Celia Falicov, PhD

This ground breaking conference will examine the experiences of transnational immigrants - those who seek to maintain intense connections with their countries of origin and their families through the new technologies of global communication.

Such connections offer attractive yet demanding possibilities of living "with two hearts" unlike earlier immigrants who, without these connections, lived with "broken hearts."

Dr Celia Falicov will present an original bi-national, bi-cultural model for working with transnational families, addressing the risks and resiliencies these families manifest as they cope with separations and reunions that strike at the core of systems of care and attachments. Surprising new transformations in gender and generational relationships mark these families.

The complexities of relationships that new immigrants strive to maintain call into question our traditional definitions of family and community bonds. This conference will enable participants to work effectively with a multi-systemic perspective across cultures, countries, and continents.'

Dr Falicov will present her work, using lecture and clinical video. Family therapy videos will include:

• A mother in deep depression over her separation from her seven year old son
• A difficult reunion of two boys and their grandmother with their mother who had left them six years earlier in search of a better life for all
• A husband and wife who have endured multiple separations and reunions from each other and their children due to many migrations

A multi-disciplinary panel including Dr Robert Smith, sociologist at Baruch College and Dr Carola Suárez-Orozco, psychologist at New York University will comment on Dr Falicov's work.

Noon time case consultations on therapy with immigrant families will be provided by Ackerman faculty, including Miguel Hernandez, MSW, Mary Kim Brewster, PhD, and Jean Malpas, MSW.

Printable Registration Form

Course Syllabus and Schedule

Date June 6, 2008
Time 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Tuition $125
CE Credits: 6

For more information, or to register, contact:
Rebecca Kucsan
212-879-4900, ext 140
rkucsan@ackerman.org

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