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Attachment Based Family Therapy (ABFT) Introductory Workshop: Part Two

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June 4-5 and June 11-12, 2025
8:30am - 12:15pm CST each day

Location: Virtual via Zoom
Fee: $70
Trainer(s): Suzanne Levy, Ph.D.
Continuing Education Hours: 13.0

Interested participants must be practicing in Wisconsin
Register

Course Description

Part Two builds on Part One and provides a more in-depth look at the procedures and process involved in facilitating ABFT. Case discussion, tape review and role-play deepen the participants understanding of the approach. Throughout Part Two, therapists are also taught how to use the ABFT adherence checklists.

Attendance is limited to 30 people (per Trainer) so that everyone can experience hands on attention from the Trainer.

Learning 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). 

About Your Trainer

uzanne Levy, Ph.D.
Suzanne Levy, Ph.D.

Dr. Suzanne Levy is an internationally renowned licensed clinical psychologist and Co-Developer of ABFT.  She is the CEO and Co-Owner of ABFT International Training Institute. Formally she was the Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Training for the ABFT Training Program at Drexel University. ABFT is a manualized, empirically informed and supported, family therapy model specifically designed to target family and individual processes associated with adolescent suicide and/or depression. 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. Along with her colleagues, Drs. Guy and Gary Diamond, Dr. Levy has written the first book on ABFT, Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed Adolescents published by the American Psychological Association.