Creating a Relational Frame in the Context of Youth Substance Use: Foundations of Family Engagement

Session Description: Although family therapy has the largest base of empirical support for treating adolescent substance use (ASU), there are several significant barriers to its widespread adoption. Informed by research and clinical practice in real world settings, this training will provide instruction in techniques for therapists to build a relational frame with youth and their families. Participants will be invited to learn and practice a relational and systemic set of interventions that are socioculturally attuned, pragmatic, and accessible. Techniques include Parent Collaboration, Enhancing Parental Love and Commitment, Parent Ecoystem, Family Goal Collaboration, and Relational Reframing. The training will be experiential, with opportunities for participants to observe the techniques via video demonstrations, practice with co-trainees, and engage in reflective processes related to self of the therapist. At the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
• Provide information on the core elements approach for family therapy for adolescent substance use.
• Increase clinicians’ capacity to understand adolescent substance use problems as relational.
• Familiarize clinicians with treatment engagement strategies for adolescents and their families.
• Offer clinicians an overview of family therapy techniques for inviting change in meaning and change in behavior for adolescents and their families.
• Explore with clinicians how self of the therapist and identity/systems of oppression impact family therapy for SUD.