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Working with families is a central component of effective mental health practice, as families often play a significant role in a person’s recovery, support, and ongoing wellbeing.
Effective work with families requires skill. It involves clear communication, shared-decision-making, attention to strengths, and sensitivity to cultural, relational, and systemic factors that influence family functioning. It also depends on having practical tools, clear frameworks, and confidence to assess, engage, and collaborate in ways that support everyone involved.
HETI Higher Education’s Working with Families 8ALF019 microcredential is designed to build capability for working effectively with families.
Family inclusive practice recognises families as partners in care, valuing their knowledge, experiences, and capacity to contribute to positive outcomes.
By engaging families respectfully and collaboratively, clinicians can:
This short, fully online unit introduces the core elements of working with families in mental health practice. It explores key principles of family therapy, including how to assess family systems and apply collaborative approaches in real-world settings.
Students learn how to engage families respectfully and effectively, while considering factors such as culture, family structure, and life stages. The unit also supports students to evaluate how family therapy approaches can be applied within their own workplace context.
The focus is practical, helping professionals feel more prepared to involve families in care.
The unit follows a clear progression:
Week 1: Working with Families in Mental Health Practice An introduction to key principles and the role of families in supporting mental health outcomes.
Week 2: Engaging and Interviewing Families A relational and whole-of-family lens is used to explore engagement and interview techniques with a focus on the first family interview.
Week 3: Systemic Family Therapy Focusing on key systemic family therapy ideas and practices and their application in a practice setting.
Week 4: Narrative and Solution Focused Brief Therapy Exploring application of narrative therapy and solution-focused brief therapy approaches to working with families.
Week 5: Applications to Practice Application of family-focused approaches within work settings.
For many professionals, time is a barrier to further study. This microcredential is designed to fit into real working life. It is:
This unit contributes credit toward HETI Higher Education postgraduate qualifications, including the Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma.
For those looking to deepen their mental health expertise or move into more senior or specialised roles, the ability to work effectively with families is a valuable skill. Each microcredential builds confidence and supports ongoing career development.
This unit is ideal for:
Involving families can make a meaningful difference, but it requires the right approach.
The Working with Families 8ALF019 microcredential offers a practical skills to help you engage families with confidence, navigate complexity, and support better outcomes for the people you work with.
Learn more or enrol now
