Oxford Symposium 2008

Please select from the options below:

Objective and Overview
Conference Organization and Schedule
Accommodations and Conference Facilities
Cost of Attendance

Objective and Overview
The Oxford Symposium is an invited, residential, international conference limited to twenty-five to thirty invited Members and their Guests. Oxford Symposium members are experienced practitioners, researchers and theorists worldwide working at the leading edge of School-Based Family Counseling. School-Based Family Counseling is a synthesis of School Counseling and Family Counseling. The model’s emphasis on a family systems approach is designed to promote the academic success and personal growth of children counseled primarily in the school setting. The project’s objective is to make visible the “invisible college” of international experts in School-Based Family Counseling and to provide opportunity for information exchange, co-operation and collegial networking amongst the pioneers of this paradigm shift. Symposium Members come from diverse professional disciplines and include: counselor educators, social workers, school administrators, counselors and principals, psychologists, family therapists, physicians, psychiatrists, experts in counseling theory and practitioners in social psychology, public policy and the law. For 2008 the Symposium returns to our home base at Brasenose, Oxford after an absence of a year, during which the 2007 Symposium was held at Robert Black College, Hong Kong University. The international college of Oxford Symposium members now includes representatives from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, Israel, Lebanon, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The 2008 Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling is an intimate residential think-tank with the number of members kept small enough to promote cohesion and a high level of participation. Symposium Members may present or co-present a formal paper (30 minute presentation), either individually or as part of a panel: between fifteen and nineteen presentation slots are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Papers may be presented on any aspect of School-Based Family Counseling, including: interventions, aspects of theory, program descriptions and outcome research, applications of the model to the reduction of school and family violence, and individual case studies. Symposium presenters may write a formal paper, either ahead of the conference or subsequently, and may elect to submit the paper to the editorial board of the International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling.

One quarter of Symposium Members return to participate in a successive Oxford Symposium and almost one half of those attending the Oxford Symposium in Hong Kong in 2007 were returning Symposium Members. The success of the Oxford Symposium conference project is further demonstrated by ongoing national and trans-national collaboration between Symposium Members in teaching and research and by the formation of the International Council for School-Based Family Counseling.

For program highlights of the 2007 Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling, with a list of papers presented, with abstracts, and a program of tours and excursions, visit the (soon to be posted) web page.

For program highlights of the 2006 Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling, with a list of papers presented, with abstracts, and a program of tours and excursions, visit the 2006 Oxford Symposium web page.

For program highlights of the 2005 Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling, with a list of papers presented, with abstracts, and a program of tours and excursions, visit the 2005 Oxford Symposium web page.

For program highlights of the 2004 Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling, with a list of papers presented, with abstracts, and a program of tours and excursions, visit the 2004 Oxford Symposium web page.

For program highlights of the 2003 Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling, with a list of papers presented, with abstracts, and a program of tours and excursions, visit the 2003 Oxford Symposium web page.

Conference Organization and Schedule
Oxford Symposium Members and their Guests will live in residence at Brasenose College and will share all meals together in the sixteenth century Great Hall. Located at the heart of the mediaeval city of Oxford, adjacent to the Bodleian Library and Sheldonian Theatre, Brasenose was founded in 1509 and is one of the oldest of Oxford University’s thirty-nine colleges. During the mornings Symposium Members will meet in session for presentations and discussion while Guests will attend a specially arranged morning cultural program. During the afternoons Members and Guests will together tour selected Oxford colleges and institutions; the Symposium cultural program will include private visits to parts of colleges not normally accessible to the public as well as a visit to the spectacular Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.

Accommodations and Conference Facilities
The Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling contracts with Brasenose College for the provision of accommodation and conference facilities.

Symposium Members and their Guests will reside in rooms vacated for the summer by Brasenose undergraduates. The eighteenth century rooms in Old Quad are bright and well furnished with some period features and antique pieces. Some double-bedded rooms are available for couples in New Quad. All rooms have en-suite bathrooms, the majority with bath and shower.

Lecture Room 11 in New Quad is reserved for use by the Symposium. This lovely, light, oak-paneled Victorian room has high ceilings and large stone-mullioned, leaded-light windows affording pleasant views across the quad. Facilities for Powerpoint, OHP and video are available to Symposium presenters.

Cost of Attendance
The cost of attending the 2008 Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling is:

USD $2,250 for Members *
USD $1,350 for Guests
Symposium registration rates cover the cost of the Symposium for Members and accommodation and all meals (including wines) and cultural program for Members and Guests; Symposium Members and Guests pay their own travel expenses; registrants are allocated places on a first-come, first-served basis.

* the rate for Ordinary Members is subject to reduction if an early reservation is made:

before 31st October 2007 $2,050
before 30th November 2007 $2,150
after 30th November 2007 $2,250

Symposium Members and Guests make one payment at the time of registration unless awaiting funding approval; Symposium Members awaiting funding approval make an initial registration deposit of $500; this initial deposit locks in the rate if registering before 30th November 2007.

Cancelation | Registrations paid are refundable in full before May 11th 2008; registration payments are nonrefundable after July 13th 2008; registrations canceled between May 11th and July 13th 2008 will be subject to a refund declining by 10% each week, ie. 90% of payment made is refundable if canceled by May 18th, 80% if canceled by May 25th and so on.

Contact | For further information or if you would like to recommend a colleague to the invitees' list, please email the conference coordinator, Peter Geiger MA, MFT, at ptrgeiger@aol.com