Workshop Description:
“Blended families” begin with such high hopes. However, all too often the adults find themselves facing unhappy “resistant” children, mired in unexpected and painful stepcouple ruptures, struggling with differences over everything from discipline to the “appropriate” cost of a pair of sneakers, and caught in tangles with ex-spouses. The longing captured in that language of “blended families” can add layers of shame to dashed hopes. Meanwhile children often feel quite misunderstood and alone.
Whether you work with individuals, couples, or families, with adults or with children, the intensity and complexity of the issues can be daunting. The good news is that there is solid, practical, evidence-based guidance about what works, and what doesn’t, to help stepfamily members meet their challenges.
This workshop will give you a framework that integrates over 40 years of research and clinical experience with a wide variety of therapeutic modalities on three levels: Psychoeducational, interpersonal, and intrapsychic/family-of-origin. You’ll leave with a clear map of the territory and a full box of tools for sowing realistic hope, softening conflict and forging connection, as well as a boat load of great handouts.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe several “easy wrong turns” therapists make in working with stepfamily members.
2. Recognize stepfamily challenges for children, parents, stepparents, and ex-spouses.
3. Gain practical tools for meeting stepfamily challenges on three different levels: Psychoeducational, interpersonal, and intrapsychic.
4. Describe what works (and what doesn’t) for parenting, stepparenting, and discipline in stepfamilies.