TRAINING DATES:
Part One: March 27-28, 2025 (2-half days)
Part Two: April 3-4 & 10-11, 2025 (4 half-days)
CHOOSE ONE TRACK:
Track 1: 9am-12:45pm Eastern Time
or
Track 2: 1pm-4:45pm Eastern Time
(Track is selected during check-out)
This live online introductory training reviews the theory, research, and clinical strategies of Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT). ABFT is a manualized, empirically supported family therapy designed to target family and individual processes associated with adolescent depression and suicide. Tested with diverse families, including low-income and minority families, ABFT is a trust-based, emotion-focused, process-oriented brief therapy. The model is organized by five treatment tasks that provide directionality. Participants will learn how this model helps families repair interpersonal ruptures that have damaged trust and rebuild emotionally protective, secure parent–child relationships.
The training is equivalent to our 3-Day/Two-Part in-person workshop and is delivered as 6 half-day live webinars. Participants may enroll in Part One only, Part Two only (if they have previously attended Part One/Day One or completed the Fundamentals of ABFT Online Self-Paced Course), or the entire Two-Part Introductory Training.
CEs are available for APA/ASWB.
The target audience for this training includes Case Workers, Counselors, Couple and Family Therapists, Mental Health Professionals, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Social Workers.
Part One is also appropriate for ER Physicians, Health Care Administrators, Frontline MH staff, Primary Care Physicians, Psychiatric Nurses, and SAP Team members.
Part 1 Program Objectives:
- Explain the theoretical foundation of ABFT.
- Discuss the empirical support for ABFT.
- Describe the five treatment task structure of the model.
- Explain how to organize therapy around interpersonal growth rather than behavioral management.
- Identify the strategies used in the five treatment tasks.
Part 2 Program Objectives:
- Discuss the goal of each of the give treatment tasks
- List the three guiding principles for preparing for an ABFT session.
- Identify when to build positive versus negative emotion in each task.
- Explain how issues of cultural humility are addressed in ABFT.
- Describe the specific phases within each task
- Discuss the purpose of the relational reframe.
- Explain why exploring the mental health problem with the youth is important.
- Describe the purpose of the attachment narrative.
- Discuss how therapists in ABFT motivate caregivers to want to be different with their child.
- Explain how to prepare caregivers for attachment repair sessions with their child.
- Describe the important components of the attachment repair session(s).
View approximate schedules for the training here:
Regular Registration
Part 1 Only: $135
Part 2 Only: $350
Full Introductory Training (both Parts 1 & 2): $485
** Group Discount Available for Groups of 3 or more.
This live training will take place over Zoom. You will be emailed the Zoom link and relevant handouts a week before the first webinar will occur.
Please let us know if you have any disability or other special needs so that we can ensure that your needs will be fully met.
Suzanne Levy, Ph.D.
Suzanne Levy, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned licensed clinical psychologist and co-developer of ABFT. Previously she was the Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Training of the ABFT Training Program at Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions. Since 2007, Dr. Levy has been conducting ABFT training workshops and supervision for therapists nationally and internationally. She has presented regionally, nationally, and internationally on ABFT, emotion coaching, child and adolescent therapies, resilience, adolescent depression, adolescent development, and adolescent substance use.
Guy Diamond, Ph.D.
Guy Diamond, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and formerly was Associate Professor at Drexel University in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. His primary work has been in the area of youth suicide prevention and treatment research. On the prevention side, he has created a program focused on training, screening and triage to be implemented in non-behavioral health settings. On the treatment side, he has focused on the development and testing of attachment-based family therapy (ABFT), especially for teens struggling with depression and suicide. ABFT has now been applied to children and young adults, LGBTQ youth and adults, and adopted in clinics all over the world where it is used as a transdiagnostic approach to patient mental health and ruptures in family attachment.
*Additional instructors may be added.
This program is being offered for the following contact hours of continuing education:
Part 1: 6.5 hours
Part 2: 13.25 hours
Full training: 19.75 hours
This training is co-sponsored by US Journal Training.
US Journal Training is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor Continuing Education for psychologists. US Journal Training maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
U.S. Journal Training #1143 is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) Program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. U.S. Journal Training maintains responsibility for the program. ACE approval period: 12/5/22-12/5/25.
A $50 administrative fee will be charged for all refunds. Refund requests will be honored up to four business days before the start of the course and must be confirmed in writing. If cancellation occurs within three business days prior to the course, a refund will not be available. However, the full amount of tuition may be applied to a future course (i.e. you may transfer your registration to a future introductory workshop).
A $50 administrative fee will be charged for any returned checks due to insufficient funds.