The Sue Fairbanks Psychoanalytic Academy (SFPA) cultivates its study at the intersection of psychoanalysis and social work. The Academy is located within the Texas Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing at the University of Texas at Austin. Initially inspired by the Family Minds Project’s Lunch & Learn sessions, the Sue Fairbanks Psychoanalytic Academy will be expanding its initial research and outreach through two branches of thought: Community Education and Clinical Exploration. The goal of both branches will be to design courses around healthy attachment, mentalizing, and foster support for community members as well as professional social workers. By providing tools for everyone—regardless of credentials—this Academy serves as a vehicle for a deep and compassionate exploration and understanding of human suffering; as well as a way for social workers to address the healing of that suffering in the various settings where social workers practice.
Project Staff
Project Publications
- Reisz, S., Aviles, A., & Adkins, T. (2023). Foster parents’ attachment, trauma histories, and current parenting stress. Children and Youth Services Review.
- Adkins, T., Reisz, S., Doerge, K., & Nulu, S. (2020). Adverse Childhood Experience histories in foster parents:Connections to foster children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties. Child Abuse & Neglect, 104.
- Adkins, T. & Reisz, S. & Hasdemir, D. & Fonagy, P. (2021). Family Minds: A randomized controlled trial of a group intervention to improve foster parents’ reflective functioning.