ABFT Special Topics Webinar: What Works & What Doesn’t for Kids (and Adults) in “Blended Families.”

“Blended families” come together with big hopes and fervent wishes for a loving new family. However, the realities of attachment dynamics in a stepfamily can create constant painful ruptures - within the couple, between stepparents and stepchildren, between parents and their children, and between ex-spouses. The longing captured in the language of “blended families” all too often adds layers of shame to dashed hopes. All of this can have a powerful impact on children in stepfamilies.
This webinar will help you understand the fundamental differences between a stepfamily and a first-partner family. We’ll look at the (big!) challenges of parenting, stepparenting, and discipline in stepfamilies. We’ll share the guidance from five decades of research and clinical practice for what works, and what doesn’t, for building healthy stepfamily relationships. Along the way, we’ll point out some “easy wrong turns” that often get stepfamilies (and those who want to help) in trouble.
You’ll learn about a clinical framework that integrates a wide variety of therapeutic modalities into three levels of clinical work: Psychoeducational, interpersonal and intrapsychic/family-of-origin. We’ll then explore how this information can be incorporated into the ABFT model.