Date: February 10, 2026
Time: 11:30 am – 2:15 pm ET /
8:30 am – 11:15 am PT
Format:   Live interactive training offered via Zoom

Presented by: Kristin Dempsey (See Bio) and Ali Hall (See Bio)

You must attend the entire live training and complete an evaluation to be eligible for CE credits. If you seek only psychology credits, the evaluation is optional, and you can remain anonymous.

Online Training Description:

In almost every aspect of community behavioral health, residential treatment, education, and corrections, professionals are encouraged to lead group therapy and similar sessions. These settings offer many ways for clients to learn and grow, yet many helpers might not always feel comfortable with this modality. Groups that Welcome and Engage provides a basis for understanding the purpose of groups and helps participants build the skills necessary to create and sustain effective sessions that meet the needs of their specific settings, including community, clinical, and justice-based contexts.

In this training, Ali Hall and Kristin Dempsey review many of the basic philosophies and dynamics of group treatment. This includes:

•  Choosing what type of group to facilitate
• Understanding the therapeutic factors of effective groups
• Identifying the stages and phases of group treatment

A key focus of this training is the integration of Motivational Interviewing theory as a means for structuring groups. Each phase of the group work, from initial engagement through sustained behavior change, is reviewed. Participants learn strategies for engaging clients, staying on task, delving deeper into challenges, and determining how best to start the change process.

Hall and Dempsey also address common concerns for group therapists, including but not limited to:

• Managing conflict within the group
• Engaging members who are ambivalent or resistant
• Building meaningful interventions that meet the diverse needs, backgrounds, and goals of the individuals in the group

This workshop leaves participants with many confidence-building skills and resources that can be put into practice right away. Professionals of all types and levels of experience are encouraged to attend.

As a result of this training, participants will be able to:

1) Identify phases of group development
2) Explain methods for helping clients to stay on task in group
3) Determine how best to start the change process
4) Describe motivational interviewing’s use in structuring group therapy

We can refund your training fee up to 24 hours prior to the start of the training.

To view all training details and review our list of frequently asked questions, please click here to visit the promotional page.