Scroll down to find a summary of all our trainings:
When it's Not the Brady Bunch: Assessing and Strengthening your Clients' Parenting Skills
In this workshop participants will learn how to use the context of an office, school or home visit to observe parent-child interactions and assess for healthy vs. dysfunctional parenting styles. We will explore the roots of dysfunctional parenting, and identify several different types of ineffective parenting styles which will be illustrated with videos. We will address dynamics related to traumatized parents and the impact it has on their parenting skills and the therapeutic alliance, including the effects of triggering and traumatic transference..
We will process ways to approach clients about parenting issues and how to incorporate modeling, ego-strengthening, normalizing and dispelling "parenting myths" into treatment. We will discuss a specific parenting paradigm that fosters cooperation rather than obedience, and process strategies that are designed to improve communication and childhood self-esteem while enhancing clients' efficacy as parents. We will also address ways to model healthier parenting for our clients. We will also discuss ways to work with "resistant" or difficult caretakers, and how to confront abusive parenting without creating power struggles or alienating the client.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify at least three ways in which prior trauma impacts parenting skills.
2) Identify at least four different dysfunctional parenting styles.
3) Describe and utilize at least five strategies designed to foster cooperation rather than obedience in the parent-child relationship.
4) Identify at least three strategies designed to confront parents about "abusive" parenting.
The Impact of Domestic Violence on Parenting: If the Storm is Over, Why is it Still Raining?
In this workshop, participants will increase their knowledge about how interpersonal violence and abuse affects the parent’s ability to parent in a healthy, connected manner. We will identify specific parenting challenges for survivors of interpersonal violence and abuse. We will explore survival strategies that parents may adopt to cope with the traumatic stress of the abuse and violence. We will identify strength-based interventions to prevent or repair damaged parent-child relationships and to promote positive parenting. We will explore the healing process for both the parent and the child as they establish a safe and stable environment where they can have positive experiences.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify at least three ways in which being a survivor of interpersonal violence impacts parenting skills.
2) Identify at least ten maladaptive parenting survival strategies.
3) Describe and utilize at least five strategies designed to reinforce positive and nurturing parenting.
4) Identify ethical considerations and guidelines and strategies for therapist self-care in working with parents and children who have experienced interpersonal violence and abuse.
Using Yoga for Affect Regulation and Self-Care
It is well-known that yoga can improve mood, reduce anxiety and engender an overall experience of emotional renewal, balance, and clarity of thought. While the mechanisms by which yoga has these effects are not (as of yet) clearly outlined and investigated within the context of western medicine, the strategies are still available for clinical application. This workshop acknowledges the challenges of sufficiently learning specific techniques and modifying them for office settings and provides tips on how to do so. In addition to an introduction to effective yoga-based techniques for affect regulation and yoga-based cognitive interventions with clients, clinicians will be reminded of the value of identifying workplace burn-out. This workshop is specifically geared towards individuals who work with anxious and stressed clients- with symptoms ranging from mild to extreme. Manifestations including insomnia, obsessive thoughts, panic attacks and flashbacks will be addressed through yoga. The training will be both didactic and experiential so that techniques learned can be easily replicated and shared. It will include poses, breath-work and meditation. Together, we will learn about the nervous system, its physiological reactions to stress and how to manipulate it to facilitate an experience of ease. This workshop will also serve as a gentle (and enjoyable) reminder of the value of incorporating a regular practice of self-soothing techniques into challenging work environments in an effort to minimize workplace fatigue.
Learning Objectives:
1) Experience and gain knowledge of office-friendly mood management techniques for clients
2) Demonstrate how yoga therapy can be integrated into standard mental health practices
3) Enhance self-monitoring and self evaluation skills with regard to work-related stress
4) Learn interventions to manage symptoms of operational burnout
Interviewing Victims of Abuse: The Key to Getting It Right
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify at least five ways in which trauma effects memory and dissociation.
2) Describe at least four ways in which trauma impacts the way a sexual assault or DV victim might present to first responders.
3) Identify at least 4 contraindications for using The Reid Technique when interviewing this population.
4) Describe the "5 Musts" for sexual assault/DV investigations to enhance the efficacy of the interview process.
Assessing and Effectively Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Treatment of OCD is an enigma to most therapists, as typical talk therapy not only doesn't work, but seems to increase compulsive symptoms. Until fairly recently, with the advent of television talk shows, and intense research, OCD seemed to be a rare, untreatable mental illness. Although it is present in 2.5% of the population, most people with OCD tend to be adept at hiding their symptoms. In this workshop, participants will be taught the neurobiology of OCD, and learn how to accurately assess, and treat it through the use of cognitive/behavioral strategies. These include exposure/ritual prevention, and cognitive reprocessing. There will also be a summary of appropriate medications and chemical reasons for their use. Participants will be asked to bring in case examples for treatment planning.
Learning Objectives:
1) Understand criteria used to diagnose OCD, and differentiate between other disorders
2) Differentiate between obsessions and compulsions and understand how they work in tandem
3) Assess OCD and severity through use of the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) and Padua Inventory
4) Understand brain structures and chemicals related to OCD.
5) Learn how to set up a treatment plan, using cognitive restructuring, and exposure/ritual prevention
6) Use of participant's cases to explore treatment planning and practice treatment strategies.
Understanding and Treating Self-Injurious Behavior
Many clinicians are challenged and frightened by adolescents and adults who engage in self-harming behaviors. In an effort to decrease helping professionals’ anxieties and increase their knowledge base, this workshop will integrate information gathered from an extensive review of the literature with clinical anecdotes taken from the presenter’s work with clients who engage in self-injury. We will process categories, definitions and manifestations of self-injurious behaviors, and address issues of co-morbidity.
We will explore the myriad of reasons why clients hurt themselves with a special focus on the onset of self-injury as it relates to the developmental challenges of adolescence and the impact of neglect, trauma, and abuse. Participants will learn about a specific “cycle of self-harm” which emphasizes the impact triggering events, negative cognitions and affect, dissociation, and anxiety have on self-harming behavior. It also provides helping professionals with a concrete model for intervention.
A variety of creative and effective treatment strategies will be offered to help reduce and eventually extinguish the behavior. These strategies are also applicable to other manifestations of self-harm including: eating disorders and addictions. Helping professionals will learn specific ways to “work with” self-injury without engaging in power struggles, increasing the behavior, or relying on ineffective “safety contracts”. A more effective, alternative contract, called CARESS, will be presented. Clinical case examples, video, clients’ writings and artwork will be incorporated into the workshop.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify three categories and at least five characteristics of self-harming behavior.
2) Understand the onset of SIB and its relationship to trauma, parental absence, and the developmental challenges of adolescence.
3) Understand the cycle and perpetuation of self-injury, and the ways inwhich dissociation and anxiety influence the process.
4) Identify at least 6 reasons why clients hurt themselves.
5) Identify at least 5 intervention strategies, including CARESS, designed to avoid “power struggles” and eventually extinguish the behavior.
Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Practice
In this highly interactive three hour training, we will explore, in creative and fun ways, both the NASW and The Board of Social Examiners Code of Ethics and process the many red flags that indicate a possible deviation in the standard of care. Issues including: confidentiality; general conduct; the client-therapist relationship; sexual misconduct; boundaries; conflicts of interest; and termination will be discussed. Using case vignettes and video clips from popular films, participants will have the opportunity to discuss a wide variety of clinical scenarios that both subtly and overtly challenge professional ethics and trigger counter-transferential responses in the helping professional. This is an ethics workshop that will actually keep you interested and engaged!
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify at least five deviations in the standard of care regarding the general conduct of a clinician as outlined by The Board of Social Work Examiners.
2) Provide three examples of conflicts of interest in the client-therapist relationship as outlined by the NASW Code of Ethics.
3) Describe at least five red flags that indicate a possible deviation in the standard of care in the client- therapist relationship.
4) Identify at least three deviations in sexual conduct as described by The Board of Social Work Examiners.
5) Describe at least three ethical responsibilities regarding proper termination as outlined by the NASW Code of Ethics.
Diagnosing and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder
DID (formerly multiple personality disorder) is frequently misdiagnosed, under-diagnosed and misunderstood, creating anxiety, counter-transferential issues and intense challenges for treating clinicians. Both beginning and advanced practitioners working with or interested in learning about the creative coping strategies of childhood trauma and the dissociative process will benefit tremendously from this workshop.
Using case scenarios, videotapes, clients’ artwork, and journal entries, we will process six main areas of treatment including: dissociation and other symptomatology; diagnosis; safety, containment and other relevant treatment issues; creative treatment modalities; fusion, integration and life beyond DID; and common pitfalls that most clinicians encounter during the work.
Practitioners will gain newfound understanding of the disorder, learning to re-frame and de-pathologize many of the common “symptoms” and presenting problems. They will learn creative strategies to enhance their efficacy with issues including: identifying and working with alters; switching and co-consciousness; handling abreactions and flashbacks; and re-grounding dissociative clients. In addition, participants will strengthen their ability to maintain appropriate boundaries, set limits, and avoid vicarious traumatization.
Learning Objectives:
1) Define the dissociative process and how it evolves into DID for trauma survivors.
2) Describe the most common emotional, cognitive and behavioral manifestations of DID.
3) Diagnose DID by integrating subjective clinical red flags and objective standardized tests.
4) Identify at least five creative treatment interventions including: containment; self-soothing strategies; mapping; and creating internal safe places.
5) Identify at least five common pitfalls that therapists grapple with in their work with DID clients.
Making the Connection: Adolescent Substance Abuse and Trauma
Trauma adversely affects many of the neurobiological systems responsible for cognitive development and the regulation of emotions and behavior. For adolescents dealing with the effects of traumatic stressors, alcohol and other drugs initially may seem to alleviate some of this distress, either through increasing pleasurable sensations or through the avoidance of intense emotions that may follow traumatically stressful experiences. However, substance abuse perpetuates a cycle that makes it more difficult to recover from and to resolve trauma and may create additional traumatic experiences. In this workshop, treatment professionals will learn about the impact of adolescent substance abuse on a teenager's ability to manage and resolve childhood and adolescent trauma. We will process issues of co-morbidity in this population, including affect and anxiety disorders as well as PTSD. We will identify the trauma-related treatment needs of these clients, looking at assessment as well as creative ways to integrate treatment modalities that address both unresolved trauma and the symptoms associated with substance abuse. Clinicians will gain valuable tools that can help adolescents mange their arousal level and emotional states wihtout having to resort to the maladaptive strategy of substance abuse.
Learning Objectives:
1) Describe the impact of adolescent substance abuse on a teenager's ability to manage and resolve prior traumatic events.
2) Identify the relationship between child and adolescent traumatic stress and co-occurring disorders including: depression; anxiety; PTSD; and substance abuse.
3) Define the trauma-related needs of adolescent clients and incorporate them into the client's comprehensive treatment needs.
4) Learn about assessment and integrated substance abuse treatment strategies for adolescents impacted by traumatic stress.
5)Identify 5 creative treatment strategies and modalities to support adolescents in identifying and implementing adaptive coping methods to regulate arousal levels and modulate affect, while reducing the use of the maladaptive coping mechanism of substance abuse.
Loss in the Aftermath of Separation and Divorce: Finding Renewal, Recovery and Healing
The impact of separation and divorce is profound and significant. The trauma of marital loss deeply affects all members of the family. For these clients, holding themselves together and surviving can be an enormous challenge. Divorce can also offer our clients opportunities to rediscover themselves in ways they never imagined. This workshop will identify the ways in which clients can grow after separation and divorce including: healthy risk-taking; improved self-care; developing new interests and moving in new directions. Participants will learn how to guide healing and recovery by encouraging hope. Through case presentations and stories of strength and courage, clinicians will learn how to move clients from despair to transformation.
Learning Objectives:
1) Describe the emotional process of divorce and the dynamics associated with letting go while holding on.
2) Identify the psychological tasks children and adults confront while moving through separation and divorce.
3) Describe how to help clients identify their strengths and internal resources.
4) Learn how to encourage resiliency, vibrancy and healing after separation and divorce.
Core Issues in the Lifetime of Adoptive Families
This full day training focuses on the myriad adoption dynamics that exist within the adoptive family. It connects the issues to the developmental stages of adoptive family life. Discussion will include: an examination of who adopts and why; the types of children adopted; the definition of adoption that means the most to adoptive families; and consumer mentality as an enemy of adoption. We will also process where an adoptive family finds support and doesn't find support. Participants will come away with a hopeful explanation of the acting-out that happens with so many adopted children.
Learning Objectives:
1) Describe the definition of adoption as it is understood by adoptive families.
2) Identify strong social factors that work against adoptive families.
3) identify and positively re-frame the acting out behaviors of adopted children after the adoption is finalized.
Food for Thought: Eating Disorders and Trauma Survivors
Many clinicians treat eating-disordered clients with varying degrees of success. It is a difficult, persistent problem that is particularly challenging because of it chronicity and high relapse rate. In-patient settings barter discharge for “goal weight”, yet patients often return, with no greater insight into the behavior.
This workshop offers a paradigm shift, re-framing eating disorders as clients’ attempts to enact, re-story, and resolve traumatic experiences that they can’t verbally articulate. Using case studies, clients’ journal entries and artwork, we will process eating disorders within the context of “trauma re-enactment syndrome”. We will identify the specific ways in which anorexia, bulimia, and bingeing serve as a re-enactment and perpetuation of, and response to prior traumatization including physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect.
We will de-pathologize the behaviors and view them as metaphors. We will process common psychosocial triggers and cultural influences, as well as the diagnostic red flags and potential medical complications. We will explore specific treatment strategies designed to take the focus off of traditional interventions (dieting, calorie counting, food journals, weigh-ins) and focus, instead, on offering clients alternative, safe ways to articulate and re-story their trauma experiences. A variety of creative interventions will be offered, addressing both symptoms and long-term healing in an outpatient setting.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify at least five behavioral and psychosocial triggers that promote eating- disordered behaviors.
2) Define and explain the clinical red flags that indicate anorexia, bulimia and binge eating behaviors.
3) Describe the “meta-communication” of eating-disordered behavior and its relationship to the re-enactment and perpetuation of prior trauma.
4) Identify at least four medical complications related to anorexia, binge eating and bulimia.
5) Identify and describe at least five creative interventions designed to treat eating disordered-behaviors.
The Balancing Act of Dr. Melfi and Tony Soprano: Walking the Tightrope of Ethical Clinical Practice
In the popular HBO series "The Sopranos," mob boss Tony Soprano suffers from depression and anxiety and seeks out psychotherapy from Dr. Melfi. What ensues is a fascinating study in their therapuetic alliance replete with deviations in the standard of care, boundary violations, breaches in confidentiality, transference and counter-transference and other issues that test the limits of ethical practice. In this interactive workshop, participants will have the opportunity to process a variety of film clips from "The Sopranos," exploring the ethical issues that arise, while simultaneously using the NASW Code of Ethics and COMAR rulings to assess for deviations in the standard of care. Common ethical concerns related to conflict of interest, use of self-disclosure, limit-setting and the testing of boundaries, clinical decisions that undermine efficacy and objectivity, as well as appropriate guidelines for termination will be explored.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify common ethical concerns as they relate to boundaries, general conduct and confidentiality.
2) Provide three examples of how counter-transference creates deviations in the standard of care as outlined by COMAR and the NASW Code of Ethics.
3) Describe at least five ways in which clients' transferential responses test the limits of ethical practice.
4) Identify ethical guidelines for appropriate termination.
Grieving the Loss of the Drug of Choice
Grief has been defined as, “the intense emotional response to the pain of a loss”. For a person struggling with addiction, this loss can feel worse than a death. Grief, however, is an essential aspect of healing, and our clients must be allowed to grieve the end of the relationship with their “beloved” substance. This workshop will explore the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief, and apply them to the recovery process. Through the use of lecture, film, case studies, therapeutic exercises, and collective grief work, therapists will leave this workshop prepared to gently guide their clients from the pain of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, to the serenity of acceptance and peace.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify the 5 Stages of Grief and apply them to the recovery process.
2) Identify at least 4 components of “Inner Grief.”
3) Implement 2 treatment approaches to assist clients in the grieving process.
Transcending Pickles and Jams- The Art of Preserving Yourself: Decreasing Professional Burn-out
Oftentimes, we put so much effort and energy into helping others that we lose sight of the importance of taking care of ourselves. In this workshop we will process the inherent challenges mental health professionals face as they attempt to balance their clients’ needs with their own. We will define and explore co-dependency, processing issues including: family-of-origin dynamics; the need for control; the need for distraction; and internal vs. external validation.
We will identify the common characteristics of co-dependency including rescuing and enabling. We will address the many ways in which co-dependency manifests in the workplace and the impact it has on our relationships with clients and colleagues. We will also explore the risk factors and common features of vicarious traumatization and burn-out. Participants will learn about specific, creative strategies designed to reduce co-dependent interactions, improve boundaries, and increase self-awareness and self-care.
Learning Objectives:
1) Describe the clinical evolution, definitions and manifestations of co-dependency.
2) Explain the dynamics of rescuing and enabling as they pertain to the client/helping professional relationship.
3) Identify at least five ways in which co-dependency manifests in the workplace.
4) Define and utilize at least three strategies designed to increase self-awareness, improve boundaries and self-care.
Squaring the Pyramid: Effective Mental Health Care for the Elderly
The aging of America, termed by some as the “squaring” of the demographic pyramid, means that fewer and fewer young people are supporting more and more elderly. This means that older adults-burdened by both functional and mental impairments-are depending upon professional caregivers in numbers never before experienced.
Despite this, there is a disturbingly low utilization rate of outpatient mental health services by elderly due to lack of transportation, exaggerated reimbursement concerns, lack of outreach by providers, and the stigma some still attach to seeking mental health services.
This workshop will provide participants with proven guidelines for practice as well as a theoretical foundation of care. We will explore issues including: fostering healthy dependence within families; effective assessment of the elderly; using mind-body connections to enhance physical and emotional well-being; incorporating case management
into your practice; and when and how to utilize palliative care.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify specific ways to enhance a mutually dependent family unit that defines the problems of older adults in “family terms.”
2) Describe the special considerations that are necessary when conducting an interview to assess for functionality in the elderly.
3) Describe specific mind-body healing alternatives and age appropriate meditation techniques designed to eliminate unnecessary suffering.
4) Identify the steps involved in initiating palliative care to address end of life issues.
Overview of Common Drugs of Abuse: Understanding Effects, Withdrawal and Treatment
All Clinical Social Workers, LCPCs and other mental health professionals must work with clients and family members that struggle with use and abuse of various substances. Many clinicians do not receive even basic information on the various substances commonly abused by clients. It is important for all social workers to have at least a rudimentary understanding of the substances abused in our society, including their side effects, withdrawal phenomenon, and treatment of abuse. This half day workshop – taught by a physician with years of experience working with patients dealing with addiction issues - will educate Social Workers on the important aspects of the various drugs of abuse. Topics covered include the current theories of the neurobiology of addiction. Substances to be discussed include alcohol, nicotine, opiates, cocaine, marijuana, barbituates, amphetamines, hallucinogens, and others.
Learning objectives:
1) Describe the epidemiology of addiction in society.
2) Understand the current theory explaining the biology of addiction.
3) Identify the various side effects and withdrawal phenomenon associated with abused drugs.
4) Identify various treatment options for commonly abused drugs.
Introduction to Trauma-Focused Art Therapy
This full day workshop, using demonstrations and experientials, focuses on the basic principles of Trauma-focused Art Therapy. Recent research has shown that a multi-sensory approach with non-verbal interventions encourages therapeutic processing of traumatic material and promotes resiliency. In this exciting introduction to Art Therapy skills, guidelines will be presented on the appropriate and ethical use of art as an adjunctive tool in trauma therapy for the non-art therapist. Basic Art Therapy concepts and techniques will be explored both cognitively and experientially. An overview of developmental art stages and therapeutic use of art media will be offered. We will process the impact of trauma on the art, while incorporating several basic art techniques and interventions for trauma treatment within the developmental spectrum from childhood to adults. Several "beginner" art techniques appropriate for trauma interventions will be demonstrated or experienced for each of the developmental life stages. We will address treatment issues including: safe place; affect regulation; containment; assessing attachment; trust; boundaries; self-soothing and building resiliency. This foundation workshop will prepare you for the Level II art therapy and trauma training.
Learning Objectives:
1) Define art therapy including: the concepts of process and product; and directive and non-directive approaches.
2) Understand the current neuroscience research on trauma and art therapy.
3) Integrate guidelines on the appropriate, ethical use of art therapy skills for the non-art therapist.
4) Learn the therapeutic continuum of art media and introductory skills from pencils and pastels to paint and clay.
5) Describe the normal developmental stages of art and the impact of trauma on the art, while incorporating techniques for trauma treatment across the age spectrum.
TLC in Tough Times: Understanding and Helping Children Cope with Expected and Unexpected Life Cycle Events
Major changes in life, whether expected or unexpected, require the most adaptive coping skills in a person’s repertoire in order to effectively handle the immediate and longer term outcomes resulting from that event. Children, however, have limited coping skills and prior life experiences on which to draw when dealing with life changes over which they have no control.
Whether an expected life cycle event, such as separating from home and dealing with death, or unexpected life cycle events, such as divorce, serious illness, war and terrorism, children’s understanding, reactions and coping skills are mediated by their level of cognitive development.
This workshop will focus on understanding how children react and cope with changes in the life cycle based on their cognitive level of development. Workshop participants will gain an understanding of normative child develop and coping mechanisms and will be able to identify potential reactions to major changes in the lives of children. Using this understanding as a foundation, participants develop a repertoire of effective treatment techniques for helping children successfully cope with life changing events.
Learning Objectives:
1) Describe normative child development and coping mechanisms.
2) Identify a child’s reaction to expected and unexpected life events, based on child’s developmental stage.
3) Develop a repertoire of effective treatment techniques for helping children successfully cope with life changing events.
Hypnosis, Guided- Imagery and Focusing:Moving Beyond Talk Therapy
Oftentimes, clinicians and clients can feel “stuck” in their work together. Frustration ensues when material feels inaccessible or too frightening for clients to talk about in treatment. Traditional talk therapy doesn’t always adequately allow clients to retrieve, explore, and resolve difficult, traumatic, or suppressed thoughts, feelings, and memories. This workshop will enable participants to expand their therapeutic toolkits by offering both didactic information and many experiential opportunities to incorporate strategies that move their clients beyond talking and into a more internalized, focused, somatically-based and deeply felt place that allows for safe access and a working through of challenging material.
We will process and explore modalities including: permissive Ericksonian hypnotic inductions and re-storying techniques; relaxation and guided-imagery; Gene Gendlin’s paradigm for “focusing;” solution-focused techniques; and Peter Levine’s work with “somatic experiencing.”
Participants will learn how to enhance clients’ internal awareness and safety, strengthen self-esteem, improve sleep and self-care, reduce somatization, install a sense of hope and optimism, and safely access and re-story traumatic memories. In addition, these strategies can empower clients to be the best experts in their own healing, by helping them internally access the information and answers they need to improve their sense of well-being.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify at least three reasons why “talk therapy” stops working and why hypnotic and internally-based strategies can be successful alternatives.
2) Define the steps that are necessary when preparing a client for hypnosis or guided imagery work.
3) Describe and demonstrate an Ericksonian induction to create an altered state of awareness and relaxation.
4) Describe and demonstrate the process of “focusing” and its impact on somatization.
5) Identify at least two guided imagery exercises designed to enhance internal safety and assist with the re-storying of difficult memories.
Anger and Rage in Couples Work: Putting Out the Fire in the House
When an angry couple begins therapy, their rage and behaviors can be frustrating (and sometimes frightening) for therapists. The result? Apprehension, dread, and an inability to objectively view your couple as two equally wounded individuals, "dying" to connect on a deeper level.
This workshop begins with the premise that a) conflicts in relationships are actually an opportunity for growth and change and b) marriage (or a committed relationship) is the perfect setting to achieve the innately human goal of connection, and the higher spiritual goals of love, empathy, healing and forgiveness. This training will offer therapists the opportunity to explore their own growth journey and life experiences with anger. We will also process how to teach our clients to welcome healthy conflict in their committed relationships. The result? You, the therapist learning to actually look forward to the angry couple that will show up in your office!!
Learning Objectives:
1) Understand the purpose of conflict in committed relationships.
2) Incorporate the Imago principles of Mirroring, Validation, and Empathy into couples’ sessions.
3) Learn to assist couples in re-framing conflict as an opportunity to awaken to a deeper connection to their partners.
Elderly Alcohol Abuse: Managing Complex Issues and Achieving Results
Alcohol abuse has a more profound effect on the elderly than on younger counterparts, yet there is a “double denial” amongst the elderly population. They can minimize the problem by arguing “I am old and it does not matter that I drink” or stubbornly deny the issue with claims of “I am not an addict”. Furthermore, since the signs of dependency are very similar to other physical and emotional problems encountered by this population, the elderly can often disguise their addiction problems behind age-related physical changes, including heart and liver disease, gastrointestinal disease, problems with balance that cause falls, etc. Helping professionals who work with this population need to have a high index of suspicion in order to recognize client defenses and support the family. This workshop will provide participants with valuable tools, including checklists and hand-outs, to identify and help elderly patients with life-threatening alcohol and other substance abuse problems.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify the problem of alcohol abuse and how to set realistic treatment goals when working with the elderly.
2) Describe how to implement cognitive therapy, Twelve-Step programs, and alternative treatments to help the elderly deal with life transitions without alcohol.
3) Identify specific intervention strategies designed to address physical and mental impairment.
Ain't No Cure for the Wintertime Blues?
This fun, full day workshop will increase your insight and skill set by offering a template for mapping out effective treatment approaches for connecting with and helping clients with Seasonal Affective Disorder that often presents with "Post-Holiday" or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. You will walk away with a clear guide of an organic therapeutic process that you can apply immediately and with a wide range of clients. Creative learning techniques for the day will include: interactive small group exercises; processing films; use of the arts; and guided internal exploration; and demonstrations. In addition, we will didactically process the use of cognitive-behavioral and solution-focused interventions. We will also explore the role of medications in the treatment of this affective disorder.
Learning Objectives:
1) Describe the clinical features associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder.
2) Differentiate between vegetative symptoms that relate to "post-holiday" dynamics vs. PTSD
3) Identify and utilize at least four creative modalities designed to help clients process and resolve the symptoms associated with an affective disorder
4) Identify at least three strategies that incorporate cognitive-behavioral or solution-focused techniques.
5) Discuss the pros and cons of incorporating medication into the treatment regiment.
Art Therapy as a Tool in Trauma Treatment (Level II)
Art Therapy has long been accepted as a treatment modality in working with trauma survivors from childhood through adulthood. The use of non-verbal creative techniques enhances the trauma survivor's ability to express what is too painful to put into words and what has been stored as images on a non-verbal sensory/somatic level, both conscious and repressed. In this workshop, we will define art therapy and process the guidelines for using art therapy appropriately. We will explore the impact that trauma has on our clients including: sensory memories, affect dysregulation, polarized behaviors and cognitive distortions. We will then discuss how art allows memories to emerge through creative media, offering a safe and protective containment and lending a voice to silent victims. Participants will learn how art can be used as a tool to facilitate assessment and the "telling" and re-framing of trauma narrative. Clinicians will also learn how to use art therapy throughout the recovery process to create safe places and protective containers, address body image, enhance emotional vocabulary, and address sensory memory.
As we use art as a tool in trauma therapy, we will utilize a strength-based theoretical model which emphasizes client resiliency. Rather than relying on indicators or therapist interpretation, clinicians will learn how to ask the right questions to guide the client's own interpretation of their art. Slides of patients' artwork will be used to illustrate trauma case histories and help participants gain an understanding of art interventions. Participants will have ample opportunity to engage in art experientials which will teach both technical use of basic art media and effective art techniques for trauma treatment. Non-art therapists will increase their comfort level in knowing how to appropriately incorporate art therapy techniques into their ongoing work with traumatized clients.
Learning Objectives:
1) Learn basic art therapy theory and concepts as they relate to trauma treatment. Identify ethical and practical guidelines for non-art therapists.
2) Describe the technical use of art media on a therapeutic continuum. Describe art process and art product.
3) Identify at least 12 ways in which trauma impacts survivors on a physical/somatic, emotional, cognitive and behavioral level.
4) Identify at least 10 art therapy techniques that are effective interventions with trauma survivors.
Movement Therapy and Trauma Treatment: The Language of the Body (Level II)
Traumatic experiences become embedded in our bodies. Sexual, physical and emotional abuse interferes with the development of healthy embodiment, and the possibility of experiencing security and pleasure in the body. The ability to self-soothe as well as the capacity to feel grounded and centered in the comforting flow of physical sensations can also be compromised. The tools of dance/movement therapy (D/MT) can be especially useful when working with survivors because they unify the body and creativity as healing resources, when words are not enough. The body is not merely addressed in therapy but actually given a voice!In this workshop we will explore the process of movement therapy in trauma treatment through dance/movement structures and discussion. Participants will learn about several theoretical models and understand how they relate to trauma assessment and treatment. Clinicians will be given tools that can be used within the confines of a small office space and are applicable for both individual and group interventions. These strategies are designed to help clients gain access to the implicit memories that are encoded in body/mind and are often too difficult to share verbally. We will also explore mindfulness techniques that can teach survivors to observe thoughts, emotions, sensations and behaviors with compassion and without judgment while supporting regulation of emotional reactions and decreasing the symptoms of muscular tension often related to hyper-arousal. We will experience, identify and discuss common non-verbal defenses, strengthen our observation skills and understand how to work with movements "tags." Non- movement therapists will come away with concrete strategies that will enhance their ability to incorporate this valuable modality into their work with trauma survivors. Please wear clothing and shoes that support ease of movement.
Learning Objectives:
1) Learn 8 movement interventions designed to assist trauma survivors in achieving healthy embodiment.
2) Identify and describe 3 models commonly used in movement therapy assessment and treatment.
3) Learn 3 mindfulness movement exercises.
4) Identify and describe the 4 stage process of achieving healthy embodiment.
Hypnotherapy Techniques for Affect Regulation: Addressing Over-arousal in Trauma Survivors (Level II)
Clinicians who work with trauma survivors often find it difficult to "move forward" with therapeutic interventions as these clients are in constant "fight/flight," easily triggered, emotionally over-aroused, and need constant re-grounding. In addition, the depression and anxiety that often accompanies trauma can compromise and distort a client's cognitions, exacerbate somatic symptoms and deplete the energy that is necessary for behavioral change, trauma retrieval and reparative work. In this workshop, practitioners will learn how simple hypnotic inductions and interventions can quickly and effectively help clients achieve a deep state of relaxation and internal focus, thus freeing them up and empowering them to regulate the intensity of their emotional states. This, in turn, makes clients feel less afraid of addressing more potent memories and feelings in therapy, and frees the therapist up from having to constantly "put out fires" or "walk on eggshells" during sessions.
Using the precepts of Ericksonian Hypnosis, clinicians with all levels of hypnosis experience will learn, both didactically and experientially, how to safely induce trance states in session that are customized to meet the needs of each client. We will then apply the strategy of deepened relaxation to address issues including: stopping distressing or distorted thoughts; discharging
All Workshops Will Be Held at the Pikesville Hilton
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