Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Virtual
9 am – 12 pm (ET)
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.

Although a large component of the daily work of social workers is to diagnose psychiatric illnesses, there is little education on how to do that well. This training teaches how to differentially diagnose using specific questions and provides distinct tools that clinicians can use in sessions.

In this live webinar, you will:

• Explore common diagnostic mistakes clinicians make
• Learn to accurately use the Mental Status Exam as a diagnostic tool
• Gather the assessment tools available in the DSM 5 and elsewhere
• Practice differential diagnosis by disorder type through vignettes

Marie Cortez, LCSW, Certified Professional Life Coach
Monday, October 27, 2025
9:00 am -11:00 am (ET)
Virtual
2 CECs

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

This webinar explores compassion fatigue, also known as secondary traumatic stress or burnout, and its impact on mental health professionals. Social workers and other mental health providers often feel overworked, stressed, overwhelmed, and unappreciated in the workplace. It’s a reality that is seen as being part of the job, but it’s all too often dismissed or brushed aside. However, dismissing this reality does not make it go away.

The goal of this training is to empower social workers and other mental health providers to prioritize self-care and their own mental health while helping their clients.

Participants in this webinar will:
• learn how to recognize burnout
• understand why mental health providers suffer from burnout
• learn the importance of addressing the inevitable stress of our work
• explore emotion regulation strategies to cope with the stress of our field

Qur-an Webb and colleagues from Welcome 2 Reality
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
6 pm – 8 pm (ET)
2 CECs

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

Webinar link with be included in email confirmation

Understanding and Addressing Parental Stress is designed to help participants gain insight into the root causes of parental stress across developmental stages, the disproportionate burdens faced by low-income and marginalized families, and the lasting impact on mental health and parenting capacity. The training will offer practical tools and strategies to engage and support parents through trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and father-inclusive approaches.

Participants in this webinar will:

• Understand the current statistics and trends related to parental stress in the U.S., with a focus on disparities affecting parents with limited access to services.
• Explore how stress manifests during early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, including financial, emotional, and time-related challenges.
• Analyze how poverty, social isolation, work-family conflict, and limited service access intensify stress for parents, particularly for fathers in marginalized communities.
• Identify evidence-based interventions, community support mechanisms, and policy recommendations that professionals can use to support stressed parents.
• Learn techniques for engaging fathers in stress reduction supports and services, especially those who are often left out of traditional parenting programs.

Donald deGraffenried, LCSW
In-person at the UConn Hartford Campus
Friday, July 18, 2025
9 am – 12 pm
3 CECs*

* Also approved for 3 EMDRIA credits (Approval #08012-21). Prior EMDR training is not required to attend this training, however EMDRIA credits will only be available to individuals who have completed Part I and Part II EMDR Basic Training

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

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

This three-hour in person training will explore the teachings of Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Participants will learn about his history with mindfulness, his advocacy for peace and social justice, and his connection to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Trainer Donald deGraffenried, LCSW will explain the origin of the “One Stone Meditation” and demonstrate how to use this powerful, yet simple experience of mindfulness with clients or for yourself.

This is a gentle introduction to the process of mindfulness and enhancing the greater ability to be fully in the moment. It has wide application for use with clients, especially in the management of stress and anxiety. Participants will also have the option via a practicum to enhance/strengthen their experience by using bilateral tapping which comes out of the work of Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Please bring a small stone with you to the training. The stone should fit comfortably in the palm of your hand.

In this interactive and experiential seminar, participants will:

• practice the “One Stone Meditation”
• develop the meditative experience
• have the opportunity to practice and strengthen their experience by using bilateral tapping

Patricia Wilcox, LCSW
Live Webinar
Wed, June 18, 2025
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

Recently social service agencies have been acknowledging the effects of working with, feeling empathy for, and having responsibility for trauma survivors. Whether this effect is referred to as vicarious trauma (VT) or secondary traumatic stress, there is no doubt that the work can influence the treater’s world view, their sense of safety, their own relationships, their sense of hope and their energy and enthusiasm for their work. However, agencies often take the approach that this is mainly an individual problem, to be solved by the treater on their own time and at their own expense with self-care and good boundaries.

This presentation will challenge some of the myths of vicarious trauma, such as that work is entirely depleting and that home life is entirely fulfilling; and that there is such a thing as work-life balance. The book Reducing Secondary Traumatic Stress: Skills for Sustaining a Career in the Helping Professions by Brian C. Miller (2022 Routledge) will provide the scaffolding for specific techniques that can help our workers retain and grow their hope and energy in the work, and thus reduce turnover. We will cover areas such as: debunking the myths of VT; developing skills to enhance our work lives; understanding that appreciating intensity rather than avoiding it helps us thrive; bringing joy into our work lives; developing radical compassion; and recovering from crisis. . We will also explore the assumption that trauma encounters are inherently fatiguing. We will investigate the premise that the cure for exhaustion is not rest- it is wholeheartedness. Participants will leave the workshop with action steps to bring to their agencies.

Participants will be able to:

• Identify three myths about vicarious trauma and their alternative truths
• List eight skills to sustain treaters in their jobs, and create agency plans to teach and support these skills
• Develop three strategies to increase the joy in their workplaces
• Identify three actions to create agency structures to support treaters in recovering from crisis.

Provides 2 hours of content on veterans mental health issues.

Christopher Morse, LICSW, MVF-ASW 

Saturday, June 14, 2025
10 am – 12 pm
2 CEC

Registration fee: $50
10% Discount for UConn SSW Alumni and Current UConn SSW Field Instructors

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

While not all service members experience mental health issues, many will experience difficulties returning to the civilian world. Participants will learn about common readjustment issues faced by military and veteran populations. We will also examine the effects of trauma on readapting to life after deployment. In response to the many requests of participants who attended his trainings on Understanding Military Culture, Christopher Morse, LICSW developed this program to shed light on another important aspect of working with veterans and active military personnel.

This webinar will:

• examine common readjustment reactions following military service and deployment to combat theaters
• explore the effects of trauma on readjustment following combat service
• introduce the use of common military cultural artifacts and concepts in translating therapeutic concepts into principles common to military service

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
In-person on the UConn Hartford Campus
9:30 am – 4 pm
5.5 CECs

Participants are requested to bring a copy of the DSM 5 to practice diagnosis using clinical vignettes during the workshop.

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

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

The 5th edition of the DSM is a manual rich with information and guidance into the diagnostic process, yet most clinicians only utilize a portion of the manual. Are you prepared to incorporate the manual into your practice to accurately diagnose your clients? The workshop provides practical insights into navigating the DSM’s complex structure, ensuring accurate and consistent application in clinical practice. We will examine the full manual and practice accurate diagnosis together.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the major philosophical and categorical changes in the DSM 5
• Learn the essential features of each disorder group in the DSM 5
• Examine the assessment tools published with the DSM 5
• Practice diagnosis using the DSM 5 through clinical vignettes

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Wednesday, May, 28, 2025
In-person at the UConn Hartford Campus
9:30 am – 4 pm
5.5 CECs

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

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

The diagnosis is at the root of all clinical work, yet there is little education on how to write diagnoses well. This training explores common diagnostic errors and how to avoid them using several significant assessment tools that allow us to get to the best diagnosis for each client.

Delve into the intricacies of diagnostic processes, learning how to differentiate between various mental health disorders with precision and confidence. This training emphasizes critical thinking and the application of diagnostic criteria in real-world scenarios.

Learning Objectives

• Explore common diagnostic mistakes clinicians make
• Learn the major influences that affect our diagnostic process
• Evaluate critical assessment tools to aid in diagnosis
• Practice assessment utilizing clinical assessment tools