HSF staging

Somatic Experiencing: Enhancing Psychodynamic Therapy
2024-04-12 09:00 - 12:15 (America/New_York) | Smith College Campus Center, 100 Elm Street, Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
In Person Seminar
Smith College Campus
Northampton, MA 01060
Instructor: David Levit, Ph.D., ABPP, SEP
Note: Exact classroom to be announced prior to event
Level: Intermediate
CEs: 3
Review CE accreditation and approvals for this course on tab above.
This program is focused on interweaving Somatic Experiencing (SE), a trauma therapy, into psychodynamic therapy for clients who suffer from unresolved early trauma and severe forms of dissociation. David Levit will outline the SE model and discuss its basic principles. He will illustrate ways to draw upon approaches from SE by presenting clinical process from therapy with clients who struggled with catastrophic dissociative episodes and who had a histories of severe early trauma. Levit will discuss the interweaving of SE in terms of various psychodynamic perspectives, with emphasis on Winnicott, and especially on the role of SE in enhancing provision of holding. He will also illustrate in a broader sense how the SE model can supplement talk therapy by enriching our ways of looking, listening, and responding.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a model originally developed by Peter Levine for understanding and treating post traumatic stress disorder. It has been expanded to treat psychic/somatic/nervous system dysregulation more generally. SE provides perspectives and approaches that are especially helpful in our work with clients who are prone to either states of intense over-activation (anxiety, panic, terror, agitation, rage, etc.) or under-activation (freeze, numbness, emptiness, deadness, etc.). A central aim of SE is to facilitate the restoration and enhancement of the client’s intrinsic regulatory capacities, with the larger goal of bringing a more highly resourced self to the task of processing life’s ongoing experiences (including experiences in the therapy context). SE has particular relevance for people who are vulnerable to the triggering of dissociative states related to trauma.
This program is appropriate for all psychotherapists, those who are informed by psychodynamic, CBT, EMDR, or other approaches. No prior knowledge of SE is needed.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia
2024-03-16 09:00 - 16:30
In Person Seminar
Smith College Campus Center
100 Elm Street, Northampton, MA 01060
Instructor: Martin Kounitz, LICSW
Level: Intermediate
March 16, 2024, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET
CEs: 6
Review CE accreditation and approvals for this course on tab above.
Poor sleep habits and outright insomnia often impair our clients’ healthy functioning. Learn the essentials of how to treat insomnia using cognitive and behavioral methods. We will cover what causes insomnia, how our circadian rhythm works and ways to foster healthy sleep. We will also discuss ways to detect sleep apnea and alert your clients to the health consequences of that disorder.
The class will train clinicians to use cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) to diagnose, assess and treat sleep disorders including difficulty falling or staying asleep. CBT-I is evidence-based and in 2016, the American College of Physicians, an organization of internal medicine specialists, recommended CBT-I as the first-line treatment for insomnia. This is because CBT-I is effective and sleeping pills have significant side effects. We will also cover problems such as people who fall asleep earlier than they want to, or much later than they would like. Additionally, the class will explore sleep apnea and other less common conditions such as narcolepsy. We will also review helping clients manage sleep-related anxiety.

Motivational Interviewing: Using Compassionate Conversation to Facilitate Change
2024-03-16 09:00 - 16:30
In Person Seminar
Smith College Campus Center
100 Elm Street, Northampton, MA 01060
Instructor: Sara Schieffelin, LICSW
Level: Intermediate
March 15 and 16, 2024, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET
CEs: 12
This is a multiple-day session. In order to receive CEs, you must attend both days.
Review CE accreditation and approvals for this course on tab above.
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidenced-based practice that came out of the addictions field and is applicable to a wide range of presenting problems. It is currently used in the health care, mental health and substance abuse/recovery fields and is gaining increasing recognition for its efficacy, broad application and humanistic approach.
During Motivational Interviewing conversations, the practitioner engages the client in a guided dialogue meant to uncover and heighten ambivalence around a target behavior or issue, aid the client in resolving their ambivalence and ultimately identify a change plan that supports the client’s self-definition of health. MI employs a core set of skills, used within an overarching framework or “spirit,” which includes respect, promotion of autonomy and personal choice, collaboration, acceptance, compassion/empathy and evocation.
This highly interactive and participatory two-day seminar will offer the basics of Motivational Interviewing, with emphasis on exploring and understanding the spirit of MI and learning and practicing the core skills through “real” plays, demonstrations, exercises and case examples. Participants new to MI will leave with effective tools, and those already familiar will increase their confidence and repertoire.

The Culture of Neurodiversity: Supporting Autistic Individuals in Today's World
2024-03-15 13:00 - 16:15
In Person Seminar
Smith College Campus Center
100 Elm Street, Northampton, MA 01060
Instructor: Jennifer Bogin, MS.Ed., BCBA, LBA
Level: Intermediate
March 15, 2024, 1 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. ET
CEs: 3
Review CE accreditation and approvals for this course on tab above.
With numbers of neurodiverse and autistic individuals soaring, social workers and other mental health clinicians are required to find ways to best meet the needs of this population. The intricacies of an autism diagnosis will be discussed as well as ways of working with neurodiverse people with different symptomology and presentation.
Participants in this seminar will have the opportunity to increase their knowledge on how to serve and support neurodiverse individuals in today’s rapidly changing environment. This includes the cultural implications for the work of social workers and other mental health clinicians. The depiction of neurodiverse individuals in literature and the media will be discussed as well as how individual stories can vary and not match the common images and preconceived notions. Through multimedia presentations, cutting edge research and culturally-competent techniques for working with this community will be discussed. There will be ample time for questions and discussion of professional experiences with neurodiverse clients.
