Comments from past participants

"Many things have resonated for me from this course: the ideas that assessment is an intervention, that the questions we ask, how we ask them, and who we ask affects the direction of the therapeutic relationship and the direction families take; the idea that families are the experts on themselves, and that therapists are experts on conversations. I feel less pressured to find out “the truth,” or why a problem happened in a family, and focus more on how to connect with families, gather information, track patterns, and help the system move to a preferred place of relating with one another. In my current setting (residential), families have already had so many experiences, often negative, with providers. This year I learned more about ways of connecting with families and forming a safe, trusting, non-judgmental space where change is possible. Remaining in a place of curiosity when working with families and believing in the possibility of change for them has helped me stay hopeful. I have also noticed that families are showing up more often for appointments! "

Becky Freedman, LICSW, Residential Program for Children

"This course is a bargain, worth more than the cost. The experience has been tremendously helpful in my work with multi-stressed families in Boston. Since taking the Intensive Program, I am using the collaborative approach which has helped me join with my clients, create collaborative solutions to problems that work and get results. I am able to apply different theories to my work with families and use the approach that best fits a family’s needs. I am a more effective family therapist, better able to use myself professionally, be more authentic and more direct/directive with families. I have decided family therapy is my favorite type of counseling.

I appreciate Liz's openness to hearing and learning about the work her students do in the community and applying it to the class work. I am a million times better social worker since taking the class. I also love that we have a diverse group of students; it would just be stale without people's different points of view and life experiences. As a white woman, I need to learn from other people and not just let my own culture be all that I know. I know we all learn from one another and it's very enriching. "

Karen Esposito, Home Based Clinician

"Before taking this course I felt a lot of over responsibility for the outcome of my family work. This became a burden for me and led to a significant amount of compassion fatigue as I was overwhelmed by the future’s I imagined for the families I work with. Now I am able to step back and see myself as a facilitator of change which has helped me stay more focused on working with the families where they are at and helping them focus on the work through a step by step process. This course has given me tools to use... I can ask questions in so many different ways and elicit information that can be helpful for a family. .. they don’t have to get entrenched in everything negative that hasn’t worked in the past and can focus on how to move forward. Taking this course has rejuvenated me in my career... it has mentally stimulated me to be more insightful around the work that I do and more thoughtful about my work. I have felt significantly less burnt out by the work that I do. "

Laura Wison, LICSW, Residential Program for Children

"Taking Intensive has greatly impacted my work in a residential setting with male sex offenders. Learning the family systems approach has taken my clinical administrator's view well beyond where it was. As I have conceptualized the program as a large family, it has solidified my view that we are all focused on the common goal of helping the kids and helped me to develop the kid and staff skills/strengths through collaboration. Understanding how patterns work does not allow for me to get caught in the blame or personalization that often runs rampant in these type of intense environments. I have been able to understand each person's perspective as valid and necessary for the whole to function and to help people shift when necessary to do the work more effectively. I believe that this program is an important resource. "

Patti Huminski. LICSW, Clinical Director, residential program

"Working in home-based family-focused collaborative services can often feel overwhelming and chaotic - many of us not knowing where to begin or how to proceed once we get in the door. By participating in the Intensive program, I have been given a gift of "calm direction in the midst". Through the readings, discussions and supervision, I now better understand the systems that operate in families, can analyze and focus on the relationship patterns in families, and am able to root myself in a relational stance that helps direct the work in even the most difficult situations. I now have a reliable compass, rooted in theory, application and intervention, which allows me to keep focused on the goals identified by the family, instead of the episodic enticements that inevitably pop up during the process of therapy. And I feel confident to help colleagues to challenge themselves to do this work meaningfully, helping pass onto them helpful interviewing techniques, an understanding of the history and current modalities operating in the field of family therapy, and assist them in identifying their working selves and the work that they do as relational, circular, whole - in other words, familial. I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to be a member of the Intensive program. "

Kaitlin Mulcahy, LMHC, Early Intervention and home based therapist

"My work doing psychiatric crisis evaluations has changed since I have taken the Intensive Course. I am able to add my understanding of family systems to my work with persons in psychiatric crisis, that is, to think about the person in the context of his family, and to think of how the family can help or contributes to the crisis. In practice this mean, when possible, I interview the family as a whole instead of just the individual. Aside from viewing the family/individual in terms of what is not working, I look for strengths; I have found people more motivated to change when they recognize their own competencies and goals. I have a variety of kinds of interventions including reflection, circular questioning, solution based and narrative approaches. My repertoire of interventions has been so much enhanced (and so my effectiveness). "

Melinda Brecher, LICSW, Crisis Team Evaluator and fee for service clinician with the elderly

"I am in a position where I am supervising social work interns, psychology fellows, psychiatry residents and child psychiatry fellows. It is challenging to develop curriculum that each discipline will be interested in. The intensive course has been beneficial in multiple ways. The course provides indepth, intriguing content which makes it easy to find topics that are relevant to each discipline. I consistently feel better prepared than prior to taking the course, to provide useful ideas, theory and particular interventions to trainees when the come to me with their struggles. In addition, while working on formulation of a patient with trainees, I have increased confidence in discussing different theories and incorporating family therapy philosophy. As a result of taking the course, I have confidence I did not have prior. Another benefit of the intensive course, which I have rarely, if ever, found in other trainings, is walking away with actual tools, specific questions and approaches that I can pass on to trainees and utilize in my own work. It is an amazing learning experience that enriches ones own practice while simultaneously increasing ones ability as a teacher."

Kimberlee Dennery, LICSW, team leader, child psychiatric hospital and private practice

"I signed up for this course due to being tasked with developing a family therapy studies program for the child and adolescent psychiatric residents at Dartmouth Medical School. I have previously studied family therapy both in graduate school and through seminars in previous places of employment. This course and instructor Elizabeth Brenner have been very helpful with providing me with a more comprehensive understanding of the development of family therapy, a better understanding of how to formulate family cases, and utilize effective interventions with families. Due to the readings assigned, discussions with the instructor and other professionals taking the course, role plays, and real case consultations, I feel more confident and prepared to provide better quality family therapy as well as to teach and supervise others to do so. "

Michelle Belk, MA, LCMHC, outpatient therapist and supervisor/teacher