How do you get adolescents to talk? How do you get parents to listen? How do you bring families together who have been torn apart by chronic conflict and pain? In this workshop we will offer hands-on techniques for tackling these difficult issues, as well as other common problems that arise in work with adolescents and their families including attempted suicide, substance abuse, divorce, immigration, school failure and chronic illness. Our central belief is that to help adolescents in trouble, it is necessary to identify and address the family and cultural issues that underlie the adolescent’s difficulties. We consider the family an essential resource in this therapeutic process.

This framework offers the opportunity for important changes to take place for the family and for the adolescent simultaneously. Using case examples and videotaped vignettes, we will demonstrate how to open up communication around sensitive issues, change conflictual family patterns, examine values, beliefs and practices that block change, and establish positive interactions that lead to workable solutions. Participants are also invited to bring in their own brief case vignettes for discussion.

Faculty: Peggy Papp, LCSW, Faculty, Director, Project for Adolescents and their Families, Ackerman Institute; author, The Process of Change; and co-author, The Invisible Web: Gender Patterns in Family Relationships; Paul Feinberg, PhD, Assistant Director, Project for Adolescents and their Families Ackerman Institute; Michael Davidovits, PhD, LCSW, Assistant Director Project for Adolescents and their Families, Ackerman Institute; Assistant Director, Family Therapy Program, North General Hospital.

Date: Saturday, April 12, 2008
Time: 10 am to 4 pm
Tuition: $115
CE Credits: 5

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