Spring Semester!

Hello fam,
Does anyone know when the last day is to sign up for the spring semester?
Merry Christmas!!
1 John 4

My MFT Family....

I just felt that I needed to share a few things that I appreciate about you all....so here goes:

These are things I LOVE about you guys:

Jason = your dry humor and sarcasm!
Joshua = your style and the fact that you speak French--so JEALOUS!!
Alex = your calm and sensitive nature!
John = your experience and wisdom!
Katie = your meekness, your humbleness!
Josh = you are tough yet gentle!
Jaimie = you always show concern for the lives of others--you have awesome doodling skills!!
Brittney = you are such a tough girl, but so girlie at the same time!
Ryan = you are not afraid to admit your sensitivity--and you are a runner!
Christina = you always have the right words, and you never say too much--so much WISDOM!
Quita = your taste in food :) --you seem to embrace the diversity of others!
Roe = you always have a story--your stories are ALWAYS HILARIOUS!
Shelley = you amaze me! You are brilliant!
Will = your love for your wife--so evident that you think she is AMAZING!
Lanie = your calm spirit!
Laurel = our mutual love for organization and over-achieving! You are my doppleganger!
Branden = your laid-back attitude!
Betsy = your deep-thinking and intellectual ways!
Leah = you always say EXACTLY what you feel like saying--LOVE THAT!
Michael = your ability to entertain!
Michelle = your GENTLE, GENTLE spirit--and the fact that when I see you I want to talk in a REALLY high voice!
Pablo = your Spanish--love how you always translate for us!

I love you guys---hope I didn't miss anyone!

Love---Stephanie

Carols and Coffee

Everyone is invite to come to the 1st Annual Carols and Coffee TONIGHT (TUESDAY)!!! It is at 6:30 in the Chapel! It would be great to see all of your lovely faces again! Families are welcome! (coffee and snacks provided)
Love to all!
Britt

Cultural Genogram Article - Hardy

Cultural Genogram Article - Hardy

• Social constructivism – is the biases we have because of our own culture
• Cultural Genograms for therapists promote cultural awareness and help to develop cultural sensitivity
• Imperative for family therapy training programs to devote greater attention to preparing culturally competent therapists.
• Awareness - cognitive function, intellectual processing
• Sensitivity – individual, response emotionally to stimuli with delicacy and respectfulness.
• These functions are intertwined.
• Brings joining between client in therapist and insight into clients psyche.
• Help the trainees to understand their own background
• Accomplishes:

o   Illustrate and clarify the cultural influence on the family system

o   Assist trainees in identifying the groups which contribute to the formation of their cultural identity

o   Encourage candid discussions that reveal and challenge cultural based assumptions and stereotypes

o   Assisting trainees in understanding their culturally based emotional triggers

o   Assisting trainees exploring how their unique cultural identities impact their style and effectiveness

o   Can heighten cultural biases – objectivity is limited by our

·         Steps to the genogram –

o   Organize

o   Define one’s cultural of origin

o   Organize principles and pride/shame issues

§  Fundamental values

o   Establish a frame

o   Putting it together

o   Create cultural framework charts

Family Process: Author Lynn Hoffman

Theme: moving away from a cybernetic, mechanical, and behevaioristic approach to Family Therapy, towards more "postmodern", objective, and fluid approach to family therapy.

Key Terms:

Cybernetic: activity of feedback cycles, not only inmmachine but in humans.
* homeostatic cycles that stabilize a family
* a therapist seeks in break disruptive, un-profitable homeostatic cycles.
Social Constructionist Theory: holds that our beliefs about the world are social inventions.
* as we move through the world, we build up our ideas about it in conversation w/ others.
* see the development of knowledge as a social phenomenon.
Idealism: view that knowledge derives from internal constructs
* S.C theory moves away from this.
Positivism: knowledge is a representation of facts and events in a "real" world.
* S.C theory moves away from this.
Second-Order lens:looking from outside the system
* taking a position that is a step removed from the operation itself so that you can
perceive the operation reflexively.
* allows you to see that a particular interpretation is only one among many possible ones
* a second order view would mean that a therapist include themselves as part of what must
change; they can not NOT influence the system.
Counter-intuitive principle: commonsense solutions to complex problems often have the opposite
effect to what was intended.
* because there exists secondary the tertiary feedback looks that are not obvious.
Lens of Gender: most psychological models and theories are based of a male dominated research
and worldview.
* emphasis on independence, autonomy, and control is not as compatible to woman to the
degree it is with men.
* being gender sensitive as well as having gender worldview awareness is a better model.

Hoffman:

1) believed a incorporation of...
* social constructionist theory
* second order lens
* gender lens
...is more effective that taking a strict, cybernetic model.

ENJOY: KISS KISS JASON

Notes from "Family-of-Origin Frames in Couples Therapy" Article

Family of Origin Frames in Couple Therapy

Uses 6 frames (reaction to family of origin) to help differentiate Marital Styles

• Coping – How you deal with anxiety, pressure
• Modeling – Models in your childhood (father, mother, other) whom you copy
• Role – Role you played in family of origin (scapegoat, helper, clown, etc.)
• Definition – Beliefs that define what you believe to be reality; myths
• Reversal – Things that you reject “I won’t EVER do that in my family!”
• Loyalty – Coalitions, triangles, and issues of loyalty or split-loyalty (divorce/remarriage, etc.)

Three marriage styles emerge:

• Pursuer/Distancer – Seeking intimacy vs. wanting space
• Overfunctioner/Underfunctioner – Taking responsibility, acting vs. not taking responsibility and passivity
• Blamer/Placaters  - Critical and demanding vs. Trying to please

WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is for everyone who is going to be working later than their internal clock will allow them

WAKE UP!!!!!

Psychopathology Study Guide

Everyone check your emails- especially the one from Barry. Christina Gangan made a sign up sheet so that we can split up the SG! YAY!
Love

How to Carkhuff by Conan

I made this. thought it would be fun to give some comic relief! Not an actual picture of my family. we didn't smile. Just kidding.

Update on our Beloved Leah!!!

Hi all-

Just wanted to update all- Leah is feeling a bit better this morning. Keep praying for her as this can be quite frustrating physically as well as emotionally (especially at this time in the semester). You all are amazing! Praying for each of you :).

~ Betsy

Naturalism- Sire chapter

Just in case someone didn't get my email, here is a brief summary of the Sire book chapter on Naturalism


Sire- Chapter 4 Naturalism

- Naturalism is the middle ground between Deism and Theism, and is widely accepted today. God loses his very existence. Reason is the whole criterion for truth and not God. Important figures were Renee Descartes, John Locke, Julien offray de la mettrie.
“Prime reality is matter. Matter exists eternally and is all there is. God does not exist.”
“The cosmos exists as a uniformity of causes and effect in a closed system.”
“Human beings are complex machines; personality is an interrelation of chemical and physical properties we do not yet fully understand”- we are only part of the matter and are not above or below anything else in the world.
“Death is the extinction of personality and individuality”- people simply disappear when they die.
“Through our innate and autonomous human reason, including the methods of science, we can know the universe. The cosmos, including this world, is understood to be in its normal state”
“Ethics is related only to human beings”- We create ethics because we create and develop our futures. People have a sense of right and wrong.
History is a linear stream of events linked by cause and effect but without an overarching purpose”- The world is self-activating and sustaining.
Naturalism itself implies no particular core commitment on the part of any given naturalist. Rather core commitments are adopted unwittingly or chosen by individuals.
most significant form of naturalism in history was Marxism

Thanks!
Michelle