Description
This 3-hour course is designed to educate professionals, working with chemically dependent offenders and their families, about family dynamics and family dysfunction. Students of this course will gain an understanding of the scope of the problem, an overview of family theory, and the relationship of theory to therapy. Codependent behaviors and attitudes are a primary issue for the dysfunctional family system; thus, a section is devoted to what codependency means and what to do about it. It is not a research paper but an educational effort to understand addiction and what happens to family members of the chemically dependent offender. The course will assist the student in understanding family dynamics, dysfunction, and the role of codependency.
Goals/Objectives
By participating in this internet based course, the trainee will
1. Estimate the scope of the problem,
2. Identify from statistics the majority of the families needing services
3. Gain an understanding of effective family theory and therapy
4. Have a working knowledge of the systems approach to family therapy, as it pertains to families of chemically dependent offenders
5. Identify problems for the chemically dependent family, with special emphasis on the families of offenders
6. Assist these family members to see how codependency and lack of setting personal boundaries keeps them stuck and unable to move on in their lives, regardless of what happens with the chemically dependent offender
Your Course Instructor:
James D. Shelton, M.S., MAC, LCDC
James D. Shelton has been a professional in the treatment and recovery field for the past twenty-five years. Jim holds a Bachelors Degree from the University of California at Berkeley in Labor and Industrial Relations. He holds a Masters Degree from the University of North Texas in Addiction Studies. He is certified as a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, A Masters Addiction Counselor and a Loss and Grief Specialist.
Jim spent six years in the Betty Ford Center Family Program working with families of the chemically dependent. While at Betty Ford, Jim developed a program for working with the chemically dependent patients on their codependent behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and their inabilities to set boundaries or practice self-care. For Jim, these behaviors and inabilities are primary relapse triggers and impediments to emotionally contented sobriety.
Presently, Jim’s primary focus is on addiction interventions. He also presents workshops on codependency and boundary setting. Quarterly, Jim presents these workshops for the Betty Ford Center Family Program in Rancho Mirage, Ca. He appears in two vhs/dvds titled What is Codependency? and Setting Personal Boundaries. These were produced and are distributed by FMS Productions of Carpinteria, California. He is also the author of a workbook that accompanies the productions.
He currently lives in California where he is in private practice as the owner of Addiction Intervention Services.