Message from Jim Thomas, Executive Director
Message from Jim Thomas, Executive Director
2009 has been another whirlwind year of growth, purpose, and learning at the Denver Family Institute. When the recession hit Colorado, our faculty and Board of Directors wondered, “How will DFI weather the storm?” In the therapy approach we teach at DFI, we privilege possibilities over pathology, relationships over isolation and action over passivity. It is no surprise then that we, as in the words of Bruce Springsteen, “Packed our bags and drove straight in to the storm.” In this time of economic turmoil and change messages coming from Washington, we focused on our core values as an institution, our purpose, and our compelling story. We did this while always being willing to change that which needs improvement. Thus, 2009 has been a year of change, growth, and continuous improvement.
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Denver Family Institute
DFI is a vibrant therapy provider and learning community for couples and family therapy. We recognize the central importance of relationships in the well being of individuals, couples, families and communities. Additionally we honor the diversity in relationships and of individuals in our world. We welcome students, faculty and clients from different cultures, lifestyles and backgrounds. We have a clear non-discrimination policy in our program. We integrate cultural competence and respect for diversity in all our courses and supervision
Our faculty, we believe, is second to none in the Rocky Mountain region. Combined, they possess over 175 years of clinical experience! At the same time our faculty continues to evolve, grow and adapt new ideas in the ever changing field of family therapy. Students, in our training program, do not teach or provide supervision. Rather, we hire experienced clinicians we are successful in their own private practices, consultation work or agency employment. This creates a dynamic faculty community of dedicated professionals who can inspire and challenge each other to provide an excellent learning experience for our students. Our students routinely praise the quality of the coursework, with comments like, "This course was better than any graduate class I ever had", not being uncommon. At the same time instructors bring their unique strengths, skills and background to facilitate learning.
We welcome your inquiry regarding our couples and family therapy training program and relationship clinic. Denver Family Institute was established in 1982 and is a COAMFTE accredited program.
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MFT Training Program Overview
Program Overview
Denver Family Institute, established in 1982, is the oldest couples and family therapy training program in Colorado. From its inception, the program has focused on developing therapists adept at providing strength-based, systemic therapy to individuals, couples and families. This is done through a unique combination of academic, experiential coursework and supervision.
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DFI, A Community
~Allison Lewis In my MSW community class last semester, we were assigned an Action Oriented Community Diagnosis (AOCA) project, in which I was expected to conduct a detailed analysis of the community that my place of internship served. When first reading through the assignment, I thought to myself, how could I possibly analyze the community that DFI serves when it is so vast? Over the next few days, I was trying to decide whether to focus on a specific age group like children or adults or a city such as Westminster or Aurora when suddenly it dawned on me— why not analyze the DFI community itself?
Shortly thereafter, I had the opportunity in a DFI class to observe my own individual supervisor work with a family. During this session, I watched my supervisor being supervised by his own supervisor from when he had first come to DFI as a student like me ten years prior. After the session, my supervisor shared with our class his personal feelings about his own family and how it related to the current session. This moving experience confirmed my gut feeling; DFI was in fact a community in and of itself. And there it was— I had decided once and for all to analyze the DFI community for my AOCA. The heart of the project consisted of interviewing community members. I identified members of the DFI community to be interns, first, second and third year students, faculty, administration and supervisory staff, and alumni. I was able to interview 7 different community members who offered me various perspectives of DFI. However, each individual that I interviewed identified the passion for both the field and the program as an integral part of DFI’s community. The “interest and energy” and the “tight-knit” environment enables DFI to “live up to its motto of Excellence, Integrity, Service.” When asked what they believed to be some of the biggest strengths of DFI’s community, members shared a number of strengths including the “pool of talent,” the “knowledge and values of staff,” and the “upgraded technology.” Additionally, members acknowledged the “collaborative” nature and “sharing of leadership,” as well as the “relationships [that develop] with others.” Others noted DFI’s “pursuit of service,” its “value on the free spirit,” and its “acceptance and openness.” And lastly, a community member identified DFI’s true “dedication to serving...not because of the money, but because of the belief.” As you can imagine, it turns out that I thoroughly enjoyed conducting an AOCA! It was refreshing and educational for me to learn more about DFI and enhance my own understanding of this community. After only one semester, I too, have developed this incredible sense of belongingness to the community and look forward to my own future as a part of DFI.
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