Working with Incarcerated Families: Supporting Systemic Therapy with Incarcerated Individuals and Their Families

Many mental health clinicians feel unprepared when working with individuals and families impacted by the justice system. Providing effective therapy within or alongside correctional environments requires navigating rigid institutional constraints, intensive surveillance, systemic barriers, and complex family restructuring. Clinicians often find that traditional therapeutic frameworks fall short in the face of the unique administrative, psychological, and systemic challenges inherent to the prison ecosystem.

In this comprehensive 12-hour live webinar training, participants will dive deep into the essential foundations, context, and operational adaptations required to deliver impactful systemic therapy to incarcerated individuals and their families. This course bridges clinical theory and correctional realities, guiding clinicians through the 'Person of the Therapist' (POTT) framework, the mechanics of therapeutic attunement under surveillance, and methods to manage therapist anxiety in high-intensity environments. Attendees will explore the multi-layered impact of mass incarceration as structural racism, the nuances of ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief, and the…