CTI Trainings
Upcoming Programs
Building an Adoption Competent Therapy Practice
Thursday, May 16
9:00am – 12:00pm (PDT) | Online
Trainers: Anne Brodzinsky, PhD; Nina Anderson, LCSW
Join us for a virtual training that explores new perspectives in adoption, covering pathways to adoption, the developmentally appropriate evolution in a child’s understanding of adoption, and the importance of informed consent for expectant mothers.
Nina Anderson will describe how couples and individuals can seek to adopt a child in the United States and how understanding the different paths to adoption is essential as each presents its unique challenges, shaping the experiences of prospective adoptive parents differently. She will also discuss preparation for different types of adoption and give insights into what parents should anticipate in the post-adoption months and years.
Dr. Anne Brodzinsky will delve into the research on children’s understanding of adoption, focusing on how middle childhood prompts new questions about early life experiences. Participants will learn the significance of parental understanding in supporting children’s evolving perceptions of adoption and gain strategies for navigating these complex developmental stages.
This session will explore the legal and ethical considerations surrounding informed consent for expectant mothers considering adoption. Participants will learn about the fundamental requirements for ethical and legal consent, with a focus on empowering counselors to provide comprehensive support to expectant mothers as they make critical decisions about their child’s future.
Harm Reduction and Motivational Interviewing
Monday, June 10
9:00am – 12:00pm (PDT) | Online
Trainers: Kristin Dempsey, EdD, LMFT, LPCC
“Harm reduction” appears everywhere from project proposals to newspaper headlines. Although harm reduction (HR) seems to be everywhere all at once, the philosophy and practice of harm reduction is not always clearly understood. Additionally, practitioners have often not received any significant training in HR and are unsure on how to work with this approach when working with help seekers. In this training, we will discuss some of the basic tenets of harm reduction. We will also have an opportunity to practice using some exercises designed to explore an individual’s relationship to substances and/or behaviors and discuss how the harm reduction approach can lead to meaningful and productive conversations that promote change.
Past Programs
Understanding Childhood Defenses
Thursday, April 11
Trainer: Ana M. Gómez, MC, LPC
Children who’ve experienced ongoing trauma may face challenges in handling their emotions, understanding their body sensations, and being aware of what’s happening around them. This training will provide a theoretical and neurobiological framework to understand complex trauma and the self-protective system of children. Ana will share practical strategies from EMDR therapy, play therapy, and Sandtray therapy, to work with entrenched forms of self-protection. We will study interoception, co-regulation, and the co-creation of safety as foundational elements in treating highly defended children. The training will also discuss how defenses can be passed down through generations and provide interventions to address the needs of the whole family system.
Parent Management Training: Treating ADHD, Anxiety, and Behavioral Challenges
Fridays, March 1, 8, 22, and 29
9:00am – 12:00pm (Pacific) | Online
Trainer: Tracie Bush, MA, CKPMT
Parent Management Training (PMT) is widely recognized as the gold standard evidence-based treatment for addressing behavioral challenges in children. During this 4-part training, you will acquire a comprehensive understanding of Kazdin Method PMT techniques and learn evidence-based strategies for addressing common yet extremely challenging behaviors in children. These include but are not limited to; mealtime conflicts, bedtime struggles, altercations with peers/siblings, resistance towards hygiene, outbursts triggered by the conclusion of screen time, homework meltdowns, and school refusal. Additionally, the training will equip you with methodologies for systematically reducing both physical and verbal aggression in children, with the ultimate goal of complete cessation of such behaviors.
Telehealth Law and Ethics
Friday, February 9
9:00am – 12:00pm (PST) | Online
Trainer: Glenn Marks, PhD
Join us for a comprehensive three-hour workshop focused on the law and ethics of telehealth, a necessary requirement for LMFTs, LPCCs, and LCSWs license renewal in California. In the digital era, the assimilation of technology into therapeutic practices is accelerating. This workshop provides an extensive guide to maneuver the legal and ethical complexities of technology in clinical practice. We will cover a broad spectrum of topics, including telehealth prerequisites, practicing across state borders, and the utilization of email, texting, and social media. Stay up to date with recent modifications in state law and strategies to address prevailing ethical dilemmas. This workshop centers around case examples to illustrate how to think through legal and ethical issues when they occur in your practice.
Building on the Strengths of Young People
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
9:00am – 1:00pm—in person at JFCS, San Francisco
Trainer: Ken Ginsburg, MD
Adolescence is a pivotal developmental time for young people. The teen years provide a critical window of opportunity for healthy development as well as heightened vulnerability to harmful environmental stressors. Dr. Ginsburg will present an applied, strength-based model that is trauma-sensitive while integrating the principles of the positive youth development and resilience frameworks. This session will focus on how professionals can best serve adolescents, but will also cover the critical importance of parents, caregivers, and communities in young people’s lives.
OCD in Kids and Teens
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Trainer: Patricia Zurita Ona, PsyD
Helping kids and teens overcome OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) is uniquely challenging, even seasoned clinicians can feel frustrated when progress stalls. This workshop equips participants with skills to augment Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) when working with adolescents struggling with OCD. Participants learn how ACT facilitates exposure therapy interventions to help clients gain control over their OCD symptoms.
Big Behaviors in Small Containers
October, 2, 2023
Trainer: Paris Goodyear-Brown, LCSW, RPT-S
When it comes to working with children, sometimes the biggest behaviors come in the smallest containers. Paris Goodyear-Brown is the creator of the TraumaPlay™ model, and author of several books including Big Behaviors in Small Containers. In this training she offered more than a dozen practical, fun, and immediately useful play therapy interventions that engage the family in setting treatment goals, augmenting adaptive coping, and enhancing the healthy attachment between parent and child while helping them shift paradigms around problematic child behaviors.
SMART: An Embodied Approach to Trauma Treatment
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Trainers: Elizabeth Warner, MEd, PsyD and Michelle Perrin, LICSW
Over the course of her 4-decade career treating children and young adults, Dr. Elizabeth Warner has developed a proven model of treatment that integrates mind and body in trauma treatment. In this workshop, Dr. Warner will introduce participants to the basic principles of her SMART (Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment) model and the importance of embodied treatment of trauma in children and adolescents. Centering on the core elements of the SMART model—Somatic Regulation, Trauma Processing, and Attachment-Building—the training will provide core tools of regulation and a useful “SMART Regulation Map” to help clinicians navigate treatment.
Gender in All Its Splendor
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Trainer: Dr. Diane Ehrensaft
Join us for a training on the best clinical practices for supporting gender diverse and transgender (TGD) children and adolescents today. Led by Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, celebrated Co-Editor of The Gender Affirmative Model, this training offers participants a renewed clinical “GPS” for providing optimal care.
Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the Gender Affirmative Model and helpful guidelines for developing a clinical practice through this lens.
Healing Through Play
Thursday, February 2, 2023
Trainer: Karen Fried, PsyD, MFT
In this workshop, Dr. Karen Fried will demonstrate how the Oaklander Model of Gestalt Play Therapy can be used to enliven the therapeutic relationship and address a child’s developmental needs. Through experiential learning, participants will be introduced to interventions that help children develop a strong sense of self and tackle present-moment challenges. This training will explore techniques that can be used in person and virtually, including drawing, projective cards, Sand Tray, puppets, dollhouses, and more.
The late Dr. Violet Oaklander, author of Windows to Our Children and Hidden Treasure, applied the principles of Gestalt Therapy for children, adolescents and families. Her books and model have been translated into several languages and read by therapists throughout the world. In this training, presented by Karen Fried, Psy.D., MFT, participants will learn what has been shared with so many others, through a blend of theory and experience, how to use the Oaklander Model and apply it to their work setting.
Neurodiversity in Action
November 17, 2022
Trainer: Barry M. Prizant, PhD, CCC-SLP
How can educators and therapists best support individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families? Our growing understanding of neurodiversity can provide guidance and direction. All human beings have uneven developmental profiles due to neurodevelopmental differences. However, for people with autism and more pronounced neurodevelopmental differences, strengths and challenges may be more pronounced, especially in areas related to social communication and emotional regulation.
Using meaningful examples, this presentation will discuss and give examples of productive and supportive ways to identify and capitalize on strengths, enhance social communication competence and confidence, support emotional regulation, build trust and empower individuals with autism and related neurodevelopmental disabilities. This approach is in stark contrast to “deficit-checklist” approaches designed to “fix” individuals.
Treating the Psychological Effects of Climate Change
October 13, 2022
Trainers: Elizabeth Allured, PsyD and Jennifer Silverstein, LCSW
This workshop will focus on clinical work with children, adolescents, and parents as the climate crisis intensifies and affects our internal landscapes. From intake assessment to expression of emotions and thoughts in sessions, to family strategies of containment and re-orientation, we will share ways of broadening our work to address the needs of clients stressed by wildfires, degrading environments, environmental injustices, and future anxieties. Methodologies will include play therapy, art therapy, more traditional “talk therapy,” and family work. The workshop will include case presentations and time for discussion.
Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Clinical Practice
August 11, 2022
Trainers: Lani Rosen-Gallagher (MEd, RYT 200, RCYT)
During stressful and uncertain times, mindfulness and calming techniques are critical for children to be able to self-regulate. This workshop will explore the many benefits of yoga and mindfulness techniques, and how to utilize them for clinical interventions with children ages 5 – 12. You will learn age-appropriate skills to use with specific behavior patterns including anxiety, sensory processing and impulsivity. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of the physiological ways that the brain and body interact and how mindfulness practice can lead to improved self-esteem and an increased sense of calm in kids of all ages.
Understanding the Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health
May 12, 2022
Trainers: Elizabeth Allured, PsyD and Wendy Greenspun, PhD
The Climate and Environmental Emergency (CEE) represents one of the most pressing problems of our time. Mental health clinicians need to be able to expand their toolkit to include awareness of the CEE and ways to meet the multi-faceted psychological needs that are arising. This workshop included an overview of the climate crisis and its implications for clinical work, and presented ways for clinicians to process their own emotional reactions.
DBT Skills for Clinical Practice with Children and Adolescents
March 24, 2022
Trainer: Alicia Smart, PsyD
This training explored the history of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and how it went from a treatment for suicidal patients to a treatment used broadly for any issues with emotion regulation. Attendees deepened their understanding of how to support clients by increasing their ability to tolerate life’s challenges. Attendees left this training with concrete skills and interventions to use in clinical practice.
The Neurobiology of Me and We (MWe): Integrating Both for Belonging and Thriving Relationships After COVID
February 24, 2022
Trainer: Dan Siegel, MD
This presentation offered a perspective from the interdisciplinary framework of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) on how the challenges of the current pandemic are influencing the environmental experiences of children and adolescents. Bestselling author Dr. Dan Siegel explored the relationships between identity, belonging, and a “sense of self”.
The Power of Digital Play Therapy
January 20, 2022
Trainer: Jessica Stone, PhD, RPT-S
Strategies to enhance your ability to provide play therapy online. This training explored the appropriate use and integration of digital tools into play therapy, for telehealth and beyond. By incorporating clients’ interests and entering their world both on and offline, digital play therapy allows providers to welcome cultural shifts and maintain a foundation of inclusion within their treatment. While grounded in Prescriptive Play Therapy and the Therapeutic Powers of Play, there is room for many different modalities and approaches under the play therapy umbrella.
Suicidal Crisis: Assessing for Imminent Risk
November 4, 2021
Trainer: Igor Galynker, MD
Reflecting the extensive work introduced in Dr. Igor Galynker’s book The Suicidal Crisis: Clinical Guide to the Assessment of Suicide Risk, this training is a must for all clinicians working with adolescents and young adults struggling with potential suicidality. Dr. Galynker will introduce the DSM-proposed, suicide-specific diagnosis of the Suicide Crisis Syndrome, provide clinical illustrations that support his work, and introduce us to the leading methods of imminent risk assessment.
Helping Children and Families Manage Anxiety
September 30, 2021
Trainer: Eli R. Lebowitz, PhD
Anxiety is the most common mental health problem in children and adolescents, and rates of reported anxiety disorders have been climbing steadily. This vital seminar addressed essential information relevant to the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of anxiety in children and adolescents. Dr. Eli Lebowitz from Yale University covered how anxiety manifests in youth, strategies for reducing anxiety, the impact of childhood anxiety on the family system, and introduced us to his groundbreaking, empirically established, parent-based, treatment SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions).
Children’s Yoga & Mindfulness for Professionals
August 4, 2021
Trainer: Lani Rosen-Gallagher, MEd, RYT 200, RCYT
Explore the many benefits of yoga and mindfulness techniques, and how to utilize these techniques for interventions with children both virtually and in person. In this workshop, we will unpack the Social Emotional Learning toolbox and discuss the development of coping skills. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of the physiological ways that the brain and body interact. Learn child-friendly terms and phrases to explain the relationship between mind and body, self-regulation, impulse control, and positive social skills. Training participants will leave with the tools to demonstrate games and yoga poses that increase capacity for executive functioning.
The Explosive Child: From Control to Problem Solving with Dr. Ross Greene
May 19, 2021
Trainer: Ross Greene, PhD
New York Times bestselling author and clinical psychologist, Dr. Ross Greene has been working with families for over 30 years to reduce adult-child conflict and challenging behavior in children. In this compelling training, Dr. Greene will be discussing the evidence-based model Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS) that he developed and describes in his books The Explosive Child, Lost at School, Lost & Found, and Raising Human Beings. The model represents a significant departure from discipline as usual and focuses on solving problems rather than modifying behavior. CPS encourages collaborative solutions, proactive interventions, de-emphasizes diagnostic categories, and helps kids learn skills including empathy and taking another’s perspective.
The Yes Brain with Dr. Tina Payne Bryson
March 18, 2021
Trainer: Tina Payne Bryson, PhD
When facing challenges, unpleasant tasks, and contentious issues (think homework, screen time, food choices, bedtime), children often respond with reactivity instead of receptivity—leading them to act out or shut down. This is a “No Brain” response.
But kids can be taught to approach life with openness and curiosity. As clinicians and educators, we can help parents foster their children’s ability to say yes to the world and welcome all that life has to offer, even during difficult times. This is what it means to cultivate a “Yes Brain,” and it leads emotional regulation, resilience, personal insight, and empathy.
In this presentation based on her book (co-authored with Dan Siegel), Dr. Tina Payne Bryson discusses ways to encourage children towards this positive, engaged approach to life. Using her trademark warmth and humor, she will discuss specific strategies for child development professionals to create Yes Brain opportunities and help kids thrive.
COVID19: Helping Children and Families Manage Stress and Build Resilience
January 21, 2021
Trainer: Bruce Perry, MD, PhD
Our country is continuing to see an increase in COVID-19 cases and many of us are wondering how the aftermath of this collective experience will manifest in ourselves and in our communities. Dr. Bruce Perry will discuss how patterns of stress can determine risk or resilience and the implications of this dynamic for the current COVID-19 epidemic. He will highlight the importance of structure, predictability, and moderation of daily stress in building resilience as children and families navigate the challenges of school and manage ongoing pandemic issues.
Understanding Children’s Gender Health
October 28, 2020
Trainer: Diane Erhensaft, PhD and Joel Baum, MS
Diane Erhensaft is the Mental Health Director of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center and attending psychologist at the Gender Clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Dr. Ehrensaft is also on the Expert Panel for the Center for Children and Youth. Her training will provide an integrative and educational approach to understanding and supporting children’s gender health and consider how social distancing orders have affected the community. Explore the importance of gender affirmation both at home and in schools, examining supportive approaches in both contexts. Focused on building mental health care providers’ and educators’ capacity to understand and support a young person’s authentic gender, the training will include an overview of terminology and concepts related to gender diversity; best practices for working with parents in clinical settings; and the use of gender support plans in educational settings. Our hope is to impart what we know about the critical element of adult affirmation—at home and at school—and its relation to the health and wellbeing of transgender and other gender-expansive youth.
Motivational Interview Training: Healthy Choices During a Public Health Crisis
September 24, 2020
Trainer: Kristin Dempsey, LMFT, LPCC, EdD
The Motivational Interviewing Basics training is designed to prepare clinicians, case managers, and care managers to use a strategic client-centered approach to assist clients in finding the motivation to change. This workshop will discuss the basic motivational interviewing concepts and will help providers learn the necessary skills to engage clients in the behavioral change process and help reach their goals. The training will focus on skills for promoting healthier choices during a public health crisis and topics typical for adolescents, adults, seniors, and families seeking clinical and case management services.
Children’s Yoga & Mindfulness for Professionals
August 13, 2020
Trainer: Lani Rosen-Gallagher, MEd, RYT 200, RCYT
Explore the many benefits of yoga and mindfulness techniques, and how to utilize these techniques for interventions with children both virtually and in person. In this workshop, we will unpack the Social Emotional Learning toolbox and discuss the development of coping skills. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of the physiological ways that the brain and body interact. Learn child-friendly terms and phrases to explain the relationship between mind and body, self-regulation, impulse control, and positive social skills. Training participants will leave with the tools to demonstrate games and yoga poses that increase capacity for executive functioning.
Building Resiliency in Young People During Difficult Times
July 16, 2020
Trainer: Ken Ginsburg, MD, MS Ed
As you know we are facing an unprecedented time in our lives. We are in the midst of a pandemic that is touching the lives of those in our most vulnerable communities, made so by systemic multi-generational oppression, with increasing numbers. We are also witnessing a movement to confront systemic racism. We have an opportunity to offer our staff who work with the most susceptible teens in our communities a groundbreaking multimedia resource that embodies the core belief that identifying, reinforcing, and building on the inherent strengths of young people can facilitate positive development.
Professional training for SF Huckleberry Youth Programs, Bay Area Seneca Family of Agencies, SFDPH Department of Rehabilitation, Girls Inc, Covenant House Northern and Southern CA, and the Center for Children and Youth.
Building Resiliency During COVID19: Self-Care and Vicarious Trauma Prevention
April 2, 2020
Trainer: Olga Phoenix, MPA, MA
Stress, burnout, and vicarious trauma among child and family service providers is a significant public health concern today. The impact is often diminished quality of life, depression, anxiety, immune disorders, addiction, and even suicidal ideation. Exposure to traumatic and uncertain world events, natural disasters, and epidemics, (such as the current stressor COVID-19) intensifies the problem, and leaves family welfare professionals more susceptible to negative consequences of stress, burnout, and vicarious trauma. This training will provide child and family service professionals with practical strategies and sustainable tools for self-care and vicarious trauma prevention during these challenging times—fostering resilience and a greater sense of personal and professional well-being.
Courage and Fear: The Intersection Between Immigration and Trauma
January 16, 2020
Trainer: Vilma Reyes, PsyD
This training will cover the impact of complex trauma, toxic stress, and fear on brain development, learning, and family attachments, as well as ways to intervene. It will be framed in the context of historical immigrant experiences and the current socio-political climate and immigration policy of forced family separations. The experience of immigration including potential risk and protective factors will be a thread throughout the conversation. Trauma-informed strategies to foster repair among ruptured attachments will be explored by using case-based learning in small groups. Training participants will learn how the theoretical pillars of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) can be applied to work with Latino immigrant families.
Building Resiliency in Young People: A Trauma-Sensitive Approach
October 29, 2019
Trainer: Ken Ginsburg, MD, MS Ed
Young people who have endured adverse childhood experiences may have lifelong effects on their brain, health, and behaviors. The power of caring adults in their life, who can nurture their strengths rather than trigger their earned reactivity, cannot be exaggerated. This educational seminar for professionals will focus on the importance of healthy, healing connections and strategies that restore control to young people from whom it may have been taken away. Training participants will learn how to utilize and develop stress management strategies that are designed to move youth away from self-destructive quick fixes and towards positive behaviors.
Children’s Yoga & Mindfulness for Professionals
August 1, 2019
Trainer: Lani Rosen-Gallagher, M.Ed., RYT 200, RCYT
This workshop will explore the benefits of yoga and mindfulness techniques, and how to utilize them for interventions with children. We will unpack the Social Emotional Learning toolbox and discuss the development of coping skills. Lastly, we will discuss the physiological ways that the brain and body interact.
Suicide Crisis: Assessing for Imminent Risk
May 23, 2019
Trainer: Igor Galynker, MD
Depression and suicidality among adolescents is exceptionally high in the San Francisco Bay Area. This worrying trend has clinicians searching for ways to identify the signs and symptoms of acute pre-suicidal mental states associated with imminent suicide risk. In this important training, Dr. Igor Galynker, M.D. will introduce the suicide-specific diagnosis of the Suicide Crisis Syndrome, provide clinical illustrations that support his work, and introduce us to the leading methods of imminent risk assessment. Reflecting the extensive work introduced in Dr. Galynker’s book The Suicidal Crisis: Clinical Guide to the Assessment of Suicide Risk, this training is a must for all clinicians working with adolescents and young adults struggling with potential suicidality. Training participants will learn to identify five suicide warning signs and symptoms of the acute pre-suicidal states associated with imminent suicide risk. Discuss two models that explain suicidal behavior and the suicide-specific diagnosis of the Suicide Crisis Syndrome.
Raising a Secure Child: The Child-Parent Relationship
April 11, 2019
Trainer: Alicia Lieberman, PhD and David Oppenheim, PhD
In this training, two internationally known experts in child development and the child-parent relationship will draw on their decades of research, clinical practice, and parent counseling to present the scientific basis for raising secure children. They will describe how to use insightfulness to reconcile child and parent emotional needs and discuss how raising emotionally healthy children calls for understanding the individual and developmental characteristics of the child while giving caregivers the space they need to fulfill their own needs.
Dr. Alicia Lieberman will use the toddlerhood years to illustrate young children’s striving to find a balance between their longing for love and approval and their impulse to assert their wish for independence. She will describe the treatments she developed to help parents understand the connections between their childhood experiences and their parenting struggles and discover rewarding ways of interacting with their children.
Dr. David Oppenheim will highlight how parents foster their children’s emotional health by taking into consideration their inner world and the motives underlying the child’s actions and feelings. Examples from research with normative and at-risk samples will be used to illustrate insightful parenting that promotes child security and self-understanding as well as the barriers parents face in this process. He will also focus on how insightfulness can be fostered to help parents of children with neurodevelopmental challenges.
Trauma Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)—Two Day Training
October 1 — 2, 2018
Trainer: Lisette Rivas-Hermina, LMFT
This training will provide an overview of the importance of trauma assessment and how to incorporate it in treatment. Training participants will learn about both the clinical and societal context of trauma assessment, how to identify appropriate client candidates for Trauma Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and how to implement the model through the PRACTICE components. Discuss TF-CBT using a variety of interventions that integrate cultural values and beliefs throughout implementation of the model. Discuss the role of vicarious trauma and the importance of self-care, along with skills for the cognitive processing of trauma-related thoughts.
Brainstorm and the Yes Brain: Cultivating Resilience in Adolescents from the Inside Out with Dan Siegel, MD, Expert Trainer
February 21, 2018
Trainer: Daniel Siegel, MD
Between the ages of 12 and 24, the brain changes in important and oftentimes maddening ways. Daniel Siegel will explore the nature of the changes in the teenage brain and how they set the stage for changes in adolescent mental, physical, and interpersonal well-being. This presentation will explore the increased risk-taking and statistically demonstrated heightened chances of harm during this period of life. But these negative aspects of adolescence are only one side of the coin of this period of life.
Seen from an inside view, adolescence is an essential part of our development and our evolution. This “inside-out approach” to this second dozen years of life, gives us an exciting new perspective on the essence of adolescence. Emotional intensity, social engagement, novelty-seeking, and creative explorations are not aspects of an “immature” stage of development, but actually can be seen as a necessary set of characteristics that are essential for both the individual’s development and for the health and adaptation of our species. Further, these features of the teenage brain set the stage for changes that not only shape our life as adolescents, but can surprisingly be seen as essential to thriving in adulthood. How we approach adolescence as a period and adolescents as individuals can make all the difference in how these important years are navigated.
For more information about trainings, call 415-359-2484 or email [email protected].