Ruth Pearlman, LCSW, LICSW, M.ED
Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Live Webinar
10 am – 12 pm (ET)
2 CECs

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.

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

This workshop teaches new supervisors and updates those who are experienced about the range of skills involved in individual and group supervision in an array of service contexts. Supervisors are guided in structuring regularly scheduled supervisory sessions in accordance with the learning styles of supervisees and the appropriate use of individual versus group meetings. Emphasis is placed on supporting staff in self-assessment with careful attention to diversity, inclusion, and equity issues within the service context.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Structure regularly scheduled supervisory sessions in accordance with the learning styles of supervisees
2. Support supervisees in self-assessment and planning to advance their practice strengths, address challenges, and develop as professionals
3. Teach supervisees to use an “evidence-informed” approach to empirically evaluating practice
4. Model the behavior of striving for professional competence through ongoing education, supervision, and self-care
5. Structure group supervision sessions focused on common practice themes and situations (e.g., ethical dilemmas)
6. Utilize social work group facilitation skills to promote group process during group supervision

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Virtual
Wednesday, June 10
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 included in your confirmation email.

All clinicians need to develop skills in conducting and interpreting the Mental Status Examination. This course offers a detailed exploration of the MSE components, enabling participants to assess cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning accurately.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify & describe the key components of the MSE
• Learn to conduct a more thorough MSE exam
• Practice recognizing elements of the MSE in vignettes
• Recognize the influence of cultural background and individual traits on MSE

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Tues, Jan 20, 2026
Webinar
9 am – 12 pm (ET)
3 CECs

Registration Fee: $75
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Practicum Instructors

Link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

This training marries the essential elements of a successful supervisory practice with the core ethical standards of helping professions. Participants will gain tools to ensure that each clinician can grow an ethical practice that will help protect the profession, the clinician, and every client they serve. This training will give participants tools to both evaluate the ethical practice of each clinician and to strengthen any ethically weak areas, which will allow participants to anticipate and address problems before ethical violations occur.

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Webinar
9 am – 12 pm (ET)
3 CEC

Registration Fee: $75
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Field Instructors

Link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

We know that good supervision can be hard to find, and one major reason is that supervisors are rarely adequately trained. If you are a supervisor, or interested in becoming one, this training will help you build an ethical, engaging, effectual supervision practice.

In this webinar, participants will:

• explore the common mistakes supervisors make
• examine effective theoretical orientations and models of supervision
• explore the core components of the supervisory relationships and the needed tools

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Virtual
9 am – 12 pm (ET)
3 CECs

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

Webinar link will be included in your confirmation email.

Trainings on assessment and diagnosis typically focus on client symptoms and psychopathology. This training has the actual clinical interview at its focus, exploring how to gather the information you need from each client. Participants will learn how to prepare, what skills are needed, and where to focus each section of the interview.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the primary goal(s) of the clinical interview
• Gather useful listening and verbal skills that support rapport
• Explore how to direct and redirect clients and the path of the interview
• Learn strategies to manage common scenarios that challenge the interview

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Wednesday, May 27
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.