I’m so pleased to share this recently published book by my friend and colleague, Dr. Saliha Bava, and her partner, Mark Greene. Although we might agree in theory that parenting is indeed a relational endeavor, our language belies this perspective. For example, we describe the child as “oppositional defiant” as though she existed in a relational vacuum, without that ‘other’ person she must oppose. Diagnostic criteria focuses on the individual and obscures the parts of the relational system that promote imbalance …
Category: health
Family historian, Stephanie Coontz, is admittedly one of my favorites. Former President of The Council on Contemporary Families, Dr. Coontz brings a much needed perspective to our cultural discourses about marriage and family life. Her capacity to mine enormous bodies of data and expose trends about the current state of relationships is remarkable – and very much needed. The landscape of marriage and family is not easy to navigate, and I’m grateful for her clarity and perspective. In that spirit (and because …
David Asch MD and Roy Rosin, MBA of The Center for Healthcare Innovation at Penn Medicine have published an article in The New England Journal of Medicine that supports the involvement of family and friends in improving health and health care outcomes. At The Center for Couples and Adult Families, we are thrilled to share this vision: that the quality of one’s relationships matters and has important and measurable impact on health and well being. …
Each year around this time, conversations with clients turn to the predictable stress of time with family over the holidays. Like ghosts in the night, old issues, long dormant, reappear at holiday time. How is it that an adult with partner and children can walk into their parents’ home and instantly feel 10 years old again? The anticipation of a holiday encounter can lead any adult to feel slightly unhinged in a way that few other situations do. Let’s face …
Join colleagues at Penn Medicine and CHOP for this exciting panel, lead by transgender activist and family therapist, DR. ELIJAH NEALY. They will address the importance of family therapy in the treatment of transgender young adults. Dr. Nealy will be joined by Jacqueline HUDAK, PhD., LMFT, The Center for Couples and Adult Families, Perelman School of Medicine, Linda HAWKINS, Ph.D., Gender and Sexuality Development Clinic, CHOP, and Benoit DUBÉ, MD, Perelman School of Medicine. Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 6-8PM 16th Fl., 3535 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 …
CCAF Clinical director, Jacqueline Hudak, will present on a panel about “The Changing Family” during Penn Spectrum Weekend. Held during alumni weekend, Penn Spectrum “brings together alumni for dialogue centered on issues of cultural identity. We welcome alumni and allies from all backgrounds as well as current Penn undergraduate and graduate students. The conference focuses on issues pertinent to the Black, Latinx, Native, Asian, and LGBTQ alumni and student communities.” For a full schedule of events, check out the link here. …
I had a wonderful time presenting to physicians, nurses, social workers and psychologists at The Reading Hospital this spring. The audience wanted to understand the meaning of emotional cutoff and the impact of this process on development and family relationships over the course of the life cycle. Always true to my training as a family therapist, I began with my family genogram, and a story about my father’s cutoff from his family of origin. This happened when I was two years old …
