2023 WAMFT March Webinar

Saturday, March 18, 2023
11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Couple Therapy in Uganda: Training and Implementation of Emotionally Focused Therapy in Culturally Diverse Context in Uganda
Membership Level Registration Fees
Wisconsin Network Students $15
AAMFT Students $25
Board Members FREE
Wisconsin Network Members $35
AAMFT Members $45
Non-Member Members $55

Registration
Registration Opens February 15th and Closes March 17th

Ronald Asiimwe, MS, LLMFT

Ronald grew up in Uganda and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Human Development and Family Therapy, specializing in Couple and Family Therapy (CFT) at Michigan State University. Ronald has research and clinical experience practicing in the States of Oklahoma and Michigan in the U.S.A., and in his home country of Uganda. His research focuses on parenting, evidence-based family/relational interventions grounded in context and culture. His work draws heavily from attachment theory and cross-cultural models of research and practice.  
He is particularly drawn to leading campaigns (research and clinical) to train and equip clinicians and family scientists on the African continent with skills to implement various evidence-based systemic interventions. Ronald is trained in evidence-based systemic interventions namely, the Parent Management Training Oregon (PMTO) model, Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), and Cognitive Behavioral Couples Therapy (CBCT). The overall goal of Ronald’s work is to improve parenting, couple, and family mental health and relational outcomes among families in African settings. Because of his passion to introduce systemic work to his homeland Uganda, Ronald is leading a Couple and Family Therapy Initiative; https://www.conexaintl.com/uganda In this initiative, Ronald is partnering with the Uganda Counseling Association and a team of international experts in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) to bring EFT to Uganda. Ronald is delighted to visit us at the Wisconsin Association for Marriage and Family Therapy to share more details about his EFT work in Uganda.

Pendo Galukande, BSc, MSc, CMFT

Pendo, BSc, MSc, CMFT is a vivacious Couple/Marriage, and Family Therapist at Healing Talk in Kampala Uganda. She has a bachelors in Zoology from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and holds two master’s degrees: one in Health Systems Management from University of London, UK, and another in Marriage Family Therapy from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. During her Masters in MFT, Pendo was disturbed that as an avid reader in Uganda, she had not heard of attachment theory and Emotionally Focused Therapy before 2019. She purposed to get this information into the hands of every reading Ugandan and in March 2022 she published a book “Demystifying the Drama of Marriage.” She is passionate about knowledge translation and has hosted several webinars and speaks at events nationally and internationally. Using
the simple principles of attachment theory and EFT, her marriage has been transformed from the inside-out. She has used her family as her lab to gain deeper understanding of human connections/relationships. Her career passion is to continue sharing these attachment-based principles with her clients in her practice, and her relationships outside of therapy to bring about stronger family bonds and marital connections. She has previously worked with refugees in camps, run a hospital and an Art Social Enterprise, and Home-schooled. In each experience, she has found that she loves people.! People intrigue her. Yeah, animals too. She loves birds! Pendo and her husband, Dr. Moses Galukande, a Breast Cancer expert in Uganda, have been married for 25 years. They are both committed to youth soccer because of their 19-year-old son who hopes to go pro any day.

Couple Therapy in Uganda: Training and Implementation of Emotionally Focused Therapy in Culturally Diverse Context in Uganda

Experiences of violence in intimate relationships are on the increase in Uganda and have led to breakdown in marriages and family relationships. Studies indicate that 54% of women experience intimate partner violence (IPV; physical, emotional, and sexual) in their lifetime. Research in evidenced-based relationship interventions offers strong support for their effectiveness in treating couple relationship distress. Despite the uptake of relational interventions such as Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) in some parts the of the world, including in Africa (e.g., in South Africa), training in Couple and Family Therapy work is still lacking in Uganda. Most mental health training at high institutions of learning in Uganda is still based on Western models of individual psychotherapy (primarily counseling psychology and clinical psychology). Due to the collectivistic cultural values, Ugandan couples look to their relationships (e.g., with intimate partners) for health, wellness, and survival. Given the value attached to relationships in Uganda, we propose that the introduction of attachment and EFT work in clinical practice has the potential to impact marital relationships and lead to long-lasting-genuine bonds among individuals in intimate relationships in Uganda. In this session, we will present about our ongoing Couple and Family Therapy initiative in Uganda. Briefly, the initiative is a collaboration between Ugandan MFTs and a team international experts in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) that aims to bring EFT to Ugandan mental health practitioners. Additionally, we will provide concrete suggestions for cultural considerations in the training and implementation of EFT in the diverse Ugandan cultural context. We will end our presentation with an invitation for participants to partner with us in our efforts to introduce EFT/Couple and Family Therapy work to Uganda.

Learning Objectives

  1. Participants will be introduced to the Couple and Family Therapy Initiative/EFT Uganda Project.
  2. Participants will be exposed to extant literature on couple and relationship distress in Uganda.
  3. Participants will learn how the evidence-based EFT model based in attachment theory work can be used to facilitate positive relationship experiences in a diverse cultural context in Uganda.
  4. Participants will have the chance to reflect on how they would like to be involved in supporting overall couple and family therapy work in Uganda.

Continuing Education Units

You can receive up to 2.0 CEs for this webinar series. Click Here for information on CEs. Approved for LMFTs, LPCs, and LCSWs in Wisconsin.

Non-Members

Non-members wishing to register for events will need to create a prospective member account. This will provide you with an AAMFT account but you will not have to pay dues. This way you can register for any event with us in the future!

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