All Webinars

This dynamic 3-hour seminar provides mental health professionals with essential tools to support families in conflict—whether couples are married, divorcing, or never married. Drawing on decades of clinical, mediation, and non-adversarial divorce experience, Dr. Zimmerman blends real-world strategies with clinical insight to help attendees become more effective in high-conflict family situations. Participants will gain exposure to a range of alternative dispute resolution models, learn about the effects of conflict on children, and receive actionable guidance on managing professional stress in this demanding field.

This course will satisfy your ethics requirement.

This comprehensive webinar explores the ethical and risk management challenges inherent in operating a mental health private practice, whether solo or group-based. Dr. Jeff Zimmerman, drawing on decades of experience and leadership in the field, guides attendees through practical applications of relevant parts of the APA Ethics Code, focusing on principles such as beneficence, fidelity, and respect for client rights. Through realistic scenarios—like those involving informed consent complexities, digital record vulnerabilities, or dual relationships—participants gain insight into how ethical principles intersect with clinical realities.
 

The presentation emphasizes the importance of proactive planning, and developing routine procedures, detailed documentation, and self awareness in minimizing risk and protecting both clients and clinicians. Special attention is given to telehealth practices, financial agreements, staff training, and informed consent. Attendees are taught strategies for ethical decision-making, and are encouraged to maintain humility and consult regularly to get input. They are reminded that ethical success in private practice depends on intentional structure, cultural attunement, and ongoing education.

This course will satisfy your ethics requirement.

"I loved that self-care was partnered with ethics! Great topic and the presentation was interesting, well-paced, unhurried yet didn't belabor points. Clearly the instructor is very comfortable with the topic and presents well."-Barbara B., Professional Counselor, Washington

Working as a mental health professional can be challenging, demanding and stressful. With some clients, it can be traumatizing to the clinician. Self-care, the promotion of wellness, and the prevention of burnout are essential for every mental health professional in order to maintain our competence and clinical effectiveness. The ethical obligation to do so is addressed, ways to assess our own individual self-care needs and effectiveness, and specific strategies for the effective practice of self-care are presented. Important issues such as personal and professional challenges, vulnerabilities, and blind spots are addressed. The limitations of self-monitoring and self-assessment are reviewed and recommendations for proactively and effectively addressing these challenges are presented. A realistic approach to ongoing self-care and the promotion of wellness is presented that each mental health clinician can integrate into their daily lives, for their own benefit, and for the benefit of their clients.

This course will satisfy your ethics requirement.

Religion and spirituality are important dimensions of most individuals’ lives. Yet, many mental health clinicians do not receive education and training focused on how to address these issues, when appropriate, with their clients. This webinar provides information on the roles of spirituality and religion in many clients’ lives, how to address our own biases about them and how our own beliefs may impact how we view and address them, how to appropriately assess each client’s treatment needs to include religious and spiritual issues and concerns, and how to tap into clients’ beliefs, practices, and faith communities as sources of strength that may enhance the professional services we provide. Ethics issues, challenges, and dilemmas are addressed, and an ethical decision-making model is shared and clinical examples are provided and discussed to illustrate its application. Recommendations for ethical and clinically effective practice are provided. 

This course qualifies as an ethics course.

“The information presented in this course will be very helpful with my documentation of psychotherapy and enlightened me about potential risk and legal issues. The presentation was clear and he gave real life examples to illustrate what he was saying. I learned the difference between a supoena and a court order, and specifically what goes into effective documentation of psychotherapy notes."-Claire H., Social Worker, Vermont

This webinar explains the goals and potential benefits of effective clinical documentation as well as the ethical and legal requirements for doing so. Documentation is addressed from a clinical and risk management perspective. Specific recommendations are made for how to document the clinical services provided in a competent and effective manner. Additionally, common pitfalls to avoid are addressed. How to store and maintain records is addressed for both paper and electronic records. Precautions to take to protect and preserve records are described in detail along with how and when to dispose of them. Guidance is provided for following HIPAA and other laws and regulations relevant to documentation and record keeping. Participants in this webinar will receive practical guidance that can be integrated into daily practice to document more effectively, to better achieve the goals of thoughtfully created treatment records, and to meet and exceed professional standards and practice guidelines relevant to documentation and record keeping.

This course qualifies as an ethics course.

“The information was well organized and presented in a clear, interesting manner. It gave me a good opportunity to think about how many different ways I inevitably disclose information about myself to clients; it's not possible to avoid this but I must ensure what I disclose is beneficial to the client.”-Cynthia L., Social Worker, Arkansas

Boundaries and multiple relationships are common occurrences for mental health clinicians. Yet, they may at times be challenging, confusing, and even overwhelming for those who may not know how to effectively manage boundaries and how to determine which multiple relationships are acceptable or appropriate. Taking a rigid and avoidant approach typically can be just as harmful as an overly loose approach. Participants in this webinar will learn a rational, practical, and reality-based approach for addressing and managing boundaries and multiple relationships in clinical practice. The role of a decision-making process and consideration of multiple relevant issues will be addressed and their use in clinical practice will be demonstrated. Clinical examples will be presented and discussed to illustrate the points being made. Participants will learn specific skills and strategies to integrate into their clinical practices on a daily basis.