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The 66th AAMFT Annual Conference
Ethical and Legal Challenges in
Contemporary Family Therapy
Memphis, TN  t  October 30 - November 2, 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008
Morning Workshops
10:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
 

200
CRUCIBLE TRACK: Core Concepts of the Crucible® Approach: Research and Clinical Application
David M. Schnarch
Susan J. Regas

This workshop introduces the Crucible Approach’s unique view of differentiation from empirical and clinical perspectives. A new, reliable and valid measure of differentiation, the Crucible Differentiation Scale (CDS), will be reported for the first time. The CDS and video clips of case material will help participants utilize the Crucible lens of differentiation. Technical skills will be taught as a natural expression of the Crucible Paradigm.

201
Eating Disorders: From Medical Model to the Feminist Frame
Margo D. Maine

Despite the prominence of the medical model in the treatment of eating disorders, it is simply too objective and too linear to answer the obvious questions: Why women and why now? The feminist frame contextualizes the eating disorder, acknowledging the toxic pressures on contemporary women, and empowers the clinician and client to avoid power struggles as they pursue recovery.

202
Legal and Ethical Issues Involving Drug and Alcohol Cases
Jo-Ellen Sajek

Family therapists will learn about federal laws regarding substance abuse cases and how these cases are held to a higher legal standard than cases with straight mental health issues. This workshop will explain who must comply with laws, what information is protected, when disclosures are safe to carry out and prohibited, how to respond when a client(s) revokes consent, and the use of consent forms.

203
Using Technology to Provide Clinical Services in Rural America: A Demonstration of Technologically Assisted Intervention
D. Kim Openshaw
Jennifer Morrow
Scott Roper

Those residing in rural communities are marginalized in their abilities to receive needed therapeutic services due to barriers of availability, accessibility, and acceptability. This presentation discusses rural mental health theory, examines research that discusses transcending these barriers, and demonstrates the use of technologically assisted intervention. Reaching out with technology has proven feasible, satisfying, and effective in outcome.

204
Systemic Child Custody Evaluations: Navigating the Conflict
J. Michelle Robertson
Gina M. Poisson

This workshop will explore a structured service delivery method for conducting child custody evaluations. This alternative systemic process allows MFTs to offer a comprehensive report to assist judges in determining “best interest of child.” Presenters will also offer strategies for clinicians to market a similar approach in local court systems.

205
Healthy Nests: A Couples Intervention for New Parents
Deanna Linville
Jeffrey L. Todahl
John K. Miller

This workshop will demonstrate a preventative, strengths oriented approach for working with a normative sample of new parents. Additionally, the presenters will show how the implementation of the couple intervention can provide an opportunity to teach and evaluate MFT students’ competence for working with couples. Preliminary research findings on the effectiveness of this service modality will be provided.

206
SPIRITUALITY TRACK: Spirituality and MFT: Typologies and Competencies
Rand Michael

This workshop considers how to respectfully ascertain and utilize client spirituality as a clinical resource. Among areas to be addressed are client and clinician spiritual typologies, as well as counselor competencies, plus broaching and facilitating conversation about spirituality when relevant to therapy. Healthy and toxic belief systems as well as the idea of faith development, are noted.

207
The Ethics of Self-disclosure in Experiential Psychotherapy
Michael L. Chafin
Scott A. Edwards

Self-disclosing is an essential tenet of symbolic-experiential psychotherapy. When used as an intervention, does this “self-of-the-therapist” technique have ethical considerations? This workshop will provide an overview of the self-disclosure literature, show video clips of self-disclosures, review the nature of self-disclosure as an experiential intervention, and process the ethical considerations of this technique.

208
Treating Anxiety and Depression: Clinical and Ethical Issues
Layne A. Prest
W. David Robinson
Paul R. Springer
Katherine J. Daniels
Richard J. Bischoff

This session will cover the most recent information on depression and anxiety disorders, reviewing effective procedures for assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Presenters will review the most effective psychosocial, behavioral, and psychopharmacological collaborative assessment strategies and treatment interventions. Special attention will be placed on the ethical dilemmas which arise in balancing treatment of the symptomatic individual and therapy within the relational system.

209
Examining Trust and Dependency Exploitations in Family Therapy
William E. Parish
Timothy F. Dwyer
Norman T. Moore

Marriage and family therapists who practice under conditions of multiple roles that could impair professional judgment or increase the risk of client exploitation are told to take appropriate precautions. Multiple relations will be explored from several perspectives. Participants will examine appropriate precautions with increased understanding of multiple relations, using a decision making model and increasing self-awareness and self-monitoring. 

210
Family Therapy with the Mentally Ill: Ethical and Legal Issues
Eric Johnson

This workshop will present a model for working with people with serious mental illness from a family perspective. It incorporates elements of psychoeducation and structural family therapy in a strength-based approach that emphasizes professional-family-patient collaboration. The ethical and legal issues involved in consent, confidentiality, and rights of both patient and family will be addressed.

211
SUPERVISION TRACK: The Use of Self in Your Model of Supervision
Jonathan G. Sandberg

Effective supervision requires the formation of therapeutic (to nurture, mentor, teach) relationships between supervisor-therapist and therapist-client. A crucial, but often misunderstood aspect of forming therapeutic relationships is the “use of self.” Regardless of theory/model, supervisors bring their “personhood” to supervision. The purpose of this workshop is to help supervisors define and then integrate the “use of self” in supervision.

212
Ethical Decision Making in Doing Disaster/Crisis Therapy
Karin B. Jordan

In an era of war, terrorism, and natural disasters, MFTs have served in relief organizations providing 1-on-1 crisis counseling, debriefings, etc., with other mental health professionals. Unfortunately, little ethical guidance has been provided for these crisis therapists as to what ethical decision-making model should be used. This workshop will address some of the ethical challenges encountered when doing disaster crisis therapy and how to use an ethical decision-making tree.

213
Refugee Families: Ethical, Clinical and Training Practices
Laurie L. Charles
Gonzalo M. Bacigalupe
Alisa S. Beaver

Appreciating the experience of families displaced to the U.S. by war and violence in their home countries is an ethical imperative for clinicians This session will describe methods to enhance practitioners’ abilities to conduct competent clinical work with refugees, asylum seekers, and survivors of gross human rights violations.

214
Sex, Drugs, Rock-n-Roll: The Joys of Working with Teenagers
Annette D. Reiter
Barbara Rhode

Social structures have changed drastically in the past twenty years and many teenagers seek counseling on their own or request sessions without parents' consent. Understanding these inherent ethical dynamics, while navigating through treatment, can be challenging. The presenters will link current social structures, parenting trends, and economic pressures to better understand these ethical issues. Topics including who holds the confidentiality, what to do with secrets, issues of safety, parents as third party payors and age appropriate boundaries will be reviewed.

215
Responding to Trauma: Bridging Mental Health and Medicine
Tai Justin Mendenhall
Jerica M. Berge

This workshop will highlight how mental health professionals work collaboratively with medical providers in trauma-response teams. The nature and conduct of this fieldwork will be described, along with common ethical challenges associated with inter-professional and interpersonal boundaries. Examples across small scale (e.g., fatal accidents, murders) and large scale incidents (e.g., natural and man-made disasters) will be discussed.

216
Utilizing Decision-making Models to Solve Ethical Dilemmas
Larry O. Barlow
Steve E. Livingston

This workshop will describe structured approaches to help therapists recognize options, understand how their choices will bring about desired consequences, and then identify and implement new skills. Emphasis will be placed upon maintaining both the integrity of our profession of marriage and family therapy, and that of the individual therapist. Demonstrations will include case studies of therapists making both poor and wise ethical choices. New challenges including the areas of parenting coordination and parent evaluations will be addressed.

217
Ethical Considerations in Sex Therapy
Chris F. Fariello

Sex therapists come from a variety of psychotherapeutic disciplines, each with differing ethical codes. It may be difficult to decipher which standard prevails when the best interest of the client is considered. By exploring these ethical codes as they relate to sex therapy, we will look at ways in which sex therapy can be both creative and ethical.

218
You Must See it My Way: The Ethics of Teaching Ethics
Benjamin E. Caldwell
Stephen W. Brown
Linna Wang

MFT educators teach more than the AAMFT Code of Ethics. They aim to teach an underlying set of values and process of ethical decision-making, which students can use when ethical codes are unclear or contradictory. This panel will discuss the challenges in teaching ethics and attempting to shift student values, paying specific attention to the role of culture.