Author: Jennifer Benjamin

Dr. Tom Thomas found a deep interest in a new care approach, “Family Therapy,” and was drawn to explore it further in Philadelphia. He attended training sessions conducted by Salvador Minuchin. At The Child Guidance Clinic in Philadelphia, he studied families and took part in a project evaluating the effectiveness of structural family therapy for adolescent girls and their families dealing with anorexia nervosa. During his internship, he also learned from Dr. Lester Lubrosky, a prominent psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania renowned for his research on the dodo bird effect, which compares the impact of different clinical models. Dr. Lubrosky stressed the importance of the therapeutic relationship, motivating Dr. Todd to enhance his relationship-building skills under the mentorship of Harry Aponte. By the third session, Dr. Todd consistently noticed positive changes in the families he worked with.

The Child Guidance Clinic, situated in South Philadelphia next to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), relocated to a new facility in the University of Pennsylvania Medical complex in 1974. The period of seven years from Minuchin’s arrival in Philadelphia to the Clinic’s relocation marked significant progress in developing the theories, practice, and research of Structural Family Therapy. The following seven years post-relocation allowed for further development and, notably, the dissemination of these ideas and practices.

The innovative rich tradition of systemic thinking inherited from the original Family Therapy Training Center established by Dr. Salvador Minuchin is still practiced at PCFTTC.com. Join the alliance as a lifelong member and equip yourself to adopt a strength-based approach that is relational, contextual, developmental, and trauma-informed when assisting children, youth, adults, and families in need of care across the continuum of services.

Jessica says – “The training through the Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center has taught me to look through a systemic lens to support staff within supervision. I have been able to help staff see how their own life experiences impact the way they enter homes and see families. The training center has provided me with an alliance of individuals who are all working toward a common goal of inspiring families to be their own best resource for lasting generational change as they navigate trauma, tragedy, and hardship in a new way. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn and grow both personally and professionally and support staff on their own learning journey to be ethically competent clinicians. “

Congratulations to all the awardees! Your contributions are invaluable, and your passion for systemic change is a beacon of hope and progress for us all. Here’s to continued success and to the many more lives you will touch in the years to come.

This award has been established by the Philadelphia Child and Family Training Center in honor of Dr. Marion Lindblad-Goldberg whose personal and professional mission was to make the world a better, brighter, and more connected place one family at a time. She believed wholeheartedly in each of us – in our ability, through systemic and relational interventions, to heal disengagement and cultivate belonging.

Each year the award is given to a trainer, clinician, and program director/supervisor, from the ESFT-FBMHS Training Program, who exemplifies the following:

Maintains a systemic perspective. Nominees have an appreciation for the isomorphic process in training, treatment, supervision, and across systems. Nominees maintain awareness of the “whole” while working the “parts.”

Maintains balance between professional boundaries and collaborative relationships to foster positive change and competence. Nominees take a strength-based approach, balancing their professional/expert knowledge while collaboratively engaging the ecosystem to draw on existing strengths and create experiences of trust, building individual competence for all members of the system.

Engages in social ecology. Nominees have a deep appreciation for intersectionality and the lived experiences of others. As such, they express an unwavering commitment to understanding how their own social ecology and zone of proximal development informs their professional work. Nominees consistently utilize their support system to engage in deliberate practice to grow their professional skills.

Makes the most of intensity and crises. Nominees have an ability to see struggle and chaos as an opportunity for growth and development. They demonstrate facilitative leadership by keeping second order change in the forefront of their approach to individual or system distress. They nurture others’ capacity to make meaning, promote new relational patterns and shift belief systems towards lasting change.

Assesses with complexity while acting with simplicity. Nominees have a belief that training, treatment and supervision are relational, contextual, developmental and trauma informed. They demonstrate these concepts actively in their work through systemic assessment and conceptualization. While their understanding of people and situations are complex, those around them experience the person’s actions and communication as accessible and validating.