Working with Couples and Families in a Time of Polarization
Presented by Bill Doherty, PhD, LMFT

Hosted by the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the School of Social Work and the Mary Frances Early College of Education.

The Institute will focus on the special challenges that couples and families are facing during a time of political polarization. The presentation will cover sources of today’s polarization, special assessments issue for couples and families in conflict over politics, and tools for helping them buffer their relationships against these political stressors and to engage in constructive coping. The presenter will also discuss how he has adapted couple therapy principles in designing workshops that bring “reds” and “blues” together through the national nonprofit Braver Angels.

Participants will:
1. Identify the scope and sources of today’s high levels of political polarization.
2. Discuss how political stress can affect couple and family relationships, and ways to assess theses effects.
3. Describe tools for helping couples and families cope with political differences in ways that buffer their relationships and potentially improve them.

Speaker: Dr. Bill Doherty, PhD, LMFT, is a Professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota where he directs The Citizen Professional Center and the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project, which does community engagement projects on health care and on divisive public issues. Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, he co-founded Braver Angels, a citizen initiative bringing conservatives and liberals together to counteract political polarization and restore the fraying social fabric in American society. Among Bill’s awards is the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Family Therapy Academy. He is co-author of the book Helping Couples on the Brink of Divorce: Discernment Counseling for Troubled Relationships.

Costs: (Includes sessions, refreshment breaks, lunch, and 6 CEU’s)

Participant:
On or before December 20: $150
December 21 or later: $180

Certificate Faculty:
On or before December 20: $120
December 21 or later: $150

Student Participant: $50