Systemic Family Therapy with Adolescents

 Earn 5 CE Contact Hours

While the distress and struggles that adolescent face’ may not always originate within the family system, they affect adolescents’ relationships with family members in negative ways, and these struggles are therefore rarely resolved without paying attention to and working to restore family trust, and connection. For this reason, family therapy is an essential component in helping adolescents with the challenge they face.

This workshop offers an introduction to core concepts and techniques of systemically oriented family therapy. After a brief overview of the essential principles of systemic work, participants will learn practical strategies to address common adolescent concerns that come up in therapy, including academic difficulties, substance use, depression, and self-harming behaviors. The workshop will consist of a combination of lecture, discussion and case examples to help participants learn how to best support families, promote connection and calm conflict.

Learning Objectives:

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

• Describe foundational concepts that inform systemically oriented family therapy interventions.
• Apply family therapy techniques to support repair and strengthening of relationships between adolescents and their family members.
• Formulate assessment and intervention questions to engage both caregivers and adolescents around common adolescent struggles.

Who Should Attend:

Mental health professionals, therapists, social workers, psychologists, counselors, marriage and family therapists, school-based clinicians, and other professionals who work with adolescents and their families. This workshop is especially valuable for clinicians seeking practical, systemic approaches to strengthening family relationships, addressing adolescent mental health concerns, and fostering connection during times of conflict and crisis.

Meet Dr. Davidovits:

Dr. Davidovits is a lecturer in the Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia University, maintains a private practice in New York City and Vermont and is faculty emeritus at the Ackerman Institute for the Family. Dr. Davidovits has offered trainings and workshops on conducting family therapy with adolescents, and narrative medicine interventions in primary care settings, nationally and internationally.