Lecture Topics:
By Ann W. Smith M.S., LPC, LMFT, NCC

Topics may be tailored, modified and/or combined depending on needs of professionals and/or personal growth groups and the length of the workshop or training.

RELATIONSHIPS

The Art of Intimacy
This workshop reviews the specific skills needed for intimacy in healthy relationships and offers tools for developing and reinforcing these skills.

Healthy Relationships/Healthy Communication
Since the most common presenting issue in our clients is an inability to form and maintain healthy relationships, this workshop offers guidelines for evaluating and planning the sequence and timing of working on relationship difficulties, whether with individuals or couples. Specific tips for healthy communication are given and practiced.

Relationship Readiness: Knowing When You Are Ready For the "Real Thing"
(For those interested in "starting over" in relationship patterns) When relationship patterns have been dysfunctional it can be difficult to know when those patterns have been broken and whether to trust the new you. This workshop will offer a means of evaluating strengths and weaknesses in relationship skills and readiness.

The Power of Loving
Content includes an overview of obstacles to personal healing and self-love, definition of healthy love, discussion of the timing and significance of forgiveness and exercises for individuals and couples to improve their connections with others and increase self acceptance.

What Are We Fighting About?
Many couples find themselves frustrated and stuck, repeating the same arguments without resolution.  Getting to the bottom of the conflicts requires awareness of deeper needs which remain unmet.  This workshop increases self awareness and enhances communication skills.

Second Chances at Love
This presentation offers a positive approach for the recovery of less than perfect relationships.  Ann Smith provides a practical model for helping couples to heal old wounds and break dysfunctional patterns. With an emphasis on process rather than problem solving, couples are empowered with skills to identify and communicate deeper needs, thus reducing meaningless conflict and cyclical break downs

Second Chances at Love for Couples in Recovery: Re-defining the Healthy Relationship
This presentation offers a positive approach for the recovery of less than perfect relationships.  Ann Smith provides a practical model for helping couples to heal old wounds and break dysfunctional patterns. With an emphasis on process rather than problem solving, couples are empowered with skills to identify and communicate deeper needs, thus reducing meaningless conflict and cyclical break downs.  

Practical Love
When the expectation of finding and spending life with one�s Soul mate gives way to an imperfect, challenging and sometimes dull relationship, the tendency is to conclude �wrong partner� or just another failure.  How disappointing it can be when our fantasies of everlasting love do not materialize.  With practical wisdom and humor Ann Smith presents a realistic model of love and commitment with its joys and challenges in the context of a living, growing union of two human beings. 

EMOTIONS

Anger: Past, Present & Future
Content includes the importance of anger as a motivational force, consequences of repression, rage reduction techniques, communication of anger, and learning to handle the anger of others. A brief video may be used to demonstrate rage reduction in group therapy.

Grief: Healing From Our Losses
Content includes basic information about feelings in general, childhood and adult losses which are often repressed, steps in the grieving process, consequences of avoiding healthy grief, the concept of "stored feelings" and steps in supporting others as they grieve. A demonstration of the dynamic impact of loss on our lives will be offered.

Reducing Shame: The Challenge of Long Term Recovery
This workshop addresses shame from the perspective of shame we received from others, shame we project and the state of shame we may find ourselves in as a result. Recognizing and confronting it with both short term and long term solutions is the beginning of lifetime healing.

PERFECTIONISM

Becoming Perfectly Imperfect
A significant number of individuals feel driven, even in therapy, by the need to overcome their humanness and achieve a state of perfection. This workshop proposes that the roots of perfectionism lie in the unresolved pain, fear of abandonment and low self esteem of family history. Both the issues and their consequences are explored, and a model for balanced recovery presented.

The Challenges of Long Term Recovery: Reducing Shame & Overcoming Perfectionism
This workshop proposes that the roots of shame and perfectionism lie in the unresolved pain, fear, abandonment and low self-esteem issues of family history.  Recognizing and confronting our histories with both short and long-term solutions is the beginning of lifetime healing. Both the issues and the consequences are explored, and a model for balanced recovery is presented

SPIRITUALITY

Obstacles or Opportunities? Learning the Difference Can Lead to Joy and Abundance
Spiritual growth can provide new insights and perspective on even the most stressful situations. Learning to use the "road bumps" as part of the solution and guideposts to a higher place can make life a little easier and prevent recurring patterns and missed opportunities. This workshop provides a new view and some tools to increase spiritual awareness.

Strengthening Spirituality
Once the initial chaos is addressed, and life becomes more manageable, we are ready to look for deeper growth and understanding. Early experiences with family and religious upbringing can block our ability to heal in this most important area. This workshop helps to identify the blocks and take steps toward spiritual connection with self, others and a Higher Power.

FAMILY ISSUES

THE �LOOKING GOOD FAMILY�: ISSUES, INTERVENTIONS AND TREATMENT
Painful family systems raise children and adults in pain.  Some families however are disguised in an external appearance of health while dysfunction and frequent abuse go underground.  Individuals from such families are often deprived of much needed help because they are lacking the �details� of their own family history.  This workshop will utilize experiential teaching methods and lecture to address the complex issues of the �Looking Good Family

Step Families: Facing Reality and Finding Hope
Remarriage with children creates a new set of challenges for couples who lack role models and positive experiences in intimate and family relationships.  This powerful information helps to strengthen and empower couples in their new complex families.

From Generation to Generation:  Breaking the Cycle Through Family and Individual Recovery
Based on her book Grandchildren of Alcoholics:  Another Generation of Co-dependency Ann Smith offers a broader view of addiction�s impact on a family system.  Across generations the dynamics of painful family systems are passed on, even when the drug or alcohol use is no longer present.  The family system often evolves into a more subtle form of dysfunction which Ann calls the �Looking Good Family.� Children or grandchildren will experience negative consequences similar to that of the family with an active addiction or severe abuse but have no awareness of the source.  In this presentation Ann will use family sculpture to demonstrate this process and also provide a model to begin to break the cycle of family dysfunction.

OTHER TOPICS

Who Am I Really?: Building Identity
The process of developing self-awareness and eventually self-esteem is a difficult one for adults and children from painful families. Overcoming developmental lags, finding a nurturing environment and changing one's self talk are a few of the steps which need to be taken. Workshop includes steps to building identity.

Boundaries in the Workplace
Work settings require adjustments to the boundaries we may use for personal relationships and social situations. Learning to trust one's instinct, consciously choosing a course of action and communicating honestly and effectively are among the issues covered in this workshop.

Professionals Only Topics

Experiential Techniques

Group Therapy

Working Effectively with Couples