Thursday, October 1st, 2020 Venango County Via Zoom
Friday, October 30th, 2020 Mercer County Via Zoom
8:30am-12:30pm

One of the most critical tasks in any family therapy approach is convening the right members of the system for treatment and gaining their full participation. Parent participation and engagement is considered a related but separate construct from the therapeutic alliance and simple involvement. These differences are explained in this workshop, and clues are provided to help therapists assess caregivers’ level of engagement. Fully engaging all caregivers can be very challenging in working with overwhelmed, distrustful caregivers in community-based programs. This workshop identifies the most common reasons that caregivers may be reluctant to participate fully in in-home treatment and identifies strategies for addressing them. These strategies will be demonstrated in videos of family sessions.

Objectives

As a result of attending in this training, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the differences between caregiver engagement and caregiver involvement
2. Identify strategies for “selling” caregivers on the importance of their participation and engagement in treatment for their children
3. Identify the most common reasons caregivers do not participate and engage in treatment
4. Apply a motivational interviewing approach to addressing barriers to caregiver participation and engagement in treatment

November 4, 2020, Catholic Charities, Harrisburg via Zoom
9:00am-3:00pm

This training will teach clinicians about the unique aspects of maintaining integrity, professional boundaries, and ethics while providing home and community-based services. It is based on the principles addressed through the Codes of Ethics for Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Professional Counselling and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists. It will explore topics related to Relationships with Clients, Conflict of Interest, Confidentiality, and Technology. The goal of the training is to help therapists better manage their roles ethically.

Home and community-based clinicians often struggle to manage multiple roles, such as therapist, case manager, advocate, and/or coach, which can lead to role confusion.  The clinician may have to quickly trade hats and determine which role they are playing and why. It can be challenging to navigate the environment and avoid boundary crossing when families are offering food, inviting you to take a dip the pool, or to become friends on Instagram. This training will provide guidance on how to address these challenges as it pertains to home and community-based services.

Confidentiality in home and community-based services requires skill to anticipate and respond appropriately to potential breaches. When entering the home, clinicians may encounter uninvited friends and neighbors wanting to participate in the session.  Clinicians must quickly determine if this will enhance the session, and what is needed to ensure that confidentiality is not broken. Telehealth services present additional challenges with having a limited view of who else might be present during the session. This training will provide clinicians with options to think quickly though these issues and prevent a breach in confidentiality.

The trainers will engage staff using case scenarios, group discussion and thought-evoking dilemmas to build critical thinking skills associated with challenging decisions that clinicians face working in our field. The trainers will tap into their experience providing and supervising Family Based Mental Health Services to enhance the focus on home and community-based service provision, as it relates to ethics and professional boundaries.

Objectives

As a result of completing this training activity, participants will be able to:

1. Define ethics in relationship to law and morality.
2. Recognize the unique challenges found in home and community-based services.
3. Distinguish between use of self and self-disclosure.
4. State the difference between boundary crossing and boundary violations.
5. Identify Five Steps to Ethical Decision Making.
6. Name three ways to prevent a breach in confidentiality.

Thursday, June 24, 2020 & Friday, June 25, 2020
9:00am-12:00pm, Catholic Charities, Harrisburg, PA via Zoom Webconference

Participants will increase their understanding of the Secure Attachment, Insecure Attachment and Disorganized Attachment patterns and how these patterns present in children and families. By learning the principles and process of Nonviolent Communication, participants will learn how to increase self-awareness, self-empathy and empathic connection with others. Participants will practice and build effective communication skills with the intention of introducing Nonviolent Communication to clients. Through the actual practice of the Nonviolent Communication four part process participants will be able to look beneath the surface of behavior to the needs that are driving the behavior, be able to create more understanding and empathic connection between people and rebuild suboptimal attachment patterns to more safety and security.

Objectives:
As a result of attending this educational activity, participants will be able to:

1. Participants will be able to identify the basic components of Secure Attachment, Insecure Attachment and Disorganized Attachment.
2. Participants will be able to recognize the traits of each of the Attachment type.
3. Participants will be able to identify caregiving patterns that are likely to produce shame states and disruptive behavior children.
4. Participants will be able to identify the importance and benefits of Nonviolent Communication, including its application to parental self-awareness and attuning to the needs of children.
   
5. Participants will be able to describe the basic principles of Nonviolent Communication
6. Participants will be able to identify the importance of empathy in relationships, and be able to identify what is empathy and what is not empathy.

Instructors

Barbara Kopystecki, MA, has worked with children and families for over 20 years as a family therapist.  She is currently the Director of the Family Based Program at the Penn Foundation in Sellersville, PA, where she also serves as the Director of Trauma Services.  She holds a certification in Traumatic Stress Studies from the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA.  Most recently, Barbara has taught workshops in Attachment and Nonviolent Communication, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), as well as conducted various trainings on topics related to trauma awareness and trauma treatment.

Lauren Verbilla, LPC has many years of experience working with families within the community, serving as director of Family Based Services at Penn Foundation for five years and owner of Lauren Verbilla Counseling, where she currently works with families struggling with anxiety or addictions that have impacted their relationships. Lauren has written and presented on issues concerning families including maintaining connection with children during difficult times, fostering resilience in adolescents and the benefits of using nonviolent communication. Lauren is passionate about helping families reconnect and enjoys seeing families grow and embrace positive change within their family systems.

Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our FBMHS Policies & FAQs for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.

Friday, March 27th, 2020,  8:30am-3:30pm, Catholic Charities, Harrisburg, PA

Children and adolescents on the Autism Spectrum, already at risk, become exceptionally vulnerable when the family is struggling to function, relationships are fragile and negative emotions are rampant. For caregivers to effectively parent the child or for therapists to effectively help the family with the child, actions must be grounded in an understanding of the psychology of the child on the spectrum. This workshop, therefore, provides an in-depth overview of what autism is, how it impacts social-emotional processing and emotion regulation, and the challenges this can create for the child, the siblings and the caregivers. Also identified are common negative family patterns that can exacerbate the social-emotional and behavioral problems of the child on the Spectrum. An opportunity is provided to practice identifying and changing these patterns through viewing videotapes of interviews with families and individuals on the Autism Spectrum.

Although the primary focus of this workshop is on how the family based therapist can facilitate more functional family relationships and improve parenting functions, a review of evidence based interventions currently used to support children on the Autism Spectrum will be provided. The child is likely to have an IEP at school and be involved with other service providers. This means the case management, service coordination role of the family based therapist is often critical when working with a family who has a child with a developmental disability. Opportunities are provided through case consultation to learn strategies for communicating with a child or adult on the spectrum and for helping parents adjust their expectations of the child and learn to soothe them when they escalate or become dysregulated.

Objectives:
As a result of attending this educational activity, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the DSM-V diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum
2. Explain the link between common behavioral problems and the psychology of the child on the Spectrum (cognitive rigidity, difficulty with perspective taking and emotion
   processing, etc)
3. Identify individually focused supports and services that have evidence of being helpful to the child on the Spectrum
4. Identify common negative family interactional patterns that escalate and undermine the functioning of a child who is on the Spectrum
5. Utilize various interventions to increase a social relationship with family members on the spectrum.
6. Describe strategies for supporting caregivers to become more effective in de-escalating and soothing the child who is having a meltdown

Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our FBMHS Policies & FAQs for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.

Wednesday, March 11th, 2020,  8:30am-12:30pm, Venango County Human Services, Franklin, PA

Embattled family systems are marked by an intense power-struggle between the caregivers, creating an emotional war zone where pressure is placed on children, extended family, friends, and professionals to choose sides.  Avoiding becoming triangulated into the conflict between caregivers while maintaining a balanced therapeutic alliance, is one of the most challenging aspects of treating these families. This workshop provides an eco-systemic framework for understanding the dynamics of these families and for effectively navigating their complicated toxic interpersonal politics.

Objectives:
As a result of attending this educational activity, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the characteristics of embattled, high-conflict families
2. Recognize and disrupt triangulating interactions
3. Identify the impacts of chronic intense caregiver conflict on children
4. Identify common traps when working with high-conflict families
5. Describe how to structure treatment sessions with caregivers, keeping treatment child-focused

Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our FBMHS Policies & FAQs for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.