Author: Jennifer Benjamin

  • Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy in 2 minutes!

    The focus is on the importance of understanding the ecosystem and variables that impact a symptomatic person. The training is on ecosystemic structural family therapy, which focuses on restructuring the family system and working with caregivers to promote growth. The therapist needs to work collaboratively, meaningfully, and take into account the unique culture of the family. The therapist also needs to understand the concepts of culture, power, and privilege when working systemically with a family. The family’s culture includes their rules, beliefs, rituals, and traditions of how they relate to each other.

    The therapist’s cultural beliefs and experiences can shape their interpretation of the family they work with. Power dynamics and privilege play a significant role in the therapeutic relationship, as the therapist’s level of power may differ from that of the family. Privilege is an unearned advantage that benefits people of dominant groups, and therapists must be aware of their own privilege and lived experiences to be context-sensitive and trauma-informed. The training will explore how social institutions impact privilege and how therapists can work to hold other members of the dominant group accountable.

    keywords: Philafamily, training center, Philadelphia Training Center, Family systems therapy, systemic training, Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy, Steve Simms PhD, Marian Lindblad-Goldberg, ESFT, Structural Family Therapy, Salvador Minuchin, Structural Family Therapy Training, Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, Continuing Education – Earn Your CE Credits Today, Online courses with clinical demos. Find comprehensive solutions for clinical challenges. Clinical demos, live sessions & detailed commentaries, Intergenerational trauma, Complex developmental trauma, MFT, AAMFT, APA, LPC, ACS, ACA, LSW, LSCW, human services, LMFT, social workers, counselors, psychologists, eco-systemic structural family therapy

  • Marion Lindblad-Goldberg Award: Submit Nominations

    Marion Lindblad-Goldberg Award: Submit Nominations

    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.  

    Nomination are due by March 1st, 2024.

    Nominees and Recipients will be previewed across social platforms.

    Winners announced on June 3rd, 2024.

    Recipients of the award will celebrate with PCFTTC Faculty & receive access to homestudies.

    Nominee Submission

  • Systemic Family Therapists, be curious first and the expert second….

    The key to helping caregivers is to be curious first and an expert second. As therapists, intentional discipline is necessary when approaching caregivers to access their strengths and help them manage challenges. Instead of offering advice, ask open-ended “how” and “what” questions. Encourage caregivers to use their strengths from other areas of life and practice with the child.

    keywords: Philafamily, training center, Philadelphia Training Center, Family systems therapy, systemic training, Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy, Steve Simms PhD, Marian Lindblad-Goldberg, ESFT, Structural Family Therapy, Salvador Minuchin, Structural Family Therapy Training, Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, Continuing Education – Earn Your CE Credits Today, Online courses with clinical demos. Find comprehensive solutions for clinical challenges. Clinical demos, live sessions & detailed commentaries, Intergenerational trauma, Complex developmental trauma, MFT, AAMFT, APA, LPC, ACS, ACA, LSW, LSCW, human services, LMFT, social workers, counselors, psychologists, eco-systemic structural family therapy

  • You can’t thrive in a closed system…Tara Byers

    You can’t thrive in a closed system…Tara Byers

    TARA SAYS: The role of training and supervision in professional growth is crucial. Just as it’s important for family systems to be open to let helpers in, it’s essential for clinicians to have support from colleagues and supervisors to thrive and grow. Engaging in open systems allows for new perspectives, creativity, and competence, which is foundational for professional wellness. Self-care is not just about what we do for ourselves, but also about the community we create around us. Reflecting on the openness of the system around us is important.

    keywords: Philafamily, training center, Philadelphia Training Center, Family systems therapy, systemic training, Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy, Steve Simms PhD, Marian Lindblad-Goldberg, ESFT, Structural Family Therapy, Salvador Minuchin, Structural Family Therapy Training, Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, Continuing Education – Earn Your CE Credits Today, Online courses with clinical demos. Find comprehensive solutions for clinical challenges. Clinical demos, live sessions & detailed commentaries, Intergenerational trauma, Complex developmental trauma, MFT, AAMFT, APA, LPC, ACS, ACA, LSW, LSCW, human services, LMFT, social workers, counselors, psychologists, eco-systemic structural family therapy

  • Protected: Must watch interview: Steve Simms hangs with Harry Aponte (part 1)!

    Protected: Must watch interview: Steve Simms hangs with Harry Aponte (part 1)!

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  • Protected: January Newsletter 2024

    Protected: January Newsletter 2024

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  • Protected: December Newsletter 2023

    Protected: December Newsletter 2023

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  • FACEBOOK FOLLOW UP: Solving problems with violence…

    FACEBOOK FOLLOW UP: Solving problems with violence…

    When a child responds with violence people immediately view it as a moral infraction. Instead, we have to think of the behavior in context. What is this child’s lived experience that this is how they believe they can best approach, solve, address a challenge they are facing. What have they been through that they believe they need to solve the problem on their own?

    Experience our rich tradition of innovative systemic family therapy training, education, supervision, & consultation, as established by Salvador Minuchin at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. Learn from expert faculty how to use a strength-based relational, contextual, developmental, & trauma informed approach to systemically treat intergenerational & complex developmental trauma.

    The Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center, Inc. became a corporation in July, 1999, as an outgrowth of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic founded by Salvador Minuchin, M.D. in 1975 for systemic family therapy and training. The Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center offers Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT) training, education, consultation, and research in family and couples therapy, and developmentally based approaches to child, adolescent and adult behavioral health issues. The Center has trained thousands of mental health and other human service professionals in the practice of family therapy, examining the social ecology of the home, school, and community environments.

    Keywords: Philafamily, training center, Philadelphia Training Center, Family systems therapy, systemic training, Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy, Steve Simms PhD, Marian Lindblad-Goldberg, ESFT, Structural Family Therapy, Salvador Minuchin, Structural Family Therapy Training, Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, Continuing Education – Earn Your CE Credits Today, Online courses with clinical demos. Find comprehensive solutions for clinical challenges. Clinical demos, live sessions & detailed commentaries, Intergenerational trauma, Complex developmental trauma, MFT, AAMFT, APA, LPC, ACS, ACA, LSW, LSCW, human services, LMFT, social workers, counselors, psychologists, eco-systemic structural family therapy

  • Protected: “HOME ALONE” CONTEST (win free access to one HOMESTUDY with CE Credit Hours from the PCFTTC store.)

    Protected: “HOME ALONE” CONTEST (win free access to one HOMESTUDY with CE Credit Hours from the PCFTTC store.)

    This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

  • FACEBOOK FOLLOW UP: Prepare for the holiday so you don’t have to protect yourself from the past distress.

    FACEBOOK FOLLOW UP: Prepare for the holiday so you don’t have to protect yourself from the past distress.

    Experience our rich tradition of innovative systemic family therapy training, education, supervision, & consultation, as established by Salvador Minuchin at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. Learn from expert faculty how to use a strength-based relational, contextual, developmental, & trauma informed approach to systemically treat intergenerational & complex developmental trauma.

    The Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center, Inc. became a corporation in July, 1999, as an outgrowth of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic founded by Salvador Minuchin, M.D. in 1975 for systemic family therapy and training. The Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center offers Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT) training, education, consultation, and research in family and couples therapy, and developmentally based approaches to child, adolescent and adult behavioral health issues. The Center has trained thousands of mental health and other human service professionals in the practice of family therapy, examining the social ecology of the home, school, and community environments.

    Keywords: Philafamily, training center, Philadelphia Training Center, Family systems therapy, systemic training, Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy, Steve Simms PhD, Marian Lindblad-Goldberg, ESFT, Structural Family Therapy, Salvador Minuchin, Structural Family Therapy Training, Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, Continuing Education – Earn Your CE Credits Today, Online courses with clinical demos. Find comprehensive solutions for clinical challenges. Clinical demos, live sessions & detailed commentaries, Intergenerational trauma, Complex developmental trauma, MFT, AAMFT, APA, LPC, ACS, ACA, LSW, LSCW, human services, LMFT, social workers, counselors, psychologists, eco-systemic structural family therapy