Developed by Helen Hargreaves, MSW RSW, Director of Rainbow Brain
Location: Over Zoom
In Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) we seek to harness the immense power of parents and other trusted caregivers to help children of all ages have better mental health.
This work can be made difficult when clinicians’ suggestions are met with defensiveness. This might look like:
- Fathers who debate the usefulness of the intervention
- Mothers who feel attacked and judged by attempts to help
- Foster parents who shut down in session
- Grandparents who say they agree, but then don’t make changes between sessions.
- Step-parents who spend most of the session explaining who is to blame for the current situation.
These responses can be incredibly frustrating for the clinician AND they are understandable attempts at self protection by the caregivers. After all, un-sought-after advice feels like criticism. And very few people like to feel criticized.
In my work as a community organiser I have come across a style of coaching which helps coaches align with the person they are helping so the suggestions aren’t derailed by someone’s best attempts to keep themselves emotionally safe. This form of coaching, developed by Marshall Ganz, transfers very nicely from working with community leaders to working with caregivers.
This training will come in two parts:
Part One, September 25, 1:00-3:00 pm EDT (Toronto Time)
- Explore some of the reasons that caregivers feel defensive around clinicians.
- Ganz style coaching.
- Apply this model to supporting caregivers to develop new skills, especially Validation and Support (AKA Emotion Coaching).
Part Two: October 27, 10:00 am-12:00 noon EDT (Toronto Time)
- Video supervision
- going over participants recordings to help them refine their practice.
In the month between the sessions, I’m hoping participants can either record their own clients, or partner up and record their work with someone from the group.
Both parts are run over Zoom.
Part One: September 25, 1:00-3:00 pm EDT (Toronto Time)
Part Two: October 27, 10:00 am-12:00 noon EDT (Toronto Time)
Fee: $300 CAD for both parts
The training will be limited to 8 people. If you are interested in being one of them please:
If you have any questions about the training please reach out to me at me at helen.hargreaves@rainbowbrain.ca