National Institute of Relationship Enhancement^®
and Center for Couples, Families and Children

Facilitator: Robert Brown, Member of the Board of IDEALS, the larger organization supporting AFREM and NIRE.

Everyone with an interest in Relationship Enhancement Methods, Filial and Child-Centered Play Therapy is encouraged to attend this meeting! We want to know you more, hear about your work and passion for RE, Filial and/or CCPT, and help you connect with others. Our purpose is to exchange ideas and share in each others’ enthusiasm for helping persons in need through RE, Filial and CCPT. Participants will have an opportunity to share what is working for them related to RE, Filial and CCPT, and what excites and motivates them about RE, Filial and CCPT, including how they are using these various models, what innovations or modifications they have found useful, and how these programs are being used in the US and other countries. Our intent is a leaderless presentation in which we all use the skills and principles of RE & Filial to support and build the future together. The more we support each other, the more effective we are, and the more we change our world for the better. Please come and let us know you, while seeking support and connections for your work!

This year’s traditional “Dutch Treat” dinner will be held on Friday night April 5. This well attended event always proves to be a fun time to connect and relax with friends and colleagues around the dinner table. Please join us if you can! Details below. And please RSVP so we can properly plan with the restaurant. 

In conjunction with AFREM’s annual meeting, the National Institute of Relationship Enhancement® (NIRE) and AFREM are co-sponsoring three special workshops on Friday April 5 and Saturday April 6.

Friday will include two half-day workshops. The morning workshop is entitled “Introducing CoupleTalk: Integrating Faith Content, Distance Learning, and New Technology into RE Education.”

The Friday afternoon workshop is entitled “Applying ‘Buddha Brain’ to the RE Empathic and Expressive Skills.”

Saturday will feature two 1.5 hour workshops. The first workshop is entitled “Play Therapy for Urban Elementary School Children At-Risk of Juvenile Delinquency: Successes, Difficulties and Process.”

The second 1.5 hour workshop is entitled “Liberating a Bi-polar Mind from Spiritual Turmoil over Certain Religious Ideas.”

Each Friday workshop qualifies for 3 CE credits.

Each Saturday workshop qualifies for 1.5 CE credits.

Introducing CoupleTalk: Integrating Faith Content, Distance Learning, and New Technology into RE Education

Presenters: Don Flecky and Alexandra Flecky

Friday, April 5, 9:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. 3 CE credits

This workshop aims to introduce and describe the new “Christian” version of RE, the video-led version known as CoupleTalk. Participants will receive an overview of the CoupleTalk program which will describe how the RE skills are presented and identify the program’s new features. An explanation of the research behind and the rationale for its innovations will be offered. Participants will experience several aspects of the program, focusing on innovations such as video or distance learning. Discussion of practical and theoretical implications of the CoupleTalk program will round out this workshop.

Applying “Buddha Brain” to the RE Empathic and Expressive Skills

Presenters: Maryhelen Snyder, Ph.D. and France Sarradon, LPC, LMFT Friday, April 5, 2:00 – 5:15 p.m. 3 CE credits

The moment by moment practice of mindfulness allows for a radical shift in the attitude with which we engage the empathic and expresser skills in Relationship Enhancement Therapy. It is this attitude that is at the heart of using the skills for the transformation of relationships (and each act of relationship) at the deepest level. With practice, we open space in our minds and hearts for the existence and perspective of the other, for attunement to ourselves, and for the “interbeing” of human beings. The presenters will give an overview of the theory and practice of mindfulness as applied to RE. After that we will combine demonstrations with practice sessions in small groups and subsequent discussion.

Learning objectives: Participants attending this workshop will be able to:

1. To integrate and apply new brain research about the power of mindfulness into the use of Relationship Enhancement skills.
2. To experience the radical shift in listening to another person’s point of view that occurs when space is made in the listening for the co-existence of self and other.
3. To review and expand the ground necessities for effective dialogue in relationships: Enough uninterrupted time; the application of the Core Skills; an attitude and practice of mindfulness.

Play Therapy for Urban Elementary School Children At-Risk of Juvenile Delinquency: Successes, Difficulties and Process

Presenters: Nancy Cochran, MA, CAS, LMHC and Jeff Cochran, Ph.D., NCC, LMHC Saturday, April 6, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. 1.5 CE Credits

This presentation reports on outcome and process data from a five year study of the REACH program, which involved the use of child-centered play therapy for children at-high-risk of juvenile delinquency in urban, high-poverty elementary schools. Outcome data include extensive pre-post and timed measures with standardized teacher ratings, numbers of disciplinary referrals, suspensions and absences. Case studies help demonstrate mechanisms of change. Challenges and opportunities discovered in the process of services, including funding strategies, are discussed. The results of the five year study of the REACH Project shows its potential for reaching some of the most troubled children and families with effective, lasting, intensive early intervention counseling for children

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Explain 3-5 areas of evidence (from this study and its body of literature) suggesting the effectiveness of child-centered play therapy in changing the behaviors known to lead to juvenile delinquency
2. Explain 3-5 cognitive-behavioral and emotional mechanisms of change within CCPT with suggested effectiveness for children at-risk of juvenile delinquency
3. Implement 3-5 elements of CCPT or aspects of the study in their communities

Nancy H. Cochran, MA, CAS, LMHC is an adjunct assistant professor for the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at the University of Tennessee, and Treatment Coordinator for the REACH (Relationship Enhancement and Child Harmony) Project. She is certified as a Child-Centered Play Therapy Supervisor by the National Institute for Relationship Enhancement (NIRE) and regularly provides post-masters supervision in Child-Centered Play Therapy.

Jeff L. Cochran, Ph.D., NCC, LMHC is full professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling and Coordinator of the Mental Health Counseling Program at the University of Tennessee.

Jeff and Nancy have published numerous articles regarding outcomes and applications of therapeutic relationships, and are the authors of The Heart of Counseling: A Guide to Developing Therapeutic Relationships (Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2006) and co-authors with Dr. Bill Nordling of Child Centered Play Therapy: A Practical Guide to Developing Therapeutic Relationships with Children (Wiley, 2010).

Liberating a Bi-polar Mind from Spiritual Turmoil over Certain Religious Ideas

Presenter: Rob Scuka, Ph.D.

Saturday, April 6, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. 1.5 CE Credits

It is not uncommon that one or both members of a couple who come in for RE couple therapy struggle with deeply personal issues that deserve attention on their own terms. Sometimes it makes sense for the couple therapist to work with either or both partners on their individual issues (usually on a short term basis) rather than refer them out for extended individual therapy. Sometimes the specific issue that one of the partners may be struggling over involves that person trying to come to terms with certain religious ideas or beliefs to which they have been exposed, either formally or indirectly through a generalized cultural representation. For some, this creates a sense of deep spiritual turmoil or crisis. The question then becomes how to assist such individuals in a therapeutically responsible manner. This presentation relates, through a clinical case example, how an individual with bi-polar disorder struggled with certain religious ideas that seemed to him to imply that his bi-polar disorder was a form of punishment for something that he had done. The article also relates how this client’s construct of various religious ideas was deconstructed in a manner that liberated this person from his deep spiritual turmoil and pain. The article concludes with reflections on working with a client’s spiritual struggles with certain religious ideas that takes the lead from the client’s own inner conflicts, thereby avoiding imposing an external viewpoint on the client and preserving the principle of client autonomy and self-determination.

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Define with clarity the rationale for a therapist who is doing couple therapy to also do individual session work with either or both partners.
2. Gain greater ability to understand and work with clients in an empathic and supportive manner with regard to their spiritual struggles over certain religious ideas to which they have been exposed, either formally or through generalized cultural representations.
3. Articulate with clarity how such work can be done in a manner that is respectful of client autonomy and self-determination.

Robert Scuka, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the National Institute of Relationship Enhancement® in Bethesda, MD, author of Relationship Enhancement Therapy: Healing Through Deep Empathy and Intimate Dialogue (Routledge, 2005), as well as a variety of articles on methods and issues in Relationship Enhancement therapy, many of which are available at www.nire.org.

Facilitator: Robert Brown, Member of the Board of IDEALS, the larger organization supporting AFREM and NIRE

Everyone with an interest in Relationship Enhancement Methods, Filial and Child-Centered Play Therapy is encouraged to attend this meeting! We want to know you more, hear about your work and passion for RE, Filial and/or CCPT, and help you connect with others. Our purpose is to exchange ideas and share in each others’ enthusiasm for helping persons in need through RE, Filial and CCPT. Participants will have an opportunity to share what is working for them related to RE, Filial and CCPT, and what excites and motivates them about RE, Filial and CCPT, including how they are using these various models, what innovations or modifications they have found useful, and how these programs are being used in the US and other countries. Our intent is a leaderless presentation in which we all use the skills and principles of RE & Filial to support and build the future together. The more we support each other, the more effective we are, and the more we change our world for the better. Please come and let us know you, while seeking support and connections for your work!

Location: The AFREM annual meeting and workshops will be held at the National Institute of Relationship Enhancement® (NIRE) conference suite on the Roof level of the Topaz House at 4400 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD. The Topaz House is located six miles from the White House and Georgetown. NIRE is less than three blocks from the Bethesda metro stop.

Parking: Parking on Friday may be available at the Topaz House’s underground garage on a first come first served basis. There is a public parking lot at East-West Highway and Waverly Street, a block and a half from the Topaz House. Be certain to bring plenty of quarters for the public parking lot. The cost is $.75 per hour in long term parking; plan on 9 hours, i.e., $6.75. [Be prepared! Parking rates may have gone up!] Parking is free on Saturday. On Saturday parking should be easier at Topaz House, and is free at the public parking lot.

Travel: For those coming by air: NIRE is 15 miles from Washington National, 22 miles from Baltimore-Washington, and 18 miles from Dulles Airports. For those coming by car: NIRE is two miles south of the Connecticut Avenue exit or the Wisconsin Avenue exit of the Beltway (I-495).

Municipal parking is very close and is free on Saturday (at Waverly and East-West Highway). Be certain to bring plenty of quarters to feed the meter for parking on Friday. The cost is $.75 per hour in long term parking; plan on 9 hours, i.e., $6.75. Parking is free on Saturday. All registrants will be sent a map detailing how to reach NIRE.

Accommodations: Discounted hotel rooms are available at the Bethesda Court Hotel. To secure the discounted rate, please call 1-800-874-0050 and ask for the “NIRE” rate, which for 2013 is $129 per night Thursday through Sunday, plus a $15.00 per night fee for parking. This discounted rate is available until the hotel reaches a certain point of capacity for the respective dates, so you are advised to make reservations as early as possible. Information about alternative accommodations can be provided when you register.

Registration: To register, please

(1) call NIRE at (our new number) 301-680-8977

(2) send your Registration Form by fax to (our new fax number) 502-226-7088

or (3) mail your Registration Form and check to (our new Administrative Office address) IDEALS/NIRE, Admin. Office, 306 West Main Street, #507, Frankfort, KY 40601.

Caution: Do not send credit card information via email.