All Webinars

Most studies of the background of clients diagnosed with personality disorders shows a high percentage of subjects have a history of child abuse, invalidation, or other features of family dysfunction. However, most therapy models do not deal directly with current family interactions, which often trigger and reinforce repetitive dysfunctional behavior throughout the client’s adulthood. The psychotherapy outcome literature shows mainly that current models of psychotherapy helping with symptoms of different disorders, but do little for the clients  problemswith love, work, and play.

This seminar will describe systemic factors over several generations that result in the formation and maintenance of personality disorders, elucidating the family dynamics of many of them. It will then focus on how therapists can get the full family history from reluctant clients while handling clients who come in with hostility or acting out with the therapist. We will then look at strategies for altering the family relationships teaching clients how to enact them through the use of role playing and role reversal. Last, it will discuss how clients can handle family relapses into old patterns.

Most studies of the background of clients diagnosed with personality disorders shows a high percentage of subjects have a history of child abuse, invalidation, or other features of family dysfunction. However, most therapy models do not deal directly with current family interactions, which often trigger and reinforce repetitive dysfunctional behavior throughout the client’s adulthood. The psychotherapy outcome literature shows mainly that current models of psychotherapy helping with symptoms of different disorders, but do little for the clients  problemswith love, work, and play.

This seminar will describe systemic factors over several generations that result in the formation and maintenance of personality disorders, elucidating the family dynamics of many of them. It will then focus on how therapists can get the full family history from reluctant clients while handling clients who come in with hostility or acting out with the therapist. We will then look at strategies for altering the family relationships teaching clients how to enact them through the use of role playing and role reversal. Last, it will discuss how clients can handle family relapses into old patterns.

There are several types of digital platforms and devices that can optimize treatment and are easily added to our clinical toolbox. Many of these devices can be used as clinician extenders by expanding therapeutic reach and augmenting treatment outside the office. While some of these technologies have been available for decades, they are now easier to use and are also cost effective. The trend in health care is increasingly digitally based and data driven, being fed by advances in digital platforms and innovative devices. Video technology and internet capacity have reached the point where they are reliable and advanced enough to make tele-mental health quite accessible to utilize. While there are still many people who have only tenuous links with the digital world, even those in rural and underserved populations may have access to care not previously available using new tools. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health clinicians by necessity have begun using telehealth platforms to continue to provide much needed services. The use of teletherapy affords clinicians opportunities to effectively broaden their scope of practice and deliver high quality treatment while doing so. The provision of telehealth has both pros and cons that need to be considered when using this technology. Smartphone applications (Apps) that can track mood, anxiety, and sleep (and provide feedback to clinicians) are rapidly developing and are widely available. Devices that can directly address brain and emotional states such as Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback (HRV), Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), and Neurofeedback (NFB) can be incorporated into one’s practice at a reasonable cost. Many of these devices can be used by patients between sessions to retrain their “brain states” by monitoring physiological arousal and increasing vagal tone to maximize treatment effect. This seminar provides you with an overview and introduction to technology-based aids to mental health practice. 

There are over four hundred approaches to psychotherapy, most of which branch from the primary streams of learning including clinical experience, empirical evidence, theoretical systems, and evidence from related disciplines such as developmental, relational, and cognitive psychology, as well as neuroscience. The basic building blocks of psychotherapeutics that are fundamental to most approaches are well-documented. Strategic Psychotherapeutics uses these building blocks to inform evidence-based practices, combining the best empirical evidence and clinical expertise with patient preferences and values. In this webinar, participants will be introduced to the StratPsych ®system, which delineates the domains of knowledge that constitute the basic building blocks of psychotherapy. The therapeutic scope and impact of clinicians can be enhanced when therapists are grounded in the fundamental knowledge domains, the basic building blocks of strategic psychotherapeutics. As clinicians gain an understanding of how these basics relate to approaches and technical interventions, more complex therapeutic activities such as assessment, treatment planning, clinical decision making, and alliance maintenance can be appreciated. In this symposium, participants will learn the 11 basic building blocks of psychotherapeutics that can be used to select the approaches and technical interventions best suited to each patient. The goal of this webinar is to enhance clinical expertise by providing the basic, intermediate, and advanced knowledge domains universal to all psychotherapeutics.

“Instructor was knowledgeable, easy to relate to and made the content interesting and easy to follow along with. Great reflective exercises!”-LisaA., Social Worker, New York

We all know that professional burnout is a problem, but what do we do about it? In this interactive seminar, Dr. Hartman-Hall provides information from the research literature and her clinical experience about the causes and consequences of clinician burnout. Recognizing that wellness is not a “one size fits all” concept, we will explore a variety of approaches for considering clinicians’ risk factors for occupational stress, improving our own self-care, and adjusting our approach to our work. Brief exercises to practice relaxation, mindfulness, and self-awareness will be utilized throughout the talk to provide participants the opportunity to practice concepts being discussed.

“Instructor was knowledgeable, easy to relate to and made the content interesting and easy to follow along with. Great reflective exercises!”-LisaA., Social Worker, New York

We all know that professional burnout is a problem, but what do we do about it? In this interactive seminar, Dr. Hartman-Hall provides information from the research literature and her clinical experience about the causes and consequences of clinician burnout. Recognizing that wellness is not a “one size fits all” concept, we will explore a variety of approaches for considering clinicians’ risk factors for occupational stress, improving our own self-care, and adjusting our approach to our work. Brief exercises to practice relaxation, mindfulness, and self-awareness will be utilized throughout the talk to provide participants the opportunity to practice concepts being discussed.

Many clients who enter individual or couple therapy have difficulty managing emotions. This workshop will focus on the processes involved in emotional dysregulation, drawing on current findings in the fields of neurobiology and emotional memory research. Students will learn about universal triggers as well as ways to explore personal triggers that lead to poorly managed emotional reactions.
 

These findings will be translated to clinical interventions through the theoretical lenses of mindfulness, object relations and narrative therapies. Case presentations will demonstrate ways to apply these insights in individuals and couple therapy to demonstrate how clients can be guided to subdue strong emotions and generate more thoughtful and appropriate responses.

Our world is changing faster than at any moment in history, and technologies advancements are literally changing what it means to be human. “Future Technologies” explores the profound and inevitable impact emerging technologies will have on humanity. We will delve into how Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, Brain-Computer Interface, Robotics, Gene Therapy, and Genetic Engineering, are set to advance in the next several decades – even sooner. Each tech technology’s potential benefits, such as AI’s improved healthcare diagnostics and AR/VR’s enhanced educational tools, are highlighted alongside associated risks, including job displacement and privacy concerns. A key theme is the transformative impact these technologies can, and likely will, have on human identity and social norms. Therapists can and should play a critical role in this technological evolution. They can help individuals adapt to changes, advocate for ethical standards, and support mental health through technological integration. This talk underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to ensure that technological advancements benefit the future of humanity while mitigating potential harms. Currently, it is the sex tech industry developing a vision of the future of intimacy. The time is now for mental health professionals to join this critical conversation.

Grief becomes disenfranchised when individuals are denied the opportunity to grieve openly, lack the social support necessary to process their loss, or do not receive the validation needed to heal. In these circumstances, the grieving person may withdraw from others, question whether their grief is legitimate, struggle to accept the loss and its consequences, or have difficulty adapting in healthy ways. When grief is pushed into silence, the emotional burden becomes more intense and isolating. This increases the risk of developing prolonged grief disorder, depression, anxiety, or other mental health challenges.

Disenfranchised grief can arise from a variety of sources—cultural norms, societal expectations, the attitudes of others, and even from the griever’s own internal beliefs. At times, professionals in “expert” roles may also contribute to this sense of invalidation, often unintentionally.

Because all mental health professionals work with grieving individuals, it is critical to recognize the signs of disenfranchisement, understand its impact on the mourning process, and learn how to avoid reinforcing it. Clinicians must be equipped to offer validation, support, and effective interventions to help clients navigate the social dynamics that can complicate their grief—especially when those dynamics are shaped by misunderstanding or judgment.

This workshop will include both didactic instruction and case studies to give attendees practical tools for addressing disenfranchised grief in clinical practice.

A review of the DSM across the decades reveals a complicated history of the inclusion and exclusion of grief-related emotional difficulties for bereft clients. Starting with the DSM-III, uncomplicated bereavement was introduced as a condition that may be the focus of clinical attention. As research on complicated grief progressed, changes in subsequent DSMs has led to controversy, extended research, and, eventually, the inclusion of prolonged grief disorder in the upcoming release of the DSM-5-TR in mid-2021. This 3 hour presentation explores the history of how bereavement has been addressed in previous and current DSMs and the ICD, an examination of the bereavement exclusion in major depressive disorder and adjustment disorder, the development and inclusion of persistent complex bereavement disorder in the DSM-5, and the diagnostic criteria for prolonged grief disorder in the DSM-5-TR and the ICD-11. Additionally, the presentation will explore differential diagnosing so the practitioner will be skilled in making sound clinical judgment in treatment planning. 

Guilt, regret, and shame are common emotions experienced after a personal or collective loss or traumatic event. These unique and complicated components are often a challenge to work with as they are regularly integrated with the already complex grieving process. At times, guilt, regret, and shame are ways in which a client maintains a sense of connection to the lost loved one, hence making the relinquishment of those feelings even more difficult to navigate in treatment. This training will assist your work to aid clients managing the “should’s” and “if only’s” of regret, end self-blame and shame, and overcome the profound sense of survivor’s guilt they may feel because loved ones succumbed to collective losses.