Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Live Webinar
9 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

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

Clinicians are faced with significant strains on the ethical boundaries of the clinical relationship in this politically charged climate. Exhausted and pressured, clinicians need support and tools to navigate these unique stressors on clinical practice. This training explores how different ethical principles clash under the unique pressures we face today, and offers the tools we need to address them effectively. Through case studies and interactive discussions, attendees will learn to balance advocacy with ethical boundaries while protecting the therapeutic alliance.

Learning Objectives:
1. Explore the specific ethical principles at risk of clashing.
2. Gain methods on how to build a healthy clinical relationship.
3. Gather tools to avoid ethical pitfalls in the therapeutic alliance.
4. Connect the concept of cultural humility with professional integrity.

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Live Webinar
Tuesdays, April 29, May 6, and May 13, 2025
9 am – 12 pm
9 CECs – participants must attend all 3 sessions to earn CECs

Registration Fee: $225
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and Current SSW Field Instructors

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Welcome to the Building a Private Practice Series. This training is not only for people who are thinking about starting a practice, but also for those who have an existing practice. It’s never too late to make some adjustments to your practice that will help it grow more effectively. This training relates to direct practice as it aims to help the clinician build a practice that will benefit the clients it serves and ensure their practice adheres to the strictest of ethical principles. Participants will learn how to build a private practice that meet the needs of the clients they serve and strengthens both the client’s treatment experience and the profession as a whole.

This training is split into 3 consecutive Thursday webinars. Participants must attend all 3 sessions to earn CECs.

DAY 1 covers the top mistakes people make in private practice, and begins to layout the framework for building a better one. We will explore the nuts and bolts of who, why,  where, and when to open a private practice. Then we will dive into how to set up your practice with your own policies and procedures.

DAY 2 begins with ironing out all the financial aspects of your private practice, including how to set a fee schedule, how and why to work with insurances, how and why to work with private pay options, bank accounts, insurances, and taxes. We will then lay out all the clinical paperwork you need to safeguard your practice the right way.

DAY 3 begins with a discussion of how to market your business, where you should focus and what you should ignore. We then round out the series by exploring how to develop your practice, how to effectively close your practice, and how to troubleshoot your practice when it isn’t growing as you would like it to grow.

Provides 2 hours of content on cultural competence.

Qur-an Webb, MSW and colleagues from Welcome 2 Reality

Thursday, April 24, 2025
2:00 – 4:00 pm
2 CECs
Webinar

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

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

This webinar will examine implicit bias, the differences between equality and equity, and how to recognize equitable practices. Participants will learn to talk about race constructively within their workplace, with colleague organizations, and with their clients by having conversations about racial justice work to help foster authentic engagement. The training will enable participants to apply what they know about racial justice and equity to build a further understanding and agreement. Participants will learn which facilitation tools to use when faced with hot button issues and how to lead conversations about race with presence, grace, and authority.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss how biases and discriminatory practices effects clients and their families
• Explore strategies to help improve our work with the children and families we serve
• Explore next steps for applying concepts and strategies to advance racial equity

Ruth Pearlman, LCSW, LICSW, M.ED
Wed, January 22, 2025
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

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

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is a condition where a person has difficulties regulating their senses within their environment. These are our clients who can experience the world as being “too loud” or “too intense”. They can experience the world as being so sensory over-whelming that their bodies go into a defensive “fight, flight or freeze” stance. For many people with SPD, their constant need to re-regulate their senses to adapt to the stimuli around them, creates symptoms of distractibility, irritability, anxiety, and depression.

So where is SPD in the DSM 5? It isn’t. Although more than half of all the diagnostic criteria of disorders in the DSM 5 describe symptoms of SPD, the APA refuses to acknowledge SPD as a disorder. Therefore, DSM 5 conditions such as ADHD, PTSD, Tourette’s, ASD, ODD, the Anxiety Disorders as well as Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, are never understood or treated through the lens of sensory integration. Yet all of the above disorders are, in large part, sensory-based disorders. Imagine trying to treat a client with ASD or PTSD and not teaching the client about their sensory system reactions?

In this interactive webinar, participants will:

• Explore the long-delayed need to incorporate sensory integration issues into our working knowledge of the DSM 5
• Recognize that negative behaviors of are better de-escalated when sensory overload can be quieted (calmed down), similar to “sensory rooms” and “sensory placed” used in schools
• Consider the clinical cost of these misinterpretations for both children and adults

Donald deGraffenried, LCSW
Friday, July 19, 2024 – in-person
9 am – 4:30 pm
6 CECs

Registration Fee: $150
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and current SSW Field Instructors

Client Affect Management involves working with your client to learn and practice specific relaxation skills that help with stress management and contribute to an increase in resiliency and coping. The goal is to help the client with a reduction of anxiety, an increase in self-esteem and an increased ability to be proactive in the management of personal distress.

Using an Ericksonian perspective, this seminar will draw from his successful techniques of introducing “state change” into the client’s perspective. The program is designed to provide clinicians with training and practice with proven Affect Management tools. These tools are structured to reduce client distress, increase positive states and engage a solution building process. Techniques include One Stone, Diaphragmatic Breathing, Healing Light Visualization, An Enhanced Safe Place and Heart Math.

These tools are appropriate for all age levels and will have direct application for practitioners working in community mental health, nonprofit agencies and private practice settings.

At the conclusion of this seminar, participants will:

• learn a one-minute relaxation tool and be able to teach it to clients
• be able to describe the core elements of positive affirmations
• learn Seven Basic Principle’s for success with clients
• have an opportunity to practice Affect Management tools
• be able to identify which tool(s) to use and when to use them in their practice with clients

Sarah A. Gilbert, LCSW

Sat, April 20, 2024
Live Webinar
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs – this program provides 2 hours of content on cultural competence

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

Link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

If you have some experience in working with trans, non-binary clients, yet you feel unsure about how to go about writing the required mental health assessment letter for your clients to access gender-affirming care, this training is for you!

Clients seeking access to gender-affirming healthcare (including cross-hormone treatment and various surgical procedures) are typically required to get referral letters from mental health professionals. Unfortunately, far too often, these individuals struggle with finding providers who feel comfortable writing these letters, which causes barriers and delays in accessing affirming and life-saving treatment.

Far too often, members of this community experience harmful gatekeeping in accessing the affirming and life-saving services they need as a result. In this 2 hour live interactive webinar, you will be given the information you need to be able to provide a referral letter for gender-affirming healthcare, which will leave you feeling confident in providing this valuable service for your clients.

In our time together, you will:

• understand the harms that gatekeeping creates for trans/non-binary clients experience in accessing gender-affirming treatment, and the ways in which we can avoid replicating this in our own practices
• learn about the WPATH Standards of care and understand how to navigate using the SOC in conjunction with insurance policies, physician’s requirements to help write letters that will be successful in getting approvals for gender-affirming healthcare.
• receive up to date information about specific guidelines for clients with Husky/CT Medicaid insurance in accessing gender-affirming healthcare.
• learn tips for advocacy with insurance companies in navigating denials for gender-affirming surgeries.

We will also have ample time for Q&A, to address your specific questions about how to apply this knowledge to your practice.

Group work education and training is essential to learning the best ways of facilitating diverse groups, but as the complexity of group practice has increased, the opportunities to learn effective ways of facilitation, both in the field and classroom, has decreased.

To address these challenges we have developed 4 workshops to provide a framework for understanding group work and how it is practiced with different populations. Although each session supports work with a specific population, the knowledge and skills learned can be adapted to a variety of groups. Whether you are an experienced group practitioner or new to the practice, we invite you to join us to explore group work in today’s practice world.

Here’s what people are saying:

• “It was a very informative training, and helpful to reconnect with the fundamentals of group work.”
• “Facilitator was wonderful – very engaging, professional, and shared so many tips from her vast experience.”
• “Had a great time. Learned a lot. Felt very comfortable and grounded. Thank you for a great day.”
• “I came into the training very apprehensive as I have been doing groups for a while. I was very happy to be able to reconnect with the process as well as learn form other awesome practitioners in the field. Just awesome, and thank you.”

Workshops – Register for 1, 2, 3 or all 4 programs. Discount available when registering for more than one workshop or when 3 or more agency staff register.

Group Work with Older Individuals – Imagine the Possibilities – Fri, September 29, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm, 5 CECs
The population of older adults in the USA is growing rapidly. The global pandemic threatened individual and familial economic security, increased social isolation, and negatively affected individual physical and mental health, as well as social well-being. For many older adults this has led to increased anxiety and depression, and ongoing grief due to the loss of loved ones. Group Work provides connection, a space for sharing of experience, and feelings of inclusion in a community of people. Active engagement, very effective when working with older adults, is an important part of this process. Learn more.

Group Work with Children in School Settings – Date TBA
This workshop will emphasize the use of trauma informed practice within small groups and classroom settings. Practitioners will learn specific school-based strategies to encourage the development of connection and mutual aid within the groups.

Group Work Then and Now – Completed
Review of the principles and practices of group work, using a group development model that provides a framework for assessing the needs of the members and group at each stage and the specific leader skills that will promote optimal member participation and group cohesion.

Group Work with Involuntary Clients: Addressing Challenges with the Group and within Ourselves – Completed
It can often feel intimidating and even create dread for a group worker to be tasked with a mandated group. You might wonder, “what if no one wants to be here and what am I going to do with that?” This workshop will focus on how we can shift from an experience of anxiety and dread to a confident approach that engages our curiosity and creativity. Learn more and register for this workshop.

More details coming soon. Questions? Contact ssw.ce@uconn.edu.