Day 1, July 15, 2025

10:00 am to 1:00 pm EST

Select one of the following classes 

Class A 

Self-Injury: More than Self-Mutilation and Cutting (3 CE Credits)

There are MANY reasons why individuals “choose” to injure themselves. Is it really a choice? Self-harm is defined as the deliberate infliction of damage or alteration to oneself often WITHOUT suicidal intent. It commonly occurs among individuals with eating disorders, mental illness, a history of trauma, emotional and/or sexual abuse, and personality traits such as low self-esteem or perfectionism. 

This webinar is designed to support professionals working with individuals who self-harm. Participants will gain insight into the underlying factors behind self-injury and acquire practical tools to provide compassionate, informed support. The session will also highlight public figures who are in recovery from self-harm, helping to reduce stigma and promote hope.

(Trainer, Tonya M. Logan, LCSW-C, LICSW, brings over 30 years of clinical experience supporting individuals facing conflict and trauma. Based in D.C. and Maryland for much of her career, she has worked extensively with biological and foster families to secure permanency through reunification, adoption, or independent living. As a former clinical director, she led in-home services aimed at stabilizing families and preventing involvement with the child welfare system. She has also facilitated 10-week grief groups for those impacted by homicide and served as a supervisory social worker in a non-public school for students with learning differences, emotional challenges, and autism. Tonya now provides virtual counseling for individuals and couples.)

Class B

Applying a Trauma-Informed Lens to Your Therapy Approach (3 CE Credits)

Being trauma-informed is essential to effective practice in the helping professions. This training is designed to provide you with the knowledge, awareness, and practical skills to integrate trauma-informed principles into your existing clinical framework. Participants will learn how to define trauma and recognize the wide range of traumatic experiences, understand the body’s nervous system and its threat response, and explore how trauma affects brain function and memory over time. You’ll gain insight into the core concepts and principles of trauma-informed care and learn how to apply them to enhance your current work. 

This training will also cover how to create a trauma-sensitive therapeutic environment and use the stages of trauma recovery to assess and support clients at different points in their healing journey. Drawing from leading evidence-based therapies, this session offers tangible interventions that you can implement immediately. Finally, we’ll explore the impact of working with trauma, including compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, and discuss strategies to help you sustain your own well-being while doing this important work.

(Trainer, Lindsay Murn, PhD, LP, CCTP, is a Licensed Psychologist in the State of Minnesota. She is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and Master Certified Accelerated Resolution Therapy Practitioner. Over the past 16 years, Lindsay has worked with a diverse range of clients in multiple settings across four different states, and has published original research on her work with survivors of sexual violence. She owns a private practice specializing in trauma-focused psychotherapy for adults, psychological assessments, and professional trainings and presentations.)

Afternoon Session

2:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST

Select one of the following classes 

Class A

Resilience Through Clinician Connection: Safe Spaces in Trauma Care (3 CE Credits)

This class explores the essential role of clinical rapport through trauma-informed and responsive approaches to care. Participants will strengthen key skills in communication, active listening, and cultural sensitivity while learning to create safe, empowering spaces for clients. Trauma-informed communication strategies will be covered, along with an exploration of how trauma presents across diverse cultural contexts. The course also addresses caregiver stress and vicarious trauma. Participants will learn how to build strength-based therapeutic relationships that foster hope and resilience, and will be introduced to a range of creative and evidence-based treatment approaches. Creative therapies such as art, music, and movement will also be highlighted as powerful tools for engaging trauma survivors who struggle to verbalize their experiences.

(Trainer, Larissa Theison, LCSW, LSCSW, is the founder of Caring for Clinicians, an evidence-based service dedicated to supporting healthcare providers in high-burnout fields. With over 15 years of clinical experience, she has worked extensively with children, adults, and families impacted by trauma and is trained in several evidence-based therapies. Larissa is also the author of multiple books, including Securing Serenity: Surviving a Loved One's Addiction and the recently released children’s book, The Roly Poly Race.)

Class B

I’m Not Coming to My Sister’s Wedding: Politics Invading the Sibling Relationship (3 CE Credits)

Two topics many families struggle with are politics and religion.  In the past few years, though, politics has even become a bigger family divide than religion.  In adult sibling relationships, often challenging in the best of times, politics can tear apart a family.

This workshop will look at how, in fact, politics just becomes an acceptable forum for pent up long-held sibling resentments, and how these underlying resentments get wrapped in a socially acknowledged, "acceptable” package. 

(Trainer, Dr Karen Gail Lewis, EdD, MSW, has been practicing as a marriage and family therapist for over 40 years, in both Washington, DC and in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the author of several books including Siblings: The Ghost of Childhood that Haunt Your Love and Work and Why Don’t You Understand? A Gender Relationship Dictionary. Dr. Lewis lectures both nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics, focusing on family and couples’ relationships, women’s friendships, and adult siblings. She has been interviewed by dozens of newspapers and magazines including, the New York Times, Woman’s World, Cincinnati Enquirer, Cosmopolitan, the Boston Globe, Psychology today, and the Washington Post. Dr. Lewis has taught at Johns Hopkins Medical School, Catholic University in Washington DC, and other Universities and has been on the editorial boards of four professional journals. Dr. Lewis is the founder of Unique Retreats for Siblings.)

Evening Sessions 

6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Select one of the following classes

Class A

Ethical Considerations of Balancing Beneficence and Nonmaleficence in Treating Family Estrangement (3 CE Credits - Ethics) 

This 3-hour ethics training explores the complex ethical landscape clinicians face when working with individuals affected by family estrangement. Participants will deepen their understanding of how to apply core ethical principles—particularly beneficence (acting in the client’s best interest) and nonmaleficence (avoiding harm)—in nuanced and emotionally charged situations.

Through discussion, case examples, and ethical frameworks, this course will examine the definitions and dynamics of estrangement, highlight the unique treatment challenges it presents, and offer guidance for ethically balancing the needs of the individual with consideration of familial systems. Clinicians will learn how to assess risks and navigate treatment decisions with sensitivity, clarity, and ethical integrity.

(Trainer, Roberta Wasserman, LCSW-C, is a licensed therapist in the state of Maryland and the owner of Healthwaves Counseling, Coaching & Consulting LLC. With extensive experience in trauma-informed care, she specializes in working with children, families, and individuals navigating complex emotional challenges. Roberta is a Certified Family Estrangement Coach, a Certified Grief Educator, and a fully trained Gottman counselor and coach. She also serves as a Maryland board-approved clinical supervisor, offering guidance to emerging clinicians in the field.)

Class B

Unpacking and Healing Shame (3 CE Credits) 

This interactive presentation offers practitioners theory and tools for understanding and healing the widespread individual and collective issues around shame. It aims to equip participants with insight and skill to support clients in overcoming shame-related challenges and to help transform the systems that cause and perpetuate shame. We will explore the underlying causes, manifestations and profound individual and collective impact of shame, the role shame plays in perpetuating oppression and paths to individual and collective healing and social change.

(Trainer, Shira Sameroff, LCSW (NY and NC) is a therapist, coach, teacher and group facilitator with over 30 years of practice with people of diverse identities, ages and life stories in a wide array of settings. Her professional roles have included therapy, supervision, group design and facilitation, professional development training, teaching, community organizing, transformative decluttering and a decade and a half on the leadership team of a community-based social work agency.

Shira weaves a range of therapeutic healing modalities including IFS, Hakomi and other holistic, somatic, nature-based and anti-oppressive practices into her work with individuals, groups and organizations. She works around themes including ending oppression, shame, loneliness, group facilitation, giving and receiving feedback, empowering practice with youth and tending to self as a practitioner. Shira’s approach is collaborative, intuitive, creative and full of heart and is rooted in her own lived experience of healing, learning and emerging.)