The AFTA Podcast: Recent Episodes
AFTA
This podcast explores current therapy practices and research-oriented approaches. Host Navid Zamani interviews scholar practitioners of the American Family Therapy Academy to capture current interests and curiosities of guests, the evolution of these curiosities over time, and implications for practice/theory in family therapy.
We discuss the impacts of working in a broken system, the experience of a developing career, and the role of communal care
We discuss the how painting elephants has paved the way to discussions about oppression
We discuss what it means to be a supervisor, starting at square one, and creating a safety net for supervisees
We discuss systemic failures in crisis response, centering community experiences, and the relational context of distress
We discuss managing urgency, fear and the influence of our political environment on our work
We discuss failures when working with siblings, confronting the therapists' anger, and giving permission to stretching your therapy style
David Trimble reflects on failures in therapy in the context of more than 7 decades of life, a spiritual journey in which his enthusiasms lead him to stumble
Ron shares about two couples sessions that didn’t go as planned, and how he manages both the clinical and self-of-therapist work.
Season 2! Stories of "failures" and what the therapist learned. We kick off this season with Dr. Tabitha Webster
We discuss engaging with intercultural/interracial/interfaith intimate partnerships, focusing on systems, strengths and critical processes across the lifecycle
We discuss families in the context of the environmental crisis, environmental activism in couples work, and the conditions for profound work.
We discuss the troubled history of family therapy, the always effective lunch session, results based accountability and the great promise of family therapy
We discuss the application of sexual health for Muslims, the role of the soul, and the revival of tradition.
We discuss hypnobreath, the trance of dominant stories, and the cultural power of narcissism
In this session, we discuss meetings with remarkable people, explicit and implicit constraints, and the importance of attunement.
In this session, we discuss the social matrix diagram, how it can support an examination of personal, familial and societal issues, and the effects of neoliberalism on family therapy
This episode was recorded at the 2024 AFTA Conference in Denver, CO. Host Navid Zamani interviews multiple attendees of the conference
We discuss the therapist's state of mind as shaped by the relational field of the psychotherapy and fluid shifting between wordless awareness and language understanding
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Arthur Nielsen about different approaches to couples therapy, the challenges of asking for things in relationships, and couples' education.
Host Kern Haug interviews guest Navid Zamani about the challenges of the domestic violence field and the critical inclusion of family therapy as a road to healing in domestic violence.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Eman Tadros about incarceration and family systems work, practices of necessary resistance, and an invitation to MFTs to join
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Judith Landau about intergenerational and community resilience, the application of transitional family theory and therapy, and the centrality of hope and relational connection.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Tatiana Glebova about contextual therapy and its application to sociocultural trauma and transgenerational trauma, and the necessity of geopolitical knowledge in our work.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Aaron Kirkwood about the practices of integrating neurobiology with Narrative therapy and the contemporary political landscape of this work
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Carmen Knudson-Martin about her contributions to developing socio-emotional relationship therapy and how to work with the confluence of power, emotions and social discourse in therapy
Re-Run: In this episode, we revisit an interview between Danna Carter and Kaethe Weingarten. This month is the AFTA Conference in Baltimore - we hope you can join us!
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Saliha Bava about relational responsiveness, how we make meaning together, and the influence of attending to the recursivity of our lives
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Karen Gail Lewis about sibling therapy, the practices of tracking sibling ghosts from early childhood that affect their adult lives, and ways therapists can incorporate this into their practice
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Manijeh Daneshpour about the intersections of the professional, personal, and political, feminism and cultural backdrops, and the influence of international geopolitics on our lives.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Dumayi Gutierrez about the experiences of ethnically, sexually and gender diverse communities, the influence of an intersectional minority stress model, and its hopeful integration into a family therapy framework.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Shawn Giammattei about gender affirming care for youth within the context of family therapy and a broader political landscape, the intersections of the parental experience in their gender journeys and sense of ambiguous loss, and the usefulness of mapping love in families
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Peter Fraenkel about last chance couple’s therapy, and the role of pleasure, culture, and humor in the therapy relationship
Host Navid Zamani interviews guests Karen Quek & Alex Hsieh about the themes that emerged in writing their new book and the intentionality required in supporting faculty of color in higher education
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Patricia Papernow about the gap of knowledge in working with step-families and the limitations of using approaches and maps based off of working with first-time families.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Sandra Stith regarding the ways she is navigating multiple ideological perspectives in domestic violence work, negotiating tensions with couples in violence, and how we can maintain a international collaboration while being cautious of colonialism.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Nancy Rappaport on how family therapists can be critical players in navigating the school systems, practices and approaches with students who are struggling in school, and the passion for the possible.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Laura Gambrel on embodied social justice, contemplative practices, and the application of this work across several contexts.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Wonyoung Cho on what is drawing her attention in her work in regards to social justice in MFT programs, observations from the "3rd space", and the intersections of COVID and spirituality.
Host Navid Zamani interviews guest Gene Combs on what's been drawing his attention in family therapy work. Combs shares some constructive criticisms of a post-professional family therapy world, as well as examines possibilities through reconsidering time, relationships, and eurocentric assumptions of our therapeutic practices.