Coffin Corner

 

 

 

 Please forward this announcement to interested professionals

 

Special Workshops on

Relationship Enhancement^® 

and Filial Methods

 

The 2015 Relationship Enhancement^® 

and Filial Therapy Conference

 

April 10-11, 2015 in Bethesda, MD

 

Co-Sponsored by

National Institute of Relationship Enhancement^® (NIRE) and Association for Filial and Relationship Enhancement^® Methods (AFREM)

CE Workshops

For the 2015 Relationship Enhancement^® and Filial Therapy Conference, NIRE and AFREM are co-sponsoring three workshops on Friday April 10 and two workshops on Saturday April 11.

Friday will include two 3-hour workshops: “Working with Grief in the Relationship Enhancement Model” and “The Correspondence between the Art of Poetry and the Art of Therapy.”

Saturday Morning will feature Louise Guerney leading a 3-hour workshop entitled "Working with Parents of Children in Play Therapy."

Saturday afternoon will feature a 2-hour panel discussion / workshop entitled “Recent Developments in the Use of the Relationship Enhancement Model in France and the United States.”

Each Friday workshop and the Saturday morning workshop qualifies for 3 CE credits. 

The Saturday afternoon workshop qualifies for 2 CE credits.

Organized Friday Night Dutch Treat Dinner

This year’s traditional “Dutch Treat” dinner will be held on Friday night April 10. This well attended event always proves to be a fun time to connect and relax with friends and colleagues around the dinner table. Please join us if you can! Details below. And please RSVP so we can properly plan with the restaurant.

Registration

Registration information may be found below.

AFREM Special Workshops Registration Form

Friday Workshops

Working with Grief in the Relationship Enhancement Model

Presenter: Mary Ortwein, M.S., LMFT

Friday, April 10, 9:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. 3 CE credits

What part does grief play in the issues which your clients bring to Relationship Enhancement therapy?  How can recent research and theory development in the grief field inform us as therapists to better meet the needs of our clients?  How can grief theory and research help us help clients to forgive and to develop capacity for empathy?  This workshop will provide you with information to answer these questions.

Recent research and development of models for grief work well with Relationship Enhancement. This workshop will begin with a review of relevant recent grief research and theory, including work on attachment and the experience of grief, tasks and mediators of the mourning process, and signs of complicated mourning. In the second segment of this workshop, participants will work together to practice specific RE strategies (such as Coaching Deeper Empathy, Troubleshooting, Becoming, and Laundering) to help couples and families work through grief issues. The third segment of the workshop will focus on using the Tasks of Grief as a model to help couples stuck in resentment move toward forgiveness.

 

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this workshop participants will be able to:

• Apply relevant recent grief research to situations encountered in Relationship Enhancement therapy

• Apply Relationship Enhancement strategies to deepen empathy to grief issues

• Combine Worden's Tasks of Grief with RE Forgiveness Skill to help couples stuck in resentment

Mary Ortwein, MS., LMFT is the founder of IDEALS for Families and Communities (IFC), a mental health non-profit in Frankfort, Kentucky, which specializes in providing quality mental health services for the working poor and for those in shelters. Co-author with Bernard Guerney, Jr. of the Mastering the Mysteries of Love series of Relationship Enhancement materials and author of the Filial parent workbook, Mastering the Magic of Play, Mary is an experienced Relationship Enhancement therapist, supervisor, and trainer. She will soon complete a Master's of Pastoral Theology at St. Meinrad Seminary.

The Correspondence between the Art of Poetry and the Art of Therapy

Maryhelen Snyder, Ph.D.

Friday, April 10, 2:00 - 5:15 p.m. 3 CE credits

This workshop explores certain distinctions in the field of psychotherapy between narrative and poetry as metaphors for the consciously authored life. It is suggested that such phenomena as “self,” “relationship,” “knowledge,” and “time” are experienced differently within the dominant therapeutic discourses and the discourses associated with poetry. Five aspects of “poetic” knowledge are explored: Form (or containment); aesthetic knowing; non-identity with self; nothingness (and not knowing); and radiance. Two examples from couple therapy will be given to illustrate these aspects and the interface between this way of knowing and the lived life. This workshop will include discussion and practice as well as the presentation.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe the five characteristics that characterize “poetic” knowledge

• Distinguish between narrative and poetic ways of approaching the process of therapy

• Enrich the therapy process by introducing aspects of “poetic” knowledge into therapeutic practice

      Maryhelen Snyder, Ph.D. has been a mental health professional for 40 years, specializing much of that time in Relationship Enhancement therapy. She has authored many professional articles and book chapters and been an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico Medical School. She is also a poet. Her recent book "Sun in an Empty Room" has a similar focus to her therapy work, which is wildly celebrative of human beings and human possibilities.

Dinner, Friday Night, April 10, 6:30 p.m. Dutch Treat.

Following the Friday afternoon workshop, those who are interested will go out together as a group for dinner for fun, relaxation and an opportunity to connect with friends and colleagues. If you are interested in joining the group for dinner: Please be certain to sign up on the Registration Form. Advance payment is not necessary, but we do need to be able to give an accurate count to the restaurant.

Saturday Workshops

Building an Alliance with Parents of Children in Play Therapy

Louise Guerney, Ph.D.

Saturday, April 11, 9:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. 3 CE Credits

Working with children means also working with parents. Whether you work with children individually in play therapy, with parents alone, or with the whole family, one of the most important tasks the clinician has is effectively developing a constructive working alliance with the parents. Unfortunately, parents often are in pain themselves when they bring their children in for treatment. This results in a wide variety of responses to the therapist, including hostility, skepticism, discouragement, or a disengaged response of "I'll drop them off and you fix them." Quickly establishing and maintaining your relationship with parents as a supportive, credible and collaborative professional is the surest way to ensure that clients stay in treatment and that you experience the satisfaction of being effective in your work. This workshop will emphasize role-play demonstration s and practice dealing with difficult parents.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Establish rapport with parents in the initial intake through the use of empathy

• Explain the nature and rationale for play or filial therapy to parents

• Make treatment recommendations that are accepted by parents

• Motivate active involvement of parents throughout treatment

• Handle parental discouragement, demands for a quick fix and premature termination issues

Louise Guerney, Ph.D., is co-creator with Bernard Guerney, Ph.D. of Filial Family Therapy. She also is author of Parenting: A Skills Training Manual, a nationally recognized and widely used parenting program and, together with Virginia Ryan, of Group Filial Therapy (Jessica Kingsley, 2013).

Recent Developments in the Use of the Relationship Enhancement^® Model in France and the United States

Saturday, April 11, 1:45 – 4:00 p.m. 2 CE Credits.

Moderator: Robert Brown, Ph.D. Panel Members: France Sarradon, Nicole Sarradon, Mary Ortwein.

The Institut Francophone de Relationship Enhancement (IFRE) has been a leader in creating novel ways of introducing the Relationship Enhancement (RE) model in therapeutic, educational, business and organizational settings. Most recently, France Sarradon and Nicole Sarradon have been introducing the RE model to practitioners of sex therapy in France and Germany. They also have introduced innovations on how to introduce RE more effectively in the first session when working with businesses in order to bring people to a place where they are interested and willing to participate in learning and practicing the RE skills.

Ideals for Families and Communities (IFC) has been an innovator in bringing RE to underserved populations in special need of being nurtured through the values and skills contained in the RE model. Under the leadership of Founder Mary Ortwein, IFC has brought the RE skills into schools, shelters, jails and agencies through individual counseling, community classes and groups. The goal is to provide those being served with a renewed sense of hope and possibility that they can both overcome personal difficulties and experience satisfying and healthy relationships.

This panel discussion will introduce participants to these exciting developments in the world of RE while also providing an opportunity for participants to share their own innovations and creative endeavors in using and spreading the use of the RE model.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this workshop participants will be able to:

• Describe how the RE model can be used as a framework within which to address relationship issues involving sexual intimacy

• Describe how the RE model can be adapted to be more effective in the context of business and organizational settings

• Describe how RE can be effectively implemented in community settings in order to better serve underserved populations

Robert Brown, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland and a member of the Board of IDEALS, the larger organization supporting AFREM and NIRE.

France Sarradon, is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in New Mexico. France is Clinical Director of the Relationship Enhancement^® Institute of New Mexico, co-founder (with Nicole) and Scientific Director of the “Institut Francophone de la Relationship Enhancement” (IFRE), and co-founder and Master Trainer of “Listen Up!” – an RE program developed for organizational settings. France has translated RE into French and introduced RE in France. She also is trained in a wide variety of therapeutic approaches (“… and just plain in love with what RE can do!”) 

Nicole Sarradon Girbal is a psychologist and human resources specialist. Nicole is co-founder (with France) and President of (IFRE). She uses RE in many settings, both in France (and Europe) and the USA. She has been trained in and uses a wide variety of therapy approaches, including systemic and emotional approaches. (And, according to her sister France, “she is fun!”).

Mary Ortwein, MS., LMFT is the founder of IDEALS for Families and Communities (IFC), a mental health non-profit in Frankfort, Kentucky, which specializes in providing quality mental health services for the working poor and for those in shelters. Co-author with Bernard Guerney, Jr. of the Mastering the Mysteries of Love series of Relationship Enhancement materials and author of the Filial parent workbook, Mastering the Magic of Play, Mary is an experienced Relationship Enhancement therapist, supervisor, and trainer. She will soon complete a Master's of Pastoral Theology at St. Meinrad Seminary.

Registration Information

Location: The AFREM annual meeting and workshops will be held at the National Institute of Relationship Enhancement® (NIRE) conference suite on the Roof level of the Topaz House at 4400 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD. The Topaz House is located six miles from the White House and Georgetown. NIRE is less than three blocks from the Bethesda metro stop.

Parking: Parking on Friday may be available at the Topaz House’s underground garage on a first come first served basis. There is a public parking lot at East-West Highway and Waverly Street, a block and a half from the Topaz House. Be certain to bring plenty of quarters for the public parking lot. The cost is $.75 per hour in long term parking; plan on 9 hours, i.e., $6.75. [To be safe, bring a roll of quarters, as parking rates may have gone up.] Parking is free on Saturday. On Saturday parking should be easier at Topaz House, and is free at the public parking lot.

Schedule: Each morning workshop will be 3 hours long. There will be one 15 minute break during each morning workshop. Each afternoon workshop will be 2 hours long. There will be one 15 minute break between the two Friday afternoon workshops. There will be one 15 minute break during the Saturday afternoon workshop.

Refreshments: Starting at 8:40 a.m., and available all day, each day, there will be a sidebar with fruit, coffee and tea, soda, and snacks.

CE Credits: IDEALS/NIRE is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. IDEALS/NIRE maintains responsibility for each program and its content. IDEALS/NIRE also is approved by the National Board of Certified Counselors to provide continuing education for National Certified Counselors. NBCC Provided #5560. IDEALS/NIRE is approved by the Maryland State Board of Social Workers to offer Category 1 continuing education programs for social workers. NIRE also is approved by the Association for Play Therapy to offer continuing education specific to play therapy. APT Approved Provider 95-009. IDEALS/NIRE maintains responsibility for the program. 

Each morning workshop will earn attendees 3 CE credits. Each afternoon workshop will earn attendees 2 CE credits. 

A Certificate will be issued to you attesting to your completion of each workshop attended and documenting the CE credits you have earned.

Cost: The fee for each 3-hour workshop is $60. The fee for each 2-hour workshop is $40. The fee for currently enrolled, full-time graduate students is $10.00 for each workshop, or $30 for all five workshops.

Lunch: Lunch each day is the responsibility of each participant, though arrangements will be made to provide lunch on Saturday for those who wish. The cost will be $10.00 per person. Please see the registration form below for details.

Optional Friday Night Dinner (Dutch Treat): Many participants at past AFREM annual meeting workshops have enjoyed each other’s company over dinner at a restaurant in Bethesda. We will do the same this year, on Friday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. While prepayment is not necessary, it is necessary for planning purposes to know who plans to attend, so please indicate on the registration form that you would like to attend the dinner so that we can make appropriate arrangements and reserve table space for our group. Some participants may also choose to go out to dinner on Saturday evening, but that will not be a formally organized event.

Travel: For those coming by air: NIRE is 15 miles from Washington National, 22 miles from Baltimore-Washington, and 18 miles from Dulles Airports. For those coming by car: NIRE is two miles south of the Connecticut Avenue exit or the Wisconsin Avenue exit of the Beltway (I-495).

Municipal parking is very close and is free on Saturday (at Waverly and East-West Highway). Be certain to bring plenty of quarters to feed the meter for parking on Friday. The cost is $.75 per hour in long term parking; plan on 9 hours, i.e., $6.75. (To be safe, bring a roll of quarters!) Parking is free on Saturday. All registrants will be sent a map detailing how to reach NIRE.

Accommodations: Discounted hotel rooms are available at the Bethesda Court Hotel. To secure the discounted rate, please call 1-800-874-0050 and ask for the “NIRE” rate, which for 2015 is $129 per night Thursday through Sunday, plus a $15.00 per night fee for parking. This discounted rate is available until the hotel reaches a certain point of capacity for the respective dates, so you are advised to make reservations as early as possible. Information about alternative accommodations can be provided when you register.

For Further Information about arrangements, call Chriss Stanton at 301-680-8977.

Registration: To register, please 

(1) call NIRE at 301-680-8977 

(2) send your Registration Form by fax to 1-502-226-7088

or (3) mail your Registration Form and check to: NIRE, 4400 East-West Highway #24, Bethesda, MD 20814-4501.

Caution: Do not send credit card information via email.

Registration Form

AFREM Special Workshops Registration Form

We look forward to seeing you there!

Rob Scuka, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Institute of Relationship Enhancement^®