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 …
Tag: family therapy
Join us for the next CPSP “Community Psychiatry Forum*” In Collaboration with The American Association of Community Psychiatrists Engaging Family Supports Learning Objectives – Participants will be better able to: Identify strategies and barriers to engage family members as supportive members of recovery team Enable people in recovery to identify and connect with potential sources of support in the community Describe issues commonly concerning family members and other natural supports and potential approaches for addressing them CME: You can …
Every so often I read something that speaks to a yet unarticulated thought or idea about my work with couples and families. Such was the case when I read NY Times columnist David Brooks’s article “Three Views of Marriage.” He describes three prevailing perspectives on marriage: the psychological, the romantic, and, what he calls the moral view. It was Brooks’s description of the moral view that spoke to me. As a couple and family therapist, I am witness to the transformational power of …
In this informative and engaging interview, Dr. Berman offers clear, specific advice about how to avoid pitfalls and seize opportunities when dealing with the thorny issue of money and the family. …
The Center for Couples and Adult Families extends a warm welcome to Michelle Jackson, a seasoned Couple and Family therapist who joined our Clinical Faculty last month. There are many reasons I’m thrilled to have Ms. Jackson aboard, not the least of which is our ability to serve more couples and families at CCAF. Her arrival is evidence of our growth; clearly the word is out that there is couple and family therapy available at Penn. Ms. Jackson’s sensitivity to …
A landmark, government funded study finds that schizophrenic patients who received a combination of drugs, talk therapy and family support made greater strides in the first 2 years of treatment than patients who just received drug therapy. Featured on the front page of yesterday’s NY Times, the report made clear that family involvement and “talk therapy” are vital in the treatment of schizophrenia, and this combined approach provided more symptom relief to patients (and thus families) and capacity for higher functioning …
This is but one of a number of studies that confirms what Couple and Family Therapists know so well: that the quality of relationship impacts health over time in a variety of ways. …
An article by my friend and colleague Laurie Charles. We are board members of The American Family Therapy Academy; her work with families around the world informs and expands my thinking about health across the lifespan. Our psychiatry residents will also benefit from her experience as they move on to practice psychiatry in the US and around the world. …
Research findings from a team at Emory University Medical School provide evidence of “transgenerational epigenetic inheritance” – that environment can affect an individual’s genetics and then be passed on. As a family therapist I have intuited this often in my consulting room. There are times when a young adult with severe sadness sits with me, and I can sense that the sorrow is somehow lager that she is; it is too big a sorrow for someone that age. When together …
Last month, CCAF faculty, residents and fellows were treated to a wonderful lecture by family psychiatrist Dr. Geri Fox. “Gear Shifts and Spirals” was an interactive discussion of video taken by Dr. Fox of her own family filmed over 25 years. Dr. Fox began her filming long before the now ubiquitous culture of self documentation. She is a pioneer ethnographer, recording the turning points and challenges of everyday family life through the lens of her video camera. She …
