Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Fridays, Nov 8 and 15, 2024, In-person
Participants must attend both days to earn CECs
9:30 am – 4:00 pm
10 CECs

Fee: $250
UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors receive a 10% discount

Expanded to 2 days due to popular demand!

Do you have a private practice or are you interested in opening one? Are you utilizing all the available tools to protect and build your practice? This seminar will give you everything you need to build a solid, practice that adheres to HIPAA regulations, ethical principles, and scope of practice restrictions to effectively help the clients you serve.

We will explore the necessary paperwork to use with clients, as well as steps you need to take to protect your practice. This seminar will also provide a plethora of ideas about how to grow your business to its full potential. If you have a private practice, or wish to build one, you need this training to make sure the practice you build is at its clinical best.

This seminar will enable you to:

• gather materials to set up your practice correctly and efficiently
• learn how to effectively build a solid client base
• explore all the vital tools you need to protect your practice
• examine the potential ways to grow your business

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

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Monday, June 10, 2024
In-person
9:30 am – 4:00 pm
5 CECs

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

Do you have a private practice or are you interested in opening one? Are you utilizing all the available tools to protect and build your practice? This seminar will give you everything you need to build a solid, practice that adheres to HIPAA regulations, ethical principles, and scope of practice restrictions to effectively help the clients you serve.

We will explore the necessary paperwork to use with clients, as well as steps you need to take to protect your practice. This seminar will also provide a plethora of ideas about how to grow your business to its full potential. If you have a private practice, or wish to build one, you need this training to make sure the practice you build is at its clinical best.

This seminar will enable you to:

• gather materials to set up your practice correctly and efficiently
• learn how to effectively build a solid client base
• explore all the vital tools you need to protect your practice
• examine the potential ways to grow your business

Donald deGraffenried, LCSW
In-person
Friday, June 21, 2024
9 am – 12 pm
3 CECs

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).

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 bi lateral taping

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Friday, November 22, 2024 – In-person
9:30 am – 4 pm
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

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. There is a wealth of knowledge about each disorder, but there is a lack of training on what questions to ask a client in order to properly develop a thorough and accurate diagnosis. This seminar teaches how to differentially diagnose using specific questions and provides decision trees that clinicians can use in clinical sessions. Clinical diagnosis may seem safe from cultural, political, and social influence, but in fact, it is often guided by these forces. Whether a condition is considered a disorder is based in social and political context, and certainly, what questions we ask in the psychiatric interview is culturally influenced. If one were to examine diagnostic material across decades, the fluctuations in diagnostic material would be easy to detect and correlate with changes in cultural, social, and political climates. This seminar topic connects to diversity in allowing for individuality in diagnosis and attending to the diverse background of each client as a part of the diagnosis process.

The goal of this in-person seminar is to help the clinician improve the diagnostic skills they use in their daily practice. Decision trees given in the DSM are updated and expanded to better serve the clinician. Participants will receive handouts of decision trees to take with them.

Using lecture, discussion, and simulated clinical interviews, this seminar will enable you to:

• learn the art of diagnosis
• gather specific questions that will aid you in obtaining the most accurate diagnosis with each client
• practice the clinical interview, asking learned questions to aid in differential diagnosis
• obtain decision tree handouts of each disorder group to use in the clinical interview

Rachel West-Balling, MSW
Saturday, March 2, 2024
In-person
9:30 am – 4:00 pm
5 CECs

Location: UConn Hartford Times Building, Room 220, 10 Prospect St, Hartford, CT – use Front St entrance
Directions will be included in your confirmation email

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

Group Work in the school setting serves as a dynamic platform for students to develop essential and social emotional skills. Using a Group Work model creates a space where students can connect, share, and support one another, foster a sense of belonging, and reduce feelings of isolation. Group interventions can address various challenges students may face, including behavioral issues and academic stress. By providing targeted support, school social workers can contribute to a more positive and conducive learning environment.

This workshop will highlight ways in which group work can enhance social and emotional well-being, foster a sense of community, and contribute to overall academic success. Through interactive activities and shared experiences, participants will explore how group interventions provide a structured yet flexible environment for fostering empathy, communication, and conflict resolution skills

Participants in this seminar will:

• explore the connection between group work and positive behavioral outcomes, academic improvement, and emotional resilience
• learn how group interventions can address challenges students may face, including behavioral issues and academic stress
• discover how to maximize your impact by efficiently addressing the needs of multiple students within a group setting and making your services more accessible to a larger student population
• explore the role of group work in promoting cultural competence and inclusivity by fostering an environment where every student feels valued and understood

Solandy Forte, PhD, LCSW, BCBA-D

Dr. Forte is an approved ACE provider and is authorized by the Behavioral Analyst Certification Board (BACB) to provide Learning CE events for BCBA and BCaBA certificants.

Monday, March 4, 2024
11 am – 1 pm

2 CECs

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

Link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Gathering the most relevant information from your clinical interview is critical. Information gathered will help to determine your steps when conducting a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA). We will discuss the importance of setting events and how they contribute to understanding behavior function. There are structured and semi-structured tools that can be used to guide clinicians through the interview process. The pros and cons of each will be reviewed.

Participants will learn to:

• define and identify setting events
• use a semi-structured assessment tool
• define the purpose of a clinical interview

Solandy Forte, PhD, LCSW, BCBA-D

Dr. Forte is an approved ACE provider and is authorized by the Behavioral Analyst Certification Board (BACB) to provide Learning CE events for BCBA and BCaBA certificants.

Mon, March 11, 2024
11 am – 1 pm

2 CECs

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

Link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

The clinical interview will help to structure when and how you will conduct your direct observations. Identifying the most useful data collection method(s) for your particular assessment case can be a bit overwhelming particularly if time is not on your side. Choosing the appropriate data collection method is critical in order to capture data in real-time that is representative of what is occurring most of the time when you most likely are not present. It is important not to rely on just one data collection method or capturing one dimension of behavior. The observer must rely on multiple data sources.

Participants will learn to:

• use the information they have gathered from clinical interviews to identify the most appropriate settings/times to observe
• identify what dimensions or type of data must be collected
• collect Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence data

Solandy Forte, PhD, LCSW, BCBA-D

Dr. Forte is an approved ACE provider and is authorized by the Behavioral Analyst Certification Board (BACB) to provide Learning CE events for BCBA and BCaBA certificants.

Monday, March 18, 2024
11 am – 1 pm

2 CECs

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

Link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Data. Data. And more data. It all must be analyzed and analyzed well. The clinician must take every single piece of data collected and interpret it in order to confidently identify the function(s) of behavior. The information gathered through the collection data may or may not support your original hypothesis but will definitely inform treatment. You have gathered the information you need to make treatment recommendations, now learn how to put it all together.

Participants will learn to:

• interpret data collected
• identify functions of behavior
• formulate function-based recommendations