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Adolescents have become increasingly exposed to pornography through social media, and with this comes potential dangers to their mental health. A recent Safer Society training titled “Pornography, Social Media, and Teens: What Could Go Wrong? And What Can Be Done to Make it Go Less Wrong?”—presented by Seth Wescott, LMLP and David Prescott LICSW, ATSA-F—focuses on the dangers of pornography for adolescents and how its harmful effects can be reduced.
Suicide is preventable. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the suicide rate for 2021 in the USA was 14 per 100,000 individuals. In Vermont, it is the second leading cause of death for people ages 18-35. The importance of professionals keeping up to date with research and practice cannot be overstated. Kathleen Kilbourne, Kirk Postlewaite, and Cristina Maddocks of the Vermont Suicide Prevention Center are experts who disseminate information, provide training, engage legislators, and observe trends in suicide and its prevention. In this Safer Talk webinar, they outline ideas for creating a supportive environment that encourages open conversations and helps those in need find the assistance they deserve.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a structured approach to helping clients learn to manage intense emotions and negotiate relationships. For these reasons, it is a natural fit for working with teens in school- and mental health-counseling. It can be used in individual and group settings, and there are many helpful resources available for its administration. This workshop provides an introduction to DBT and reviews its key principles. It offers ideas for immediate practical application with teens.
This workshop addresses the issue of adolescents sexually abusing others in their family. Decades of science and practice have shown that sexual abuse within families cannot be addressed effectively by any single discipline. Working with families in which sexual abuse has occurred can require expertise in many areas, including understanding the effects of abuse on those who are victimized as well as other family members. It also requires that we understand the elements of the adolescent’s life that led him or her to abuse. As well, professionals need to understand the factors that may contribute to further abuse if there is no intervention as well as the factors that can help to prevent it from happening again.
The training begins with a section on bias and inclusivity, engaging attendees in an examination of our implicit biases, actions, and responses and focusing on how attendees can utilize appropriate self-disclosure and encourage productive dialog in order to promote optimal learning and improved insight. Dr. Warner provides useful strategies for responding to microaggressions and offers techniques to avoid unintentionally perpetuating covert forms of discrimination. Personal self-care strategies will also be discussed. Finally, the training focuses on enhancing workplace culture by boosting organizational practices to create a more inclusive culture.
Joshua Grubbs sets aside controversial questions about whether porn addiction exists. Instead, his research focuses on what factors are at play when clients believe they are addicted to pornography. Dr. Grubbs research seeks to answer this question: To what extent does the use of sexually explicit media conflict with each person’s strongly held values and beliefs. His most recent work has explored the role of narcissistic antagonism in the self-perception of porn addiction.
In this fascinating webinar interview, Dr. Grubbs reviews his rather surprising findings and explores their clinical implications. Attendees are asked to consider this: How much do we really know about what we are treating when clients say they are addicted to porn?
We know the holiday season is tough on clients due to factors such as negative family dynamics, the loss of a daily routine, financial pressures, etc., but it is also a very tough time for those in the mental health profession. Come join us during Safer Society’s “Safe Haven,” an online support session where mental health professionals can decompress and share their own best practices for working with clients around the holidays.
Australian researcher Danielle Harris has spent her career studying desistance. In this webinar, Dr. Harris presents her work on understanding the pathways to desistance taken by sexual offenders after they are released from incarceration. She begins by drawing upon more than two decades of primary research to reflect on our changing perceptions of sexual offending across the life course.
Deaf people who have sexually abused present a unique challenge to mental health professionals, law enforcement, administrators, and attorneys at various stages of the legal system. Professionals rarely possess expertise in the cultural and linguistic competencies necessary for evaluating or providing interventions to deaf sexual offenders.
This webinar explores the challenges of this work. It highlights common mistakes and misunderstandings in evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, and management.