8 Tuesdays Bi-Weekly, September-December, 2023 from 10:30am-12:00pm ET
12 CEs | Live on Zoom
Instructor: Skeetz Edinger, LMFT
Program Dates: September 5, September 19, October 3, October 17, November 7, November 21, December 5, and December 19, 2023                                                           Cost of Program: Free for NEAFAST Members. $80 for Non-Members                                                                                                   Cost for 12 CEs: $120 for NEAFAST members, $144 for Non Members. 

Collaborative Language Systems Peer Consultation Group is a hybrid book study and case consultation will explore Harlene Anderson's (1997) pivotal book, Conversation, Language, and Possibilities: A Postmodern Approach to Therapy, where she presents a way of being in relationship with our clients, that is “authentic, natural, spontaneous, ...and unique to each relationship” (p. 94). Each week conversations about the text will be used as a jumping off point for the examination of clinical work through the lens of Collaborative-Dialogic Practice (Collaborative Language Systems), and Social and Relational Construction. This group is open to therapists of any level of knowledge and experience. Participants will have the opportunity to take part in reflecting teams as part of the consulting process.

Learning Objective 1: Participants will learn how to identify the fundamental differences between “Modern” and “Postmodern” approaches to family and systemic therapy.
Learning Objective 2: Participants will identify eight philosophical, theoretical, and experiential sources of Collaborative Language Systems. 
Learning Objective 3: Participants will identify some of the numerous aspects of the Collaborative “way of being,” including not knowing and curiosity, humility and tentativity, being public, multi-partiality and polyphony, and guest and host metaphor. 

Schedule:

1-1:15: Review of previous topic and introduction to current topic
1:15-1:30: Discussion of principle of collaborative language systems, in  accordance with the book chapter
1:30-1:45: Discussion and practice of therapeutic skills necessary to implement collaborative language systems
1:45-2: Introduction and discussion of case study/case consultation
2-2:15: Continuation of discussion of case study/case consultation
2:15-2:30: Review, discussion of gains made.

                                                                                

Skeetz Edinger is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice in Salem, Massachusetts, having recently relocated with their husband and three cats, from Houston, Texas. They work with individuals and relationships, specializing in LGBTQIA+ family therapy and people in consensually non-monogamous relationships. They are the clinical director of the Affordable Counseling Collaborative Associates (ACCA), whose mission is to reduce the financial barriers to quality mental and relational health care (www.affordablecounseling.org). They have been part of Artsbridge Institute (www.artsbridgeinstitute.org) since 2019 as a dialogue facilitator, working with young people from communities in conflict to find new and creative ways of working through their differences.