Stepfamily Presentations

Each community agency deals with stepfamily issues:

Educational institutions ask - How many parents do we have at a parent conference? Who pays for college?

Medical institutions ask - Who's considered the 'parent' in authorizing emergency medical procedures?

Religious institutions ask - Can a wedding or a Bar/Bat Mitzvah be more complicated?

Unless people have lived in a stepfamily they do not know how powerfully things can move, explode and resolve in the first years together. Each life-cycle event brings new questions. Stepfamilies need to see that they are in a situational crisis which can resolve with time and learning. Often they feel it as a personal crisis because they bring old notions to this new family which get in the way of creating a safe and comfortable new family.

If the professionals have taken the time to understand the critical issues and restructuring process (or have, themselves, lived in a stepfamily) there can be a powerful potential to help everyone find the connections and the space within this complex family form. The stepfamily can be an unexpectedly comfortable new family.

Call or e-mail for more information on presentations about:

• Stepfamily issues
• Single parent issues
• Family alcoholism
• Adult children of alcoholics
• Adult children of divorce
• School goodbyes
• Supervision

Over the year Judy Osborne has presented to the following groups:

• Boston Center for Adult Education
• Boston College Counseling Services
• Boston College School of Social Work
• Boston Institute for Psychotherapy
• Boston University School of Nursing
• Boston University School of Social Work
• Boundaries Therapy Center
• Brookline Adult and Community Education Program
• Brookline Mental Health Center
• Brookline Public Schools
• The Cambridge Center for Adult Education
• Catholic Charities Annual Training in Family Development
• The Children's Museum, Families First Seminars
• C.O.P. E. (Coping with the Overall Pregnancy Experience)
• Digital Equipment Corporation's EAP Program Seminar Series
• The Exodus Center Conference on Lesbian Mothers and Gay Fathers
• Framingham Public Schools
• Harvard Business School
• Harvard University Office for Work and Family
• Harvard Medical Area Office for Parenting
• Hill House
• Interface Foundation
• Massachusetts General Hospital, Social Work Grand Rounds
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Parenting
• Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
• Mid-Life Conference for Women
• Natick Public Schools
• National Association for the Study of Young Children, Albany and Boston Chapters
• Newton-Wellesley Multi-Service Center
• Newton Adult Education Program
• Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy Collegial Seminars and Annual Conferences
• North Shore Community Mental Health Center
• The Paulist Center - Divorced Catholics Group
• The Protestant Social Service Bureau
• Reading Adult Education Program
• The Parent Connection
• Simmons School of Social Work Annual Conference
• Society for Family Therapy and Research
• South Shore Coalition of Independent Therapists
• US Air Force Family Support Center/Hanscom AFB
• US Environmental Protection Agency's Lunchtime Seminars
• Western New England College