Recorded on: Friday, February 2nd, 2024
Time: 12 - 1:30PM (EST)
Where: Zoom
Presented by: Dr. Karen Gail Lewis
* Only live participants are eligible to earn 1.5 CEU*
Session Description:
People with brothers and/or sisters actually have two sets of siblings: The first are the original, flesh and blood siblings. The second are the left-over perceptions, feelings, and resentments from childhood that, like ghosts, are invisible and never age - even as the original siblings do age and change.
These ghosts show up in adulthood, effecting people’s love, friendship, and work relationships, and often their work achievements. Therefore, it’s helpful to have a theoretical framework for understanding and using the significance of the “ghosts” in your clinical work. This can then be incorporated into therapists’ current therapy modality.
This workshop will help participants understand how the early childhood relationship can be considered a laboratory, or “first marriage,” for adult love relationships. Then, through the process of “sibling transference,” your clients may recreate their early relationships -- falling back on what is familiar, from their first marriage.
In addition, participants will learn to assess for a sibling connection with your individual clients, how to help your clients make the sibling connection to their presenting problem.
The hidden resource of siblings is particularly helpful in dealing with intractable problems.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Karen Gail Lewis has been a marriage and family therapist for over 50 years and is an author of numerous books and professional articles on marriage, gender communication, single women, group therapy, and adult siblings. Her newest book is Sibling Therapy: The Ghosts from Childhood That Haunt Your Clients’ Love and Work. For years she has presented at national and local AAMFT conferences as well as at other organizations -- nationally and internationally. She has been on the board of AAMFT and the editorial board for five family therapy journals.