Relational Integration of the Personal and Professional in Therapy and Supervision

Speaker:

Trainer John Burnham,

Systemic Psychotherapist, Trainer and Supervisor 

Parkview Clinic, Birmingham Children’s Hospital

This workshop will explore and extend a range of practices intended to develop a reciprocal relationship between the personal and professional in which each aspect becomes a living resource to the other. Professional development can enhance one’s personal life and one’s personal life can extend one’s professional practice. Therapists, Supervisors and supervisees will be invited to consider how their own significant relational patterns (current and historical) can be both a resource and restraint in their therapeutic/supervisory practice. The coordinated management of meaning will be proposed and demonstrated as a practical way of integrating this concept into your own practice. All professionals who are interested in continuing to develop and extend their practice and looking to explore the relationship between their personal and professional restraints and resources.

21st Century Couple and Family Therapy

Speakers:

Dr Jay Lebow,

Clinical Professor

The Family Institute at Northwestern

This workshop will survey present practice of couple and family therapy and emerging important issues in practice. Topics will include prominent models in practice, the emergence of couple therapy with distinct methods of practice, the empirical foundation for couple and family therapy, the role of theory in relation to practice, transcendent transtheoretical factors, shared strategies of change, integrative practice, the importance of cultural context in couple and family therapy, and developments related to emerging technologies.

Beyond Psychotherapy, Interventions in Extended Systems

Speaker:

Dr Umberta Telfener,

President

European Family Therapy Association

A consultation to a Hospital patient, an outpatient interview, a support intervention, the design of an integrated parenting-support project, a counselling to a migrant group are among what we do as Mental Health professionals. The workshop seeks to actively reflect with the participants on how to move, where the easiest points of entry lie, what the most frequent traps are, which errors to try to avoid and which practices to privilege instead.

Short-term Structural Family Therapy with Couples

Speaker:

Dr Wong Oi Ling,

Professor

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Gain practical guidance on designing and implementing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) within social work settings. Learn how to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions using experimental methods, with attention to ethical considerations, contextual challenges, and relevant outcome measures. Through real-world examples and interactive discussion, the session demystifies RCTs and offers tools to conduct and critically assess rigorous evaluations in practice-based environments.

How to Assess Relationship of Asian couples with a Culturally Sensitive Model

Speaker:

Dr Wen Tao Chao,
Professor
National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan

Asian couples share similarities with those globally, making existing relationship theories useful. However, unique cultural dynamics—such as filial piety and extended family influences—are often overlooked, creating a gap in culturally relevant frameworks. The Manor Model was developed to address this gap, drawing from clinical work with Taiwanese couples and integrating established theories (e.g., Gottman’s Sound Relationship Model) with broader relational systems common in Asian contexts. This workshop introduces the model and its application as a practical assessment and intervention tool. While rooted in Taiwanese cases, it may be adapted for other Asian populations and inspire culturally responsive approaches in diverse settings.

Contextualizing Wider Social Networks in our Therapy Sessions

Speaker:

Dr Dan and Dr Sally,

Professor Emeritus and Professor Emerita

University of Calgary

In this workshop we will very explicitly and specifically show the importance and relevance of extending family therapy to the socially contextual situations in which they are immersed and ways to conduct our own research on our work with families. We will provide many examples for ways to conduct these conversations with client families as well how to study them without losing context.

Enactment – The Use of an Experiential In-session Method in Couple and Family Therapy in Singapore

Speaker:

Mr Tony Ong,

Clinical Director

Counselling and Care Centre

In systemic psychotherapy with couples and families, the practitioner attempts to have family members connect with one another towards healing and intimacy in their relationships. In his years of conducting training and providing consultations in Singapore, Tony has observed the limited use of enactment despite its supposed effectiveness in generating in-session change in relationships. As such, Tony examined and experimented with the use of enactment in Structural Family Therapy and Emotionally Focused Couple/Family Therapy. He hopes to inspire practitioners in Singapore to consider its use as an experiential in-session method to support couples and families in the change process.

Co-Creating ‘Fitting-Enough’ Supervisory Relationships Across Diverse Contexts

Speaker:

Mrs Sharon Sng,

Deputy Director

Counselling and Care Centre

This workshop offers participants a practical understanding of what makes supervisory relationships ‘fitting-enough’ across diverse professional contexts. Participants will discover the various systemic concepts that can be applied across diverse work settings, supervisory approaches, personal preferences, and developmental stages. We will examine the roles and practices in navigating the differences between supervisors and supervisees so that there is a balance between challenge and support in supervision. Participants will leave with practical strategies for developing collaborative, context-sensitive and safe supervisory relationships.