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Working With Families and the Stress of COVID-19
Length: 1.5 Hours
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented stressors that are uniquely impacting American families. This presentation is geared towards equipping clinicians for work with individuals, couples, and families who are experiencing increased conflict, stress, and mental health symptoms as a result of these stressors. The presentation will review theory and clinical interventions rooted in a systems lens, discuss specific stressors the pandemic is creating (e.g. family conflict, financial concerns, parenting, social isolation), and apply theory and clinical skills to real case studies. Clinicians will walk away with increased ideas and skills for case conceptualization and intervention.
The presentation will begin with a review of Family Systems Theory and related interventions designed for working with more than one person in a therapy session and conceptualizing individual work through a systemic lens. The next section will discuss the Double ABCX Model of Family Stress to increase clinical conceptualization and understanding for the way families are impacted by stress, how resilience is fostered, and why families respond in both adaptive and maladaptive ways. The final section will review the emerging body of literature surrounding the impacts of COVID-19 on family stress. It will then provide detailed examples of how to apply the theory and skills discussed in the previous sections to these stressors via case examples and discussion.
This session is at the intermediate level and is designed for psychologists and other mental health professionals.
Objectives:
This session qualifies for 1.5 continuing education credits. You must attend the full program to receive continuing education credit.
The Minnesota Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Minnesota Psychological Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Emily Jordan Jensen, Ph.D., LMFT, is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and educator from Minnesota. Emily grew up in a rural community and has dedicated her research to increasing access to quality mental health care for rural areas. She has a Ph.D. in Couple and Family Therapy from the University of Minnesota and currently works as an instructor in a Marriage and Family Therapy graduate program in addition to working in an outpatient clinical setting.
