**Please choose three of the BREAKOUT SESSIONS sessions to attend and write them in order of your preference on the registration form**

#100 – Reframing Disability in Family Theory and Practice

Susan H. Niemann, Ph.D., LPC

Therapeutic interventions with families that include a child with a significant cognitive and/or physical disability often overlook important family and broad systemic issues.  This presentation proposes a theoretical shift from linear therapy approaches and stresses understanding and privileging disability culture, family meaning-making processes, and family disability identity development.  Included are interventions to assist family members regarding issues of loss, maximizing service resources, advocating for social change, and facing future uncertainties over the life cycle.

#200 – Indigent Client Perceptions of Barriers to Marriage and Family Therapy

Florencetta Hayes Gibson, RN, M.S.N., M.Ed.

Previous research has validated that families living at or below the poverty level face a variety of unique relational issues.  These issues may cause families to seek the services of a marriage and family therapist. This presentation explores situations that have been identified as potential barriers to families seeking/attaining marriage and family therapy.

#300 – Challenging the Assumption, New is Better; Integrating Multiple Psychotherapeutic Historical Components
Wm. Eddie Parish Jr., Ph.D. and

Michelle B. Elisar, M.Ed.

Marketers know that proclaiming products as new and improved sells. Providing products or serves as “THE answer” gets peoples’ attention and the field of psychotherapy is no different. New clinical discoveries are consistently being marketed as more effective in treating many mental health problems. The presenters believe there is a necessary value in taking a historical view of psychotherapy. Thus, this presentation is about challenging the assumption that new is better and integrating theoretical and clinical thoughts and techniques from multiple historical schools to produce effective clinical outcomes.

#400 – Play in the Family Dance

Lois Theall, M.A.

This is an experiential and interactive workshop describing and using play techniques in a family context. Participants will have opportunities to discuss play and family therapy and discover means of integrating the two, using methods of experiential learning. Demonstrations will be held and case examples will be given. Among the techniques demonstrated will be puppet play family therapy.

#500 – The Couple’s Adjustment to Breast Cancer

Mark R. Reynaud, MA, LPC, CEAP

This presentation will address specific issues related to breast cancer. Breast cancer treatment options will be discussed as well as how each option will impact the couple relationship. Finally, treatment interventions will be discussed for MFTs helping to facilitate this adjustment.

#600 – Bringing Out the Best in Teens: A Qualitative Analysis of Original Rap Lyrics

Amy Yates, Ph.D., Pam Clark, Ed.S., and

Kelly Tyner, M.A.

Presenters will discuss results of an ethnographic analysis of original rap lyrics composed by the students of an innovative northeast Louisiana alternative school. Themes and issues revealed in the lyrics will assist therapists who work with an adolescent population to better view the world through their clients’ lens.

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MARRIAGE

Factors Influencing Successful Marriages

Katherine Wilson, B.A.

Intermarriage: Marital Issues and Challenges

Andrea Sylvester

The Effectiveness of Marriage Enrichment Programs: The Role of Intervention Education Models on Marital Quality

Joneal S. Kirby, M.Ed.

Couple Communication

Marlys S. Dropik

The Effects of Being Reared in a Single-Parent Home on Marital Success

Mary Coleen Speed

An Evaluative Overview of 13 Marriage Enrichment Programs Through 14 Dimensions

Joneal S. Kirby, M.Ed.

and Charles L. Cole, Ph.D.

WOMEN’S ISSUES

Sexual Satisfaction in Females

Bertina Solomon, B.A.

Feminist Family Therapy: Background and Basics

Leslie Twist

Postpartum Depression: The Invisible Family Disease

Michelle L. Matthews, B.S.

FAMILIES

There’s No Place Like Home – Bringing Out the Best in Refugee Families

Penny Henry, B.A.

Parenting From Prison: The Experiences of Incarcerated African American Parents and Their Families

Renea Oseni, M.Ed.

FAMILIES (cont.)

The “Mind-Body” Connection: Interdisciplinary Help for Families

Susan Tousignant, M.A.

Bringing Out the Best in Stepfamilies: A Look at the Dynamics for a Successfully Functioning Stepfamily and Strategies for Working with Stepfamilies

Matthew Thornton

RESEARCH

Auto-Ethnography: Bringing Out the Best in the Researcher

Chris Youngberg, M.A.

CLINICAL PROCESS

The Effect of Client Perception on Therapists’ Marital and Parental Status on the Therapeutic Process

Pearl Wong, Ed.S.

TRAINING AND EDUCATION

Surviving Crisis During the Experience of a Marriage and Family Therapy Program

Theresa D. Price, M.S.

YOUTH ISSUES

The Impact of “The Sex Talk” Between Daughters and Their Mothers on Promiscuity, Pre-marital Sex, and Birth Control Habits of College-Aged Girls

Kelly M. Tyner, M.A.

Independent Living Services for Foster Care Youth

Cathy H. Parker, B.A.