Continuing Education

This workshop will focus on the gaps of service that exist within the veteran community, specifically for national guard and reservist members. Gaps in service for National Guard and Reserve members can create challenges, particularly regarding benefits, career progression, and reintegration into civilian life.

Ready Workplaces (also called Recovery Friendly Workplaces) are committed to making foundational change in the way they hire, treat, and support workers living in or seeking recovery from substance use and mental health disorders. Recovery Ready Workplaces move from a “zero tolerance” policy emphasizing disciplinary action to a “recovery” policy emphasizing help, hope, and realizing the economic potential of healthy employees. Just as “housing first” policies recognize the role of stable housing in supporting recovery from substance use and mental health challenges, recovery ready workplaces recognize the need for stable, sustainable and supportive employment to support individuals in recovery and maximize their social contributions.

Death is a part of life, and everyone experiences loss. Yet, many clinicians lack training in the area of grief counseling. How can you build the confidence and skills to support and help your patients? If you are looking for a place to start, consider joining this 3-hour course. It will provide you with a strong foundation to confidently and effectively work with death and non-death loss. Also included—navigating grief reactions. complications from the COVID-19 pandemic and when grief becomes a DSM-5-TR diagnosis. There is a focus on navigating the holidays. This course covers contemporary theory, practice tools, and therapy techniques. We will use a case example to allow for the opportunity to practice your new clinical skills. You will leave with concrete strategies you can apply immediately with your clients.  

This 120-minute presentation provides an introductory overview of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT), including the FDA designated “Breakthrough Therapies” using MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD. We will explore the different access pathways currently being utilized and what makes them different, such as the psilocybin programs in OR and CO versus PAT. We will go through the four session types utilized in PAT and gain a basic understanding of what takes place in each. We will also look at the role of social work in these emerging therapies, and why it is important for clinical social workers to have foundational knowledge on this subject.  

This interdisciplinary course introduces a new framework called Spiritual Capital, designed to deepen ethical awareness, enhance leadership capacity, and support culturally responsive social work practice. Drawing from sociology, psychology, moral philosophy, and lived experience, each session explores a critical dimension of human development often overlooked in traditional training: motivation, emotional awareness, trust-building, spiritual deprivation, and public responsibility. Participants will learn how to identify underlying motivational blocks in clients, understand the ethical role of emotions, apply a trust framework across individual and institutional levels, recognize signs of spiritual poverty, and engage with systemic injustice through the lens of ethical duty. By integrating theory with practice, this course equips social workers with tools to lead with insight, compassion, and a commitment to structural change. The framework is especially relevant for practitioners working with marginalized populations, cross-cultural communities, or clients experiencing moral injury, burnout, or existential distress.

This session examines the critical role of formative and process evaluations in advancing program effectiveness, accountability, and equity within social work and human service contexts. Grounded in principles of cultural humility, the presentation explores how traditional evaluation approaches can inadvertently reproduce bias and marginalize diverse communities. Emphasis is placed on integrating culturally responsive frameworks throughout evaluation design and implementation, particularly in feedback loops, fidelity monitoring, and stakeholder engagement. Drawing on current scholarship and practice-based evidence, the session offers conceptual models, case examples, and curated resources to support practitioners and researchers in embedding equity into ongoing evaluation efforts. Participants will leave with tools to critically assess evaluation strategies and promote inclusive, context-aware approaches to continuous improvement.   

The purpose of the workshop is to provide an introduction to solution-focused brief practice. The model has been accepted as an evidence-based practice, and much research has demonstrated the effectiveness of solution-focused practice with varied populations and in varied contexts. The following topics will be covered: the distinction between short-term and brief therapies; assumptions; solution-building versus problem-solving; and the seven intervention tools. The workshop is structured to encourage and allow discussion and sharing of ideas. Solution-focused practice follows many of the social work precepts, such as “staying where the client is,” viewing clients as an integral part of their social environments, creating a collaborative relationship, and developing a client-centered approach.

The purpose of the workshop is to provide an introduction to solution-focused brief practice. The model has been accepted as an evidence-based practice, and much research has demonstrated the effectiveness of solution-focused practice with varied populations and in varied contexts. The following topics will be covered: the distinction between short-term and brief therapies; assumptions; solution-building versus problem-solving; and the seven intervention tools. The workshop is structured to encourage and allow discussion and sharing of ideas. Solution-focused practice follows many of the social work precepts, such as “staying where the client is,” viewing clients as an integral part of their social environments, creating a collaborative relationship, and developing a client-centered approach.