Author: Beth Sharkey, MSW

Advancing Supervisory Skills in Responding to Children and Families in Crisis

Posted on May 2, 2023August 8, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Fri, January 19, 2024
9 am – 12 pm
Instructor: Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II

This workshop seeks to help social work supervisors to support staff working with children and families in crisis using various supervision models. Supervisors will learn to guide their staff in assessing the diverse needs, strengths, and limitations of their clients. The workshop will also explore techniques to support staff in ethical practice and effective communication with children, family members and family groups.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

Support supervisees in understanding and recognizing signs and symptoms of mental illness in children and adolescents
Teach supervisees to comprehensively assess the needs of children and their families in crisis
Engage supervisees in collaborating with inter-professional teams to engage appropriate systems in response to clients’ needs
Guide supervisees in developing effective communication with children and their families
Support supervisees to use culturally informed, ethical, and equitable approaches to working with children and their families
Assist supervisees in navigating complex issues of confidentiality and mandated reporting in service to children and families

Competing In The System: Fostering Athletics

Posted on April 18, 2023April 18, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Qur-an Webb, MSW

Webinar
Wed, May 24, 2023
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
1.5 CECs

Children in foster care often face many obstacles, including the opportunity to participate in sports. Unfortunately, many children in foster care are unable to participate due to systemic constraints and other barriers. Participating in sports can provide numerous benefits for children, including improved physical health, greater socialization skills, and an increased sense of belonging. Qur-an Webb brings his unique experience as both a social worker in the child welfare field and as the co-founder of the Association of Black Sports Officials. Mr. Webb designed this training to help attendees understand the issues that foster children face in sports and how to encourage their participation.

Participants in this webinar will learn:

the benefits of sports for kids in foster care
the challenges and obstacles foster kids face in participating in sports
how to encourage participation and provide necessary support

Using Implementation Science to Enhance Practice Changes

Posted on March 21, 2023March 30, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Patricia D. Wilcox, LCSW
Friday, April 28, 2023
In-person
9:30 am – 12:30 pm
3 CECs

$60 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$75 – All Others

Social workers are often leaders in implementing practice changes within their programs. Whether the change is starting an evidence-based practice, transforming towards trauma-informed care, becoming more anti-racist, involving families in a new way, scaling up a pilot project to an entire agency, or something else, change is hard. Even when staff agree in theory, it is often difficult to alter daily practice. 75% of change efforts fail because organizations or communities weren’t ready for the change.

Luckily, there’s actually a science of how we can create change. Implementation Science is about using strategies to change people’s behavior. It’s going beyond just awareness and knowledge to really change behavior. Implementation Science is the study of methods to promote the adoption and integration of evidence-based practices, interventions, and policies into routine health care and public health settings to improve the impact on population health.
We can use this knowledge to become more skillful in our own change efforts. Underlying the practice of implementation is a science of implementation that addresses:

• What are the best strategies to change people’s behavior?
• What kind of implementation supports might you need to support people to actually use those strategies?
• What are the different contextual factors that can affect implementation?
• What predicts sustainability?

Participants are urged to bring ideas about a change effort in which you are currently immersed or one you are contemplating. You will leave with an implementation plan and some tools to use with your initiative. Teams who are working together will benefit by attending this training together and working collaboratively on their plan.

We will use the theory and tools of Implementation Science to look at the core components of implementing, including:

Forming and maintaining relationships
Defining the why
Selecting the intervention
Defining who will be doing what differently
Assessing barriers and facilitators
Selecting and enacting strategies
Planning for sustainability
Evaluation

As a bonus, the seminar will include an optional virtual follow-up session during which participants can share their progress with each other and learn from each other’s experiences.

At the conclusion of this seminar, participants will be able to:

1. define Implementation Science and list its primary components
2. create an implementation plan which includes the why, who, and how of a change
3. analyze the barriers and facilitators for their proposed change
4. develop a specific plan of strategies to address the barriers they face
5. develop and plan to measure their efforts and increase sustainability

The seminar will be informed by materials adapted from The Center for Implementation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, notably:

Moore, J.E., Khan, S. (2020). Implementation, Spread, and Scale Course and Workbook. The Center for Implementation: Ontario, Canada.
Moore, J. E. & Khan, S. (2022). StrategEase: The HOW of Creating Sustainable Change Course and Workbook. The Center for Implementation: Ontario, Canada.

Building a Private Practice – Live Virtual

Posted on March 20, 2023May 1, 2024 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Live Webinar
Tues, July 9, 16, and 23
10 am – 12 pm
6 CECs – participants must attend all 3 sessions to earn CECs

Registration Fee: $150
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and Current SSW Field Instructors

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Welcome to the Building a Private Practice Series. This training is not only for people who are thinking about starting a practice, but also for those who have an existing practice. It’s never too late to make some adjustments to your practice that will help it grow more effectively. This training relates to direct practice as it aims to help the clinician build a practice that will benefit the clients it serves and ensure their practice adheres to the strictest of ethical principles. Participants will learn how to build a private practice that meet the needs of the clients they serve and strengthens both the client’s treatment experience and the profession as a whole.

This training is split into 3 consecutive Thursday webinars. Participants must attend all 3 sessions to earn CECs.

PART I covers the top mistakes people make in private practice, and begins to layout the framework for building a better one. We will explore the nuts and bolts of who, why, where, and when to open a private practice. Then we will dive into how to set up your practice with your own policies and procedures.

PART II begins with ironing out all the financial aspects of your private practice, including how to set a fee schedule, how and why to work with insurances, how and why to work with private pay options, bank accounts, insurances, and taxes. We will then lay out all the clinical paperwork you need to safeguard your practice the right way.

PART III begins with a discussion of how to market your business, where you should focus and what you should ignore. We then round out the series by exploring how to develop your practice, how to effectively close your practice, and how to troubleshoot your practice when it isn’t growing as you would like it to grow.

Using the EMDR Recent Event Protocol with Homicide Survivors and Victims of Other Violent Crimes

Posted on February 9, 2023February 14, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Donald F. deGraffenried, LCSW, Senior EMDR Trainer
April Minjarez, PhD, LMFT, Senior EMDR Trainer

Fri, March 17, 2023 – In-person
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
6 CECs
This training is approved by the EMDR International Association for 6.00 credits. Approval #08012-19.

$120 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$150 – All Others

This in-person training is suitable for all levels of EMDR practitioner, however participants must have at a minimum taken Part I EMDR Training, by an EMDRIA Approved training provider. Only those who have fully completed EMDR Part II training, will be able to claim and use EMDRIA credits towards certification or recertification.

Homicide is a stark reality in the United States and claimed over 24,576 victims in 2022. The EMDR Recent Event Protocol is a key tool used in the treatment of victims/survivors and offers a structured and effective way for clients to desensitize and recover from the trauma of the murder of a loved one.

Co-Trainers April Minjarez, Ph.D. and Donald F. deGraffenried, LCSW, will explore the effective use of the Recent Event Protocol as it pertains to homicide victims and victims of other violent crimes. This will include a review of the protocol, engagement of the client, assessment, and effective use of a ten session, time-limited model of treatment. This seminar will also address the use of EMD, Eye Movement Desensitization, for desensitization when use of the full 8-phase protocol may not be possible.

The day will include a case study of successful treatment, including a demonstration via role-play of a simple visual tool to help in the assessment and treatment of the client. In addition, the trainers will explore the impact of historical trauma and how it pertains to race, class, and culture.

This seminar will include lecture and numerous, brief clinical examples of the successful use of EMDR Recent Event Protocol with homicide survivors and other victims of violence. An audiotape of an interview with a homicide survivor who has been treated with EMDR will also be used to bring “the voice of the survivor” into the training.

This seminar will enable you to:

identify and describe the three crisis issues related to homicide and other violent crimes
define the Recent Event Protocol/EMD and employ them in the assessment and treatment of trauma related to homicide and other crimes of violence
demonstrate an understanding of the Visual Assessment Tool (VAT) in the assessment and treatment of homicide trauma/crimes of violence
apply five or more specific EMDR techniques to work successfully with survivors of violence in community mental health settings
experience and describe how historical trauma: race, class and culture are important in treatment
understand the appropriate use of Phase One, Phase Two and Phase Three in the use of the Recent Event Protocol

Please bring a small stone that will easily fit in the palm of your hand. We will demonstrate a powerful, yet simple experience of mindfulness to use with clients or yourselves.

Developing Comfort and Confidence with Tapping (EFT)

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Catherine Ewing, LCSW, MDiv
Friday, March 24, 2023
In-Person
9:30 am – 1:30 pm
4 CECs

$80 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$100 – All Others

This workshop is a great follow up for those who have taken Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom Technique: Care for Clients and Practitioners, for those who have taken any Entry Level EFT class or been practicing on their own. Based on feedback from prior participants, a follow up class has proven helpful in deepening understanding and developing confidence in using EFT.

Getting comfortable using EFT comes with practicing on yourself and with clients who are generally well-functioning but may be struggling with anxiety, physical pain, intrusive thoughts, self-limiting beliefs or life changes. The more you use EFT and see the consistent positive results, the less strange it will feel and the more opportunities you will find to use it for your own self-care and for your clients.
This workshop will include a review of the Basic Recipe for tapping, including tapping points, set-up phrase and basic tapping protocol. Additional topics to be introduced and further explored will be the Personal Peace Procedure, Tapping to Install Positive Beliefs, Borrowing Benefits, and how EFT dovetails with the Law of Attraction.

There will be ample time for group tapping, demonstration with class participants, and Q&A.

Learning Objectives:

Develop more comfort and confidence using EFT for self and with clients
Understand the Personal Peace Procedure and its appropriate use
Learn protocol for Tapping in Positive Beliefs
Learn about the power of Borrowing Benefits in group settings
Understand the energetic integration of EFT and the LOA

Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom Technique

Posted on February 8, 2023February 28, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Catherine Ewing, LCSW, MDiv
Friday, March 3, 2023
In-Person
9:30 am – 1:30 pm
4 CECs

$80 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$100 – All Others

Room location and directions will be included in your confirmation email.

Emotional Freedom Technique is a form of Energy Psychology, combining psychotherapy and energy healing techniques. It is based on the understanding of the human body as an electrical system and the recognition of the systems of subtle energy that surround and interface with the physical body. When that energy system is disrupted, a person experiences mental, emotional, or physical imbalance.

Various forms of Energy Psychology have been practiced since the early 1980s. In recent years, EFT has been researched in more than 10 countries, by more than 60 investigators, whose results have been published in more than 20 different peer-reviewed journals.

In this engaging in-person workshop, participants will learn how to use Emotional Freedom Technique both for their own self-care and for working with their clients, students, colleagues, and families.

• learn about the psychological and medical roots of EFT
• learn the Basic Recipe and Tapping Sequence of EFT
• understand how EFT can be used to bring down high emotional charge in both current issues such as anxiety and fear, as well as from past trauma
• have a direct experience of the benefits of tapping
• learn how to use Emotional Freedom Technique with their clients and for their own self-care

Understanding Grief in Children/Teens in Foster/Residential Care

Posted on January 12, 2023January 12, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Ruth Pearlman, LCSW, LICSW, M.ED
Wed, March 29, 2023
10 am – 12 pm (ET)
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

As social workers, we tend to have limited training in the grief of children. How they cognitively and psychologically understand loss is often omitted from our core learning objectives. For children in foster or residential or alternative care, the research is even more limited. This webinar will focus on the specific bereavement and grief experiences of children in alternative care. We will explore how a child, to even “be” in alternative care, is to be a griever. Any alternative care for a child, by its very definition, requires that the child in care has either lost a family member(s) to actual death or another form of loss that often feels like a death.

How have we systemically viewed these grieving children? Are we more likely to diagnose their expressions of grief as negative behaviors? Can the most oppositional child we treat be among the most bereaved children we have encountered?

This webinar will examine children in alternative care as disenfranchised grievers. We will address the bereavement needs that so often, and unintentionally, go untreated. We will also explore why this grief has been systemically undertreated due to a system that was never given adequate resources to address the bereavement needs of these children.

Participants will:

be able to identify the common symptoms of grief experienced by children in care
be able to identify how grief manifests in behavioral symptoms
learn positive interventions to address grief and loss issues of children in alternative care

Developing Comfort and Confidence with Tapping (EFT)

Posted on January 11, 2023January 11, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Catherine Ewing, LCSW, MDiv
Monday, March 27, 2023
10 am – 12 pm (ET)
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

This webinar is a great follow up for those who have taken Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom Technique: Care for Clients and Practitioners, other Entry Level EFT classes, or practicing on their own. Based on feedback from prior participants, this follow up class has proven helpful in deepening understanding and developing confidence in using EFT.

This webinar will include a review of the Basic Recipe for tapping, including tapping points, set-up phrase and basic tapping protocol. Additional topics to be introduced and further explored will be the Personal Peace Procedure, Tapping to Install Positive Beliefs, Borrowing Benefits, and how EFT dovetails with the Law of Attraction. There will be ample time for group tapping, demonstration, and Q&A.

Participants in this interactive webinar will:

Develop more comfort and confidence using EFT for self and with clients
Understand the Personal Peace Procedure and its appropriate use
Learn protocol for Tapping in Positive Beliefs
Learn about the power of Borrowing Benefits in group settings
Understand the energetic integration of EFT and the LOA

Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom Technique

Posted on January 11, 2023June 20, 2023 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Catherine Ewing, LCSW, MDiv

Monday, Feb 27
10 am – 12 pm (ET)
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

EFT has application across a broad range of issues, including stress and anxiety related disorders, PTSD, physical pain, self-sabotage, cravings and addictions and performance. It draws from a variety of proven modalities, including Thought Field Therapy, acupuncture, biofeedback, EMDR, hypnosis, cognitive behavioral therapy and applied kinesiology.
Various forms of Energy Psychology have been practiced since the early 1980s. In recent years, EFT has been researched in more than 10 countries, by more than 60 investigators, whose results have been published in more than 20 different peer-reviewed journals.

In this engaging workshop, participants will learn how to use Emotional Freedom Technique both for their own self-care and for working with their clients, students, colleagues and families.

In this engaging seminar, participants will:

learn about the psychological and medical roots of EFT
learn the Basic Recipe and Tapping Sequence of EFT
understand how EFT can be used to bring down high emotional charge in both current issues such as anxiety and fear, as well as from past trauma
have a direct experience of the benefits of tapping
learn how to use Emotional Freedom Technique with their clients and for their own self-care