Recognized Smart Stepfamily Therapy Training with Ron Deal, May 22-23, 2025

Update your clinical knowledge, get 12 CEs, & become a recognized provider on SmartStepfamilies.com. For professionals & pastoral leaders.
About this Event

Smart Stepfamily Therapy has been approved by NBCC for NBCC credit. Smart Stepfamilies is solely responsible for all aspects of the program. NBCC Approval No. SP-4483.

12-hours of CE training (over two days) | Be added to an international referral network of Christian stepfamily therapy providers | Space is limited | 12 CE's available (Certificate of Completion provided) | Offered in English only

"I've been a clinician over 25 years and this training was the best I've experienced."

"It was fantastic."

"I already recommended this program to one of my friends."

"I wish we had two more days!"

"A must training if you work with stepfamilies."

"I'm a supervisor with extensive EFT training and this was a vast and rich learning experience."

"I rarely give top scores but I rated all a 5."

"Your training is incredible. You're a great communicator and a passionate therapist."

Bestselling author, conference speaker, and therapist Ron Deal has been training clinicians for over 20 years in understanding the unique internal dynamics of stepcouples and blended families. This two-day training is intended to equip licensed therapists with advanced skills. Licensed therapists who complete this training will receive a lifetime referral listing on RonDeal.org and SmartStepfamilies.com as a Recognized Smart Stepfamily Therapy Provider. For more visit https://smartstepfamilies.com/smart-help/clinical-ministry-training.

The stepcouple divorce rate remains alarming. Therapists often feel overwhelmed when treating blended families given their complexity and relational dynamics. This two-day workshop specifically designed for therapists who espouse a Christian worldview (a secular version of the training is available for conferences and private groups, as well) will explore key relational challenges leading to stepcouple and stepfamily distress and how therapists can effectively treat the expanded stepfamily system including children and former spouses. Biblical and pastoral considerations for working with Christian clients will be included. Clinical applications of the psychoeducational principles from Ron's Smart Stepfamily Series of books will be discussed. And data from the National Survey of Stepfamilies (over 50,000 couples surveyed by Ron Deal and David Olson) will be presented and implications shared for preventing divorce and strengthening the entire stepfamily unit.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to

1. List family process dynamics that are different in stepfamilies than in biological families;

2. Describe how attachment, loss, and loyalty issues create competing attachments and barriers to family integration;

3. Learn an overall developmental model for understanding family integration;

4. Identify practical therapeutic procedures in working with remarried couples and stepfamilies and learn how to discern traditional therapeutic interventions not suited for stepfamilies;

5. Describe the differing roles of biological parents and stepparents as they relate to raising children in stepfamilies and marital cohesion;

6. Share and discuss case studies;

7. Evaluate their current practice model and talk through how to integrate stepfamily therapy strategies with both children and adults.

Daily Schedule: all times are Central Time (U.S.). The basic schedule is 9:00 AM - 4:30 pm both days.

8:45 am login open (sign on by 8:55 am)
9:00 am - 12:00 pm - teaching, case studies, & group discussion
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm - lunch break
12:30 pm - 4:00 pm - teaching, case studies, & group discussion

Ron Deal is a licensed professional counselor (Arkansas) and licensed marriage & family therapist (Arkansas & Texas) who has been training clinicans for over twenty years. He is one of the most widely read and viewed authors on healthy blended family living in the country. He is the author of nine books for stepfamilies including the bestselling The Smart Stepfamily and Building Love Together in Blended Families (with Dr. Gay Chapman), host of the FamilyLife Blended podcast, and Director of FamilyLife's international educational ministry to blended families.

To learn more or contact the presenter, visit smartstepfamilies.com/contact.

Smart Stepfamily Therapy has been approved by NBCC for NBCC credit. Smart Stepfamilies is solely responsible for all aspects of the program. NBCC Approval No. SP-4483.