Divided we fall: Constructive dialoguing about our political differences within family therapy training.

Widespread political polarization throughout the United States is a threat to the time-honored democratic tradition of utilizing civil discussion and respectful debate to express divergent views and strive for common ground. The political differences that divide us now are so deep and rife with toxic emotion that they threaten to undermine our social well-being at both the micro and macro levels. While family therapists are trained to work with relational tensions and to help family members to constructively negotiate their differences, the severity of the hostility and resentment tied to divergent political orientations has made this work increasingly difficult to achieve. This article explores how family therapy training programs can help trainees deepen their capacity for constructive political dialoguing that includes learning how to effectively manage their reactivity to those whose values and views may be dramatically different from their own so that they can support clients in doing the same.

Nurturing Nature: Exploring Ecological Self-of-the-Therapist Issues.

Much has been written about the systemic effects of families and culture on individual well-being. Seldom discussed, however, are the systemic effects of our relationship with the larger ecological system in which all families and cultures are embedded. A case is made for the importance of nature in family therapy. Furthermore, before therapists can effectively address ecological issues in therapy, they need to address various ecological self-of-the-therapist issues that will influence their clinical practice. A series of questions are asked to help guide therapists in this exploration, and practical suggestions for incorporating nature into MFT clinical practice, training, and research are made.

Critical patriotism: incorporating nationality into MFT education and training.

Topics such as national identity, patriotism, nationalism, and international issues often lead to polarization within the United States and as a result, critical dialogue about these complex topics often does not occur in a meaningful way. The lack of critical inquiry and interaction about these topics is manifest at the macro and the micro level, including within the context of marriage and family therapy training and practice. While the field of MFT has devoted greater attention to addressing issues of diversity in recent years, limited attention has been focused on examining nationality and nationalism. This article presents a critical patriotism framework that training programs can use to examine nationality and expand awareness of international issues and perspectives. Special attention is focused on examining how nationalism, a problematic extreme version of patriotism, infiltrates MFT training and practice. Recommendations are provided for how training programs can focus on nationality, expand awareness of international issues and perspectives, and guide trainees in exploring how their national identity, beliefs about patriotism, and nationalistic attitudes may influence their clinical work.