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May 12, 2023 - Parent-Child Contact Problems

Presenter: Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC,LPC/S, NCC, CFMHE

 

 

SUMMARY:

 

One of the most complex issues faced today by mental health and legal professionals who work with families concerns kids who once had a warm, loving relationship with a parent that turned into a screaming, angry, anxiety-ridden adolescent who wants nothing to do with that very same parent. What happened? What is going on? How did this happen? What can help that suffering child and the trauma-filled parent with a broken heart?

 

This is the phenomenon often called parental alienation. This presentation will help you recognize, identify and define this destructive dynamic. Whatever it is called, it is a family systems issue and must be handled with a family systems approach. We will also discuss how mental health and legal professionals can cooperate together to help these families. Whatever you call it, parent contact problems present a conundrum to those of us attempting to help. Come learn about this thorny issue.

 

 

Objectives: Participants will:

1.  Give a working definition for parental alienation/parent-child contact problems/visitation refusal

2. Analyze how complex parental alienation behaviors are and differentiate between it and estrangement

3. Enumerate how some of the pioneers of family system theories recognized the same dynamics prior to the phrase 'parental alienation syndrome  

4. Know why it can be vital to have legal involvement and how mental health professionals can interact with attorneys

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November 10th, 2023- Transgenerational Trauma: The Burdens That We Are Not Meant to Carry

Presenter: Terance Dawkins LISW-CP

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Speaker Biography:

Terance Dawkins is a South Carolina Licensed Independent Social Worker-Clinical Practice (LISW-CP). He is a native of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Terance received his Undergraduate and Masters’s degrees in Social Work from Winthrop University. Terance is currently a member of the Spartanburg Area Advisory Board for Mental Health. He is also the owner of private practice entitled Missing Pieces Counseling Services, located in the community where he grew up. He currently works in the Counseling Center at Furman University as well. Terance has completed training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), & Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS). This makes him utilize an eclectic approach when providing services to clients. Through his own childhood experiences and his clients' experiences, he has discovered the importance of the different beliefs and lessons learned through family interactions and daily interactions. This has led to his interest in Transgenerational Trauma and its impact on many generations. Terance seeks to utilize his skills in education to destigmatize mental health, especially in the African American Community. He believes Mental Health is for everyone and hopes to reduce the self-imposed barriers preventing clients from utilizing Mental Health Services.

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Objectives:

1. Define and identify transgenerational trauma.

2. Explore attachment styles that influence generational cycles.

3. Evaluate how behavior and language impact self-beliefs and perceptions of the environment; understand how these factors inform interpersonal interaction.

4. Examine and integrate strategies that aid in interrupting generational trauma.

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Summary:

Generations of slavery have caused African Americans to develop survival skill that was once utilized for survival but now leads to generational trauma, which impacts our daily lives. Through the historical lens of the African American experience with slavery and oppression, I would like to discuss further and evaluate how the behaviors, language, and covert teachings once developed for survival have impacted self-beliefs and perception of the world. Additionally, transgenerational trauma affects how attachments are formed, and these attachments can influence how future generations are raised and the teachings they will learn. To reduce this impact and break this cycle, strategies can be utilized to not only rid ourselves of the burdens that are not ours to carry but also to help free future generations from repeated traumas.  

Keywords: slavery, racial trauma, discrimination, oppression, segregation​