much better post-treatment outcomes, such as adolescents having fewer relapses and their families sustaining their gains years after discharge.

This workshop is designed for front-line family therapists, drug counselors, supervisors, and managers of outpatient, inpatient, and residential treatment programs that service adolescent substance abusers and their families. As a result of attending this “hands-on” workshop, participants will learn the following:

• A comprehensive overview of the major empirically-validated couple and family therapy approaches with adolescent substance abusers
• Guidelines for matching family therapy approaches and other treatment strategies with the unique characteristics of the adult and adolescent and his/her couple relationship/family
• Effective strategies for engaging and retaining adult and adolescent substance abusers and their families in treatment
• Interviewing for change and crafting meaningful questions to co-create compelling future realities with adult and adolescent substance abusers and their families
• The Solution-Oriented Parenting Group: Empowering parents to be the agents of change with their substance-abusing adolescents
• Treatment guidelines for working with dual abusing couple relationships and families with multiple substance abusers
• Going at it alone: One-Person Strategic Family Therapy
• Covering the back door: Effective couple/family relapse prevention strategies
• Facilitating transformative and solution-determined dialogues with involved helping allies from larger system
• Trouble-shooting guidelines for getting unstuck with challenging families
• Keys to establishing successful family systems-oriented substance abuse treatment programs for adults and adolescents