Join us May 2018 for the Thought Leadership Speaker Series: Let’s Talk featuring,

Dr. Willam D. Allen

“Family: how and where relationships are learned…”

Families are the crucible in which humans first encounter (and later develop) the social skills that enable them to succeed in life. Despite their great diversity, there are basic functions that all families provide for their members and the social contexts in which they are embedded. This talk explores several of these factors and explains why focusing on the family level is critical to effective social services.

William D. Allen, Ph.D. is a licensed marriage and family therapist and owner of Healing Bonds, a private practice located in the Twin Cities in Minnesota (U.S.A.) where he provides psychotherapeutic services to individuals, couples and families. Dr. Allen also provides clinical consultation to social service agencies, and to state and local government on a range of subjects related to family mental health and well-being. He is Adjunct Professor in the graduate Counseling Psychology program at the University of St. Thomas, the Family Social Science Department of the University of Minnesota, and his research interests include the intersection of family process and ethnicity, and the important roles males play in family life across the lifespan.

Dr. Allen is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and has served on the boards of the University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Youth and Families, the Minnesota Association of Black Psychologists, the Minnesota Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and is currently President of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR), the publisher of the premier journals in the family field including the Journal of Marriage and Family, the Journal of Family Theory and Review, and Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies. His own publications include exploration of effective therapies for youth of color in the nation’s child welfare system and African-American males, and clinical implications of research on marriage and parenting in culturally diverse families.