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.

At the heart of existential and person-centered therapy lies the profound quest for meaning and fulfillment. Addressing life’s existential questions, such as “What is the meaning of life?” or “How can we cultivate healthier, more meaningful relationships?”, these therapeutic approaches offer powerful frameworks for helping clients navigate both existential and neurotic anxieties. Rooted in philosophy, phenomenology, and the pioneering work of Carl Rogers, existential and person-centered therapies emphasize the importance of choice, authenticity, and personal agency in fostering psychological well-being.
 

This seminar will provide an in-depth exploration of humanistic theory, focusing on the existential foundations of meaning-making and the core principles of person-centered therapy. Through didactic presentation and experiential exercises, participants will learn how to integrate mindfulness, present-centered awareness, and body awareness into clinical practice. Attendees will gain valuable insights into how these therapeutic approaches can be effectively applied to address a variety of client concerns, including those related to social justice, ultimately enhancing therapeutic outcomes and client engagement.

For those who are grieving to loss of a loved one, the holidays can be an especially difficult and overwhelming time. Holidays are often associated with memories, traditions, and a sense of connection to others, all of which are impacted by the painful awareness that their loved one is absent. Surrounded by messages that we should give thanks, participate in joyful celebrations, spend time with others, and share memories, the bereaved are faced with painfully complicated, sometimes conflicting, emotions that have to be navigated during this time. During this presentation, we will explore how clients can manage the painful and mixed feelings that accompany grief, maintain physical health, and explore how new and old traditions and rituals can support clients during this tough time. Just as there is no right or wrong way to grieve, how one chooses to manage difficult emotions, social events, and relationships during the holiday season will be as unique as one’s own experience of loss. This presentations aims to help clients reduce their suffering, remember loved ones, and even reconnect with the real reason for the season.

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.

The practice of psychotherapy places significant demands on the practitioner. Clinical work requires advanced education and rests on a foundation of knowledge of the fundamental and advanced domains of clinical science and psychotherapeutics. Knowledge acquisition is a continual journey to advance one’s therapeutic effectiveness. Much attention is paid to traditional modes of knowledge acquisition for developing expertise and seeking mastery through structured and self-guided learning experiences, less guidance is available for other aspects of therapeutic development. While there is abundant research on the efficacy of various approaches to psychotherapy, there is some evidence to suggest that the therapist accounts for a significant degree of the variance that determines therapeutic results. The top therapists get better results and an estimated up to 40% do harm. Clinical expertise is greater than technical knowledge, as it requires advanced decision making and judgement. It is our belief that consistently positive results and the gratification that ensues is what can inoculate practitioners from burnout. In this seminar participants will explore their journey of self-development and ways of viewing the world based on a balance between the lenses of science and art. You will be guided by an early career and late career psychotherapist.

Mental health and healthcare professionals are faced with the often misunderstood and misdiagnosed symptoms of normative and prolonged grief. Formal education rarely, if ever, provides extensive enough training to accurately identify and treat those who are grieving. Unfortunately, grieving clients are diagnosed incorrectly because symptoms can mimic normative or prolonged grief. The grieving process is often pathologized, or misdiagnosed, resulting in potential exacerbation of the presenting issues because inappropriate interventions are utilized. As a result, those who are grieving are often inadvertently disenfranchised by providers, which can make the professional support they sought to reconstruct their previously shattered identities and worldviews ineffective, and even, at time, exacerbate other mental health difficulties. It is essential to be versed in identifying grief related constructs that may underlie, or even cause, mental health and behavior associated problems.
 

This presentation aims to provide current, research based information on the grieving process, clarify misconceptions of outdated theories, and differentiate between normative and prolonged grief. It also examines the changes in conceptualization, differential diagnosing, and effective, clinically proven interventions that may be utilized with grieving individuals and families. Attendees will leave with an improved clinical skill set they can immediately apply to identify and treat their clients.

The clinical interview is a critical component in any intake process for therapy, counseling or coaching. Additionally, the interview should be a standard component of any evaluation process. A comprehensive interview can provide a wealth of information necessary to best evaluate, understand and/or work with a client/patient. Surprisingly, this valuable component does not appear to be adequate taught in many graduate programs. The variability of the quality and depth of interviews that this presenter has reviewed is both unfortunate and easily correctable.
 

This seminar will provide you the framework necessary to conduct a comprehensive clinical interview. You will learn the important areas to cover during this seminar. You will be able to historically track the major areas of psychological functioning throughout the interviewee’s life. You will be able to understand the unique strengths and weaknesses of the interviewee. You will be able to make an appropriate diagnosis. You will be able to use all of the information gathered to help create a treatment/counseling/coaching plan with the interviewee.

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.