Structural Family Therapy Training Course
Family therapist and clinical director of a family systems residential treatment center takes you through sturctural family therapy, step by step.
More Than A Course: A Blueprint for Running Effective Family Systems Therapy With Confidence
Finally, a practical road map for graduate level students or therapists interested in learning more about structural family theory. I created an online structural family systems course that goes beyond theory to share all the tools, techniques, and insights you need in your development as a family systems clinician. My wish is that after this course, you can run family sessions with skill and confidence in your private practice.
Family systems theory in general is a therapeutic approach we all hear about in grad-school that recognizes how each member of a family both influences and is influenced by the others. This in turn shapes relational patterns that can either foster harmony or create problems. Those problems manifest in one person in the family we call the Identified Patient or IP.
Developed by pioneers such as Salvador Minuchin, whose legacy is preserved at the Minuchin Center for the Family, this perspective views the family unit as an interconnected whole rather than isolated individuals. For additional insights, you might explore the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family or the AAMFT
For a very limited time, this is available at a discount - click the link below and take advantage of the launch price now.
Systemic Family Assessment
Despite all those years in grad school, we can still feel unprepared, insecure, and out of our depth working as a family therapist.
Without a strong foundation in systemic thinking, family sessions can feel chaotic, overwhelming, and unproductive.
Get ahead of the game by knowing exactly what and how to assess with regards to family functioning from a systemic perspective so you can remain focused and clear on clients' treatment and goals.
Hypothesis & Conceptualization
Without a roadmap for deciphering complex family interactions, it's easy to get lost in the barrage of information coming at us.
It might feel like you put out a fire one week, only to find three more burning in the next session.
Conceptualizing and hypothesis are vital parts of doing systemic family treatment - our five part Hypothesis Generator will help you through the process of putting your thoughts and data together to guide your sessions.
Structural Family Techniques
The sheer volume of information coming from multiple family members, can be disorienting and leave you feeling lost and turned upside down.
If the family is high-conflict or really struggling, the pressure is even more intense.
Know exactly what techniques to use, why you're using them and implement them with confidence. Use one of ours or craft your own based on the theory.
Testimonials: An Online Family System Training
Some of the comments therapists and clinicians are saying about the online training course. I love hearing from you and try and add more of what you're enjoying and loving. I just added another conceptualization example, for example, and there's more to come!
"Thank you for this. You are so good at explaining the concepts so we can understand."
"Bring on the deep systemic change! Thanks for creating this course Oliver. Excited to get started and learn from your years of experience."
"Thanks Oliver. Really helpful and enjoying the course and case studies are particularly useful."
About Me:
Oliver Drakeford, LMFT, CGP
If we've not met before, I'm Oliver, I'm a marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles, and I'm a former clinical director and clinical supervisor.
I've worked with children and adolescents and their families both in treatment centers and private practice. Structural family systems has completely changed my understanding of helping people - and i want to share what I've learned with you.
Read more about Structural Family Systems Theory here.
Structural Family Therapy Training: Practice & Theory Step by Step
I've created an online course and post graduate training program in family systems theory, guiding you each step of the way, from the first phone call from a family to the first sessions.
Family Systems: Step By Step is the ideal solution for mental health clinicians wanting to brush up on or improve practical and working knowledge of working with families from a research driven and evidence based Structural Family Systems Perspective.
In this program, I guide participants to:
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Understand and assess family systems,
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Put together a systemic hypothesis, and
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Design and implement structural techniques.
After completing this training, whether you're a social worker, MFT or professional counselor, knowing and understanding the practical applications of structural family theory and the work of Salvador Minuchin, will have helped you develop in both confidence and skills.
Perfect if you're still in grad school or new to family work, and designed also if you just want to brush up on family theroy and techniques!
In this online training course, you'll learn more than just structural family therapy & theory.
Family Systems Step-by-Step is grounded in real-world experience of structural family work. With over a decade of clinical practice in family treatment, I’ve condensed everything I’ve learned into a course that’s not just theoretical but deeply practical.
Start Thinking Systemically
In this course, you’ll master systems thinking—an entirely different perspective that allows you to see the intricate web of relationships, dynamics, and patterns in family therapy that occur beneath the surface.
You’ll develop the belief system that may help you to untangle even the most complex family situations with the clarity and precision.
Confidence In Family Work
Family sessions can be overwhelming, with countless interactions and dynamics between children and caregivers happening all at once.
After this training, you’ll know exactly what to focus on and how to guide families with intention. From your first call to your final session, you’ll have a roadmap for success, complete with proven strategies and techniques.
Structural Family Assessment
This course will show you how structural family therapists gathers, organizes, and interprets data.
You’ll learn to identify patterns that children and families themselves might not see—and collect and understand that information and use it to craft targeted, effective interventions.
Structural Family Interventions
Learn to intervene in systemic ways -ways that transform. You’ll gain skills to shift rigid family roles, interrupt destructive family interactional patterns, and inspire meaningful connections.
The education you didn't get in grad school! Whether it’s through circular questioning, structural family therapy mapping, or based in the interventions you design based on the module, you’ll have a toolbox filled with methods that work.
Structural Family Diagnosis
You’ll learn how in structural family therapy, we understand dysfunction and can restore balance to a a system by redefining roles, strengthening boundaries, and reshaping hierarchies.
No matter what the issue is, you will know exactly how in structural family therapy, we lead a family back to health with structural family therapy activities and assessment.
Become The Family Expert.
This course is about becoming the type of family therapist who can make systemic change. You’ll learn to hold the room, navigate challenging dynamics, and lead a session with authority while maintaining warmth and empathy.
By the end of this course, mental health clinicians may gain and embody the confidence and expertise that families trust and respect.
Here's how the program curriculum breaks down:
The Family Systems: Step by Step program provides mental health professionals a therapeutic insight into how to run a family systems therapy session.
Foundations
We'll review quickly the core principles and theoretical concepts of structural family therapy. This module sets the stage for the transformative work ahead by reminding you about how to think systemically about family issues
It also gives you a sneak peek at the exercises and strategies used within systemic work that you’ll explore throughout the course.
Family Assessment Model
This module dives into the essential skill of assessing a family through a systemic and structural lens.
You’ll learn my structural family therapy assessment model, and know what to observe in a structural family therapy session. From power dynamics to family structure to unspoken rules—and how to collect meaningful data during your very first interactions with clients
The First Sessions
We focus on a step-by-step guide of what I cover in the first sessions of structural family therapy. It includes detailed explanations and guides to circular questioning, family mapping, and creating timelines. You’ll see how to use these activities to uncover family dynamics, generate hypotheses, and set the foundation for effective treatment. By the end, you’ll feel confident guiding families from day one.
Hypotheses Generator.
I'll guide you through how I put together a working hypothesis as part of a family therapy conceptualization, and help you gain an understanding of why this is such an essential part of structural family therapy
You’ll see how to use the 'Hypothesis Generator' to conceptualize the root causes of dysfunction -whether it's depression, anxiety self harm or other oppositional behaviors. We'll put the data you collected in the first sessions to work and you'll see the benefit of all the earlier stages.
Five Family Patterns
This module helps you identify five of the more common family structures and patterns and address common structural patterns and behavioral problems that show up in children that a family therapist should know.
I provide you a blueprint for most family patterns, and help you navigate the challenges these families present. You’ll gain insight into the roles parents and children play—and how these roles maintain dysfunction.
Structural Family Interventions
A course designed to put your systemic thinking into action with a collection of powerful structural family therapy techniques.
From blocking and restructuring to reframing and enactments, this module equips you with techniques to shift family issues effectively.
I'll also share some of the more specific exercises that have worked for me with families.
A course designed for all levels of practice and priced that way too! Take advantage of the opening offers which are on a first come, first served basis.
Structural Family Therapy Case Study and Conceptualization.
Case Study: School Refusal.
The first of two case studies in the complex emotional system of human relationships we call family. This video covers some of the counseling concepts in the training program and offers some continuing education into the clinical approach to understanding human relationships in families that therapists take with families.
Family Case Conceptualization for Compulsive Lying.
The second of two case studies I'm including in which we breakdown a conceptualization of a family system with a presenting problem of a child who is lying all the time. I give you some theory on lying, structural family mapping and the interventions to practice in counseling sessions.
Understanding Bowen:
More ways to apply systems to clinical work:
Bowen Family Systems
Explore the counseling techniques I use inspired by Murray Bowen and gain clinical experience to help families and individuals achieve differentiation. Practice Bowen's approach emphasizes the importance of individuals to differentiate their thoughts, emotional world and self / other entanglements that can arise in close relationships and impair functioning.
Bowen Family Systems Explained
Bowen Family Systems Theory developed by Dr. Murray Bowen, introduces a counseling framework of emotional process where the family is viewed as an emotional unit, but it's SO MUCH more than family services. On a personal level, I use the concepts Bowen describes in at least one session a day this program bowen is that helpful! I've tried to pack this video with visual ways to describe things as well as a useful example or ten.
Family Systems Consultation
If you're looking for a consultation or support about a family case you're working with and would like a consultation with me for a family systems perspective on the issue, you can book a 50 minute consultation call with me here. I'll contact you after the purchase to find a mutually agreed upon time that works. Consultations can be about anything including interventions, theory or the clinical model.
