Author: Beth Sharkey, MSW

Sacred Space: When Gender-Affirming Care Changes Us, Too

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Sarah Gilbert, LCSWRegister Now for CE programs
Friday, May 16, 2025
9 am – 12 pm
3 CECs*

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

This experiential workshop explores the profound reciprocal transformation that occurs in the practice of gender-affirming therapy. Mental health providers working with transgender and gender diverse (TGD) clients are not merely witnesses to their clients’ journeys and supporting them through transition, but are themselves changed through the process of creating and holding therapeutic space. Participants will examine both the challenges of vicarious trauma and the growth opportunities of vicarious resilience, developing concrete strategies for sustainable practice while honoring the sacred nature of this work.

Through multimedia presentations, reflective exercises, case discussions, and collaborative learning, participants will gain deeper understanding of their own experiences while building practical skills for integration and resilience. This workshop uniquely balances honoring the transformative impact of gender-affirming care with developing sustainable clinical practices in the current challenging sociopolitical environment.

Learning Objectives:

  • Participants will identify at least three ways in which their work with transgender and gender diverse clients has impacted their professional identity and clinical practice.
  • Participants will demonstrate two concrete strategies for managing vicarious trauma while maintaining therapeutic presence in gender-affirming care.
  • Participants will develop a personalized sustainability plan that includes specific boundary-setting practices, self-care rituals, and/or professional support mechanisms.

Social Work, Sports, and Society

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Qur-an Webb, MSW
Register Now for CE programs
Live Webinar
2 pm – 4 pm
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

Ethical Strains in a Politically Charged Climate

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Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-IIRegister Now for CE programs
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Live Webinar
9 am – 12 pm
3 CECs

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

Clinicians are faced with significant strains on the ethical boundaries of the clinical relationship in this politically charged climate. Exhausted and pressured, clinicians need support and tools to navigate these unique stressors on clinical practice. This training explores how different ethical principles clash under the unique pressures we face today, and offers the tools we need to address them effectively. Through case studies and interactive discussions, attendees will learn to balance advocacy with ethical boundaries while protecting the therapeutic alliance.

Learning Objectives:
1. Explore the specific ethical principles at risk of clashing.
2. Gain methods on how to build a healthy clinical relationship.
3. Gather tools to avoid ethical pitfalls in the therapeutic alliance.
4. Connect the concept of cultural humility with professional integrity.

Supervising in 2025: A Practicum and Continuing Ed Collaboration

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Register Now for CE programs

Who are our Supervisees and How Can We Use a Social Justice, Anti-Racist, Whole-Person Approach to Facilitate their Growth?

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Virtual
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
3 CECs – Provides 3 hours of content on cultural competency
Presenters: Patricia Wilcox, LCSW and Aminah Ali, LMSW

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

Multicultural workforces are the norm in social service and educational agencies. Though such diversity is positive in many ways, it can also create challenges for staff. Differences in culture and language may cause tension among employees, discomfort among groups or strained relations between employees, interns, and supervisors. Managers and supervisors must be aware of their own biases and assumptions and develop the skills to conduct difficult conversations with their supervisees. Together the two can create meaningful organizational change. In addition, our clients’ lives may be highly impacted by racism and inter-generational trauma. Supervisors can facilitate more effective programs by supporting supervisees to bring these issues into the discussions they have with clients.

This webinar focuses on trauma-informed supervision through a social justice and anti-racist lens, an approach to supervision that begins with the personal and extends to the professional. Personal histories, identities, characteristics, and psychological experiences of supervisors, as well as structural and environmental conditions of the organization, are aspects of supervision. This perspective promotes the role of the supervisor as a leader in establishing a culture within their team that is responsive to and inclusive of the cultures and unique experiences of clients and colleagues. Supervisors are encouraged to remain vigilant in their commitment to social justice and an anti-racist approach by leading their teams and organizations in achieving truly inclusive diversity.

Participants will be able to:

  • Find how to improve their interactions with supervisees by identifying the positionalities and unique experiences of supervisor and supervisee.
  • Appraise and discuss implicit bias and how it impacts the supervisory relationship and work with clients.
  • Implement 3 strategies for addressing power differentials and improve trust between supervisor and supervisee.
  • Explore dilemmas in supervising the whole person while maintaining agency mandates.
  • Develop a plan to increase their team’s ability to have difficult conversations around social justice.
  • Discuss with supervisees the applications of racism and inter-generational trauma-informed perspectives and prepare a plan to utilize this knowledge within their practice.

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Nobody Listens to Anybody: Developing Group Work Skills

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Developing Group Work Skills for Fostering Connection and Understanding in Groups During Divisive Times

Joan Letendre, LCSW, PhDRegister Now for CE programs
In-person
Friday, April 4, 2025
9:30 am – 4 pm
5.5 CECs

Registration Fee: $125
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Field Instructors

One of the benefits of membership in a group is that we are exposed to a variety of opinions and multiple ways of viewing the world and solving problems. In today’s increasingly polarized world, however, we often struggle to listen to points of view different from our own. This dynamic poses challenges in groups composed of diverse membership. Group leaders may also be impacted by these divisions as they struggle to keep a safe space for members to be heard and understood. Leaders must be sensitive to how the many kinds of diversity may impact interactions among members, prepare for how to skillfully manage participation so that everyone is heard, be comfortable discussing broader social issues that may impact members, and intervene in conflict when challenging issues arise. Understanding how to be aware of one’s own processes while skillfully and compassionately managing conflict in a group can greatly facilitate this process.

In this seminar, we will focus on the importance of the group leader’s awareness of their own feelings, opinions and responses to conflict, particularly around divisive societal issues. Development of specific skills that will facilitate difficult conversations will be emphasized. We will address the current larger social context (i.e. unequal treatment of persons of color by law enforcement, anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions, religious intolerance, anti-gay/trans policy) and how that may impact the lives of the members and the dynamics of the group. All discussion will be will be framed within a strength-based perspective.

Several teaching methods informed by participant feedback in a previous seminar, including lecture, small and large group discussions, individual and partner reflections, group activities and exercises and case examples will be used throughout the day. Development of a safe space and allowance of time will offer participants the opportunity to share their own group successes and challenges for problem solving and feedback.

In this seminar, you will:

  • develop an awareness of your feelings and become more comfortable in discussion of issues that may generate conflict
  • become aware of specific strategies for discussion of issues of difference that gives affirmation to many points of view
  • learn to include the broader social context when assessing the interactions of group members
  • become more comfortable using exercises and activities that may generate discussion of uncomfortable topic

Unmasking Gang Culture: Understanding & Addressing Gang Behavior

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Welcome 2 Reality
Thursday, November 20, 2025Register Now for CE programs
Live Webinar
6 pm – 8 pm
2 CECs – this program provides at least 1 hour of content on cultural competency

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

In this training we will look at the psychological and social factors that contribute to gangs and their historical roots and evolution in America to gain an understanding of the socio-economic factors that fuel their existence. We will examine the alarming intersection between gangs and Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST), shedding light on the complex dynamics that perpetuate exploitation. We will analyze the pervasive influence of media on gang culture, from its portrayal in movies to the role of music in shaping perceptions and recruitment. Finally, we will explore effective strategies and solutions aimed at addressing gangs, encompassing community-based interventions, law enforcement approaches, and preventative measures to create safer societies.

Participants in this webinar will:

  • understand the historical roots and evolution of gangs and the socio-economic factors that impact their existence
  • explore the psychological and social factors that contribute to the formation of gangs
  • examine the intersection between gangs and Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST)
  • explore a range of strategies aimed at addressing gang-related issues

Racial Justice and Implicit Bias: Fostering Authentic Engagement

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Provides 2 hours of content on cultural competence.

Qur-an Webb, MSW and colleagues from Welcome 2 RealityRegister Now for CE programs

Thursday, September 18, 2025
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
2 CECs
Webinar

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

The webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

This webinar will examine implicit bias, the differences between equality and equity, and how to recognize equitable practices. Participants will learn to talk about race constructively within their workplace, with colleague organizations, and with their clients by having conversations about racial justice work to help foster authentic engagement. The training will enable participants to apply what they know about racial justice and equity to build a further understanding and agreement. Participants will learn which facilitation tools to use when faced with hot button issues and how to lead conversations about race with presence, grace, and authority.

Learning Objectives:

  • Discuss how biases and discriminatory practices effects clients and their families
  • Explore strategies to help improve our work with the children and families we serve
  • Explore next steps for applying concepts and strategies to advance racial equity

Children and Grief: A Developmental Perspective

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Ruth Pearlman, LCSW, LICSW, MEd
Register Now for CE programs nowWednesdays, October 8 and 15, 2025
10 am – 12 pm
4 CECs – participants must attend both sessions to earn CECs

Registration Fee: $100
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and Current SSW Field Instructors

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

In response to feedback from participants in her previous trainings, instructor Ruth Pearlman has expanded this webinar to 2 parts. Even before COVID children were grieving losses that were not largely recognized or understood. COVID has magnified the grief experience of children on multiple levels. A child’s response to loss is dependent on many factors including age, emotional development, relationship, and social supports. Ms. Pearlman will explore children’s concepts of death and non-death losses applying Piaget’s Cognitive Theory to understand how
children conceptualize loss at each stage of development.

Day 1 will focus on lecture with ample opportunity to ask questions and interact with the instructor and other participants.  Day 2 will focus on the application of the content provided on the first day.

In this webinar, we will:

  • identify a spectrum of non-death losses in childhood
  • review Piaget’s Cognitive Theory and apply it to children’s understanding of loss
  • examine the role of magical thinking in children’s developmental understanding of loss
  • identify modern grief terminology
  • specifically examine the loss and grief trajectory in the lives of children in foster/alternative care

Control-mastery Theory: All Therapists Want to be Exceptional

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Jo Nol, PhD, MS, LCSWRegister Now for CE programs
Friday, February 28, 2025
9:30 am – 4 pm
5.5 CECs

Registration Fee: $125
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Field Instructors

Across all helping professions, research shows that techniques don’t lead to better outcomes. Have you ever wondered why the DSM doesn’t guide treatment more effectively? And, what explains why some therapists are better than others if it isn’t the theory they’re using?

Control-mastery Theory, emerging from decades of elegant research, can help answer these questions and provides ways to understand how therapy works across techniques, practitioners and clients. This perspective may be the best way to learn to be a better therapist.

In this introductory workshop you will learn the basics of this approach which you can begin to apply to your work right away. There is actually no evidence supporting the idea that one technique is superior over another. But there is strong research evidence for the therapist’s increased effectiveness when responding to an individual client’s particular problems and goals. This means to be effective and truly helpful therapists need to understand what the individual client wants and how they will use therapy to achieve those goals.

Control-mastery is more a stance than a list of techniques based on an empirically derived method of case formulation, called the Plan Formulation. The Plan Formulation approach provides a learnable framework for understanding a client’s conscious and unconscious goals, the beliefs and obstacles that prevent the client from pursuing their reasonable goals toward a more satisfying and functional life, traumatic experiences that contributed to the development of those obstacles, and what the most helpful stance is that the therapist can take. This theory helps you understand not only what to do, but how to be a particular client’s therapist.

This workshop will provide participants with the Control-mastery case formulation method and how to use it, an understanding of how trauma shapes beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, how the therapist attitude can help to change those beliefs, and be more flexible, creative, and case specific with clients.

  • Using lecture, discussion, and in-depth case examples demonstrating the application of this stance, participants will:
  • Learn the fundamentals of Control-mastery Theory
  • Understand how this theory advocates for an individual “client-driven” approach
  • Develop an appreciation for how necessary countertransference is and how to utilize it to deepen their understanding of what the client is trying to resolve
  • Understand the Control-mastery perspective on trauma
  • Practice application of the principles of the theory on clinical cases

Magical Thinking and Trauma Throughout the Lifespan

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Ruth Pearlman, LCSW, LICSW, M.EDRegister Now for CE programs

10 am – 12 pm
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.

Magical Thinking, the cognitive process of assigning direct cause and effect to life events, was once thought to only occur in young childhood. Recent research supports that Magical Thinking is present throughout the lifespan, especially when we are confronted with traumatic and/or grief events. This workshop will explore how the Magical Thinking of traumatic events in childhood forges a narrative of self-blame that the child brings into adulthood. We will explore how to clinically expose the destructive self-blame stories that clients have carried within themselves. We will explore ways to assist clients in reconstructing their narratives. This workshop will also examine elements of Magical Thinking that child perpetrators use to manipulate their victims into silence. Lastly, we will discuss the tendency for traumatically grieved clients to re-employ Magical Thinking in their guilt and shock over the deaths of loved ones.

Please note: This workshop will contain content regarding childhood sexual abuse and suicide.

Learning objectives:

1. Participants will be able to identify Magical Thinking throughout the lifespan
2. Participants will learn how to assist clients in reframing narratives that have been distorted by Magical Thinking Cause and Effect beliefs.
3. Participants will understand the role of Magical Thinking in the cognitive processing of grief.