The AAMFT Podcast

Dr. Ellen Wachtel is a renowned couples’ therapist and author of the book The Heart of Couple Therapy. She sits down with Eli to discuss the core ingredients of effective couples’ therapy, the importance of hopefulness to the therapeutic process, and how a person’s legacy issues can impact their current relationship. She also shares examples of her unique use of the geneogram, and ways in which couples can work together to address communication and trust issues rather than trying to solve problems alone.

Constance Ahrons was a ground-breaking systemic therapist who challenged negative stereotypes about divorce and was an early advocate for collaborative divorce. She was the author of The Good Divorce and participated in groundbreaking longitudinal research on the effects of divorce on children. In this episode she discusses her early career and influences including working with Carl Whitaker, her pioneering research on predicting adjustment of children of divorce by quality of the co-parenting relationship, and her work with binuclear families. Finally, she describes the kinship system of working with divorced co-parents and the unique classification system she uses to describe them.

Patrick Carnes, PhD, and Stefanie Carnes, PhD, LMFT are the founder and president, respectively, of the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals. In this episode, they discuss the unique nature of being a father and daughter team in the field, their treatment approach to compulsive sexual behaviors, and the impact of these behaviors on couple and individual functioning in order to achieve a sex life that is fun, erotic, intimate, and healthy.

Jay Lappin trained in the relational architecture of Structural Family Therapy with Dr. Salvador Minuchin. He currently maintains a private practice, teaches at Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania, leads workshops and work as an independent consultant. Jorge Colapinto has written and lectured both nationally and internationally on structural family therapy and currently teaches at the Drexel University’s Marriage and Family Program. Jay and Jorge sit down with Eli to remember the legendary Dr. Sal Minuchin and discuss Structural Family Therapy. They discuss the importance of working “outside to inside” from context to individual, Structural Family Therapy as a way of being rather than just a set of techniques, and the importance of adaptability to changing times.

Mary Jo Barrett is an author and the Executive Director and co-founder of The Center for Contextual Change, Ltd. She holds a master’s in social work from the University of Illinois Jane Addams School of Social Work and is currently on the faculties of University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, The Chicago Center For Family Health, and the Family Institute of Northwestern University. She discusses the origins of her career and interest in trauma and the family system. She also discusses the importance of remembering the intergenerational when working with individuals with trauma, the importance of trying to find the good even in people who may have done monstrous things, and transparency in the therapeutic process.

Kaethe Weingarten, Ph.D., directs the Witness to Witness (W2W) program, a nonprofit organization that consults to individuals, families, and communities locally, nationally, and internationally to transform toxic witnessing of violence and violation to active compassionate witnessing with others, for the Migrant Clinicians Network. She discusses her early life experiences and the origins of the Witnessing Project, the importance of witnessing to move people into empowered positions, and balancing sharing your own experiences vs witnessing. She finishes by discussing methods for fighting "compassion fatigue" or burnout and sharing stories of resilience.

Registration is open for the Systemic Family Therapy Conference 2021, sponsored by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Reserve your spot today! www.aamft.org/conference

This week’s guest is Megan McCoy, LMFT, PhD an adjunct faculty member at Kansas State University where she teaches courses for the Financial Therapy Certificate Program. An expert on financial therapy and healing financial infidelity, Her research interests truly focus on how to create more empirical evidence to support work that she has seen change so many lives in her clinical experiences. She discusses strategies to help couples overcome the challenges and stigma around money issues, the role of money in couples’ power dynamics and breaking maladaptive patterns of behavior by working together against the problem. Finally she discusses the importance of understanding one’s partner’s history of handling money concerns and how this can affect current relationships, as well as strategies for maximizing the rewards of “retail therapy” while avoiding pitfalls like regret or disappointment.

Registration is open for the Systemic Family Therapy Conference 2021, sponsored by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Reserve your spot today! www.aamft.org/conference

Ian Kerner, PhD, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist, NYT bestselling author, and nationally recognized sexuality counselor who specializes in sex therapy, couples therapy and working with individuals on a range of relational issues that often lead to distress. He discusses negative associations with pornography and erotica and how these can be overcome, the move away from a language of addiction and towards a language of positive sexual health in sex research, and ways that erotica can be a solution or enhancement rather than a detriment to couples’ sexual health. He also describes how ethical production and consumption of pornography can depatholigize pornography and allow couples to practice mind-based arousal.

Dr. Laura Frey is the principal investigator for a grant funded by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention that examines the effect of parental expressed emotion on adolescent disclosure of suicide ideation and a professor at the University of Louisville where she heads up the Couples and Family Therapy program. Dr. Quintin Hunt is a professor at Brigham Young University. His research interests include understanding and preventing suicide in folks at indicated risk of suicide and family and relational-based interventions. They discuss barriers to clients sharing thoughts of suicidal ideation, the benefits of mobilizing family in treatment, and overcoming stigma associated with suicidal thoughts.

The symptoms of adult ADHD can be particularly damaging in close relationships, especially if those symptoms have never been diagnosed or treated. Melissa Orlov has been working and speaking on the topic of adult ADHD since 2007 and wrote The ADHD Effect on Marriage. Her interview focuses on difficulties faced by adults with ADHD, from getting diagnosed, to overcoming shame and stigma, and chromic stress in personal relationships. She also discusses coping and support strategies for non-ADHD partners, as well as ways to disrupt unhelpful patterns of interaction and promote healthy relationships.