Clinical Techniques to Build Family Resilience

 Earn 3 CE Contact Hours

When working with families that experience multiple challenges of mental health problems and social marginalization (e.g., poverty, family violence, racism, and other factors), a focus on resilience can shift attention from alleviating symptoms of trauma to building the systemic factors that promote the resilience of families as a whole.

In this presentation, Dr. Michael Ungar will show how mental health professionals can use a basket of tools to nurture family resilience. This works best with interventions that are a match to the risk profiles and resources available to families from diverse cultural and contexts.

Participants will learn how to identify and encourage resilience-enabling factors associated with family resilience based on Dr. Ungar’s research and clinical consultations around the world. The core principles of the approach, navigation and negotiation, will be discussed in relation to techniques that clinicians can use to guide treatment. These techniques are specific to understanding a client’s pattern of resilience instead of being focused on symptom relief alone.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• To understand how families with children with complex needs use a range of strategies to enhance their resilience and wellbeing;
• To become familiar with how to assess family resilience;
• To learn about nine resilience-promoting resources necessary for positive child development;
• To develop strategies for working without resistance with hard-to-reach, culturally diverse families;
• To discuss ways services can be structured for children and families that make resilience more likely to occur.

Who Should Attend:

Mental health professionals, therapists, social workers, counselors, psychologists, school-based clinicians, family therapists, case managers, and community-based providers who work with children, adolescents, and families navigating trauma, social marginalization, poverty, racism, violence, or complex mental health challenges. This workshop is especially valuable for clinicians and helping professionals seeking culturally responsive, resilience-oriented, and systemic approaches to strengthening family wellbeing and promoting long-term resilience across diverse family systems.

Meet Dr. Ungar:

Michael Ungar, Ph.D., is a Family Therapist and Professor of Social Work at Dalhousie University where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience. His research on resilience around the world and across cultures has made him the number one ranked Social Work scholar in the world.