Continuing Education Center

Food heals; food connects. Food is the way in which Dayna Altman shares her mental health story—one that inspires others to share theirs’ too.

Dayna Altman's uplifting journey of healing and advocacy is a testament to the transformative power of food. In this upcoming webinar, Dayna shares her personal story of living with depression and OCD, and being in long-term eating disorder recovery. Through her experiences, she has found that food not only heals the body but also has the remarkable ability to connect individuals and communities. Dayna delves into her unique recipes for healing, emphasizing the role of food as a source of hope and wellness.

Join us for an enriching and uplifting Safer Talk session as we explore the healing and preventive potential of food and celebrate the resilience and success stories within diverse food traditions and beyond.

Have you ever encountered a client who seems impossible to reach? The one you struggle to establish a connection with? Perhaps you tried to get some consultation only to be met with vague responses like, try a motivational approach,” leaving you feeling judged and in need of your own inspiration.

Join us for these Our Safe Haven sessions, where we delve into the stresses and solutions of navigating such challenging situations. Engage in open discussions, offer support, and be supported! Hosts Katie and David—seasoned professionals in the field—empathize with the hurdles you face and are here to guide you through.

Many who work in the criminal justice system quickly discover its shortcomings, from its cost to its questionable effects on recidivism. The data have been clear for decades that we can, and should, do better. Making matters worse, the criminal justice system is infamous for its failure to serve those who have been harmed by abuse. All too often, our treatment programs fail to address the needs of those most harmed by our clients.

Dr. Judith Herman has dedicated her life to helping women recover from trauma. Her first book, Father-Daughter Incest, broke new ground in recognizing abuse. Trauma and Recovery, Herman’s second book, remains a respected text three decades after its publication. Now, her latest work, Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice, shines a light on the many ways we can improve our services in accordance with what survivors need.

In this webinar, she discusses the results of her research and practice across many decades. It has involved listening deeply to survivors and understanding their core needs for acknowledgment of the abuse, accountability, apology, and amends. Dr. Herman also discusses the strengths and limitations of current responses to abuse, such as restorative justice and treatment programs for those who commit acts of violence.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a future-focused, goal-directed treatment method. Unlike approaches that focus on the issues that brought clients to seek therapy, SFBT concentrates on leveraging the client’s strengths to cultivate solutions. Similarly, Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, empathetic technique that has most recently been defined as “a particular way of talking with people about change and growth to strengthen their own motivation and commitment." Both SFBT and MI represent a shift in the field—a movement towards harnessing the power of the client’s own resources and aspirations to facilitate meaningful and lasting change. Research has shown that professionals can effectively integrate these two approaches to provide a more comprehensive, client-centered, and strengths-based approach to supporting clients in their change process. But how exactly is this integration achieved in practice?

In this hour-long webinar conversation, Dee-Dee Stout offers a brief overview of how MI and SFBT can be integrated by professionals into a strategy for ensuring the most lasting change among clients in the shortest amount of time. Dee-Dee expertly addresses key considerations, such as the therapist’s role, the focus of the conversation, and the strategic use of scaling questions. Her insights equip attendees with a basic understanding of the approach and how it can be tailored to diverse clinical settings and populations.