Professional Development

Courses & Trainings

Experiential-Learning with “Master” Family Therapists

Practitioner-Centered Skills and Theory Course

Research Opportunities

Experiential-Learning with "Master" Family Therapists

Instructors: Evan Longin, Marjorie Roberts, and Stephen Gaddis

For nine years, we have offered a course in which the students learn clinical skills by participating on a team alongside an experienced therapist. Professionals taking this course consistently tell us that the opportunity to see how we work has been a rare and invaluable learning experience. Though we prefer not to accept the position of "master" therapists, we do want to acknowledge the value that seems to be present when we share our skills in collaborative ways with those who have taken our course. What is equally exciting are the ways that our clients tell us how valuable it is for them to have multiple perspectives present when reflecting on the circumstances that bring them to therapy.

It is our experience that traditional training and supervision rarely offer opportunities to work alongside experienced therapists. The value of working with experienced therapists is in participation in real practice, including those moments where no one is really certain how to go forward; in having multiple perspectives avaliable for clients who are seeking help; and in discovering there are multiple ways of helping, each of which allows students to begin to imagine and develop their own ways of working.

In this course, you will learn about different traditions of reflecting teams and the skills that accompany those different traditions. Then, you will become part of a group of students who meet with an experienced therapist and one of his or her clients each week. As part of the reflecting team in this class, you will participate as an active member of the therapeutic team. Following each therapy meeting, we will spend time talking about the experience and where it takes you in your thinking about how you want to work as a therapist. You will have an opportunity to witness three different "master" therapists. As part of this course, we will help you develop a written account of how your experiences in the course are shaping your ideas about how you want to practice in your own work context.

A single course consists of a mazimum of 10 students who meet weekly for 12 two-hour sessions on Monday nights from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Two courses are offered each year, one in the fall and one in the spring.

Free Information Meetings for Prospective Students: If you are intriqued and wish to know more about this course, please come to one of two scheduled informational meetings. We will provide an overview and refreshments. Call to inquire about dates and time these are to be held.

Prerequisite: Interview with faculty, professional liability insurance, and confidentiality agreement.

CEUs Available: 24 hours per course

Cost: $850 per course (payment plans possible).

Dates: (subject to minor changes)

Fall 2008: Each meeting is from 5:30 to 7:30 pm

September 8, 15, 22, 29, October 6, 20, 27, November 3, 17, 24, December 1, 8, 15

Spring 2009: Each meeting is from 5:30 to 7:30 pm

February 2, 9, 23, March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, April 6, 13, 27

Contact

Dr. Stephen Gaddis for more detailed information or with questions, at srgaddis@mac.com or call 978-741-2699.

Practitioner-Centered Skills and Theory Course

This course is designed for clinicians who desire to develop their skills and theoretical grounding in relation to their personal values, preferences, and hopes as professionals. Our experience tells us traditional training and the demands of clinical practice easily disconnect us from the intentions that shaped our interest in becoming therapists. Without a strong sense of what is important to us, we often can experience dissatisfaction and frustration. This can diminish our quality of life as professionals and/or lead to a desire to leave the field. Thus, we have created a course intended to offer an antidote to the isolation, confusion, despair, and failure that can easily develop and lead to "burn-out." Too often therapy training and supervision require participants to work to understand what others think is important.

In this course, we intend to keep your own thinking at the center of your understanding of therapy. We want this course to help extend and nurture your own knowledge about what therapy practice might mean for you in your particular context. We are interested in identifying, centering, and amplifying your unique histories, skills, and hopes that helped shaped your desire to enter and stay in this work. Thus, we value each participant's individual knowledge and skill as the context for learning and professional development.

We have come to understand that when therapists are supported in developing their own stories about their therapeutic practice and goals, they experience a greater sense of confidence, energy, and satisfaction in their practice. We assume participants already have a wealth of experience that matters to them, both from their own lived experience and their work with clients. The richness of your lived experiences, personally and professionally, offers a powerful surface for shaping your therapeutic thinking and practice. Moreover, developing your personal understanding of therapy in a group context, such as this class, offers rich and new learning possibilities for everyone who is present.

Course Objectives: We will help students:

· develop a rich understanding of their personal theory of therapy

· successfully put their emerging personal theory of therapy into practice

· develop the leading edge of what they intend for themselves as professionals

· produce a community of support for various preferred ways of working

Our intention is to help students bring their personal hopes to their professional skills. The goal is to help therapists experience themselves as increasingly competent, intentional and effective practitioners. In this course, what is important to you will be kept at the center of your skill development. You can expect to be respected while also stretched. From this course, we expect you will begin to experience a greater sense of personal agency, or clarity that you can make your work what you want it to become.

The course is designed to be intensive, experiential and shaped by what is most meaningful to students. We will structure and organize the course according to the theoretical traditions that inform our worldviews. These include post-structural, social constructionist, feminist, multicultural, and self-of-the-therapist theories, as well as narrative, dialogic, and postmodern approaches to therapy. These theories and practices will not be explicitly taught in the course. Instead, we use them to guide us in learning about and co-creating what is most important to you. Familiarity with these ideas and practices are not necessary to take the course. If you wish to learn about these approaches to therapy, keep an eye out for upcoming courses and certificate programs to be offered at The Salem Center.

A maximum of 10 students will meet in four three-week block increments over the course of six months. Each meeting will be four hours and take place on Tuesday mornings from 9am to 1pm.

Prerequisite: Interview with faculty and currently working with clients in some therapeutic context.

CEUs Available: 48 hours

Cost: $1,900 (payment plans possible).

Course Dates:

Course is schedule to meet on the following Tuesdays from 9 am to 1 pm...

Block 1: Sept. 16, 23, Oct. 7

Block 2: Nov. 18, 25, Dec. 2

Block 3: Jan. 6, 13, 20

Block 4: Feb. 24, Mar. 3, 10

Contact

Dr. Stephen Gaddis for more detailed information or with questions, at srgaddis@mac.com or call 978-741-2699.

Supervision and Consultation

If you are a professional in the field and would like help, we are keenly interested in supporting you. Perhaps you find yourself at a dead-end in how to be helpful with a particular client? Maybe your work group is stuck in going forward together as a team? Possibly you feel burned out because the efforts you are making are not having the effects you hoped? maybe you are losing confidence in your skills? We are happy to speak with you about developing supervision and/or consultation that helps you to reconnect and to practice what you value in your work.

— Supervision of supervisors in training for the AAMFT's approved supervision designation

— Approved counselors for the American Association of Pastoral Counselors

Internships

Currently we offer clinical internships to three people per year. Interns are required to take the Intensive Course concurrently with the internship. In addition to the clinical experience in the course, interns spend at least one day a week working directly with vairous faculty and their private practice clients.

Research Opportunities

We are dedicated to learning from our clients about the effects therapy has on their lives and relationships. We have ongoing projects to stay accountable to our clients and projects we would like to initiate soon. If you would like to learn more about research opportunities please contact us and we will explore possibilities with you.

Current projects: Qualitative Research on Clients' and Therapeutic Teams' Experience of the Reflecting Process. Investigating Team: Marjorie Roberts