Below are the current on-demand (watch any time) courses Karl has released but come back regularly to check for new unique and practical estrangement training. These courses are offered as Continuing Professional Development (CPD)/Continung Education (CE) but are open to everyone interested in and/or personally affected by Family Estrangement.
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An Introduction to Navigating Family Estrangement
As a relationship phenomenon, family estrangement is a process where one or more family members consciously create and maintain distance from each other, for a multitude of reasons. And yet despite the prevalence of estrangement, which is estimated to affect 1 in 4 families, there is still a great stigma surrounding this issue as it does conform to the traditional views of family as being enduring and never ending. This is particularly felt by those estranged individuals who do not feel a reconciliation is possible or desired.
To help find some clarity to the complexity of Estrangement, Karl Melvin, Psychotherapist, Researcher and Family Estrangement Expert, presents this online workshop (and accompanying eBook), exploring the essential charactistics of an estrangement to help client’s create a better understanding of the journey they have unwillingly found themselves on, explore the key factors which shape this journey and discover it’s full impact on them.
Karl has created a 7-step research-based and collaborative approach, where client and theraptist can work together to gather important details needed to essentially map out an estrangement and navigate the family landscape. An estrangement map can then be used by the therapist to guide their therapuetic approach and the client to guide their next step in dealing with the family issues.
| Modules: | 14 |
| CPD/CE Hours: | 2 |
| Price: | €45 |
| More Details: | Click here to watch now |
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Surviving Difficult Family Events and Visits
Due to the enduring bonds and social ties of family relations, in the event of on-going conflict and estrangement, family members may need to spend time around each other for a variety of reasons. And with potentially 1 in 4 adults experiencing estrangement from one or more family members, many clients might have to contend with, and dread, this scenario.
In this workshop, psychotherapist, researcher, and author of “Navigating Family Estrangement” (published by Routledge, available June 2024), Karl Melvin (MA, MIACP) will explore the five most common challenges that come with these events and how therapists can help their clients manage them.
The types of difficult and stressful events can include weddings, funerals, birthdays, or holiday periods. This can also extend to confronting situations, such as difficult conversations, family crises and tragedies, such as sickness or death, as well as randomly bumping into estranged family members. These events and visits can be understandably difficult if there are historical experiences of recurring arguments, miscommunication, rejection, and abuse in different forms.
This practical workshop looks at the types of struggles clients will face and the factors that influence them. Each of the five challenges below are discussed in detail, and suggestions on how a client can manage them are provided.
| Modules: | 10 |
| CPD/CE Hours: | 2 |
| Price: | €45 |
| More Details: | Click here to watch now |
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Fractured Families: Managing the Stigma of Family Estrangement
Family Estrangement is a complex phenomenon, affecting many across the globe.
Due to tightly held cultural and religious views and beliefs around family, those who chose to share their estrangement often feel they are being judged and blamed for their family situation. In fact, 68% of estranged people feel there is a stigma (Blake et al., 2015).
Research into estrangement sterotypes have found predominantly negative views, with terms such as ‘selfish’, ‘ungrateful’ and ‘abusive’ being used to describe estranged people (Rittenour et al., 2018).
This is particularly evident on social media platforms sharing estrangement articles, such as demonstrated below, where the subject of the article was judged for not wanting to attend the funeral of her estranged father. Often the reasons behind an estrangement are minimized, and the estranged person is negatively labeled, which can compound the sense of shame and isolation many estranged people already feel (Blake et al., 2015).
In response to this, estrangement expert Karl Melvin combines his research and 12 years of clinical experience, along with the existing literature to create this workshop to delve into the stigma.
The workshop explores:
- What the stigma looks like.
- The difference between ‘Felt’ and ‘Enacted’ stigma.
- Where the stigma comes from and it’s impact on clients.
- Why there is a stigma.
- How we can help clients work through experiences of being stigmatized.
- How we can challenge the stigma in society at large.
This practical workshop includes a detailed 25 page eBook for participants to follow.
| Modules: | 5 |
| CPD/CE Hours: | 1 |
| Price: | €25 |
| More Details: | Click here to watch now |