How Independent Prescribers Can Ensure Troubled Children Get the Right Treatment

Wednesday, October 17th, 2018, 8:30am-4:00pm, Tara-A Country Inn, Clark, PA

Despite the well-meaning efforts of helping professionals, there are too many children with severe emotional and behavioral problems who do not improve in the treatments they are prescribed. In fact, some seem to get worse the longer they have been in treatment. This is because there is too much focus on general services and not enough on specific treatment tailored to a specific child in a specific social context. To make the latter happen, the root psychological and contextual causes of challenging behavior need to be fully understood.

With a few small changes in the way the role is conceptualized, Independent Prescribers have the capacity to make a real difference in children’s lives. This workshop offers one way to re-conceptualize the role and unlock this potential. One key is to ensure that the evaluation process leads to a clear data-based clinical conceptualization that considers root causes of problems.

8:30 AM- 12:00 PM
The morning portion of the workshop is open to Independent Prescribers and their staff. Through case studies, reviews of videotaped sessions, and interactive discussions, the morning workshop highlights principles and practices for creating developmentally informed, contextual case conceptualizations that can be better linked to more focused treatment.

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
The afternoon portion of the workshop is designed to be a collaborative, small work-group format where the ideas from the morning are discussed with respect to how they could be translated into practice. Strategies for maximizing current assessment procedures and report writing are discussed. Current barriers are discussed, along with potential solutions.

Objectives
By attending this training, participants will be able to:

Identify what children with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED) have in common
Describe common myths about the causes of challenging behavior in children with SED
Define the elements of an effective developmental, contextually-informed case conceptualization
Re-vision the role of the Independent Prescriber
Identify small changes in assessment procedures that could yield more clinically useful information
Identify how reports can be used to focus treatment.

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.

Understanding and Treating Enmeshment in Families

Thursday, November 7th, 2018, 8:30am-12:30pm, Venango County Human Services, Franklin, PA

Family structure refers to the way family members organize their relationships with respect to boundaries, close-distance, and power. Children’s presenting problems are best understood and treated in the context of their family’s structure. Enmeshment is one of four structural patterns most associated with serious emotional disturbance in children. This workshop describes the characteristics of enmeshment and how this interactional pattern shapes children’s development of social-emotional competencies and their response to treatment. Treatment guidelines are highlighted, as well as common clinical traps therapists are likely to encounter when working with enmeshed relational patterns.

Objectives
By attending this training, participants will be able to:

1. Explain how enmeshed relationship patterns shape children’s social-emotional competencies
2. Describe three dimensions of family structure and how they organize caregiving
3. Recognize the markers of enmeshment
4. Identify the primary focus of treatment when working with enmeshment
5. Describe common clinical traps when working with enmeshment

An Introduction to Couples Therapy

Thursday, October 11th, 2018, 8:30am-12:00pm & 1:00pm-3:30pm, Catholic Charities, Harrisburg, PA

This workshop introduces basic principles of couples relationship assessment and treatment, integrating ideas from three leading evidence-informed models of couples treatment. These models include Imago Therapy, John Gottman’s model, and Emotionally Focused Treatment. The importance of collaboratively identifying the couple’s core negative interactional cycle is discussed, as well as identifying core relationship strengths. Basic treatment techniques for decreasing emotional reactivity, interrupting negative interactional cycles and pushing the conversation are described and demonstrated. This workshop will involve a mix of didactic, film, small group discussion, and practice.

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

Describe methods for assessing severity of discord and tension points
Describe methods for identifying couple strengths and remaining strength-focused in treatment
Describe strategies for interrupting negative cycles
Identify three major couples therapy models
Explain the application of common couples’ interventions
Identify strategies for facilitating more effective ways to communicate and express emotions

Conceptualizing and Treating Childhood Disorders

Wednesday, August 1, 2018, 9:00am-4:00pm, Catholic Charities, 4800 Union Deposit Road, Harrisburg, PA

This workshop seeks to enhance providers understanding and treatment of children who are experiencing behavioral and cognitive symptoms that are causing functional impairments. While aggression will be a focus behavior of the workshop, participants will leave with an understanding of the neurobiological and physiological underpinnings of common behavioral and cognitive symptoms seen within their practice. This workshop will support providers in differentiating between child and adolescent psychopathology and stress-related responses, increasing provider sensitivity toward children’s responses to adverse experiences. Providers will have the opportunity to analyze their current clinical skills that have been efficacious in supporting children in practice while developing and practicing new clinical skills to improve treatment outcomes. The workshop will ensure a strength-based perspective through providing experiential activities for providers to formulate support plans that infuse child resiliency factors.

Learning Objectives:

At the completion of the workshop, participants should be able to:

Describe different types of stress and importance of understanding navigation of stress in children;
Discuss the neurobiological and physiological underpinnings of common child behavioral and cognitive symptoms;
Differentiate between psychopathology and stress-related responses;
Analyze current clinical tools and demonstrate new clinical tools needed to improve treatment outcomes;
Critique the use of evidence-informed and evidence-based practices with a given child case study;
Formulate support plans that demonstrate an understanding of child resiliency factors.

Trainer Biography:

Dr. Stephen DiDonato holds his Ph.D. in International Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Stephen is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the State of Pennsylvania and holds his National Certified Counselor (NCC) credential. Stephen has clinical expertise working with children, families, and communities who have been exposed to potentially traumatic events. Specifically, Stephen’s clinical focus has been on enhancing the adaption to the inherently complex traumatic environments that children and families face in underserved communities. Stephen as an outpatient trauma counselor and as an in-home counselor. Stephen also has a held non-clinical consultative role with the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at Nemours Children’s Health System where he was the training director and program manager utilizing his counseling professional skills to enhance the way that medical professionals engage with and support children and families adapting to medical traumatic stress. Stephen now holds a small private counseling practice where he specializes in trauma treatment working children and their families impacted by exposure to potentially traumatic experiences. Stephen has been trained specifically in three evidence-based treatments (1) Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), (2) Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program – Newly Diagnosed (SCCIP-ND), and (3) Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI).

Treating Multi-Stressed, Fragile Families

Wednesday, 5/30/18 – Harrisburg, PA
9:00am-12pm, 1:00pm-4:00pm

Learning Goals & Objectives

Describe the characteristics of fragile, multi-stressed families
Identify the reasons services fail to help children living in fragile, multi-stressed families
Explain how treatment failure impacts developmental trajectories of children with SED?
Describe four vulnerabilities that maintain SED in multi-stressed, fragile families
Identify strategies for remaining strengths- based when facing chronic problems
Analyze family therapy sessions with fragile families done from eco-systemic perspective