1-DAY INTENSIVE
DEFUSING THE HIGH CONFLICT DIVORCE
How to Reduce Aggression and Conflict when One or Both Parents Cooperate
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Presenter:
Jerome A. Price, M.A., is the co-director and founder of the Michigan Family Institute. A Regional Faculty Member for the Family Therapy Institute of Washington, D.C. until it’s closing, he is a well known supervisor and brief therapist consulting for mental health centers, hospital medical and psychiatric staffs and outpatient programs throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has seen mandated referrals of high conflict families from the Family Court for 15 years and is recognized by the judges and referees as a therapist who has unique skills for positively impacting families who have previously been seen as untreatable.
His articles on many aspects of individual, marital and family treatment have been published in a variety of journals and therapy publications as well as being contributing author to a number of professional books and textbooks on family therapy. Price is the author of the book, Power and Compassion: Working with difficult adolescents and abused parents (Guilford, 1996), and co-author of Defusing the High Conflict Divorce (Impact, 2007) and the upcoming book for divorced parents, Take Control of Your Divorce: A strategy guide for reducing the conflict in your divorce (Impact, in press).
Price’s workshops and trainings on the treatment of adolescents, marriages and families have been enthusiastically received throughout the U.S. and Canada, in Germany and New Zealand. He is an Approved Supervisor for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
Course Description
Approximately twenty percent of divorces result in high conflict. The parents won’t speak to each other, communication that does happen is explosive and accusatory and they are frequently back in court with one parent accusing the other of child abuse, sexual abuse, violence, drug addiction, alcoholism and parental alienation. They frequently call the police, child protective services and apply for Personal Protection Orders. Sometimes these actions are appropriate but many times they are not and only result in increasing animosity between the parents.
Children in these families are constantly caught in the crossfire. Both parents vie for their loyalty, communicate with them frequently about the details of the adult conflicts and both parents explain the child’s symptoms as being caused by the behavior of the other parent. Children often develop psychiatric symptoms and serious behavior problems affecting home adjustment and school achievement. Neither parent recognizes that the conflict between parents, amplified by and adversarial judicial system may be the primary cause of child dysfunction.
Based on his recent book, Defusing the High Conflict Divorce, Jerome Price will
offer step-by-step methods for therapists who wish to intervene with these families and defuse the conflict. Whether you see divorce cases, want to create a niche treating these cases, or want to help your clients who are embroiled in such conflicts, this workshop will expand your repertoire and increase your success level with a wide range of clients. Join us as we create a new paradigm for viewing divorce conflict and children’s role in the conflict, as well as how to extricate them. The day will consist of lecture, skill-building exercises and videotaped examples of actual cases.
“Dynamic excellent speaker. The use of video enhances the audiences overall understanding-nice to have practical information to take back to the workplace.”
“Very thought provoking, challenging material. Nice mix of theoretical and practical.”
“Jerry Price is excellent – much humor and very down-to-earth.”
“The ideas were presented clearly with humor and I feel as if the therapeutic techniques presented are things that I could actually use in my practice.”
Summary of the Day:
9:00-9:30 Introduction and Overview
9:30- 10:30 Identifying the conflictual cycle and understanding in a way that facilitates change.
Assessing danger amidst chronic claims of danger.
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Understanding power and its role.
Beginning the process of intervening in power imbalance.
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-2:30 What is Parental Alienation Syndrome and when is it real?
How to extricate the children from the struggle.
A look at some real cases and how to begin intervening in the cycle of destructive interaction.
2:30-2:45 Break
2:45-4:00 Building a specific step-by-step strategy utilizing everything else you’ve learned today. .
Hours:
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
6 Continuing Education Credits
MRI is approved to provide continuing education for MFT's and/or LCSW's as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, Provider #PCE 14. MRI is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. MRI maintains responsibility for this program and its contents.
COST: $200
