Structural Family Therapy: The Thinking Behind the Technique [Online]

 Earn 1.5 CE Contact Hours

This 90-minute workshop offers clinicians an in-depth look at the core beliefs and guiding principles of Structural Family Therapy. Going beyond techniques, participants will explore how structural therapists conceptualize families, build trust, and intervene with purpose.

Through a case consultation inspired by real-life clinical dilemmas, attendees will follow a family’s journey as parents grapple with a painful decision—whether to return their daughter to foster care after a long-awaited reunion.

Led through experiential exercises, participants will engage with foundational SFT tools such as Family Sculpture and the Fishbowl Drawing to illuminate family structure, alliances, and patterns that often remain hidden in verbal therapy alone.

This session is ideal for both new and experienced clinicians seeking a deeper understanding of how and why structural interventions work—and how to bring them to life in practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how structural family therapists “join” families to build trust and initiate change
• Learn to map family structure using experiential tools such as the Family Sculpture and Fishbowl Drawing
• Explore the role of boundaries and hierarchies in promoting growth and healing
• Practice translating theoretical concepts into action through live enactments and applied techniques

Who Should Attend:

Mental health professionals, therapists, and social workers interested in systemic interventions and experiential methods in family therapy.

Meet Jorge Colapinto:

Jorge Colapinto, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over four decades of experience as a clinician, teacher, and consultant in Structural Family Therapy. Originally from Argentina, he earned his psychology degree from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires and moved to the U.S. in 1976, where he collaborated with Dr. Salvador Minuchin for nearly two decades.

Jorge is a longtime faculty member at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, where he directed the Foster Care Project and trained generations of family therapists. He has written extensively on Structural Family Therapy, family systems in social services, and clinical training. He is co-author of Working with Families of the Poor, now in its second edition and translated into multiple languages. Jorge is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor and a member of both AAMFT and AFTA.

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