Author: Beth Sharkey, MSW

Supervising the Ethical Clinician – Seminar

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-IIRegister Now for CE programs now
Friday, July 24, 2026
In-person at the UConn Hartford Campus
9:30 am – 3:30 pm (ET)
5 CECs

Registration Fee: $125
UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors receive a 10% discount

Room location will be included in your confirmation email.

This is an essential training for supervisors dedicated to fostering ethical excellence in their mental health teams. This program provides the knowledge, tools, and strategies needed to effectively teach and model ethical practices to clinicians. From navigating complex ethical dilemmas to upholding professional standards, this course empowers supervisors to guide their clinicians in making sound, ethical decisions. Perfect for those committed to cultivating integrity & professionalism within their supervision practice.

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn the vital components to successful supervision.
  • Examine the 5 keys to an ethical practice.
  • Explore the most common pitfalls to an ethical practice.
  • Learn strategies to manage common scenarios that challenge the interview.

Supervising the Diagnosing Clinician – Seminar

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-IIRegister Now for CE programs now
Friday, June 26, 2026
In-person at the UConn Hartford Campus
9:30 am – 3:30 pm (ET)
5 CECs

Registration Fee: $125
UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors receive a 10% discount

Room location will be included in your confirmation email.

Designed for supervisors eager to enhance their ability to teach and guide mental health clinicians in the art and science of diagnosis, this specialized training provides practical tools, strategies, and insights to help supervisors effectively support their clinicians in mastering diagnostic skills.

From understanding diagnostic frameworks to navigating complex cases, this program ensures supervisors are equipped to foster confidence and competence in their teams.

Learning Objectives

  • Examine core of the supervisory relationship and the needed tools.
  • Learn how to direct and redirect the path of the clinical interview.
  • Explore common diagnostic mistakes clinicians make.
  • Practice diagnosis using DSM5 through clinical vignettes.

Superior Supervision – Seminar

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-IIRegister Now for CE programs now
Friday, June 12, 2026
In-person at the UConn Hartford Campus
9:30 am – 3:30 pm (ET)
5 CECs

Registration Fee: $125
UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors receive a 10% discount

Room location will be included in your confirmation email.

Whether you are currently a supervisor, or interested in becoming one, this is a must-have training for mental health professionals looking to build a successful and impactful clinical supervision practice. 

This seminar provides a comprehensive toolkit, including essential strategies, frameworks, and resources to enhance your supervisory skills. From navigating challenging supervisory relationships to fostering professional growth and ensuring ethical compliance, this program will equip you with everything you need to confidently guide and support clinicians under your supervision.

Learning Objectives:

  • Explore the current state of supervision and needed improvements.
  • Gather effective theoretical orientations and models of supervision.
  • Examine the core components of the supervisory relationship and the needed tools.
  • Troubleshoot common challenges in supervision and how to address them.

You Related to Who? Defending, Uplifting, and Transforming Practice with Mixed-Race Individuals

Colleen Webb, LCSW, LICSW and Qur-an Webb
Register Now
Monday, June 22
Virtual
10 am – 12 pm (ET)
2 CECs, including cultural competency

Registration Fee: $50
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Practicum Instructors

Webinar link will be included in your confirmation email.

This training focuses on the practice areas of cultural competence, race, and ethnicity by looking at the lived experiences of mixed-race individuals and the judgments they often encounter. The session will explore common assumptions, stereotypes, and racial misidentification and pressures to “choose a side” and how these experiences affect identity development and mental health.

Participants will be able to reflect on how language, documentation practices, and personal bias can unintentionally invalidate a client’s self-defined racial identity. Also addressed will be accepting how individuals identify themselves without judgment and centering their lived experience of pain, confusion, resilience, and strength. Practical tools, advocacy and culturally responsive strategies for participants to implement will be discussed and explored.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify and critically look at common assumptions, stereotypes, and microaggressions directed toward mixed-race individuals, and explain their impact on identity development and mental health.
  • Demonstrate culturally responsive communication skills by applying strategies that affirm client self-identification, use inclusive language, and avoid racial misclassification in clinical, school, and community practice settings.
  • Develop actionable strategies to challenge and transform agency policies, documentation practices, and service delivery models that reinforce racial binaries or invalidate multiracial identities.

Marijuana: Miracle Drug or the Devil’s Lettuce?

William C. Gilbert, PhD, LCSW, AADCRegister Now for CE programs
Virtual
Saturday, July 11, 2026
10:00 am – 12:00 pm (ET)
2 CECs

Registration Fee: $50
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Field Instructors

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

With the increasing number of states legalizing recreation marijuana and other states approving the drug for medical purposes, the use of marijuana is becoming more popular. With this increasing popularity, the facts about marijuana and the effects on the brain and body are often misrepresented. Marijuana in neither the panacea that some claim, nor will its use lead to the downfall of our country. This webinar will present an unbiased discussion about the facts and myths about marijuana. The pharmacology of the drug will be reviewed as well as its benefits and negative consequences.

By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• describe the effects of marijuana on the brain and body
• distinguish between the myths and facts about marijuana
• describe the validated medical use of marijuana
• describe the cultural and societal effects of marijuana use

Clinical Documentation for Mental Health Professionals

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Register NowVirtual
Monday, June 8
9 am – 12 pm (ET)
3 CECs

Registration Fee: $75
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and Current SSW Field Instructors

Clinical documentation is more than “notes for the file.” It’s a clinical tool, a continuity-of-care roadmap, and a legal/ethical record of the services you provide. This training gives mental health professionals a practical, real-world framework for writing documentation that is clear, clinically meaningful, and defensible—without turning notes into novels.

Participants will learn how to document with intention: capturing the clinical story, supporting medical necessity, reflecting sound clinical reasoning, and aligning with ethical standards and payer expectations. We’ll cover what to include (and what to avoid), how to write notes that are both professional and human, and how to create consistency across intake, treatment planning, progress notes, risk documentation, and discharge.

This training is designed for clinicians across settings (private practice, agencies, community mental health, integrated care) and is appropriate for both early-career and seasoned providers who want to tighten up their documentation habits.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify the essential elements of clinically sound documentation across the full episode of care.
  • Write progress notes that clearly communicate clinical reasoning, client response, and medical necessity using behaviorally specific, objective language.
  • Develop treatment plan goals and objectives that are individualized, measurable, and aligned with the client’s presenting concerns and level of care.
  • Discuss how to identify stakeholders, anticipate their interest and needs, and modify documentation as needed.

Regulation Before Reasoning: A Neuroscience- and Attachment-Informed Approach

A Neuroscience- and Attachment-Informed Approach to Understanding Student Behavior

Regina Lester-Harriat, LMSW, Assistant Professor in-ResidenceRegister Now
Monday, May 18
Virtual
9 am – 12 pm (ET)
3 CECs

Registration Fee: $75
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Practicum Instructors

Webinar link will be included in your confirmation email.

This interactive training introduces school-based and clinical professionals to a neuroscience- and attachment-informed framework for understanding student behavior. Moving beyond traditional behaviorist interpretations, this session explores how the autonomic nervous system, trauma exposure, and attachment experiences shape students’ responses to stress, authority, and learning environments.
Participants will examine fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses as adaptive survival strategies, and learn how these responses often manifest in school settings as defiance, withdrawal, avoidance, or compliance.

Through case-based application and practical strategies, the training emphasizes the importance of co-regulation, relational safety, and culturally responsive, trauma-informed interventions.
Grounded in school social work practice, this session bridges theory and application, equipping participants with tools they can immediately integrate into their work with children, adolescents, and families.

Participants will be able to:

  • Describe the role of the autonomic nervous system in shaping behavioral responses in children and adolescents.
  • Identify fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses and how they present in school and clinical settings.
  • Explain the connection between attachment experiences and nervous system regulation.
  • Apply a neuroscience-informed lens to reinterpret student behavior and reduce mislabeling.
  • Implement practical co-regulation and relationship-based strategies to support student engagement and emotional safety.

From Arrest to Reintegration

Clinical Tools and Interventions for Supporting Justice-Impacted Clients and Their Families

Elia M. Johnson, LCSW
Register NowThursday, April 23, 2026
9:30 am – 12:30 pm (ET)
Live Webinar
3 CECs

Registration Fee: $75
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Field Instructors

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

This training provides a comprehensive overview of the criminal legal system, guiding clinicians through each stage- from arrest to reintegration – while examining the emotional, psychological, relational, and systemic impacts at every phase. Participants will explore how system involvement reshapes identity, mental health, family roles, and long-term stability.

Designed for social workers, therapists, and counselors, the session integrates trauma-informed and justice-oriented frameworks with practical clinical tools. Participants will learn evidence-based interventions including mindfulness techniques for emotional regulation, cognitive restructuring strategies for trauma processing, and family systems approaches to strengthen communication and repair relational strain. The training also offers strategies to build trust, foster resilience, and support individuals and families as they navigate reentry and move toward sustained healing.

Audience: Social workers and mental health practitioners at all levels.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the training, participants will be able to:

1. Identify key stages of the criminal legal process and their clinical implications.
2. Recognize common trauma responses experienced by justice-impacted clients and their families.
3. Apply trauma-informed, strengths-based interventions at different phases of legal involvement.
4. Support clients and families in navigating reentry and reintegration challenges.
5. Integrate ethical, culturally responsive, and person-centered practices when working with justice-impacted populations.

Supporting Clients with Chronic Illness and Medical Trauma

Marie Cortez, LCSW, CPLC
Register NowMonday, March 23, 2026
9 am – 11 am
Webinar
2 CECs

Registration Fee: $75
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and Current SSW Field Instructors

Clients experiencing chronic illness or medical trauma frequently face emotional challenges, including fear, grief, exhaustion, and uncertainty. These clients often suffer from anxiety and depression.

This webinar offers behavioral health professionals a compassionate, trauma-informed framework for supporting clients impacted by chronic illness and medical trauma. Attendees will learn how to provide emotional and nervous system support, validate lived experiences, and offer practical interventions that help clients feel more grounded, empowered, and supported within their medical journeys. The focus will be on strategies that acknowledge and respect both the psychological and physical realities encountered by these clients.

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Identify common psychological and emotional responses associated with chronic illness and medical trauma, including grief, hypervigilance, loss of identity, and burnout
  • Differentiate between trauma responses and adjustment-related stress in clients with ongoing medical conditions
  • Apply behavioral health interventions that support nervous system regulation, emotional safety, and self-advocacy in clients with chronic illness
  • Support clients in navigating identity shifts and boundary challenges related to medical care, caregiving roles, and fluctuating capacity
  • Practice ethically appropriate, scope-aligned interventions that complement medical treatment without minimizing physical symptoms

Social Work, Sports, and Society

Qur-an Webb, MSW
Thursday, March 12, 2026Register Now
Live Webinar
2 pm – 4 pm (ET)
2 CECs

Registration Fee: $50
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and Current SSW Field Instructors

This webinar explores the dynamic intersection of social work, sports, and societal issues, focusing on how athletics can serve as a platform for addressing social challenges. Participants will examine the mental health needs of athletes, the impact of race and gender in sports, and the crucial role of social work in supporting athletes, coaches, and officials.

Topics include mental health awareness and resilience-building and relationships within athletics. The training will also look into race while preparing participants to foster positive societal change through the lens of sports and social work.

Learning Objectives:
• Explore the role of social work in athletics and the fundamentals of mental health in sports
• Discussing the importance of fostering healthy relationships amongst the spectators, athletes’ coaches, and officials
• Explore diversity, inclusion, and strengthening self-worth and integrity in individual and team dynamics
• Develop strategies for managing goals, their impact on motivation, maintaining focus and achieving long-term success