Fall Social Work Series

Special Topics in Social Work Practice

Practical Ethics: Using a Decision-Case Model to Resolve Dilemmas
September 12th: 10:00am to Noon

Approved for 2 Continuing Education Hours
Level: Intermediate to Advanced

This 2 hour workshop offers one hour of didactic presentation followed by one hour of group discussion and application of the topic in a peer seminar format through role play or exploration of actual cases.

Ethical awareness is a fundamental part of the professional practice of social workers. Using a decision-case model involves indepth discussions based on detailed open ended accounts of actual practice situations and encourages participants to identify, frame or find a problem, consider the problemfrommultiple perspectives, provide solutions for problems, identify and consider the consequences and ethical ramifications of those solutions.

Participants of this workshop will become familiar with a decision-casemodel and be able to distinguish between practice issues and ethical dilemmas. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss specific ethical dilemmas in their practice and with collegial input present cases applying a decision-case model of ethical decision making.

This workshop meets the requirements for ethics content.

PTSD: Families Matter
October 24th: 9:00am to 12:15pm

Approved for 3 Continuing Education Hours
Level: Intermediate

This 3 hour workshop provides information for clinicians to assist families impacted by PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD and other trauma reactions can change how a trauma survivor feels and acts. Trauma symptoms may make a family member hard to get along with or cause him or her to withdraw from the rest of the family. Traumatic experiences that happen to onemember of a family can affect everyone else in the family.

Topics to be explored are an overview of PTSD and its impact on the family, how to assess the impact of PTSD on family relationships and children, and effective treatment strategies to targeted to common symptoms.

Exploring Transpersonal SocialWork
November 14th: 1:00 to 4:15pm

Approved for 3 Continuing Education Hours
Level: Basic

This 3 hour workshop provides insight and knowledge regarding the developing field of transpersonal social work. The concept of transpersonal social work will be explored in an effort to educate the participants on how transpersonal perspective can enhance the provision of social work practices.

Topics to be explored include:

• defining the transpersonal
• exploring how transpersonal experiences impact the individual
• comparing a transpersonal
• self actualizing model of assessment to the DSM/Medical model of assessment and diagnosis, lifespan development
• developing an understanding of transpersonal empowerment.

All topics will be explored in relation to clinical social work practice.

This workshop is offered with the intention of furthering participant’s knowledge of the transpersonal and encouraging the integration of a transpersonal perspective into clinical social work practice.

Post Modern Approaches: A.C.T. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
December 19th: 10:00am to Noon

Approved for 2 Continuing Education Hours
Level: Basic

This workshop is 2 hours in length offering one hour of didactic presentation followed by one hour of group discussion and application of the topic in a peer seminar format through role play or exploration of actual cases.

ACT is a unique empirically based intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies together with commitment and behavior change strategies to increase psychological flexibility. It is an outgrowth of behavior therapy and cognitive behavior therapy. Based on Relational Frame Theory, ACT highlights the ways in which words and ideas are often misconstrued by others. Participants in this workshop will become familiar with the theoretical base of ACT, will acquire a rudimentary understanding of the principles of ACT, and will be able to identify several techniques used in ACT.