Off the Couch and Out of the Clinic: Innovations in Research on the Therapeutic Relationship in Community-Based Settings

Organizers: Dr. Beth Angell, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago; Dr. Jeanne Marsh, Dean and George Herbert Jones Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago; and Dr. Leslie Alexander, Professor, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.

Keynote Speaker: Adam Horvath, Professor Emeritus of Counseling Psychology, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

Panel Presenters: Leonard Bickman, Vanderbilt University; Sue Estroff, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Jerry Floersch, Case Western Reserve University; Jeanne Marsh,University of Chicago; Mary McKay, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine; Jennifer Skeem, University of California-Irvine; Stephen Shirk, University of Denver; and Phyllis Solomon, University of Pennsylvania

Across the helping disciplines, the importance of examining common factors (in particular, the therapeutic alliance) cannot be denied. Yet, when studying helping relationships, can methods and perspectives drawn from psychotherapy adequately address issues that can arise in social work with clients who may enter treatment involuntarily, face myriad stressors, receive services that are not necessarily office-based, or interact with multiple systems concurrently?

Given its historic attention to the social context of helping, the field of social work is uniquely poised to forge new understandings of the therapeutic relationship and to join with allied disciplines in developing novel ways to reduce barriers to service engagement. By featuring an array of conceptual frameworks and methodological innovations, this half-day symposium will both reflect on the current status of research on the therapeutic alliance and showcase emergent contemporary perspectives on the helping relationship across a range of community-based settings with children and adults.

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm A reception for symposium attendees will follow the symposium.

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