Attachment-Based Family Therapy: a family safety net approach to suicide treatment On-Demand Webinar

For adolescent and young adults, family conflict can drive a suicidal crisis and family support can buffer against it. ABFT aims to identify and address the family events (e.g. divorce) and processes (e.g. high demand, low warmth) that may exacerbate the distress and prohibit the family serving as a safety net. Individual sessions with the patient and the parents prepare them for conversations that address attachment ruptures and disappointment. Not only do these conjoint sessions resolve problems but server as in vivo change events where parents practice  new parenting skills and the young person practices new emotion regulation skills. This brief talk will  present the essential theory and elements of this well researched empirically supported therapy.

About Guy Diamond, Ph.D.

Guy Diamond Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Associate Professor at Drexel University in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. At Drexel, he is the Director of the Center for Family Intervention Science (CFIS). His primary work has been in the area of youth suicide prevention and treatment research. On the prevention side, he has created a program focused on training, screening and triage to be implemented in non-behavioral health settings. On the treatment side, he has focused on the development and testing of attachment-based family therapy, especially for teens struggling with depression and suicide. Much of this work has focused on inner city low income families.

About David A. Jobes, PhD, ABPP

David Jobes, PhD, ABPP, is the founder of CAMS-care, LLC. He began his career in 1987 in the Counseling Center of the Catholic University of America, where he developed a suicide risk assessment tool for college students that evolved into an evidence-based treatment, CAMS, recognized by The Joint Commission, Zero Suicide, and the CDC. A 2021 meta-analysis of 30 years of research shows that CAMS is a “Well Supported” intervention for reducing suicidal ideation per CDC criteria. Dr. Jobes is a Professor of Psychology and Associate Director of Clinical Training at Catholic. He has trained thousands of mental health professionals in the United States and abroad in evidence-based assessment and treatment of suicide risk and the use of CAMS.