Scholarships 

A limited number of scholarships are available to students and Pre-Clinical Fellows of MFT programs who are MAMFT members. Please contact us at info@mamft.org with your contact information, school/internship/employment status and a brief explanation of why you are seeking a scholarship. If you would like to contribute for this fund, please do so on the registration page.

The MAMFT 2017 Annual Conference will feature Dr. Dan Hughes as keynote speaker, presenting his work with children who have attachment issues due to developmental trauma. Dr. Hughes will present an attachment-focused family therapy model that looks at ways to help parents and children connect by facilitating intersubjective communication.

Afternoon breakout sessions will cover various topics in family therapy, including specific techniques for developing an affective-reflective dialogue with children, further exploration of trauma and narrative therapy, and trauma and the self-of-the-therapist. Other afternoon workshops look at the application of emotionally focused therapy to couples, using the reflecting team in family therapy training, and a solution-focused approach to family therapy. A pre-conference evening reception will be held on Thursday evening.

Thursday, March 9, 6 pm to 9 pm: Evening Reception

Friday, March 10: Morning Program

Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP): An Attachment-Focused Family Treatment for Developmental Trauma, Dan Hughes, Ph.D. Dyadal Developmental Psychotherapy was developed to address the challenges due to Developmental trauma and refers to intrafamilial, interpersonal trauma, which has pervasive effects on a child’s development. Such trauma is difficult to treat because of the interwoven characteristics of terror and shame as well as its impact on the child’s ability to trust his or her attachment figures and therapist. DDP utilizes principles of attachment and intersubjectivity. Safety and exploration are woven into affective-reflective dialogues, which enable the development of a coherent narrative. The process of DDP will be presented along with a video demonstration of a treatment session.

Dan Hughes, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a limited practice in South Portland, Maine. He founded and developed DDP, the treatment of children who have experienced abuse and neglect and demonstrate ongoing problems related to attachment and trauma. This treatment occurs in a family setting and the treatment model has expanded to become a general model of family treatment. He has conducted seminars, workshops, and spoken at conferences throughout the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia for the past 18 years. He is also engaged in extensive training and supervision in the certification of therapists in his treatment model, along with ongoing consultation to various agencies and professionals. He is president of the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Institute (DDPI), which is responsible for the certification of professionals in DDP. Information about DDPI can be found on ddpnetwork.org. Dr. Hughes is also the author of many books and articles. These include Attachment-Focused Parenting (2009), Attachment-Focused Family Therapy Workbook (2011) and, with Jon Baylin, Brain-Based Parenting (2012) and The Neurobiology of Attachment-Focused Therapy (2016). His website is www.danielhughes.org.

Afternoon Workshops, Session A

Developing the Affective-Reflective Dialogue, Dan Hughes, Ph.D. The function of therapeutic dialogue is both to create safety as well as develop new learning. The affective and reflective components of the dialogue developed in DDP is presented including ways of facilitating the child’s ability to engage in such dialogues through interventions of “talking for” and “talking about” the child, both of value in increasing his reflective functioning and their ability to communicate their inner life.

From Stuck to Securely Bonded: A Demonstration of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy in Action, Jill Fischer, LICSW, with colleagues This workshop will offer a creative way to see Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy in action. The steps and stages of EFT will be introduced by watching a clip from a popular film and then observing how EFT would be applied through a role-play using EFT with the couple. Simultaneously, behind each member in the role-play (therapist and each member of the couple), there will be a parallel enactment of the underlying (unseen) emotional experience of the individuals in these roles.

Jill Fischer, LICSW, is a certified Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) trainer, supervisor and therapist with a private practice devoted solely to couples in Lebanon, NH. In addition to her clinical work, she provides training in EFT to therapists throughout New England and offers Hold Me Tight relationship enhancement workshops.

Trauma and the "Care of Self and Use of Self," Donald Paine, LICSW, D.Min.Psy. Basic assumptions of Internal Family Systems (recently designated “evidence based practice”) will be presented. The presenter will then model the power of this modality through emotional trauma and body trauma in his life during the last two years. Conclusions that access the principles of IFS to assist the therapist in the “care of Self and the use of self” will be framed. A video of work with the traumatized population of refugees from Jordan and Syria will be presented. Through an experiential exercise the presenter will invite everyone to have an internal experience from an external stimulus. The workshop will be didactic, experiential, narrative, and reflective followed by Q&A and conclusions.

Rev. Dr. Donald L. Paine, LCSW, LMFT, is a clinician working in West Stockbridge, MA, and Albany, NY. He has been in private practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist for 20 years. For the past 12 years he has studied with Dr. Richard Schwartz, Internal Family Systems. He has completed all three levels of training and is currently a program assistant in Charlotte, NC, training (his sixth such teaching role). Except for a hiatus of two years (2013-2015) due to a bout of “empathy fatigue,” he has been an active Fellow Member of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and committed to the alignment and innovative integration of psychology and theology. He is also an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, where he offers consultation, conflict interventions, and couple/family training workshops.

Afternoon Workshops, Session B

Positive Parenting – A Solution Focused Relational Approach to Family Therapy, Anna Svetchnikov, LMFT To create change, parents often have to change the way they interact with their child and respond to his/her behaviors. It has been said that “it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” and when families are strong, communities prosper. When parents and clinicians understand the motivations for a child’s behavior and have a therapeutic tool-set to address and reinforce positive actions this can lead to a transformational impact on communities.

Anna Svetchnikov, LMFT, has more than 10 years working with high-need families. Her expertise includes numerous therapeutic approaches with a focus on trauma, providing therapy to couples, individuals, and families, and specifically to parents and children from toddlers to teens. As the mother of two boys, reigning Mrs. Massachusetts and Marriage and Family Therapist, she launched the Positive Parenting Initiative through her Boston-area nonprofit, Longwood Care, at the Inaugural Volunteer Expo for the 4th Congressional District spearheaded by Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III and Mount Ida College. The organization is dedicated to enriching the lives of children by educating parents with a toolset of applied therapeutic techniques that support the formation and preservation of strong families. Svetchnikov is a strong advocate for children and their parents, social justice, equality, and giving back to the community.

Trauma, Attachment, and Narrative Therapy Practice, Stephen Gaddis, LMFT, Ph.D. The presentation will show how trauma can be understood from a narrative therapy perspective. There will be a brief overview of the narrative worldview and a detailed practice example to illustrate narrative ideas in practice. This will be followed by a description of how attachment ideas might be understood from a narrative therapy perspective. Finally, the links between narrative practice and family therapy will be explored.

Stephen Gaddis, LMFT, Ph.D., is the director of the Narrative Therapy Initiative in Salem, MA. Dr. Gaddis has studied, practiced, and taught narrative therapy since 1994. He earned his International Postgraduate Diploma in narrative therapy at the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia, where he studied with Michael White. He also spent a year teaching narrative therapy in the graduate school of counseling at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. Dr. Gaddis has published and presented on narrative therapy nationally and internationally. Currently, he has a full-time narrative therapy and supervision practice in Salem and teaches narrative therapy at Salem State University and Boston College as well as independently through the NTI. He received his doctorate in marriage and family therapy from Syracuse University.

Family Therapy From 4 Perspectives (at Least): The Family, the Therapist, the Team, and You, the Audience, Marjorie Roberts, Ph.D., primary presenter, with the Rev. Bill Blaine-Wallace, Ph.D.; Cheryl Schilling, LMFT; Virginie Kamuene, student; and Kristy Harrington, student The workshop provides four views of family therapy when a reflecting/ training team is present: 1) the family’s view is provided through video interviews; 2) the team/trainees present their ideas about the treatment and training model; 3) the clinician/trainer discusses the efficacy and usefulness of the approach for family therapy as well as training; and 4) workshop participants are invited into small groups to experience and reflect on the usefulness of the model for family therapy.

Marjorie Roberts, Ph.D., is a psychologist and Marriage and Family Therapist by training. She is a co-founder and co-director of the Salem Center for Therapy, Training and Research, a training center for postmodern thinking and practice. She was mentored by Tom Andersen of Norway, who introduced the reflecting team as an approach to therapy, and her work is steeped in reflecting dialogues. Dr. Roberts is an associate of the Taos Institute and is currently working on research funded by the Taos Institute on an individual’s reasons for retiring or working beyond retirement age. She blogs at retireornot.net.

Scholarships 

A limited number of scholarships are available to students and Pre-Clinical Fellows of MFT programs. Please contact us at info@mamft.org with your contact information, school/internship/employment status and a brief explanation of why you are seeking a scholarship.