Title: Expanding the Possibilities: A Collaborative Strengths-Based Family Therapy Approach with Challenging Children and Adolescents
Date: Friday, April 11, 2008
Time: 8:30 am Check-in; 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Seminar Program; 11:30 – 12:30 pm Lunch (on your own)
Presenter: Matthew Selekman, MSW, LCSW
Location: Joe C. Thompson Conference Center, Rm 1.110
Cost: $80 Registration Fee, $65 Group Rate, $45 Student Rate
CEUs: 6 hours of credit available
To Register: Download the registration form at the bottom of this post or contact June Martinez at 512-451-2242 or jmartinez@austinchildguidance.org. Space is limited.

About the Seminar:

Working with at-risk children and adolescents and their multi-stressed families can be a nightmare for even the most seasoned therapists. Many of these children and adolescents have experienced multiple treatment failures. In some cases, numerous professionals may be helping the family but are in disagreement about diagnosis, treatment planning, expectations, and what constitutes change. Not only can this further exacerbate the clients’ difficulties but can keep the treatment process at a stand still. To best meet the needs of these families it requires a collaborative and flexible strengths-based family therapy approach which capitalizes on strengths and targets interventions at the child/adolescent, family, peer group, school, and other larger systems levels. A greatly expanded integrative solution-focused therapy approach will be presented that combines therapeutic ideas from positive psychology, narrative, postmodern systemic therapy approaches with mindfulness meditation, art therapy, and cognitive skills training. A strong emphasis will be placed on the creative use of the self in the therapeutic process. This hands-on, practice-oriented workshop will present a plethora of therapeutic strategies and techniques that utilize clients’ imagination powers, signature strengths, positive emotions, and self-healing capacities while strengthening their family relationships.

Learning Objectives:

1. To use a multi-systemic family assessment framework to determine at what system’s levels to target interventions.
2. To select and implement positive psychology interventions to trigger positive emotion and empower the client.
3. To use self-practice guidelines that tap into the inventiveness of both the client and therapist to create possibilities.
4. To design, select, and implement family connection building rituals and therapeutic experiments to strengthen parent-child/adolescent relationships.
5. To use mindfulness meditation and cognitive skills training to strengthen the client’s self-regulatory functioning.

About the Presenter:

Matthew D. Selekman, MSW, LCSW is a family therapist and addictions counselor in private practice and the co-director of Partners for Collaborative Solutions (www.partners4change.net). He is the author of Working with Self-Harming Adolescents: A Collaborative, Strengths-Based Approach; Pathways to Change: Brief Therapy with Difficult Adolescents (2nd Edition); Solution-Focused Therapy with Children: Harnessing Family Strengths for Systemic Change; and Family Therapy Approaches with Adolescent Substance Abusers. Selekman received the Walter S. Rosenberry Award in 2006, 2000, and 1999 from The Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado for having made significant contributions to the fields of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. He has presented workshops on his collaborative, strengths-based family therapy approach with challenging children and adolescents extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, and Australia.

Continuing Education Credits:

This seminar is approved for 6 hours of continuing education for social workers, professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists; it also meets continuing education requirements for psychologists. Certificates will be awarded at the end; no credit will be given for partial attendance.

Location/Directions:

The Joe C. Thompson Conference Center, 2405 Robert Dedman Drive, is on The University of Texas campus. Directions: Traveling South on IH-35: Take the 32nd St. exit and turn right at the light. Travel west one block on 32nd St. to Red River. Turn left and travel south on Red River to the first light (Red River and 26th/Dean Keeton St). Proceed through the intersection and turn right into the first parking lot (Lot 40). Traveling North on IH-35: Take the 32nd St. exit and turn left at the light, then follow the directions above. For a map go to the Conference Center website at: www.utexas.edu/cee/tcc/

Note: No registration confirmation will be sent. Contact June Martinez at (512) 451-2242 or jmartinez@austinchildguidance.org to confirm registration. Cancellations with a full refund must be made by April 9, 2008.

Seminar 2008 Registration Form - 2009 April
Size: 57 KB | Type: doc
Registration form for the 25th Annual Children's Mental Health Seminar: Matthew Selekman