Families of Substance: A two day advanced masterclass in working with families




Working with families can be complex and challenging. Providing effective support for multiple people, often with very different perspectives, raises the difficulty level for practitioners.

Building on our Working with Families with Alcohol and Other Drug Issues workshop, this masterclass prepares you to use proven methods for effectively engaging and working with families. Deep dive into effective ways of working with families and deepen your understanding of evidence based frameworks that get great outcomes with families. You will walk away with the skills and confidence you need to support families and improve outcomes in your individual clients.

This masterclass draws on the Orford stress-strain-information-coping-support model, combining elements of the Orford and the Velleman 5-step model, and blends key ideas from family therapy, motivational interviewing, and cognitive behaviour therapy to work more effectively with the families and carers of people who use alcohol and other drugs.

Learning outcomes

  • Understand models of family functioning and how it affects treatment
  • Describe the stress-strain-information-coping-support model for working with families and how to use it in practice
  • Establish a collaboration and utilise it to improve outcomes for people in treatment and their families
  • Apply effective family therapy interventions
  • Know how to utilise families' wisdom and coping to achieve improved outcomes
  • Implement effective responses to the challenges of working with families