Lori Ratchelous, LMSW

Saturday, Dec 3, 2022
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

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

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

Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Questions surface as to what AAT really is. Therapists often question if by having their animal present while working are they actually providing AAT services to their clients. AAT is a specialty and is much more than bringing a pet into the office.

This webinar will explore a model of understanding the impact of the human-animal bond on attachment, affirmation, and affect regulation. The training will include an overview of three broad areas: a) What is AAT and how is it incorporated into our practice; b) How human-animal interactions and the human-animal bond can impact human health and well-being; and c) The powerful potential that positive connections with animals have for healing and promoting resiliency in human beings while at the same time providing a benefit to the animal.

At the conclusion of this webinar, you will be able to:

• describe and classify human benefits, including physical, emotional, psychological, and social benefits that can be communicated through HAI (human-animal interaction) and HAB (human-animal bond)
• demonstrate the ability to match differing therapeutic animal roles and interventions to address different types of human-health and wellness related needs in various settings (schools, nursing homes, hospitals)
• identify and examine values, ethics, and risk issues for both humans and animals involved in human-animal interactions
• gain knowledge on ways to incorporate animals in a psychotherapeutic process for special populations: children on the spectrum, elderly, people with dementia

Deborah Poerio, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC

Thurs, Nov, 3, 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.

The two and a half yeas have brought about unprecedented transitions for families and many parents find themselves in uncharted waters. Unanticipated life challenges, added roles to parental responsibilities, social isolation, and fear of the unknown have increased stress for both parents and children. Participants will examine these remarkable transitions and their impact on preschoolers (2 – 5 years) and parents. The webinar will incorporate approaches from ADAPT©, a multidimensional community wide evidence-based, screening, assessment, and therapeutic intervention program.

Through lecture and the use of case scenarios, participants will:

• review the normal growth and development for Preschoolers (2 – 5 years)
  identify common deviations and the methods children use to express deviations
  learn about effective interventions and valuable resources to address behavioral issues

2 Day Training

Thomas Broffman, PhD, LICSW, CAADAC, CCS, CEAP
Thursdays, October 20 and 27, 2022
9:00 am – 12:00 pm

6 CECs
Participants must attend both days to receive CECs

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

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a form of collaborative conversation for strengthening a person’s own motivation and commitment to change. It is a person-centered counseling style for addressing the common problem of ambivalence about change by paying particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen an individual’s motivation for and movement toward a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion.

Motivational interviewing is an evidence-based practice based on CBT principles to enhance people’s motivation to change through use of engagement strategies specific to the person’s stage of change. It is particularly effective with people in the pre-contemplation, contemplation, and determination stages of change. The key strategy is to resolve people’s resistance to change their increasing their resistance to change.

At the end of the 2 training days, participants will be able to:

• Define multiple MI techniques to help clients to change
• Describe the Stages of Change & complete a Stage of Change Assessment
• Define the 4 principles of MI
• Define the components of the spirit of MI
• Describe OARS
• Describe at least 2 methods to elicit change talk
• Utilize a Readiness Ruler
• Complete a Decisional Balance
• Complete a Change Plan
• Describe 3 MI strategies to deal with resistance to change

This workshop focuses on trauma-informed supervision through a social justice 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 considered in 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 positionalities and unique experiences of clients and colleagues. Supervisors are encouraged to remain vigilant in their commitment to social justice by leading their teams and organizations in achieving truly inclusive diversity.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Draw upon social work values to enact commitment to social justice in the role of a leader within your organization
2. Shape your interactions with supervisees by accounting for positionalities and unique experiences
3. Partner with your supervisees to critically discuss the culture of the organization
4. In supervision, reflect on implicit bias and how it impacts the supervisory relationship and work with clients
5. Seek knowledge and consultation to better understand your positionality and the impact your identity has on the supervisory relationship
6. Discuss with supervisees the applications of trauma-informed perspectives in supervision and practice

This workshop offers the supervisor a multi-dimensional framework for teaching the practice skills required in work with individuals and families of all ages through the assessment and planning phases. Included are a review of the core content areas that need to be addressed in assessing the client/family situation including both strengths and challenges; the critical thinking required in collecting client data; and the ability to organize, interpret, and summarize these data. Supervisors will be encouraged to use interactive training techniques to teach the interviewing and communication skills that engage the client and family in assessment and planning. The special skills involved in working with the family as a social system will be discussed, as will the influence of the worker’s own cultural background on assessment and planning.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Use a social work assessment/planning framework as a teaching tool to guide supervisees in direct practice with individuals and families
2. Encourage critical thinking on the part of supervisees in the collection, organization, and summarization of client data
3. Emphasize with supervisees the importance of documenting and supporting client strengths and setting measurable and attainable goals
4. Help supervisees recognize the influence of their own background on the assessment process and be cognizant of the ethical dilemmas they may face
5. Facilitate interactive training among supervisees on interviewing and communication skills that promote effective collaboration with clients and other stakeholders
6. Emphasize with supervisees the importance of a family systems approach both in assessment and in planning

This workshop teaches supervisors how to support staff in planning to meet the needs of clients with mental illnesses and substance use across the life course. Included are supervisory considerations for supporting social service workers in the ongoing assessment of mental disorder symptoms and their potential impacts on clients and their families, building understanding of effective practice models as supported by research evidence, appreciating the complex nature of self-determination, and the intersections of these issues with cultural diversity.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Encourage and partner with supervisees in reviewing symptoms of relevant mental
   disorders and their potential impacts on clients and their families
2. Support supervisees in the ongoing assessment of signs and symptoms of mental illness, substance use, and trauma among clients and their families
3. Guide and partner with supervisees to evaluate how our beliefs on mental illness and substance use influence our ethical practice
4. Assist supervisees in planning for how they can help to meet the needs of clients with mental illnesses or substance use (who often require more effort, time, advanced planning, and skill from their social service providers)
5. Work with colleagues and social service teams to identify effective models of service delivery for clients with mental illness or substance use that are supported by contemporary research literature and which fit with agency goals and structures
6. Support supervisees in addressing the complex nature of self-determination, accounting for legal status, age, and neurodiversity

This workshop helps supervisors to support social service staff in using evidence-informed approaches to common illness-related challenges that confront individuals and families across the life course. Included are supervisory considerations for supporting social service workers in helping clients with care transitions, acute health crises, management of chronic conditions, navigating health and long-term care systems, and the intersections of these issues with cultural diversity. Supervisors explore techniques for supporting teams in service planning, health education, and health advocacy.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Review with supervisees the common illness-related challenges that confront individuals and families across the life course (including care transitions, acute health crises, and navigating health and long-term care service systems)
2. Support supervisees in the ongoing assessment of client health and illness, especially for clients with heightened vulnerability due to late-life frailty, neurological disorders, and co-occurring chronic conditions
3. Assist supervisees in planning to meet the health needs of their clients through services, culturally-informed health education, and health advocacy