2012 Professional Training Institute Schedule

Friday, March 23, 2012
Video Game Addiction: The New Epidemic?
Presenter: Ryan Van Cleave, Ph.D.
This workshop details the addictive elements of gaming and explores the potential consequences of surrendering power to this “digital drug” and what it means for a generation of kids to be more technologically savvy than their parents. Other topics to be examined include issues of privacy and identity, plus the fundamental changes in values, attitudes, and behavior brought on our “instant everything” culture, of which video games are an integral part.

Friday, April 20, 2012
The Anger-Go-Round: Defusing High-Conflict Relationships
Presenter: W. Robert Nay, Ph.D.
This workshop will discuss a research-based method for assessing the mutually reinforcing patterns of anger, identifying the overt and passive “faces” of its expression, and determining whether to proceed with individual and/or conjoint therapy. You’ll learn an easily remembered protocol, “S-T-O-P”--Stop, Think, Objectify, Plan--that can be used to prevent or reduce initial arousal, derail escalation, avoid anger-fueling cognitive distortions about the other person, replace them with affirming facts, and create a plan to prevent arguments from gaining steam. We’ll also review 10 powerful strategies for defusing interpersonal, stage-setting provocations.

Friday, June 8, 2012
Play Therapy: A Child-Centered Approach
Presenter: Rob Scuka, Ph.D., MSW
Child-Centered Play Therapy is the method of play therapy developed by Virginia Axline, an associate of Carl Rogers. It follows the Client-Centered principle of creating a non-judgmental, emotionally supportive therapeutic atmosphere while also providing clear boundaries that encourage the child to learn emotional and behavioral self-regulation. Research has validated this to be a powerful method for decreasing a wide range of child emotional problems as well as for building self-esteem and more mature, pro-social behaviors. CCPT is based on eight clear-cut principles applied in a systematic way that equip the therapist with a method uniquely capable of handling the many challenges of playing therapeutically with children and achieving predictably positive results. This workshop is recommended for all clinicians who work with children as well as school counselors and child-welfare personnel.

Friday, September 14, 2012
Life After Anxiety: How to Replace Fear & Worry With Positive Alternatives
Presenter: Paul Foxman, Ph.D.
After identifying the key symptoms underlying the DSM-IVR anxiety disorders, Dr. Foxman will focus on "anxiety replacements" and "positive alternatives." He will discuss and demonstrate practices that cultivate relaxation, peace of mind, optimism, trust, joy, emotional regulation, healthy lifestyle, and productivity. The concepts, strategies, and interventions described in this workshop are geared to adult clients but can be readily adapted to any age group. Some examples of use with children and adolescents will be included.

Friday, October 19, 2012
“Leave Me Alone…Please Help Me”: Helping Youth with Anger Management Concerns
Presenter: Daniel Jacobs, Ed.M., M.B.A., Psy.D.
Children who grow up in chaotic, abusive, disrespectful, and threatening environments often witness and experience communication styles from adults that teach them that acting out in an angry way is acceptable or even necessary to survive. Children exposed to significant trauma or neglect often also develop communication and behavioral styles based on anger and rage. They commonly express themselves in negative and self-destructive ways, have trouble communicating positive emotions, and often exhibit their pain via erratic, aggressive, and dangerous behavioral patterns. Working with these youth can be a great challenge, made even harder by their attempts to push us away. This workshop will focus on proactive and practical strategies useful in handling the challenging behaviors most often exhibited by youth dealing with anger management issues.

Friday, November 9, 2012
Confronting Grief & Loss Over the Life Span – With Creativity
Presenter: Virginia L. Fry, MA
Using developmental strategies for healing grief--from very young childhood through advanced adulthood, workshop participants will learn to identify, express, and tolerate the difficult emotions related to grieving at each developmental stage in our lives. People experience many losses in a lifetime, often without expressing the grief when the loss occurs. Instead, the pain is hidden, delayed, or denied until a later loss revives the grief. Even those who go through a healthy mourning process are often surprised by the power of an old grief that returns with a subsequent loss. Grief often returns due to the cyclical nature of time and human development, and can mask as dysfunctional behavior that serves to numb the pain of loss. Some losses are traumatic; others developmental. Some are not recognized by society as deserving of mourning, such as the death of an ex-spouse or a beloved pet. All can provoke a wide variety of grief reactions that often look like clinical depression, physical illness, and other conditions. It is imperative for clinicians to competently distinguish normal and naturally healing mourning from dysfunctional behavior and know how to best support and facilitate the grieving process.