PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Professional Development

The Center offers monthly professional development opportunities for our current and former counselors. Counselors currently enrolled at The Center can watch recordings of these programs here. The password can be found in the Clinical Corner. Here is a listing of our recent offerings:

Theory & Application: Assessment, Diagnosis, Treatment Planning, & More

March 18, 2023

Cynthia Rolf, LMFT, Psy.D.

This workshop will provide an overview of theoretical orientations and theories used to assess, diagnose and develop treatment plans. During this workshop, you will gain a clearer understanding of how theoretical orientation leads to theories used and intervention to apply with clients.

Working With Couples Pt. I & II

December 10, 2022 & January 28, 2023

Sara Haynes, LMFT

For many, the thought of working with couples is daunting and scary, especially as a newbie. How do I handle screaming? What if someone walks out? What if I know a secret? Because this is a broad topic, I am going to start with the basics - at the beginning and shed light on best practices from my experience working with all kinds of couples. You will learn tips for the first phone calls to ethical/legal considerations to how to handle some of the most difficult situations. And please bring your questions.

LGBTQ+ Identity: A Process of Self-Realization

September 10, 2022

Thomas Mondragon, M.A., LMFT

This session will cover the importance of understanding identity development, the different challenges/hurdles that might be encountered for individuals with different identities and how to work with this in the therapy setting.

He(Art) Therapy

November 12, 2022

Lynell Weiss, LMFT

In this session, attendees will learn about art therapy, who it's for, how it can be used with clients. The session will be experiential and group-driven.

LGBTQ+ Identity: A Process of Self-Realization

September 10, 2022

Thomas Mondragon, M.A., LMFT

Dream Engagement

July 23, 2022

Jack Mayhall, Ph.D., LPCC, LMFT

Dreams are like waking-up in the unconscious, the awakened ego that reside in daylight becomes relocated to the unconscious as the dream ego. The world of dreams within becomes as real as the world of consciousness. So, we live in two worlds, as the waking world with the laws of science, logic, and social behavior, and the elusive world of dreaming as mystery disguised in sleep. These cryptic images from the dark realm however, are considered by many therapists to be realer than real: containing messages from “home” (the Self) that, if decoded properly, can offer sage advise on how we should be living our lives. In dreams one can find symbolic, personal, and archetypal meaning which in turn will guide them down their own unique path of growth, not someone else’s fantasy, but their own. For Psychotherapists, honoring and working with their own dreams can deepen their self-knowledge allowing them to work on their own issues. Dream work opens-up the dialectic relationship between the ego and the unconscious. However, most importantly, dream work offers insight when strong counter-transference arises with clients. Group dream work amongst professionals is not only educational but very exciting and illuminating. Group members can point out elements in a dream that the dreamer themselves have missed. So, join us in trying to yet again decode the mysteries of the unconscious.

Couples Counseling

June 25, 2022

Rachel Bar, Psy.D., LMFT

This workshops will cover a variety of topics related to couples counseling, including interventions, therapeutic approaches, overcoming gridlock and the blame game, and treating the invisible client: couplehood. We will also address fears related to treating couples, inappropriate assignments, helplessness, date night, homework, and I statements. We will look at The Marriage Contract and Dan Wile's work around embracing the symptoms and the technique of doubling.

Conceptualizing an Approach to Understanding Traumatic Stress

May 21, 2022

Phaizon Wood, Ed.D., LMFT

Everyday stress and anger are often seen as the root of many frequently expressed human emotions, yet our primary socializing institutions (families, schools, religious institutions) provide very little instruction to manage them effectively. Moreover, there is evidence that clinicians are often equally unprepared for the ruptures in the therapeutic relationship that can (and should) occur during treatment. Traumatic stress is a normal reaction to an abnormal event that has overwhelmed our nervous system’s ability to adapt and respond. This session will frame traumatic stress in a way that can also help illuminate a clinical response to the client’s expression of extreme emotions.

Ethnicity & The Therapeutic Relationship

April 30, 2022

Cynthia Rolf, LMFT

This seminar opens on the topic of ethnicity and the therapeutic working relationship. We will explore topics of oppression, microaggression, and the therapeutic process.

What is LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychotherapy and Why Is It So Important?

March 12, 2022

Prof. Thomas Mondragon

Discussed will be the importance of understanding LGBTQ+ affirmative theory and practice as vital to effectively working with LGBTQ+ clients, reaching beyond an important acceptance and support of LGBTQ+ individuals into a more active therapeutic stance. This will involve examining the impact of heterosexism, internalized homo/bi/transphobia, and having a vision of meaningful expression in LGBTQ+ sexual orientation and gender expressions. Also discussed will be affirmative need to address the particular challenges and gifts of being LGBTQ+ and a person of color, often involving the potent intersections of sexual and racial identities with multiple oppressions and the psychological impact this can have on daily functioning.

Geropsychology

February 5, 2022

Dr. Donald Schultz

In this presentation, participants will be exposed to the developmental and clinical aspects of working with older adults, particularly those over the age of 65. The major clinical issues, concepts, and methods in the study of aging will be presented and discussed, including various issues relevant to later life and the societal and psychological implications of an aging population.

Sex Therapy Techniques

January 15, 2022

Dr. Ann Kirlin

In this session, attendees will learn about the foundations of sex therapy and techniques for effective psychotherapy.

He(Art) Therapy

December 11, 2021

Lynell Weiss, LMFT

In this session, attendees will learn about art therapy, who it's for, how it can be used with clients. The session will be experiential and group-driven.

Money Matters & Fee Matters: What We Don't Talk About in Therapy

November 20, 2021

Dr. Rachel Bar

This is a workshop that deals with uncomfortable topics. Hopefully this will be the first step in creating a comfortable dialogue and providing the language while discussing money, finance, and fees in therapy.

Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy

October 16, 2021

Dr. Jack Mayhall

During the last thirty years of his life, Jung turned to alchemy as a fundamental resource for depth psychology. In alchemy he found images and thoughts that were uniquely fitted to his perceptions of psychological life and that confirmed his views of the spontaneous activity and directedness of the unconscious. This seminar will present a brief overview of alchemy to help develop an understanding of the relation of alchemical symbols to psychotherapy and individuation.

Modern Psychoanalysis

September 11, 2021

Dr. Kath MacLeay

Modern psychoanalysis rests upon the theoretical framework and clinical approach of Sigmund Freud, who defined psychoanalysis as any line of investigation that takes transference and resistance as the starting point of its work. It is the name given by Hyman Spotnitz to describe a body of developments in the theory of technique in order to apply the psychoanalytic method to the treatment of certain disorders previously thought to be untreatable by that method.