Sensitize yourself to the distinct emotional challenges stepfamilies face and how to help them meet their challenges to healthy development by:

Understanding the insider-outsider dynamics and loyalty conflicts inherent to the stepfamily experience.
Helping stepparents recognize the limitations of their roles in discipline and the best ways to develop one-to-one relationships with their stepchildren.
Learning three levels of intervention with stepfamilies: Psychoeducation, skill-building, and exploring intrapsychic issues.
Exploring effective strategies for handling conflicts with ex-spouses that can keep children out of the middle.
Mastering the “soft-hard-soft” approach to framing problems and addressing difficult issues in navigating the potential minefield of stepfamily relationships.

OBJECTIVES

Describe some of the major challenges to connection and attachment created by “stepfamily architecture.”

OUTLINE