About the Certificate Program

This course creates a supportive learning environment to empower beginning and intermediate family practitioners to becoming more skilled, self aware, confident family-centered helpers and supervisors. It is a program that will enable you to become a practice leader and enhance supervisory skills. Participants gain clarity about their strengths, develop new ways of working and become more articulate about their own model of helping. Special attention is paid to the development of a shared learning experience. The Intensive Program was the hallmark program of the former Family Institute of Cambridge for 35 years. We continue to teach the Intensive Program in the comprehensive, immersive tradition of FIC.

This year will be special in that we will be holding our annual weekend retreat on Chappaquidick Island, Martha’s Vineyard. In addition to the retreat, we will meet for 11 day-long classes scheduled every few weeks to promote in depth learning while balancing work and life.

Helping families through difficult times can be joyful service or a daunting task. Today more practitioners in Massachusetts are being challenged to help families support children at home with serious emotional and behavioral problems. Working well with families is a critical way to improve the lives of struggling children, adolescents and adults. 

Family systems models provide lenses for understanding families and the skills to develop a mutually agreed upon focus. Trained family therapists know how to lead conversations so that everyone participates constructively. They also know how to help parents avoid making things inadvertently worse. Understanding the family as a system supports us to help people do what is best for everyone involved. Without specialized training, holding meetings with families can be overwhelming, difficult to manage and unproductive.

Participants will study concepts and methods from a variety of theoretical approaches, including historically important, enduring models and more recent developments in the field. Drawing on their own unique styles and abilities, students will examine their underlying assumptions about families and therapy, developing a relational, empowering systems-oriented clinical stance.

The goals of the Intensive Program in Family Therapy are:

• learn conceptual models and clinical practices that highlight family competencies, framing their difficulties in non-shaming, non-blaming ways, taking into account the influences of the larger culture and community
• learn a model to hold meetings with families and other working groups with a structure that helps people and process from getting stuck

Teaching methods include discussions about reading material, experiential exercises, live and videotaped interviews. Small group case consultation is an integral part of the course, providing the opportunity to attend to each student's development. Liz Brenner is the Director and primary instructor for the course.  Senior faculty including Carol Becker, Caroline Marvin, Charlie Verge and Kaethe Weingarten will enrich the program as guest presenters.

We look forward to enlivening our work and learning together!

Who should apply: Social workers, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, educators, parent partners and other professionals interested in learning more about counseling individuals, families, couples and working with larger systems.

Contact Liz to ask questions about or to attend informational interview about course. An informational interview is required prior to acceptance into the program.

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Registration and Payment for the Family Therapy Training Program 2011/2012 is available here.

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INTENSIVE PROGRAM INFORMATION AND POLICIES

Fees: Registration rate is $1800 for the course, with an additional non-refundable application fee and deposit of $150.

Group Registration rates: We encourage you attend with your friends/colleagues! The application/deposit fee will be reduced to $50 if you register with someone else. Please mail registration forms/fees together or indicate the person with whom you are attending and make appropriate payment arrangements with Liz Brenner.

Register and pay online or mail checks made out to Liz Brenner and send with downloaded registration form to: Liz Brenner, 51 Kondazian Street, Watertown, MA 02472

Participants MUST attend 100% of the program to earn the 81 CEUs offered. CEU certificates will be given at the end of the last class after fees are fully paid and the course evaluation form is complete.

Enrollment will be limited to 18 participants. Please call or email if you are registering within three weeks of the start date to make sure there is still room to attend the course. Online registration will automatically close when the course is full.

No refunds are available unless a written request is received 21 days before the program starts. A $50 administrative fee will be deducted.

Email acknowledgments will be sent to confirm receipt of registration.

If you require special accommodations, please submit a written statement at least 30 days prior to the program.

Courses may be cancelled if minimum enrollment requirements are not met. In this case, full fees will be refunded or applied to future programs.

Weather cancellations are consistent with the decision of the Watertown, MA school system. If Watertown is cancelled or delayed, the class will be cancelled or delayed accordingly. Missed days due to weather will be rescheduled.

Grievance policy: submit a written complaint if instructor(s) cannot resolve the issue. If the complaint cannot be resolved by Liz Brenner, she will consult with another faculty member for a second opinion.