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AAMFT Summer Institutes for Advanced Clinical Training
 August 10-14, 2008
 Vancouver, Washington

A Crash Course in Marriage and Family Therapy
Thorana Nelson, PhD

Marriage and family therapy has become the treatment of choice for a number of behavioral health problems including substance abuse, childhood behavior problems, and marital distress.   Families with a member who has a serious mental illness also benefit from marriage and family therapy. Additionally, research has shown that MFT is an effective intervention, often outperforming individual treatments. In this Institute participants will not only learn about the cutting-edge of marriage and family therapy interventions, but also the foundational models that support many of these newer approaches.

This Institute is specifically designed for mental health practitioners who want to obtain an understanding of the major family therapy models and their theoretical underpinnings. This may include professionals from other healthcare disciplines who are seeking formal training in systems theory and family therapy. The Institute is also ideal for marriage and family therapists who are looking for a refresher course in the major models, and some of the evidence-based models, before sitting for the licensing exam.

Through pre-Institute readings, lectures, discussion, and exercises, participants can expect to learn or re-learn foundational material in family therapy.  Attendees will also discover how this material contributes to newer, evidence-based models, learn what populations are best served by these models, and gain practice in using the tools of the models.

The course will cover:

• systems therapy and concepts that underlie marriage and family therapy.
• foundational marriage and family therapy models, including communication, structural, strategic, Bowen family systems and other transgenerational models, symbolic-experiential, and solution-focused therapy.
• methods for integrating models of therapy.

• emerging and evidence-based models, include multisystemic therapy, multidimensional family therapy, brief strategic family therapy, functional family therapy, emotion focused therapy, and behavioral couple therapy.
• ethical and legal issues in the delivery of marriage and family therapy.
• indications and contraindications of marriage and family therapy.

Course Schedule

Monday August 11- Thursday August 14, 2008
8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. each day
This course provides 20 hours of continuing education.

Thorana Nelson, PhD, an AAMFT Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor, is professor in the department of Family, Consumer, and Human Development at Utah State University and former Director of the COAMFTE Accredited Marriage and Family Therapy program. Dr. Nelson is the editor and co-editor of several books, including 101 Interventions in Family Therapy and 101 More Interventions in Family Therapy with Terry S. Trepper, Tales from Family Therapy: Life-changing Experiences with Frank N. Thomas, Education and Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Handbook of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Clinical Practice with Frank N. Thomas, and Solution-focused brief practices with long-term users of mental health services: “I’m more than my label” with Joel Simon as well as numerous articles and book chapters. She was a member of the MFT Core Competencies Steering Committee and has written extensively on MFT education, training, and supervision.