Beyond Tragedy - Working with Families (May 2025)

Capability Levels: Evolving

As natural disasters increase within Australia, the support that people require increases. Recent natural disasters, including flooding, have resulted in increased support needs for affected families. Often national and local governments call on social workers to support people who have been impacted by these disasters. From this 3.5-hour workshop you will learn how to work with families who have been impacted by natural disasters. You will learn how to identify family dynamics within a family and have interventions of how to work with them. This workshop will focus on the single session family therapy model, and you will be able to implement this in your work once you have completed this workshop.

Who should attend?

This workshop is targeted to evolving Social Workers as it’s designed to enhance and expand their skill in working with families impacted by a disaster/major incident.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this program, participants will be able to:

• Reflect on your own family of origin and how this can impact on supporting people after an environmental disaster.
• Identify family and couple dynamics after a natural disaster – using Gottman’s framework, as well as Systemic, structural, and intergenerational theories.
• Ability to implement trauma informed, Family interventions with 2 or more people in the room.
• Ability to practice and implement the single session evidence-based model while working with families.

Event Structure:

Introduction

Learning Session 1: Understanding Family Impact Post-Disaster (45 minutes)

Activity 1: Group discussion

Learning Session 2: Introduction to Single Session Family Therapy (SSFT) (50 minutes)

Activity 2: Group Activity

Learning Session 3: Practical Skills for Working with Families (45 minutes)

Activity 3: Integration + Applications

Q&A and Conclusion

This Workshop is not recorded, however, you will have access to materials and resources on AASW Online Learning for 4 weeks after the completion of the workshop.

AASW Credentials: Mental Health