Laurel L. Shortell, MSW, LICSW
Wed, Jul 20, 2022
6:00 – 8:00 pm
2 CECs

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

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

Individuals with Asperger / autism profiles live in a world that is designed for those who intuitively recognize non-verbal signals and who understand the nuances of social interaction. This can lead to unintended misunderstandings and challenges, even in therapeutic contexts dedicated to fostering well-being and mental health.

This webinar is intended to increase awareness of how neurodiverse adults and couples may experience and make sense of social interactions and how recognizing these perspectives can improve a clinician’s ability to understand and communicate effectively. Neurodiverse clients already navigate a world that is predominantly neurotypical. The therapeutic relationship should be a safe haven from such pressures and expectations, instead offering understanding and support.

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

• Understand differences that neurodiverse individuals may encounter in a predominantly neurotypical world.
• Recognize behaviors and conversational styles that may have different meanings when working with clients on the autism spectrum.
• Identify approaches that can help neurodiverse clients feel more understood and supported in the therapeutic setting.

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II

Postponed

Classroom location, directions and parking details will be included in your email confirmation

Trainings on clinician burnout typically focus on balance and self-care, which may increase healthy habits, but often won’t alleviate burnout. This in-person workshop goes to the heart of the three most common causes of burnout, a lack of power, passion, and purpose, and how to build each one.

Learning objectives:

• explore and evaluate traditional clinical burnout prevention techniques
• examine the concept of power, what it is and how to build it in oneself and in the workplace
• investigate passion by remembering early passion for work and how to reignite it
• consider one’s purpose and how to increase its value to promote job satisfaction

William C. Gilbert, PhD, LCSW, AADC
Saturday, June 11, 2022
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

$40  – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50  – All Others
Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

Trauma affects many of the clients we serve and is the catalyst for many mental illnesses. Now, our country is faced with a new universal stressor: COVID-19. The pandemic has caused the loss of lives, businesses, and has changed the “normal” way of life for many. The trauma experienced because of COVID-19 has created problems on micro, mezzo, and macro levels.

The first hour of this webinar will explore our current understanding of trauma reactions including polyvagal theory and the work of Bessel van de Kolk. The second hour will apply the ideas discussed to the current trauma experienced as result of COVID-19.

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

• describe the current theories on trauma reactions
• understand how these theories are applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic to micro, mezzo, and macro systems
• apply the information shared to your work with clients

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II

Monday, March 14, 2022
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

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

When COVID initially arrived, clinicians jumped into crisis mode to help our clients manage the myriad issues that came with it. Two years later, the pandemic is still here and we are exhausted, frustrated and needing specific tools to help manage it all. This webinar will target the characteristics of COVID-specific Burnout and the needed tools to address it.

Jelan Agnew, LCSW

Thursday, February 24, 2022
1 pm – 3 pm
2 CEC

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

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Step away from trauma responses and move toward responses based on alignment. Transition from fight, flight, and freeze to acknowledge (observe and describe), surrender, and be. Participants will explore the function of anger and fear, and how to use the momentum of intense emotion to achieve goals. Trainer Jelan Agnew will use a trauma-informed and culturally competent lens, with a focus on mindfulness and guided meditation, to help clinicians and clients confront fear and anger.

Participants in this webinar will:

• examine how we manage intense emotions and learn skills to increase our ability to manage our feelings
• learn how trauma may play a role in the way we experience these emotions
• learn how to use the concept of “Observe and Describe” – Where do I feel Fear in my body? Where do I feel Anger in my body?
• use the “momentum of the emotion” to increase effectiveness in achieving goals

Thomas E. Broffman, PhD, LICSW, CAADAC, CCS, CEAP
Monday, January 31, 2022
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others
Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

The CT Council on Problem gambling estimates approximately 70,000 Connecticut adults meet the clinical criteria for problem gambling disorder. An additional 285,000 people are at risk of developing a problem in their lifetime. Problem gambling is often times under-assessed or a component of an undiagnosed co-occurring disorder. This webinar will examine why people gamble, the diagnostic criteria for disordered gambling, screening tools, and available Connecticut treatment resources.

This webinar will examine:

• what is gambling
• why do people gamble
• diagnostic criteria for disordered gambling
• screening tools for disordered gambling
• CT treatment resources

Debra Franklin, LCSW

Monday, January 10, 2022
1 pm – 4 pm
3 CECs

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

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Heart Path Therapy® for Therapists combines powerful healing approaches from ancient spiritual wisdom combined with guided imagery, Family Constellations, inner child work, sound healing, and energy psychology. There are many wonderful psychological and spiritual healing techniques, but until you heal your own wounds in order to really free your heart, mind, and intuition, those techniques will not be fully effective. As you transform, you empower love, understanding, intuition, and compassion – the most important ingredients to healing. Integrate those with spiritual, sound, and imaginative and energy-oriented approaches, and you will discover your true therapeutic gifts. You can learn to see and feel clients’ “wounds” even before they talk about them and intuitively guide them through a life changing journey once you have traversed your own.

This transformational webinar will take you on an inner journey to experiencing life in a new way. Ms. Franklin will provide a “practitioners introduction” to Heart Path Therapy® to help you significantly on your healing path and inspire your creative gifts as a therapist. Some of what you experience you can begin to apply with your clients.

This webinar will enable you to apply wisdom from sacred traditions whether offering online or in person services, including:

• the power of an altar, clearing and blessing your space and your clients’, prayer and intention, and the use of sound
• brief reference to the use of chakras (energy centers in body)
• ways to increase and apply your intuition, including “feeling” energy
• explore the roots of emotional struggles, via the inner child and ancestral wounds (the latter from concepts from Family Constellations by Bert Hellinger) through an experiential guided meditation
• learn about the available options for more in-depth training in Heart Path Therapy® for Therapists

All practitioners of groups are welcome – those currently facilitating in the virtual world and those facilitating in person groups who are interested in developing new knowledge and skills to integrate into their practice.

Joan Letendre, PhD, LCSW

Thursdays, December 2 and 9, 2021
1 pm – 3 pm
4 CECs

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

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us personally and professionally. At a time when many of us were experiencing personal challenges related to the pandemic, we were asked to develop ways of creating positive virtual group experiences in our agencies, communities, and classrooms. Flexibility and creativity were called for as practitioners and educators adapted new models for working safely with clients so in need of services during this time.  With the use of technology for delivering services, it was necessary to adapt different ways of engaging and working with students, group members and colleagues. This 2-part webinar will focus on the challenges and successes of this work.

We will have an opportunity to learn about and experience a virtual group as we examine this model.  We will pay special attention to the elements that foster group engagement and development of mutual aid. In Session 1, we will focus on planning and engagement of members in the overall group and each session and activity. Much of the planning will involve the translation of elements of an in-person group to one that is virtual. In Session 2, we will use a problem-solving model to address the common challenges that group workers encounter (high and low participation, conflict, value-laden topics, curriculum vs process etc.).  Instructor and participant examples will be used to illustrate the problem-solving model that encourages members to be active participants in learning from one another and offering mutual aid.

Using didactic instruction, small and large group discussions, activities, and videos, participants in this 2-part webinar will:

• Develop a group climate where we can share the challenges and successes of on-line formats of group service delivery
• Review planning and engagement strategies and apply to on-line formats
• Share different creative strategies for developing a climate of support and mutual aid in on-line groups
• Review the problem-solving model in relation to common group challenges that may be exacerbated by the on-line format
• Learn to manage conflict in a way that gives affirmation to many points of view