There are many opportunities for training at the Family Institute of Westchester.
The post-graduate core clinical program has been at the heart of our training. It consists of a three-year experience that includes a didactic series and group supervision in each year.
Introduction to the FIW Clinical Model
This 10 hour, 5-session course presents beginning skills development in family therapy; a specialized training for new clinicians and those returning to the field. In the first half of the course, trainees focus on assessment, using genograms, setting the mutigenerational and multi-contextual framework and planning interventions. The format includes didactic presentations, experiential exercises and role-plays of simulated families. In the second half, the therapist’s conceptual and experiential understanding of family systems is deepened using photos, genograms, readings and group process. Participation allows for the therapist to examine his or her own family in the company of colleagues and is considered a vital part of the process of becoming a family therapist.
Tuition: $1,800.00
In Level I, an overview of family therapy models and an extensive exploration of the Bowenian-based FIW Multi-Contextual Model is presented in the didactic sessions, with an emphasis on the development of assessment skills. In addition, trainees bring material from their own cases for group supervision in weekly 2-hour sessions.
Level II builds on the first year, with a didactic series demonstrating the application of the Multi-Contextual Model as applied to a variety of clinical case presentations. Trainees have the opportunity to discuss the challenges of planning and executing therapeutic interventions. Issues such as illness, death, divorce, re-marriage, families with LGBTQ members and substance abuse in the family are highlighted from the perspective of the FIW model. Clinical skills are honed through work on assessment, tracking themes, altering triangles, construction of homework tasks and techniques for working with the extended family through an individual. Special attention is paid to adapting the model for short term application as well.
Level III focuses on working with couples in the first half and with individuals, through coaching in the second half. Family therapy research is reviewed and discussed. The supervision sessions support strengthening skills and highlighting opportunities to employ three-generational coaching tasks to facilitate change.
The core training begins in October and runs through May, with specific times arranged for each group. Training consists of 30 hours of group supervision and 20 hours of didactic seminars per year.
A personal interview is required of all new applicants.
Tuition: $2,400.00 per year ~ $500.00 due upon registration
Advanced Supervision
Applicants for advanced supervision must demonstrate clinical skills and experience equal to at least two years of FIW’s core clinical training. This intensive supervision of difficult cases supports practitioners in private practice and helps trainees become community advocates for families.
Tuition: $1,800.00
Difficult Martial Cases
Couples therapy is challenging in that it requires awareness of each partner’s family of origin legacy of themes, patterns, triangles and secrets and how the repeated interaction of these legacies becomes the couple’s dance. Participants will have the opportunity to present cases for direct consultation and apply the FIW Multi-Contextual Model of Family Therapy. This consultation group is open to advanced level trainees and FIW alumni.
Tuition: $1,800.00
Special Consultation
This special consultation seminar is available to clinicians who have completed the FIW training program or its equivalent and who are actively working with couples and families. It is an opportunity for veteran therapists to discuss and apply new techniques, present areas of difficulty in treatment, and receive guidance from senior FIW faculty.
Two-hour sessions occur monthly for 8 consecutive months. The maximum group size is 5.
Tuition: $1,800.00
Trainees and alumni have access to our extensive library of books and videotapes and receive discounted fees on all other FIW programs.
Family Ties That Bind
This 3-session workshop series is designed to support, enhance, and expedite the therapy experience of couples and individuals engaged in treatment with Bowenian-trained therapists.
Using discussion, film and experiential exercises, participants will learn elements of the Family Institute of Westchester’s Multi-Contextual Model of treatment. We will explore the family as a system; themes and patterns of interaction across generations; family rules and roles; the significance of culture, gender, birth order and sexual orientation; how alliances are formed and sustained within the family; and the challenge of daring to be different.
Participants will recognize the impact of socio-political and economic realities on family problem-solving and see the family system in the developmental context of the stages of the Family Life Cycle.
3 Consecutive Tuesdays Evening 5-7 pm
October 2024
April 2025
$1,200.00 Individual
$1,500.00 Couple
Each year FIW presents a series of workshops for the mental health community. These programs are presented by the faculty and invited adjuncts and reflect specific areas of expertise, work in progress and issues of interest to active practitioners. Some of these are in a Learn at Lunch format.
Please check out our Workshops & Events page to see which workshops are being offered this year.