Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy
Promoting Personal and Social Change

Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy, a nonprofit educational institute in Chapel Hill, NC, has maintained a reputation of excellence in providing psychological services for the public and the highest quality of training for mental health professionals for over 50 years.

The Institute began in 1969 with a grant from the Irwin Sweeney Miller Foundation to work with groups of blacks and whites in the southeast to promote racial and economic justice under the name of the Fellowship for Racial and Economic Equality (FREE). It also received a grant from the Lily Endowment Foundation to train counselors, deans, and faculty from historically black colleges and universities throughout the southeast.

In 1973, the Institute began a Master of Arts program in psychotherapy and social change in conjunction with a college in San Francisco and graduated 23 students from that program in 1975. The Institute’s name was changed to the Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy to reflect its expanded focus.

In 2019, the Institute celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a Conference in Raleigh, NC with the title, “Promoting Equality and Okayness: Healing the Divisions in Our World.” The Institute fosters healing through creating community in supportive group work, workshops, and training programs where participants can experience their worth, value, and dignity and the worth, value, dignity of others in a nurturing and safe environment.

“Part of the Institute’s uniqueness lies in the combination of providing direct clinical services which informs its teaching and training, and teaching and training therapists which informs it’s therapeutic services,” says Vann Joines, Ph.D., psychologist, and Director of the Institute.

Traditional academic programs mainly provide theoretical knowledge of how to work with individuals in psychotherapy. The Institute provides the experience of “learning by doing,” by having participants work with each other under the direct supervision of the faculty, to help participants discover what works and what doesn’t. The Institute strives to stay on the cutting edge by providing the latest methods that are the most effective in helping clients change, several of which have been developed by the Institute faculty.

Southeast Institute currently provides individual, group, couple, and family therapy to the public and training programs to professionals in over 40 countries.

It also offers weekend workshops for couples and individuals to make desired changes in themselves and their relationships. These workshops help participants develop awareness, spontaneity, and the capacity for healthy relationships with others.

“We foster healing through the creation of community in group activities and workshops, nurturing trust and belonging among participants as they discover their own value and the value of others for a profound sense of well-being,” says Dr. Joines.

An online personality questionnaire has been developed by Dr. joines to assist individuals in discovering the personality adaptations they developed within their family both to survive psychologically and to meet their parents’ expectations. This approach provides an important key for understanding oneself and others and knowing how to relate best in therapy and personal relationships.

Along the same line, Dr. Joines has developed ‘trauma resolution energy therapy’ for trauma treatment, and teaches a therapy process for helping people discover and change their childhood coping strategies that no longer work for them, in order to create the life they want for themselves in the present.

For instance, a college student with a previously strong academic record recently sought therapy because he was failing a course in the last semester of his senior year. Using the approach of redecision therapy, the therapist found that the student’s early decisions of how best to take care of himself in childhood was causing his present difficulties.

The underlying cause of his difficulty was his fear of outshining his parents’ who hadn’t gone to college. As a child, he believed that if he succeeded where his parents had not, they would feel shame and reject him. Through the therapy, he had a conversation with his parents in which he discovered that they would continue to love and support him if he succeeded where they had not. This realization allowed him to pull up his grades, resulting in a successful graduation.

Southeast Institute is HIPAA compliant and approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists and approved by National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an education provider.

With over five decades of experience, the Institute has trained numerous therapists throughout the world. It is committed to remaining at the forefront of therapy training, supporting therapists in developing innovative and effective approaches to their clinical work.

Currently, Southeast Institute facilitates international teaching and training online, in groups, as well as in individual sessions, and offers workshops fostering resilience, unity, and inner peace. The Institute serves a diverse population, including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, and students in training, as well as individuals, couples, and families seeking psychotherapy.

The trajectory of the Southeast Institute from its inception to its current standing underscores its resolute dedication to healing, transformation, and equality—making the world a better place for all.