Hey There,

I’m sorry to announce that because I’ve come down with COVID, tomorrow’s “pop-up” Parenting Consultation workshop is postponed for one week.

We will convene online NEXT Wednesday, September 11, at 9am and keep going until about 4pm. We will have a morning and afternoon break, and a lunch break.

We will be able to provide Montana Behavioral Health CEUs. Also, because I’m a psychologist, the training will likely qualify for Board of Psychology CEUs. We will issue certificates about one week after the workshop.

My apologies for the delay on this workshop. The main thing I have to say about that is: “COVID sucks.”

As noted before, although this is FREE, we’re asking participants to:

1. Register at this link (it might take you one minute): https://forms.office.com/r/kY0zCZ3ELg
2. Commit to attending the whole workshop (I think having people pop in and out would be disruptive)
3. Join the workshop on Wednesday, September 11, from 9am to 4pm (Mountain time) with this Zoom link: https://umontana.zoom.us/j/3667738452
4. If you find the workshop useful, make a donation to Families First in an amount that represents the value of the workshop to you. Here’s the link for that: https://donorbox.org/familiesfirstdonate
5. Do what you can—in the future—to support parents as they face unusually difficult challenges.

I would also like participants to engage, volunteer for role plays, participate in break-out rooms, and discuss what they’re experiencing and learning.

Information on the workshop is below

Using a Consultation Model to Work Effectively with Parents

John Sommers-Flanagan, Ph.D.

Parenting has always been challenging, but now, with ubiquitous social media influences, the aftermath of the global pandemic, and increasing rates of children’s mental disorder diagnoses, parenting in the 21^st century is more stressful and demanding than ever before. As a consequence, many parents turn to mental health, healthcare, and school professionals for help with their children’s behavior and family problems. However, partly because parents can be selective or picky consumers and partly because children’s problems can be complex and overwhelming, many professionals feel ill-prepared to work effectively with parents. This workshop will teach participants a model for working effectively with parents. The model, which has supporting research, can be used for brief individual consultations or longer-term parent counseling. Practitioners who want to work with parents will learn methods for developing rapport, collaborating on problem formulation, initial interventions, and optional follow-up strategies.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe a consultation model, with supporting research, for working effectively with parents.
• Apply skills for brief individual consultations or longer-term parent counseling.
• Utilize methods for rapport, collaborative problem formulation, initial interventions, and optional follow-up strategies.

Thanks for your flexibility!

Here are two journal articles on the approach we’ll be learning: