The AAMFT Podcast

Graham Danzer is a research-informed forensic psychologist and author of the book: Therapist Self-Disclosure: An Evidence-Based Guide for Practitioners. Graham sits down with Eli to discuss the benefits and challenges of navigating self-disclosure with various populations, the importance of making disclosures brief and relevant and of lower intimacy content, and the balancing self-disclosure in marketing materials like websites. Finally, they discuss the importance of developing a policy on personal disclosure.

Renee Rienecke, PhD, FAED, is a clinical psychologist and Director of Research for Eating Recovery Center/Pathlight Mood and Anxiety Centers and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University. This week Eli sits down with her to discuss eating disorders, and their effect on individuals and families. They discuss the categories of eating disorders, therapeutic techniques, such as family-based therapy (FBT) and the Maudsley Method, and the importance of evidence-based treatment. Finally they discuss the important role parents play in family-based treatment.

David Kessler is one of the world's foremost experts on loss, the founder of Grief.com, and coauthored two books with Louise Hay and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. He sits down with Eli to discuss his journey to find his own healing, his work and relationship with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, and common misconception about the five stages of dying. Finally he discusses the non-linear, observational nature of the stages, describing them as descriptive rather than prescriptive.

This week’s episode is a special show featuring the co-editors of the JMFT Special Anniversary Issue: Andrea Wittenborn and Kendal Holtrop. Dr. Andrea Wittenborn is Professor of Human Development and Family Studies. She also holds an appointment in the Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Michigan State University. Dr. Kendal Holtrop is an Associate Professor of Human Development and family studies. She obtained her PhD from Michigan State University in 2011, served on the faculty at Florida State University for six years, and then returned to MSU in 2017. In this episode, they discuss topics and interventions from the special issue, the importance of consuming research and staying up-to-date, and the move in research toward focusing on external validity. Finally, they ask: what are conditions relevant to stakeholder groups, and how do we make the research highly relevant to public health?

Teneo is AAMFT’s online education platform and provides clinical training with a focus on systems and relational therapies. Teneo courses are all online and can be accessed anywhere in the world. Courses can be started, paused, and completed at any time to accommodate busy mental health professionals’ schedules. Teneo course are approved by many state regulatory boards to provide Continuing Education credit hours, and cover such diverse topics as: Marketing your Practice, Eldercare, Working with LGBTQ Clients, and Ethics. Explore the course catalog at www.aamft.org/learning and use code TENEO10 for 10% off your purchase.

Jill Freedman and Gene Combs are Co-Directors of Evanston Family Therapy Center, as well as founding members of the Chicago Center for Family Health, an independent affiliate of the University of Chicago. In this episode they discuss the genesis of narrative therapy, remember Michael White and his many contributions to the field, and techniques and practices such as relational identity which have made a difference working with families. They also discuss the importance of the post-structuralist world view and narrative metaphor.

Teneo is AAMFT’s online education platform and provides clinical training on various topics with a focus on systems and relational therapies, offering continuing education credits for mental health professionals. Explore our course catalog at www.aamft.org/learning and use code TENEO10 for 10% off your purchase.

In part two of this two-episode focus on neurobiology and couple functioning, Eli sits down with Stan Tatkin. Stan is the founder of the PACT Training Institute and the developer of PACT—A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy and an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCLA’s David Geffen School Medicine. Stan sits down with Eli for a discussion on psychobiological approaches to couples therapy. Stan discusses his “origin story” of how he started working with couples, attachment theory as compliment to couples therapy, and strategies for self-soothing and autoregulation. Finally, he discusses interactive couples therapy, and how he uses state changes and movement to moderate fight or flight brain changes.

Teneo is AAMFT’s online education platform and provides clinical training with a focus on systems and relational therapies. Teneo courses are all online and can be accessed anywhere in the world. Courses can be started, paused, and completed at any time to accommodate busy mental health professionals’ schedules. Teneo course are approved by many state regulatory boards to provide Continuing Education credit hours, and cover such diverse topics as: Marketing your Practice, Eldercare, Working with LGBTQ Clients, and Ethics. Explore the course catalog at www.aamft.org/learning and use code TENEO10 for 10% off your purchase.

Mona Fishbane, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist licensed in Illinois and New Jersey, is the past director of the Couple Therapy Training Program at the Chicago Center for Family Health. Mona specializes in treating couples and adult individuals. Her particular focus is on integrating "news from neuroscience" with a systemic approach to therapy. She sits down with Eli for the first of a two-episode focus on neurobiology and couple functioning. She discusses how to empower couples and therapists by understanding neurobiology, top-down and bottom-up techniques for emotional regulation, and the importance of affect labeling or naming one’s feelings. Finally, she discusses neuroplasticity and ways to regulate emotions so that we can live according to our higher values.

Teneo is AAMFT’s online education platform and provides clinical training on various topics with a focus on systems and relational therapies, offering continuing education credits for mental health professionals. Explore our course catalog at www.aamft.org/learning and use code TENEO10 for 10% off your purchase.

Dr Chelsea Spencer is an Assistant Research Professor at Kansas State University and has extensively studied Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and conjoint couple treatment for IPV. Dr Spencer sits down with Eli to discuss her early life and education working with Dr Sandra Stith, factors in determining which couples may and may not be good candidate for conjoint treatment, and techniques for assessing the level of violence happening in relationships. She further discusses the difference between situational violence and intimate terrorism and risk factors of spousal homicide.

This week Eli sits down with Dr Howard Liddle. Dr Liddle is a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, and Director of the Center for Treatment Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Liddle's research focus is on the development, testing, implementation, and dissemination of family-based treatment for adolescent substance abuse and delinquency. The discussion touches on a breadth of topics including his early inspirations working with family therapy and youth, how his ideas developed under mentors like Mnuchin and Haley, and the importance of sponsoring the technique and idea of change in psychotherapy. Finally they discuss the origins of Multi-dimensional Family Therapy, how it pays homage to traditional models, and how it moves the profession forward in terms of empirical support.

Frank Anderson, MD, is both a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who specializes in the treatment of trauma and dissociation. Franks sits down with Eli to discuss the current state of psychopharmacology, and how medicine and talk therapy can work hand in hand to drive client results. He discusses strategies for therapists to stay on top of the latest treatments and therapies, when and how to make a referral, and how to get buy-in from skeptical clients on the issue of psychopharmacology. Finally, he talks about the importance of empowering clients to make their own medication decisions by providing them access to information about when to realistically expect relief, how levels can be tested and evaluated, drug interactions and more.