SWK 4608H – Social Work Practice with Families - Required

This course is designed to familiarize students  with the core concepts and skills necessary for social work practice with families. An integrated family systems and ecological developmental model provides the guiding framework for viewing children and adolescents within the context of their families and extra-familial relationships that affect their development and functioning. Emphasis is on the development of clinical case conceptualization and practice skills in engagement, assessment, and intervention with families that are grounded in current research on treatment effectiveness and empirically supported theories on parenting and family processes, child functioning, and therapeutic change. We will examine the theoretical and practice roots, therapeutic processes, and specific treatment strategies both within and across selected parenting and family therapy models. Attention will be paid to the diverse nature of families within the context of their unique needs and the multiple systems in which family life is embedded.