What It’s Like to Work With Us
When the Institute was founded in 1979, the staff envisioned family therapy becoming the rule of treatment rather than the exception—especially with children and teens. Unfortunately, this has not turned out to be the case. We are unique in our specialty with couples and families.
When you work with one of us, you have a whole team behind you. When confronted with a difficult or complicated case, we have a built-in consultation team to gain insight and peer input. Discussing cases, while aways safeguarding confidentiality, leads simultaneously to professional growth and better client outcomes.
We’ve Birthed Great Projects
The Institute has birthed other great projects that have benefitted our community. Don MacMannis, (known as Dr. Mac) is a psychologist and award-winning children’s songwriter. We obtained funds for a research project that used his songs to teach social and emotional skills to 1st and 2nd graders in four local public elementary schools. Finding positive gains in a short period of time, his sixty online songs have been integrated into character, social and emotional learning programs nationwide.
Rendy Friedman, a senior member of our clinical staff, paired up with Jennifer Freed to create AHA!, first known as the Academy of Healing Arts for teens and brought social and emotional learning as well as leadership training. We sponsored the program until it grew large wings and became its own extraordinary non-profit.
In 2013, Don and Debra published their book How’s Your Family Really Doing? 10 Keys to a Happy Loving Family. They are still committed to the vision of sharing their research and information that we have about how to create healthy families to the general public. We’ve been asked too many times by clients the same question: Why wasn’t I taught this in junior high or high school instead of the other stuff in health class?
Don and Debra wrote a second award-winning book, Who’s the Boss? The Win-Win Way to Parent Your Strong-Willed Child. The concepts and ideas presented by the book have helped thousands of parents set caring and effective limits with their young children.
William Peters, a relatively newer member of our senior staff, is the founder of the Shared Crossing Project. He wrote a book, At Heaven’s Door, whose mission is to positively transform relationships to death and dying through education and raising awareness about shared crossings and their healing benefits. This is one of the latest projects sponsored by FTI.
We Have Big Dreams
The staff at FTI continues to dream big dreams. Here’s one: if someone made the 10 Keys to a Happy Loving Family into a short, animated film, it could be used in public schools all over the world. We could eliminate so much unnecessary suffering through prevention instead of treatment.