Missing Fathers: The Absent Parent Trauma

Pamela Parkinson, Ph.D., LCSW

Training Description

Develop a better understanding of the importance of fathers to the youth with whom we work.  This epidemic of the often-absent father doesn’t mean that the father doesn’t fulfill an important role in a child’s and family’s life.  We often leave the paternal side of the youth’s family completely out of an assessment when developing our treatment/service plans with youth in out of home care even though the father is very much a part of the youth’s “picture” and impacts their day-to-day functioning. Remember, the pain of the missing father is a big reason for the symptoms that we are trying to ameliorate so we can’t forget this area of pain.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the reasons that fathers are important and the barriers as to why they don’t get included, in a meaningful way, within our continuums of care that serve youth: child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and school systems.
• Ability to assess, using a family tree and historical timeline, the extent of the absence of the father and the other “half” of whom that child is.
• Learn the connection between the 4 Diagnostic Pain Questions that are Pain in the Heart (PITH) Theory regarding the absent father trauma and how to reach out and include fathers.

Agenda

9:55 AM – 10:00 AM: Sign In

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM: Overview of family assessment with an emphasis on the absent father.

10:30 AM – 10:45 AM: Group work practice on family trees and timelines.

10:45 AM – 11 AM: Video about the Myth of the Absent Black Father and discussion.

11:00 AM – 11:45 AM: Brainstorming and discussion of reasons that fathers are important in the development of youth.

11:45 AM – 12:00 PM: BREAK (CEUs will not be issued for this time)

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM: Group work on ID’ing the barriers to including fathers in our work.

12:30 PM– 1:00 PM: Discussion of the barriers to including fathers meaningfully in our work.

1:00 PM – 1:30 PM: LUNCH (CEUs will not be issued for this time)

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM: Applying PITH to the absent father trauma.

2:30 PM – 3:00 PM: Cultural barriers to including fathers.

3:00 PM – 3:15 PM:  BREAK (CEUs will not be issued for this time)

3:15 PM – 3:45 PM: Small group work to creatively develop strategies for how to include the youth’s “other half” in our work.

3:45 PM – 4 PM: Review & discussion regarding these strategies for outreach to fathers.

4:00 PM – 4:25 PM: Final review with video on the Homeless Painter.

4:25 PM – 4:30 PM: ADJOURNMENT

Meet Our Trainer

Pamela Parkinson, PhD, LCSW, is a clinical psychologist and clinical social worker, whose specialty area is working with youth and their families being served by our continuums of care with an emphasis on the importance of family engagement and the healing of traumatic attachment ruptures. Dr. Parkinson is also a certified Partners for Change Outcome Management Systems (PCOMS) evidence-based practice trainer. She currently works as a child/family consultant to Community Based Organizations (CBO’s) in the Bay Area and Pamela has worked in level 14 residential, Non-Public Schools (NPS), hospitals, and a variety of community-based settings including outpatient clinics, schools, diversion, kinship, etc.

This course meets the qualifications for (5.5) BBS CEUs for LCSWs and MFTs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.