Trainings

Advanced Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 2-Day Workshop

Friday and Saturday, October 4th and 5th, 9-5pm || Columbia University, 1255 Amsterdam Ave, NYC

14 Social Work CE Hours

This 2-day workshop, co-facilitated by Joanne Steinwachs, LCSW and Brian Mundy, LCSW, will take a deep dive into the processes of Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), an empirically based behavioral treatment modality that employs present moment awareness, acceptance, and other processes to support behavior change. Many clinicians with introductory training in ACT endorse a solid conceptual understanding of ACT, and find it more difficult to implement the work in the room with clients. The goal of this training is to teach participants a more flexible application of ACT by supporting increased, experiential awareness of processes occurring in the room with patients and therapists.

This 2-day experiential workshop weaves case examples throughout various concepts presented over the day. It will focus on not only identifying relevant behavioral patterns in clients, but in ourselves as well. Participants must have completed ACT trainings in the past in order to attend.

Workshop Objectives:

Upon completing the workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Explain what is meant by ACT processes and their flexible use with respect to the six core components of ACT and the “ACT Question”
  • Describe and implement components of the contextual behavioral therapeutic process
  • Describe how psychological flexibility processes apply to the therapeutic relationship
  • Utilize key concepts in relational frame theory to guide interventions.
  • Describe obstacles to fluid implementation of ACT and how to work through these obstacles in an ACT-consistent fashion.
  • Describe the role of personal values in guiding the work done in ACT therapy and how to apply it across sessions.

Click here to find out more and register.

Past trainings:

Understanding and Working Effectively with Distress, Numbing, and Dissociation

Wednesday, August 7th, 6-9pm || NYU School of Social Work, NYC

3 Social Work CE Hours

Some situations are beyond our control. Sometimes, we act as our own worst critic. Painful thoughts and negative emotions can overwhelm and leave us paralyzed. Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) aims to help us overcome those obstacles so that our actions better reflect our values and desires.

Over the course of this full-day workshop, Brian Mundy, LCSW-R will teach participants about ACT and how to apply it as a tool in their own lives and in the treatment of others. Through the use of present moment awareness, acceptance, and other processes, ACT aims not to reduce our emotional symptoms but to promote greater psychological flexibility in order to help us manage our obstacles.

Click here to find out more and register.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Treatment for Anxiety

Saturday, April 13th, 9-5pm || Columbia University, 1255 Amsterdam Ave, NYC

7 Social Work CE Hours

Some situations are beyond our control. Sometimes, we act as our own worst critic. Painful thoughts and negative emotions can overwhelm and leave us paralyzed. Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) aims to help us overcome those obstacles so that our actions better reflect our values and desires.

Over the course of this full-day workshop, Brian Mundy, LCSW-R will teach participants about ACT and how to apply it as a tool in their own lives and in the treatment of others. Through the use of present moment awareness, acceptance, and other processes, ACT aims not to reduce our emotional symptoms but to promote greater psychological flexibility in order to help us manage our obstacles.

Click here to find out more and register.

Acceptance and Mindfulness-based CBT for the Treatment of OCD

Tuesday, July 10th, 6-9pm || NYU Silver School of Social Work, 1 Washington Square North, NYC

3 Social Work CE Hours

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a serious and long lasting mental health disorder. While it is quite prevalent in the general population, it often is misunderstood and goes undiagnosed. OCD sufferers may go years before they receive an accurate diagnosis and therefore effective treatment.

This seminar will explore the many different faces of OCD, and the treatments that have been shown by research to be effective. Particular emphasis will be placed on combining mindfulness and acceptance-based practices with traditional exposure and response prevention techniques in order to foster effective treatment and sustained recovery.

Participants will develop an increased capacity to assess, diagnosis, and successfully treat people struggling with OCD. Participants will develop proficiency in providing psychoeducation, mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy, and exposure and response prevention on behalf of clients served.

Learning Objectives: Participants will:

  • Gain an understanding of the different types of OCD.
  • Demonstrate an increased ability to distinguish between OCD and other anxiety disorders.
  • Learn how to provide OCD related evidence-based pscho-education to clients served.

Click here to find out more and register.

Improving Therapy Outcomes by Using the Clinical Relationship

Friday, October 7th, 9-4pm || NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, NYC

6 Social Work CE Hours

The therapist-patient relationship has long been considered both an important crucible for clinical work and a significant determinant of treatment outcome, a belief that has been validated by psychotherapy research (e.g., Horvath, 2001). We now have a long tradition of thinking about the therapeutic relationship, from the earliest days of psychoanalysis, which has a long history of organizing treatment around the transference-countertransference relationship to cutting edge work in the use of the relationship by behavioral therapists. Utilizing current information about diverse elements of language-based and non-verbal communication, attachment history and more, we now have powerful frameworks for thinking about how to work within the relationship actively and effectively.

Learners who participate in this workshop will have an opportunity to learn and practice ways to harness the power of the therapeutic relationship. Providing a context for this work by examining the shared intersection of psychoanalytic and behavioral theory and research into working with the relationship, the trainers will present cases from their clinical practices that demonstrate how to conceptualize and work with transference-countertransference material. After learning about relational interventions, learners will get an opportunity to practice thinking through transference-countertransference problems in their own cases in order to develop ways to address them directly with their patients.

Participants will be able to:

  • Contextualize relational work in both analytic and cognitive behavioral traditions
  • Gain knowledge and practice regarding relational interventions
  • Apply knowledge and interventions learned to their own current clinical practice, and work in dyads to practice application

Learn more and register by clicking here!

Presenters:

Jill Bresler, PhD

Jill Bresler, Ph.D. is the co-editor of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Integration: An Evolving Synergy (2015). She is Adjunct Clinical Professor at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and Co-Director of NIP’s Psychotherapy Integration Program. With extensive postdoctoral training as a cognitive therapist and as a psychoanalyst, Jill writes, supervises and teaches about the integration of these two models. She maintains a private practice in New York City.

Brian Mundy, LCSW-R

Brian Mundy, LCSW-R practices individual, couples, and family behavioral therapy in private practice, and is the recipient of the National Association of Social Workers – NYC Emerging Leader Award. He is a co-author of the Guilford Press book, Therapy in the Real World, and has authored peer-reviewed chapters and articles on trauma, family therapy, and acceptance commitment therapy. He is a professional trainer and consultant for Sound Behavioral Health, and an adjunct professor at New York University School of Social Work in Manhattan.

Acceptance and Mindfulness-based CBT for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI)

JULY 26 & JULY 28, 2017 || 4:30 PM – 9:00 PM (BOTH DAYS)

NYU SILVER SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK || 1 WASHINGTON SQUARE NORTH, NYC

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) such as cutting, self-abuse or self-harm is often a challenging and troubling behavior for clinicians to treat. The risk and outcome of these behaviors causes great consternation for professionals in terms of intervention, liability and support. Framing NSSI as a response to trauma, cognitive beliefs, and internal/external triggers can help social workers working with people who self-harm learn self-regulation, mindfulness and behavior management techniques that mitigate this high-risk behavior. Join us for this 2-part workshop to learn about this model.
This seminar will focus on clinical interventions, including Evidenced-Based Treatment (EBT). These EBT include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness-Based CBT. The workshop will also include how to identify, assess and treat NSSI, the different types of NSSI, and ways to effectively intervene with clients who exhibit these behaviors. Opportunity in the program will exist for case application.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the different types of NSSI, as evidenced by role play practice at end of course;
  • Show an increased ability to distinguish between NSSI and suicidality, as evidenced by grasping differential diagnosis definitions;
  • Learn the key elements of functional analysis and how to gear NSSI interventions to match identified antecedents, behaviors, and consequences;
  • Grasp how to identify and work with modifiable and protective risk factors in NSSI; and;
  • Develop an increased capacity to interrupt patterns of NSSI in their clients utilizing a mindfulness and acceptance-based cognitive behavioral approach.

Motivational Interviewing for Diverse Problems

Saturday, April 29th, 10-5pm || NASW-NYC Headquarters, 150 Broadway

While motivational interviewing started in the substance abuse field, it has been shown to be effective for jump-starting change far outside the scope of addiction treatment, including various diagnoses such as anxiety and depression, as well as across diverse populations, such as adolescents. This training will serve as a primer on theories of change in human behavior, as well as an introduction to core principles and strategies designed to tap into intrinsic motivation to alter behaviors that get in the way of a meaningful life.

Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based CBT for Trauma

Sunday, March 5th, 9:30-5pm || 1 Washington Square North in Manhattan

This one-day training is designed to introduce clinicians to contemporary, evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapy principles and strategies for the treatment of trauma. Acceptance and commitment therapy, functional analytic therapy and other mindfulness-based cognitive therapies will be covered in discussing the behavioral, emotional, physical, relational, and functional impact of trauma and its treatment.

We will highlight basic principles of these models, showing how they apply to the treatment of trauma; describe and demonstrate a variety of clinical techniques used in cutting edge cognitive-behavioral therapies; and discuss how the client-therapist relationship underpins the utilization of these strategies. Experiential practice will be used to teach specific interventions, and case presentations will provide examples of conceptually clear and skillful treatment.

This training will combine theoretical and practical information at a beginner to intermediate level for clinicians interested in integrating diverse therapeutic approaches in a conceptually-grounded way. Clinicians with and without prior CBT background will find it useful.

Motivational Interviewing: What It Is and How It Works

October 18 – 19, 2016
9:00 am – 3:30 pm

NYU Kimmel Center for University Life
60 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012

 12 CE credits

OVERVIEW

This conference will provide social work and mental health practitioners with the skill set needed to apply Motivational Interviewing in practice. It will teach all core concepts of MI, and will involve practice-based case examples and role-play mechanisms to enable participants to apply key theoretical principles to attendee’s work.

Motivations to change behavior has been defined as a state rather than a trait of a person. Treatments such as MI that help people to develop their own self-efficacy to change have proven effective. For all behavior change, from relationships to intimacy to health matters to mental wellness to addictions, clinicians trained in modalities that support and enhance change efforts are most successful in their work. Begun as a treatment modality for people dealing with addictions, Motivational Interviewing has become an accepted treatment tool for anyone challenged with a change conundrum. MI is a widely-recognized modality of treatment for third-party reimbursement, and is supported by research and practice evidence for its ability to improve people’s lives.

Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based CBT for Anxiety

SW CE Credits: 7 contact hours | Live, in-person training

This one-day training is designed to help clinicians approach anxiety treatment with the psychological flexibility model underlying acceptance and commitment therapy, functional analytic psychotherapy, behavioral activation, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Participants will learn case conceptualization, engage in experiential exercises designed to illustrate key components of mindfulness, present moment awareness, acceptance, values, and emotional deepening, and practice intervention skills in both group and dyad environments.

The training will combine theoretical and practical information at a beginner to intermediate level, with specific interventions from evidence-based protocols for anxiety. Participants should have, at minimum, basic familiarity with CBT concepts.