The AAMFT Podcast

This week’s guest is Megan McCoy, LMFT, PhD an adjunct faculty member at Kansas State University where she teaches courses for the Financial Therapy Certificate Program. An expert on financial therapy and healing financial infidelity, Her research interests truly focus on how to create more empirical evidence to support work that she has seen change so many lives in her clinical experiences. She discusses strategies to help couples overcome the challenges and stigma around money issues, the role of money in couples’ power dynamics and breaking maladaptive patterns of behavior by working together against the problem. Finally she discusses the importance of understanding one’s partner’s history of handling money concerns and how this can affect current relationships, as well as strategies for maximizing the rewards of “retail therapy” while avoiding pitfalls like regret or disappointment.Registration is open for the Systemic Family Therapy Conference 2021, sponsored by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Reserve your spot today! www.aamft.org/conference

Ian Kerner, PhD, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist, NYT bestselling author, and nationally recognized sexuality counselor who specializes in sex therapy, couples therapy and working with individuals on a range of relational issues that often lead to distress. He discusses negative associations with pornography and erotica and how these can be overcome, the move away from a language of addiction and towards a language of positive sexual health in sex research, and ways that erotica can be a solution or enhancement rather than a detriment to couples’ sexual health. He also describes how ethical production and consumption of pornography can depatholigize pornography and allow couples to practice mind-based arousal.

Dr. Laura Frey is the principal investigator for a grant funded by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention that examines the effect of parental expressed emotion on adolescent disclosure of suicide ideation and a professor at the University of Louisville where she heads up the Couples and Family Therapy program. Dr. Quintin Hunt is a professor at Brigham Young University. His research interests include understanding and preventing suicide in folks at indicated risk of suicide and family and relational-based interventions. They discuss barriers to clients sharing thoughts of suicidal ideation, the benefits of mobilizing family in treatment, and overcoming stigma associated with suicidal thoughts.

The symptoms of adult ADHD can be particularly damaging in close relationships, especially if those symptoms have never been diagnosed or treated. Melissa Orlov has been working and speaking on the topic of adult ADHD since 2007 and wrote The ADHD Effect on Marriage. Her interview focuses on difficulties faced by adults with ADHD, from getting diagnosed, to overcoming shame and stigma, and chromic stress in personal relationships. She also discusses coping and support strategies for non-ADHD partners, as well as ways to disrupt unhelpful patterns of interaction and promote healthy relationships.

Karlin J. Tichenor and Corey E. Yeager are co-authors of the chapter "Letters to the Field" in the Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy. In this episode, they define historical trauma and its influence on African American client systems. They discuss the importance of story-telling as a belief system that indigenous Africans and African-Americans have passed down intra- and inter-generationally, and how MFTs can integrate cultural sensitivity into clinical training and practice with African American client systems.

Mudita Rastogi is an LMFT, grant consultant, coach, and educator. She is the associate co-editor of the Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy and author of the chapter, "Systemic Conceptualization of Interventions." In this episode, she discusses systems thinking in a global framework, effective interventions with underserved populations, and the psychological and relational effects of oppression and power imbalance on client systems.

Janice Abrahms Spring is a clinical psychologist and nationally acclaimed expert on issues of trust, intimacy, and forgiveness and author of multiple books on infidelity including a radical model for when not to forgive. In this episode, she discusses how to help couples come to an agreed definition of infidelity, what couples need to realistically rebuild their relationship and manage triggers, and the powerful role that MFTs play in healing broken bonds and restoring trust.

Laurie Charlés and Saliha Bava are the authors of a chapter in the Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy titled "Systemic Therapy & Global Mental Health." During this episode, they reflect on their experience with professional development and training within global mental health, specifically the necessary skills and relational process when family therapy is taken outside of our borders, the language of global mental health, and integrating "respectful curiosity” into clinical training and practice.

Howard Markman and Scott Stanley are internationally recognized researchers who have authored over 100 publications and whose work has spanned over four decades. During this episode, they talk about their many years of collaboration including the development of the PREP® curricula for relationship education and enhancement. Reflecting on the clinically relevant findings from 40 years of the program, they also discuss the future possibilities for couples therapy.

Gwyn Daniel is a systemic psychotherapist and trainer at the Tavistock Institute in London. She is the author of the chapter "Families in Chronically Unsafe Community Environments" in the Handbook of Systemic Therapy. In this episode, she discusses the impacts of trauma, political violence, and dislocation on family life, particularly for Palestinian families. Interventions are shared that aim to strengthen family and community connections and sustain hope in contexts of extreme suffering and despair.