Training & Events

Overview

The USF Family Study Center has been an internationally recognized hub for cutting edge thinking and research on coparenting in family systems. From smaller scale community initiatives co-developed with and carried out in partnership with community leaders and local agency collaborators, to larger scale federally sponsored investigations, randomized trials, and implementation studies, the FSC continues to provide national and global leadership in helping to better understand coparenting and its impact on early child development. We explore solutions that honor modern families and family configurations, such as our innovative Focused Coparenting Consultation model that has been modified for unmarried, divorced, and multigenerational families, and for families reestablishing adaptive rhythms after a period of child welfare involvement. In everything we do, we work to assure that all family voices are heard, honored, and supported.

Upcoming/Current Events

Community Programs

The Family Study Center provides varied opportunities to enhance the workforce development efforts of Infant and Family Mental Health practitioners within our community. Training opportunities are provided through structured workshops, community presentations, and webinars to enhance identified learning themes related to infant mental health, coparenting, early childhood, and family systems. Trainings are tailored to audience needs and demands and are provided on a range of topics from trauma-informed practice, to clinical interventions to implement with young children and their families. Special emphasis has been placed on building capacity for clinical interventions for young children by developing clinical expertise within the early childhood therapeutic community to incorporate evidence-based, best practice models of parent-child therapy, and co-parenting interventions.

View Community Programs

Past Trainings and Events

During our 20th anniversary celebration year in 2023-24, the FSC put together a full year of training events called “Thinking Three” addressing cutting-edge topics in the field of coparenting research, theory and practice. Some of these events have been archived below. Learn more about these events.

Connections: How Babies Brains Benefit When Families Coparent (May 6, 2025)
Some of the best outcomes occur when the relationship between children’s families and the foster caregivers looking after them until they can return home establish a trusting, authentic partnership. From icebreaker meetings to communication plans to collaborative supervised visitation, this training addresses ways to better assure that strong alliances materialize to support young children during their time out of home.

Situational Partner Aggression: Screening Considerations in Evaluating Parents for Dyadic Coparenting Intervention
To open the Thinking Three series, Dr. Carla Stover from Yale University addressed triaging and intervening with families from a coparenting frame when there have been past instances of IPV in the family. This series-opening event was offered free to the professional community, in tribute to our colleague, Dr. Katherine McKay

Coparenting Brief
View Dr. McHale's June 2021 keynote address to over 2,000 attendees taking part in the Texas Fatherhood Summit.

Engaging Fathers in Home Visiting Services
The importance of involving fathers in home visiting programs, biases that may disrupt home visitors’ work with men, and steps home visitors can take towards better engaging fathers.

Supporting Respectful Partnerships: Coparenting 
Florida’s Partnership Plan for families with child welfare involvement calls for caregivers and agency staff to partner together to assist birth parents in improving their ability to care for and protect their children. More importantly, it provides that all will act in a supportive and respectful manner that allows children to maintain ties to their family. This “Just In Time” training covers expectable challenges and keys to building successful coparenting partnerships.

For DCF’s Project Launch: IFMH Concepts and Considerations
Led by a partnership between the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Florida Department of Health, Florida’s Project LAUNCH supported families of young children on the Lealman Corridor, an area consisting of four zip codes in Pinellas County. This video was designed to offer basics about infant-family mental health for the project team.