Other Training Programs

It has been said that no therapeutic endeavor can be successful without the establishment and safeguarding of a viable therapeutic relationship between therapist and client. In family therapy, the client is an entire family system, so the challenge for therapists is to be able to create and maintain a therapeutic relationship with a set of individuals who have a history of interacting rules and roles and who, most often, are at odds with each other. This workshop teaches all the elements and strategies needed to develop and maintain an effective therapeutic system as it is done in BSFT. We will be focusing on:

• MAINTENANCE strategies
• TRACKING strategies
• MIMESIS strategies
• When to Join
• Targeted Joining
• Joining while Challenging the family system
• BALANCING

Al Gurman, Ph. D. once said in the Handbook of Family Therapy that Enactments were the “sine qua non” of interactive therapies. The Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy (Aug 2008) published an article by Butler and colleagues where these thoughts were reiterated and emphasized. Enactments are the “bread and butter” of an interactional therapist. In this workshop we teach the BSFT method for developing and using viable family enactments to diagnose family systems and create effective therapeutic change. Enactments are what bring maladaptive interactional sequences into the therapy session rendering them available for directed change. Enactments are used to diagnose. Families behave as usual, while the therapist observes. The therapist remains decentralized, unobtrusive, to allow the family to act “as always”.

This workshop will teach:

• BSFT definition of enactments
• BSFT use of enactments for diagnosis
• Enactment Questions
• Enactment Tasks
• BSFT use of enactments for change
• Spontaneous enactments – the result of good tracking
• Directed enactments – the result of good leadership
• Decentralization techniques

This interactive workshop will include a PowerPoint presentation, class exercises, role play, analysis of videotaped family sessions, and Q’s and A’s. Contact the Institute for further information and for budget planning purposes at [email protected]

BSFT has often been referred to as a diagnostically-driven therapy. Although focused on development of competence and mastery in families, this family strengthening model forms the framework of the strategic therapeutic plan for intervention on the basis of clear, process-oriented, interactional diagnosis. This BSFT diagnosis then becomes the map that specifically and precisely directs the therapy itself.

In this interactive workshop we will teach:

• BSFT diagnostic tools and methods
• How to observe PROCESS...watch what they do, not what they say
• The six BSFT diagnostic dimensions
• Organization
• Developmental stage
• Resonance
• Identified patienthood
• Conflict resolution
• Life context
• How to achieve an accurate diagnosis of observable interactions
• Developing a strategic Treatment Plan

There will be a PowerPoint presentation with student interaction, and class exercises. We will also be diagnosing families that have been videotaped both performing Family Tasks and in therapy sessions. Contact the Institute for further information and for budget planning purposes at [email protected]

This is the BSFT "Engagement" model that maintains families in therapy.

The most oft heard question among clinicians and providers in the mental health, juvenile justice and substance abuse field goes something like this: “We know that family therapy has proved to be very effective but, how do you get all the family members to come when they don’t want to?”

SSSE is an evidence-based intervention designed to enhance the efficacy of other case management and treatment modalities by teaching clinicians to properly engage significant family members and/or members of the identified patient(s) social network. Studies have shown that family involvement, particularly in the case of children and youth, improves case management, treatment compliance and successful termination, and decreases recidivism.

SSSE is ideal for agencies that provide wrap around services, intensive case management and an array of youth and family-based treatment modalities that are also looking for a cost-effective way to implement an EBP. It is also ideal for agencies that provide substance abuse/dependency treatment for both youth and adults, as well as agencies that provide STD education and prevention services.

As part of the development, refinement and testing of BSFT, we set out in the mid 1980’s to design, refine and twice test a model for engagement of resistant families. We were successful in experimentally proving its efficacy. A later replication by FSU MFT Doctoral students proved once more the effectiveness of the BSFT Engagement Model.
Both the FSU study as well as our own "Life Enhancement Program" study for HIV-infected gay males proved that the BSFT Engagement model (SSSE) is successful when used to engage and retain families into a therapeutic intervention other than BSFT.

Both the FSU study as well as our own "Life Enhancement Program" study for HIV-infected gay males proved that the BSFT Engagement model (SSSE) is successful when used to engage and retain families into a therapeutic intervention other than BSFT.

The curriculum includes:

• Theoretical foundations of the Model
• Reducing Resistance from the Point of Referral and Intake
• Diagnosing Resistance Systemically
• Mapping Resistant Patterns
• Intervening to Overcome Resistance
• Forming Sequential Alliances

This workshop will present our Engagement Model via an interactive PowerPoint presentation, class exercises, role play and viewing and analysis of family videotapes. Contact the Institute for further information and for budget planning purposes at [email protected]

Much has been written about Reframing. It is a powerful and effective technique for creating changes in families’ cognition and experience. In BSFT we have a strategically designed way of utilizing this technique for purposes of both Joining and Restructuring. Also, in BSFT we reframe not just the family processes and interactions observed, but we also reframe the contextual larger level at which the family has been experiencing itself and the Identified Patienthood of the system.

In this workshop we teach:

• Basic Reframing methods
• Reframing individuals
• Reframing interactions
• Reframing systems
• Reframing to Join
• Reframing to Maintain Therapeutic Alliances while Challenging
• Reframing for Change

An interactional presentation via PowerPoint will be accompanied by class exercises, role playing and analysis of videotaped family sessions. Contact the Institute for further information and for budget planning purposes at [email protected]

The Structural Family Systems Ratings (SFSR) were developed alongside the development of BSFT in order to asses changes in family interactions that result from family interventions. It identifies patterns of family interactions that are theoretically parallel to the clinical conceptualizations of BSFT. Besides assessing changes in the family processes, the SFSR also provides descriptive information about the structure and form of family relationships. Thus, it is both a measure as well as an aid in clinical diagnosing.

In this interactional workshop we will teach:

• Theoretical Foundations of the SFSR
• Development of the SFSR
• Reliability, Content Validity, and Studies Using the SFSR
• How to Administer the SFSR
• The SFSR Rating Scales
• Rating the Family Tasks using the SFSR
• Coding Process

Costs vary per the number of personnel to be trained. Contact the Institute for further information and for budget planning purposes at [email protected].

The Family Therapy Training Institute of Miami™ provides a variety of consultative services to the mental health community.
Case Consultation and Clinical Supervision services are available to individuals who are licensed or are pursuing licensure as marriage and family therapists.
Technical assistance in the form of clinical consultation, BSFT measures for assessing outcomes, and organizational considerations can be obtained on an as-needed basis.
In addition, FTTIM can provide consultation to organizations for the selection of appropriate clinicians to train, as well as varied implementation and adaptation issues.
Costs vary per the number of personnel to be trained and the scope of the work. Contact the Institute for further information and for budget planning purposes at [email protected].

Case Consultations
Case consultations could involve a live family session conducted by FTTIM faculty with the presence of the clinician requesting the consultation. Alternatively, the consulting clinician could submit to FTTIM a videotape of a family session, and request our review and feedback. The consultation objectives are:
1. To orient the clinician to the family’s diagnostics per the BSFT model,
2. Identify obstacles to the therapist’s effectiveness with the family system,
3. Establish a treatment plan consistent with Brief Strategic Family Therapy^®

Case consultations are helpful for providing therapists with guidance on how to engage difficult family members into treatment.

Clinical Supervision
Clinical supervision is consistent with the teachings and protocol of the BSFT model and involve:
1) Review of clinician’s and intern’s videotaped couple/family sessions,
2) Incorporation of BSFT Diagnostics,
3) Incorporation of BSFT Change principles,
4) Incorporation of Structural Systems Engagement to facilitate engagement of all necessary family members into treatment.

Evidence Based Practices (EBP) Presentations

In addition to the above, FTTIM provides administrative, clinical, and programmatic consultation related to evidence based practices. Presentations, organizational assessments, clinical consultation, program planning, and other services can be arranged to meet your needs.