All Webinars

If you purchase this webinar, you may also want to purchase one of the discussion groups.  They are taking place on either Wednesday November 12th from 7-8:30 PM ET or Saturday November 15th from 11 AM-12:30 PM ET.

Although many psychodynamic ideas were first suggested by Sigmund Freud a century ago, these concepts and how they are applied to psychotherapy have evolved and changed over the decades. This webinar will present a contemporary approach to practice and will explain how these dynamic ideas can be combined with other theories within a unified approach to psychotherapy. In order to promote a unified approach to treatment, this seminar will highlight how intrapsychic processes shape cognition, emotion, and behavior.
 

Psychological functioning is influenced by intrapsychic processes whether we attend to these effects or not. This webinar will introduce psychodynamic conceptualization based on three clinical hypotheses. First, it is important to attend to the integrity of the intrapsychic system and explore how conflicts are dealt with and whether there are maladaptive processes that are interfering with optimal functioning. Second, some clients are using defense mechanisms that were once adaptive but, as development has progressed, these defenses have lost their adaptive advantage. Third, some clients are experiencing intrapsychic conflicts between internal parts that may represent internalized objects that have been introjected from primary attachments.
 

Foundational psychodynamic skills will be described that address three general processes: (1) Exploration and functional analysis of defenses; (2) Guided discovery to uncover more adaptive intrapsychic functioning; and (3) Enacting adaptation outside of psychotherapy. These foundational psychodynamic skills will be demonstrated with role-play videos that will allow participants to see how they can explore defenses with their own clients.
 

The latter part of the webinar will introduce exploration of internal parts and intrapsychic conflicts. Internal parts have been described in different ways by theories including psychoanalysis, transactional analysis, emotion-focused therapy, and internal family systems. Participants will be encouraged to consider how these ideas can inform their own practice of psychotherapy with clients.
 

This seminar is part of Level Two of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working contextually with external contexts and internal influences. An essential part of a unified approach to treatment is understanding the impact of intrapsychic defenses and conflicts on dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and actions and fostering more adaptive responses.

Adolescence is a time of social, cognitive, and emotional growth.  The rapid rise of technology presents a unique challenge to teenagers and those responsible for their care.  Electronics use (Online videos, texting, social media, video games, streaming TV shows/movies, etc.) creates an environment that can both enrich and hinder healthy development.  Participants in this webinar will be provided with a review of the current state of knowledge, as it relates to the impact of electronics use on adolescent wellness.  Topics addressed will include the relationship of electronics to academic performance, sleep, mental health, the developing brain, and safety.  Throughout the webinar, feedback will be provided on ways to keep adolescents connected in a way that promotes a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

Premature termination is a significant problem in psychotherapy, with deleterious impacts on both clients and therapists. For example, research shows that clients who prematurely terminate show poorer treatment outcomes, are less likely to make lasting changes in their symptoms, and are more likely to over-utilize the health care system. Research also shows that when clients end treatment prematurely, their therapists often experience a sense of failure with the loss. Additionally, repeated dropout by clients can lead to experiences of demoralization and burnout in their providers. Current estimates indicate that approximately 1 in 5 clients will drop out of psychotherapy and/or counseling prematurely. Although these numbers may differ depending on the setting and client type, almost all therapists will experience premature termination at some point in their practice. 

The purpose of this workshop is provide strategies and approaches that therapists can use to reduce premature termination in their practice. This workshop will begin with a discussion of what premature termination is and why some clients choose to end treatment prematurely. It will then cover the latest research on the frequency of premature termination and client, therapist, treatment, and setting risk factors associated with its occurrence. In the second half of this workshop, eight evidence-based strategies for reducing premature termination will be presented. These strategies include: providing role induction, incorporating preferences into the treatment decision-making process, planning for appropriate termination, providing education about patterns of change in psychotherapy, strengthening hope, enhancing motivation for treatment, fostering the therapeutic alliance, and assessing and discussing treatment progress.

“I was very impressed. The presentation was clear, informative and definitely added to my knowledge base.”-Mary H., Psychologist, New Jersey

Psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are considered to be among the most debilitating and distressing mental health conditions. Despite impacting approximately 3% of the population, many clinicians lack the training and resources to recognize and best work with this vulnerable group of people, leaving many with psychosis isolated, stigmatized, and without help. Nonetheless, growing evidence suggests that, with tailored early intervention, many people with psychosis can recover from illness and lead a life of their choosing in the community. This seminar will familiarize you with psychosis, emphasizing the early phases of illness. It will then demonstrate strategies for reducing stigma, increasing empathy, and facilitating early identification. I will share screening tools and briefly touch on treatment strategies, as well as provide clinical resources for comprehensive specialty care.

Psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are considered to be among the most debilitating and distressing mental health conditions. Despite impacting approximately 3% of the population, many clinicians lack the training and resources to recognize and best work with this vulnerable group of people, leaving many with psychosis isolated, stigmatized, and without help. Nonetheless, growing evidence suggests that, with tailored early intervention, many people with psychosis can recover from illness and lead a life of their choosing in the community. This seminar will familiarize you with psychosis, emphasizing the early phases of illness. It will then demonstrate strategies for reducing stigma, increasing empathy, and facilitating early identification. I will share screening tools and briefly touch on treatment strategies, as well as provide clinical resources for comprehensive specialty care.

When we joined the ranks of helping professionals, one of the last things that probably crossed our minds was what, if any, risk we would face in our careers. Would our forensic patient who had killed their parents ever corner us in a room and try to assault us? Would our inpatient teenager ever cyber-stalk us online? Would our outpatient client ever try to kill us in our office? Daunting questions to think about; however, these are the very questions that we should be addressing while also helping our client population in need. This course looks back over the past decades to review where mental health treatment has come and what about those shifts may contribute to our vulnerability in our professions; it helps identify the vulnerabilities we should be addressing; and it offers suggestions of actions we can take to protect our work, our clients, our livelihood, and our lives. In addition to receiving the training and education we need to make us the best helping professionals we can be, we also need training such as this to help protect ourselves from any harm that could come in the course of our work.

Threats and violence in the workplace are an unfortunate reality that can occur at any moment- no workplace is immune. Be it the domestic violence offender that find his or her spouse at work, the disgruntled employee that is offended by being disciplined for violating a work policy, the supervisor that stalks his or her subordinate and lashes out when rebuffed, or the customer that believes he or she has been treated unfairly- these acts do take place. Those in leadership positions also have an obligation to provide safe work environments. In this course we will review some of the development of threat and workplace violence understanding and assessment, visit actual case examples, identify guidance to support the development of workplace violence prevention programs, learn what to assess in working to prevent workplace violence, and explore how to build your own workplace violence prevention program.