3-Day Intensive Child Development Training

Join leading child and adolescent development experts Lynn Lyons and Ben Furman to discover effective techniques to help your young clients thrive in school, at home, and in their social interactions.

**All credit information and individual webcast descriptions can be found under the individual sessions on the course tab.
 

Thursday, March 22, 2018
Part 1: 9:30 am – 12:00 pm Part 2: 1:00 – 4:00 pm (Eastern)
Laughter and Joy in the Consulting Room: A Solution-Focused Approach
Ben Furman, MD
What if instead of asking couples and family therapy clients to recount their hurts and frustrations, you asked them to play the Happy Family game? And if that went well, you then introduced them to the Miracle-Making Love Potion, or got them to answer the Awesome Celebration Question? In this workshop, you’ll discover how to add laughter and joy to your sessions.

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Friday, March 23, 2018
Part 1: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Part 2: 3:00 – 5:00 pm (Eastern)
The Dos and Don’ts of Working with Children: Bringing Together Creativity and Problem Solving
Lynn Lyons, LICSW
When doing therapy with children, we don’t often think of creativity and problem solving as equal partners. But when struggling families arrive at your office, it’s the immediate blending of these two components that allows the family to move quickly from being overwhelmed to engaged, and from feeling confused to having a more targeted focus. This workshop will help clinicians clarify the new skills clients need to change entrenched patterns that reinforce their children’s problems.

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Saturday, March 24, 2018
Part 1: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Part 2: 3:00 – 5:00 pm (Eastern)
Playful Approaches with Kids and Teens: A Crash Course in the Kids’ Skills Method
Ben Furman, MD
If you’ve been under the impression that therapy with children and teenagers always needs to be serious business, be prepared to change your mind. In this workshop, we’ll explore Kids’ Skills, a systemic approach that offers a solution-focused, fun way of helping children and teens who suffer from behavioral problems, anxieties, and other psychosocial issues. The key is the provocative notion that children don’t have any problems—they have incipient skills they need to improve with the support of those around them.

Full Course Description

117 - Laughter and Joy in the Consulting Room: A Solution-Focused Approach

What if instead of asking couples and family therapy clients to recount their hurts and frustrations, you asked them to play the Happy Family game? And if that went well, you then introduced them to the Miracle-Making Love Potion, or got them to answer the Awesome Celebration Question? In this workshop, you’ll discover how to add laughter and joy to your sessions. You’ll explore how to:

• Engage the creative and playful part of the brain to bring more spontaneity and imagination into therapy
• Use clinical tools based on the latest advances in solution-focused therapy and insights from the gaming industry
• Approach even serious problems, such as trauma, suicide attempts, and psychotic symptoms, with a more light-hearted approach
• Help your clients envision their future with more boldness and imagination
• Follow up with clients to ensure they bring the creative sense of freedom and fresh possibilities to their everyday lives

Program Information

Outline

• Fun therapy techniques with individuals
• Introduction to techniques
• Application of techniques
• Fun therapy techniques with families
• Introduction to techniques
• Application of techniques
• Fun therapy techniques with couples
• Introduction to techniques
• Application of techniques

Objectives

• Explore how to engage the creative and playful part of the brain to bring more spontaneity and imagination into therapy
• Explore how to use clinical tools based on the latest advances in solution-focused therapy and insights from the gaming industry
• Explore how to approach even serious problems, such as trauma, suicide attempts, and psychotic symptoms, with a more light-hearted approach
• Explore how to help your clients envision their future with more boldness and imagination
• Explore how to follow up with clients to ensure they bring the creative sense of freedom and fresh possibilities to their everyday lives

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Physician, Psychologists, Social Workers, and other Mental Health Professionals

203 & 303 - The Dos and Don’ts of Working with Children: Bringing Together Creativity and Problem Solving

When doing therapy with children, we don’t often think of creativity and problem solving as equal partners. But when struggling families arrive at your office, it’s the immediate blending of these two components that allows the family to move quickly from being overwhelmed to engaged, and from feeling confused to having a more targeted focus. This workshop will help clinicians clarify the new skills clients need to change entrenched patterns that reinforce their children’s problems. You’ll discover how to:

• Use the three frames of flexibility, parts, and action to identify salient problems, teach skills, and set goals with families
• Demonstrate the mind-body connection to children in order to interrupt common somatic symptoms like GI issues, sleep problems, and headaches
• Create assignments for families that develop flexibility, action, and emotional management
• Avoid the common therapeutic pitfalls that can unintentionally reinforce anxiety and depression in families and children

Program Information

Objectives

• Discover how to use the three frames of flexibility, parts, and action to identify salient problems, teach skills, and set goals with families
• Discover how to demonstrate the mind-body connection to children in order to interrupt common somatic symptoms like GI issues, sleep problems, and headaches
• Discover how to create assignments for families that develop flexibility, action, and emotional management
• Discover how to avoid the common therapeutic pitfalls that can unintentionally reinforce anxiety and depression in families and children

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Physician, Psychologists, Social Workers, and other Mental Health Professionals

Playful Approaches with Kids and Teens: A Crash Course in the Kids’ Skills Method

If you’ve been under the impression that therapy with children and teenagers always needs to be serious business, be prepared to change your mind. In this workshop, we’ll explore Kids’ Skills, a systemic approach that offers a solution-focused, fun way of helping children and teens who suffer from behavioral problems, anxieties, and other psychosocial issues. The key is the provocative notion that children don’t have any problems—they have incipient skills they need to improve with the support of those around them. You’ll discover how to:

• Instill hope in young clients, even when they don’t feel any
• Establish collaboration between kids and important people in their lives, even when everyone seems disconnected
• Generate a playful, creative mood, even when everyone seems gloomy
• Facilitate client-based solutions, even when the clients are focused on how insurmountable their problems seem to be

Program Information

Outline

• The background of the Kids’skills method
  • the origins of KS
  • the history of the development of the approach
• The practical use of the Kids’Skills method
  • The fifteen steps of KS
  • Creative use of the steps
• The new applications of KS
  • how to work with school classes using KS
  • how to work with families using KS

Objectives

• Discover how to instill hope in young clients, even when they don’t feel any
• Discover how to establish collaboration between kids and important people in their lives, even when everyone seems disconnected
• Discover how to generate a playful, creative mood, even when everyone seems gloomy
• Discover how to facilitate client-based solutions, even when the clients are focused on how insurmountable their problems seem to be

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Physician, Psychologists, Social Workers, and other Mental Health Professionals