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• The Art of the First Session

  • When
    Friday, February 12, 2021
  •  
    11:00 AM - 1:00 PM (EST)
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    25

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  Presenter: Robert Taibbi

  Category 1 | 2 CEUs 

  While the average length of clinical treatment is 5-8 sessions, most clients seeking therapy come to a particular therapist only once. Having the right diagnosis and effective treatment approach can mean next to nothing if you fail to connect with the client. The pressure is on in that first session. Clients need to leave believing that this is the Right Place and the Right Person. And you’ve got to do it all in 60 minutes or less.

  In this webinar we will discuss the essential art of the first session. Drawing on the lessons of sales and with an awareness of clients’ ever-more discerning expectations, we’ll walk through the first session goals and process. We look at ways of changing the emotional climate so that clients feel differently when they walk out than when they walked in. We’ll define the critical skill sets you need to stay focused. We’ll walk through the three parts of the session – the opening, your assessment, the presentation of your treatment plan and next steps. You’ll learn how to handle objections, how to use treatment maps to hit the ground running, how to achieve balance with couples and families, how to recognize and use transference cues with individuals.

  You’ll learn what to do, but probably more importantly what not to do in order to make that first session the best it can be.

  Audience -- therapists of all disciplines

  Workshop Objectives:

  By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Define 4 ways of changing the emotional climate.
  2. Describe the process for countering objections.
  3. Discuss the 7 goals of the first session.
  4. Define the 4 sources of resistance.
  5. Describe 5 ways of building rapport.

  About the Presenter: 

  Robert Taibbi is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 46-years of experience primarily in community mental health working with children, couples, and families as a clinician, supervisor, and clinical director.

  He is the author of 11 books in the areas of anxiety, family and couple therapy, brief therapy, clinical supervision, including Art of the First Session as well as over 300 magazine and journal articles. He also writes an online column for Psychology Today entitled Fixing Families that has received over 12 million hits.

  In addition, Robert provides training both nationally and internationally in couple therapy, family therapy, brief therapy, and clinical supervision. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina and has served as an adjunct professor at several universities. He is currently in private practice in Charlottesville, VA.

  
  

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• Anti-Racism Taskforce Therapy Follow-up Discussion

  • When
    Saturday, February 27, 2021
  •  
    10:30 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    3

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  ANTI-RACISM TASKFORCE (ART) THERAPY How has systemic racism impacted your clinical practice? How do you measure up as an anti-racist clinician? How often do you consider the effect of systemic racism on the issues bringing your clients to therapy? Foundational to therapy is emotional intimacy. As clinical social workers, we are often quite skilled at navigating emotional intimacy around a range of topics that we see as micro influences on a client’s life, such as abuse, grief, and trauma. However, is it possible to foster emotional intimacy with a client without also reckoning with the macro forces that influence their lives? And ours? Racism is but one important force that has shaped all of our lives, whether we realize it or not. Thus, in order to cultivate emotional intimacy with our clients, we must, as clinicians, first be willing to engage with the insidious nature of racism and sit with a great deal of discomfort. We must be willing to enter a brave space within ourselves before we can foster one with our clients. Why brave space and not safe space? Well, safety means free of risk, harm, and controversy. And yet, when we decide to engage with truths that challenge what we have been taught to believe about ourselves, others, and the world, it is impossible not to feel emotionally vulnerable, and it is inevitable that we will make mistakes. Instead of waiting to feel safe, we must normalize our fear and choose to be brave: afraid but doing it anyway. When it comes to racism, whether we are white or a person of color, there is so much pain to be dealt with. Our choice, and the hard work, come in how to deal with the pain --whether or not we want to get involved in order to grow. Members seeking a brave space within which to grow their understanding of how systemic racism comes up in the therapy room are encouraged to join us for a virtual conversation via Zoom on February 27th from 10:30 to noon.  For questions or more information about ART, please email us at antiracism-taskforce@gwscsw.org Recommended readings: From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: A New Way to Frame Dialogue around Diversity and Social Justice by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Body by Resmaa Menakem White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh

  
  

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• The Four Most Common Supervisory Mistakes And How to Overcome Them

  • When
    Friday, March 05, 2021
  •  
    11:00 AM - 1:00 PM (EST)
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    38

  Register

  Presenter: Robert Taibbi

  Category 1 | 2 CEUs 

  As a clinical supervisor you need to ensure quality service while helping clinicians develop their skills and style. To do this you can’t afford to be the same supervisor at Day 1 that you need to be at Day 100 or your supervisees will either stop learning or leave you behind. In this workshop we’ll discuss the 4 most common supervisory mistakes – focusing on the client rather than the clinician, ignoring the parallel process, spoonfeeding, and having unclear supervisory goals – and how to avoid them. We’ll also map out the characteristics, goals, tasks and dangers of each of the 4 stages of clinical development, and understand the 3 anxiety coping styles. You’ll learn how help clinicians develop their own unique style and gain insight into your own.

  Workshop Objectives:

  By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Define spoonfeeding
  2. Identify the 4 stages of clinical development
  3. Describe 4 techniques for changing the emotional climate
  4. Describe the 5 common leadership styles

  About the Presenter: 

  Robert Taibbi is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 46-years of experience primarily in community mental health working with children, couples, and families as a clinician, supervisor, and clinical director.

  He is the author of 11 books in the areas of anxiety, family and couple therapy, brief therapy, clinical supervision, including Clinical Social Work Supervision: Process & Practice as well as over 300 magazine and journal articles. He also writes an online column for Psychology Today entitled Fixing Families that has received over 12 million hits.

  In addition, Robert provides training both nationally and internationally in couple therapy, family therapy, brief therapy, and clinical supervision. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina and has served as an adjunct professor at several universities. He is currently in private practice in Charlottesville, VA.

  
  

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