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Anxiety and the Gift of the Imagination: A clinical model for helping children understand and manage anxiety
December 13, 2019
Facilitator: Robin Alter, PhD., C.Psych.
This training is suitable for: Mental health professionals (counsellors, social workers, therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists), currently working with and/or interested in working with children and anxiety management. |
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Looking for a new way to help children understand and manage their anxiety? This workshop will teach a successful therapeutic formulation of anxiety along with a clinical model for working with children and anxiety management. Learn how children's anxiety and thinking are different from adults, and how to be more effective with children in creating fundamental change in anxiety management. Dr. Alter will explain how the link between imagination and anxiety can be used effectively in treatment, this approach starts and ends with an enhancement of self-esteem to motivate children to use therapeutic tools and strategies.
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Using Mindfulness and Compassion to Support Grieving Children and Families
January 14, 2020
Facilitators: Andrea Warnick, RN., MA., RP., and Rev. Andrew Blake.
This training is suitable for: Front-line workers and volunteers, medical professionals, educators, clergy, social workers, administrators, residential workers, counsellors, funeral service providers and hospice volunteers. |
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This workshop will explore the concept that when awareness is balanced between self and other, compassion has a dual pathway, where our care extends both to ourselves and to those in our care. In addition to the use of compassion in clinical work, mindfulness practices that can be used with children, adolescents, and families will be explored, along with the clinician's own mindful practice. Participants will gain essential skills and strategies to develop mindfulness practices that can be incorporated into clinical work with those who are grieving a death.This is Learning Module 4 of the 2019 Certificate Program in Children's Grief and Bereavement. This module may be taken separately from the certificate program as a stand-alone workshop.
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NEW
Identifying and Working Through Problematic Parenting Patterns in Treatment
January 23, 2020
Facilitator: Dr. Adele Lafrance, C.Psych.
This training is suitable for:
Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers.
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, family doctors.
Direct Service Workers: drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers, child and youth workers, youth justice workers. |
This training is intended for clinicians and therapists working with parents of children and adolescents. Dr. Lafrance will present Emotion-focused conceptualizations of problematic patterns of parenting, including relevant research tools and techniques to promote attitudinal and behavioral change in caregivers in a way that is supportive and productive. A module with practical strategies to manage challenging, or conflictual co-parenting dynamics that impact on child/adolescent development and mental health will also be covered. Ethical-legal considerations related to increased caregiver involvement, including when caregivers are severely under-resourced will be discussed.
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Incorporating Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Informed Practice Working with Children, Adolescents and their Families
January 24, 2020
Facilitator: Elizabeth Lovrics, MSW., RSW.
This training is suitable for: All mental health professionals, medical professionals, social workers, educators, early childhood educators, child and youth workers. |
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This interactive workshop will provide participants with an overview of the theories and factors that influence children/adolescent behaviours. DBT principles, assumptions and key components such as distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotion regulations skills will be introduced through experiential means. Participants will gain effective strategies to guide parents to manage problematic behaviours and improve communication. During the workshop, there will be demonstrations of group formats, skills exercises, videos, role-playing, mindfulness activities and behavioural chain analysis used with parents and their youth.
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NEW
So, You Only Have Eight Sessions, What Do You Do? Integrating evidence-based practices in time-limited psychotherapy/counselling
January 28 and 29, 2020
Facilitator: Cleo Haber, BSW., MSW., RSW.
This training is suitable for:
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, family doctors.
Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers.
Direct Service Workers: drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers, child and youth workers, youth justice workers. |
This two-day workshop is designed for front-line workers and mental health clinicians working in community agencies, Family Health Teams, or Community Health Centres where there are a limited number of sessions to see clients. Learn how to structure time-limited psychotherapy and counselling sessions with evidence-based interventions to make the most of client sessions. Learn the beginning, middle and end-phase tasks of psychotherapy/counselling, discuss common factors of psychotherapy effectiveness and review key interventions from both Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) to address common mental illness. This workshop will use video, small group discussion, role-play, experiential learning and didactic teaching methods.
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Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Blending theory with innovative techniques
January 30 and 31, 2020
Facilitator: Liana Lowenstein, MSW., RSW., CPT-S., best-selling author and one of Canada's foremost presenters on childhood trauma.
This training is suitable for: Mental health clinicians. |
Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is an empirically-supported psychotherapy model for treating traumatized children and adolescents. This two-day workshop will provide the theoretical framework of TF-CBT, and will present creative interventions for each of the 8 treatment components of TF-CBT. Workshop participants will come away with a solid understanding of TF-CBT, strategies for working with hard-to-engage children and learn how to utilize TF-CBT to treat a range of childhood traumas including sexual abuse, domestic violence, traumatic grief, car accidents, natural disasters. This workshop will combine theoretical material with hands-on therapeutic interventions.
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NEW WEBINAR
Teens, Cannabis, Health and Wellbeing:
Untangling a complicated relationship
February 7, 2020 | 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Facilitator: Dr. Karen Leslie, M.Ed., FRCP(C).
This training is suitable for:
Educators: teachers, ECE, school administration/support
Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, family doctors
Direct Service Workers: drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers, child and youth workers, youth justice workers. |
Learn current trends for cannabis use along with the risk factors for cannabis use disorders in teens. Gain an overview of the two main cannabinoids, THC and CBD and their effects with respect to adolescents’ physical and mental health. Participants will also learn about the evidence for the use of cannabis for medical purposes in children and teens. Several different scenarios will be used to present and discuss some of the ways in which adolescents who used cannabis regularly may experience difficulties with their health and wellbeing along with the complex interplay between social, familial, academic and health factors.
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WEBINAR or IN-CLASS
Digital Media Use in Youth: Mental health and screen time, a force for good or evil?
February 7, 2020 | 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Facilitators: Marshall Korenblum, MD., FRCP©, Dip. Child Psychiatry and Bethany Good, MSW., RSW., PhD Candidate
Location: The Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning in Toronto, ON
This training is suitable for: Educators, ECE, nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, family doctors, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers and child and youth care workers. |
Today’s young people grow up on-line. How does near constant use of social media effect relationships, learning and mental health? This training will examine the pros and cons of information technology for both therapists and clients. Clinicians and educators must understand the impact and concept of digital media if they are to keep young people safe and support their growth to adulthood. Topics covered will include:
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Media/digital literacy.
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Strategies and tools to help mediate and monitor tech use.
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Harm reduction vs. abstinence when containing social media use.
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The good: connecting, resources, peer supports.
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The bad: cyber bullying, pornography, on-line luring, poison envy.
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When the Personal is Professional: Understanding and Addressing Vicarious Trauma
February 7, 2020
Facilitator: Bo Yih Thom, MSW., RSW.
This training is suitable for:
Educators: Teachers, ECE, school staff
Mental Health Professional: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers
First Responders: police, firefighters, paramedics
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, doctors
Direct Service Workers: Drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers, child & youth workers, youth justice workers. |
Not feeling “yourself” at work or at home? Intrusive thoughts or challenging emotions? You may be affected by vicarious trauma, a common experience among clinicians, direct service workers, and advocates. This interactive workshop will take an in-depth look at vicarious trauma, and countertransference, contributing factors in its development, manifestations on a personal and professional level along with resiliency-based strategies to address it. Practical information is further developed through discussion, self-reflection exercises, and group activities, using an intersectional lens.
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Dancing in the Darkness: Creative approaches to working with grieving children and youth
February 11, 2020
Facilitators: Andrea Warnick, RN., MA., RP., and Lysa Toye, MSW., RSW.
This training is suitable for: Front-line workers and volunteers, medical professionals, educators, clergy, social workers, administrators, residential workers, counsellors, funeral service providers and hospice volunteers. Any professional who is in a position to support/influence a grieving child or youth. |
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The emphasis in this workshop will be on supporting participants who already have a theoretical foundation in children's grief and bereavement to build their toolkit and confidence in creatively engaging with children and youth who are grieving a death. Many easy to use (and modify) creative techniques in working with grieving children and youth will be shared, and participants will have the opportunity to engage in safe, experiential activities to better understand the process of using creative approaches. This is Learning Module 5 of the 2019 Certificate Program in Children's Grief and Bereavement. This module may be taken separately from the certificate program as a stand-alone workshop.
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Helping Families Heal: Addressing and treating trauma in children, youth and families
February 24, 2020
Facilitator: Janine Lawford, MSW., RSW.
This training is suitable for: Child and youth workers, nurses, early childhood educators, child protection workers and other social service counsellors who provide counselling and support to children and adolescents in community-based settings. |
This workshop will explore the background of how trauma impacts children and families and how best to work with these clients to identify myriad traumatic responses and encourage healing in the family system. By the end of this workshop participants will be able to recognize the effects of trauma in children and adolescents, understand the many manifestations of complex developmental trauma and how to incorporate this understanding into their work. Ms. Lawford will provide strategies to assist in the stabilization and support of youth with traumatic histories as well as steps in how to use relationship.
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Teenagers Today: Signs, symptoms and risk factors of suicide
February 27, 2020 | 9 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Facilitator: Marshall Korenblum, MD., FRCP©, Dip. Child Psychiatry
This training is suitable for: Educators, ECE, nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, family doctors, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers and child and youth care workers. |
The prevalence rate of suicide in teenagers remains unacceptably high. Why? What are the warning signs and risk factors for suicide behavior in teens? What can be done to intervene? What role does mental illness play? What role does media (T.V., movies, social media) play? This morning session training will elucidate a clear understanding of how to recognize the signs of suicide and what to do about it.
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Teenagers Today: How to engage adolescents in psychotherapy
February 27, 2020 | 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Facilitator: Marshall Korenblum, MD., FRCP©, Dip. Child Psychiatry
This training is suitable for: Psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, family doctors. |
We are on the cusp of a revolution in how technology and biology are affecting teenage brains. This afternoon session training will clarify how adolescent development effect risk taking; how to ensure optimal outcomes in psychotherapy with teens. The potential role which behavioral intervention technologies (A.I., chatbots etc) may play in conducting psychotherapy in the future. Relationship will matter – but how does that look in the 21st century?
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Providing Parent Guidance in Anxious Times: An approach to helping parents raise resilient, emotionally healthy children
February 28, 2020
Facilitator: Alex Russell, PhD., C.Psych.
This training is suitable for:
Educators: teachers, ECE, school administration/support
Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers.
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, family doctors.
Direct Service Workers: drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers, child and youth workers, youth justice workers. |
This workshop will examine the ways counselors, educators and mental health professionals can help parents stay emotionally present in their children’s lives while respectfully giving them space to develop their own agendas and sense of responsibility. Gain a health perspective on anxiety, in which childhood anxiety is understood as a necessary building block of adaptation and an essential gateway to a child’s creative engagement with the world.
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What's Going On? An innovative model for assessing children and teens
March 5, 2020
Facilitator: Liana Lowenstein, MSW., RSW., CPT-S., best-selling author and one of Canada's foremost presenters on childhood trauma.
This training is suitable for: Mental health professionals, clinicians, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists and social workers. |
The initial phase of therapy is perhaps the most important as it forms the foundation for successful ongoing work. An atmosphere of safety must be created in which the child is made to feel accepted, understood, and respected. A comprehensive assessment needs to be conducted so that an appropriate treatment plan can be developed. This course will focus on the beginning phase of therapy, namely, how to build a positive therapeutic rapport, engage resistant clients, conduct a comprehensive assessment, and develop a treatment plan. This is Learning Module 1 of the Certificate in Essential Skills for Assessing and Treating Children and Families. This module may be taken separately from the certificate program as a stand-alone workshop.
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Wanna Come Out and Play? The creative use of games, stories, puppets, and art with children and teens
March 6, 2020
Facilitator: Liana Lowenstein, MSW., RSW., CPT-S., best-selling author and one of Canada's foremost presenters on childhood trauma.
This training is suitable for: Mental health professionals, clinicians, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists and social workers. |
The creative use of games, puppets, stories, and art engages children and teens in therapy and helps them to resolve their psychological difficulties. Through this hands-on training, participants will learn to describe key processing skills to deepen therapeutic work and how to utilize a variety of therapeutic techniques to make sessions more meaningful and effective. The activities presented can be used with a wide range of presenting problems and difficulties. Videos and live demonstrations will be used to illustrate techniques. This is Learning Module 2 of the Certificate in Essential Skills for Assessing and Treating Children and Families. This module may be taken separately from the certificate program as a stand-alone workshop.
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March 9 and 10, 2020
Facilitator: Matthew D. Selekman, MSW., LCSW., CRADC
This training is suitable for: Social workers and educators. |
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This “hands-on,” practice-oriented workshop will present a collaborative strengths-based family therapy approach that combines the best elements of empirically supported individual and family therapy models with clinical evidence-based practice wisdom about what works with adolescents presenting with severe behavioral and emotional difficulties. Effective tools and strategies to identify pathways to high-risk adolescent problem-determined systems while building therapeutic alliances with challenging adolescents and family members will be provided. Participants will learn to identify, recruit, and use solution-determined collaborative teams to co-construct high quality solutions, and to carefully tailor-fit therapeutic interventions with the unique needs, preferences, and goals of each family member. The workshop format will combine information-rich didactic presentation, extensive use of videotape examples, and skill-building exercises.
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Grounding the Heart, Mind and Body: Help dysregulated clients ground themselves and regain a sense of self-control and self-efficacy
March 26, 2020
Facilitator: Michel Jones, MSW., RSW., RP.
This training is suitable for: Mental health professionals, social workers, medical professionals, direct service workers, child and youth workers, youth justice workers, first responders. |
Using recent neurological research and proven stress reduction methods, this workshop will provide practical tools that front-line workers can use to help dysregulated clients ground themselves and regain a sense of self-control and self-efficacy. Participants will learn how the brainstem, the limbic system and the pre-frontal cortex system work together and impact each other, how these three systems differentially affect "fight or flight", emotional response and cognitive distortions. Participants will gain different grounding techniques that work with each of the three systems, to bring clients back into their "window of tolerance" and bring traumatized clients out of the "there and then" to the "here and now” to allow for treatment.
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When the Well is Dry: Compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and self-care
April 22, 2020
Facilitator: Cleo Haber, BSW, MSW, RSW
This training is suitable for: This training is designed for anyone working in the helping professions.
Educators: teachers, ECE, school support staff
Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, doctors
Direct Service Workers: drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers, child and youth workers, youth justice workers
First Responders: police, firefighters, paramedics. |
Learn to distinguish between compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout along with the risk factors associated with each. Utilize individual self-assessment tools to identify the early warning signs and symptoms to determine what you may be struggling with. Strategies to address compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout will be presented along with approaches to promoting resilience and self-care. All participants will leave the workshop having crafted their own Wellness and Resiliency Plan. This workshop will make use of small group and large group discussions, experiential practice and didactic teaching methods.
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Identifying, Assessing and Treating Concurrent Disorders with Teens and Adults: A clinical overview of assessment, practical applications, tools and techniques when working with concurrent disorders
April 27, 2020
Facilitator: Ian Robertson, MSW., RSW.
This training is suitable for: Mental health professionals, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers, medical professionals, direct service workers, shelter and hostel workers, child and youth workers, youth justice workers and educators. |
Participants will gain an overview for assessment, practical applications and clinical tools and strategies when working with clients having a concurrent disorder. This workshop will discuss effective clinical practices when working with the individual and the family and building capacity within your agency to provide effective care for this complex population. By the end of this workshop participants will be able to screen and assess for the treatment of concurrent disorder, have acquired skills in using motivational interviewing along with an overview of working with concurrent disorder integration treatment approaches.
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Essential Theory and Practical Skills for Child-Focused Family Therapy
April 29, 2020
Facilitators: Liana Lowenstein, MSW., RSW., CPT-S., & Greg Lubimiv, MSW., CPT-S.
This training is suitable for: Mental health professionals, clinicians, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists and social workers. |
Working with children in the context of their family has unique benefits. This course will present the rationale for child-focused family sessions, and will outline the major models and essential skills of family therapy. Participant will be able to articulate common challenges in family therapy and identify strategies to overcome these challenges along with how to effectively contract and set goals with families. This is Learning Module 3 of the Certificate in Essential Skills for Assessing and Treating Children and Families. This module may be taken separately from the certificate program as a stand-alone workshop.
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Creative Techniques for Child-Focused Family Therapy
April 30, 2020
Facilitator: Liana Lowenstein, MSW., RSW., CPT-S., best-selling author and one of Canada's foremost presenters on childhood trauma.
This training is suitable for: Mental health professionals, clinicians, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists and social workers. |
The use of creative techniques in child-focused family therapy sessions provides a medium for all members to participate and promotes positive family interaction. This workshop will outline innovative techniques to engage, assess and treat families. Interventions to strengthen parenting skills will also be described and demonstrated. The facilitator will present the key ingredients for an effective termination and integrate techniques into ending sessions with families. This is Learning Module 4 of the Certificate in Essential Skills for Assessing and Treating Children and Families. This module may be taken separately from the certificate program as a stand-alone workshop.
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Treating Anxious Children in Anxious Times: An approach to promoting adaptive anxiety in children and teenagers.
June 19, 2019 *NEW DATE*
Facilitator: Alex Russell, PhD., C.Psych.
This training is suitable for:
Educators: teachers, ECE, support staff
Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, doctors. |
This workshop provides an approach to treating children with anxiety issues within the current cultural context. Anxiety is approached as an essential and healthy human emotion and a focus is placed on factors that contribute to both maladaptive and adaptive forms of anxiety. Participants gain an overall clinical orientation as well as techniques and ideas for working with anxious children and teenagers.
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