The Education Committee is charged with the oversight and creation of continuing education opportunities for social workers in Vermont. The committee’s goal is to create a rich and robust learning environment that meets the educational needs of all Vermont’s social workers in the areas of clinical issues, advocacy and social justice.

This committee will meet two or three times this fall to set the 2021 Training Calendar. The committee will then shift its focus to the NASW VT Conference.

First meeting September 10th, 11 - 12 am via Zoom

Please contact Lynn Stanley for more information - lstanley.naswvt@socialworkers.org

Charles Safford, LCSW

3 Clinical Category A CEUs are pending approval from NASW NH

This 3-hour course will focus on understanding the emotional and cognitive causes of adherence to conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, in order to prepare the clinician to intercede and apply correctives when the belief system of the client is maladaptive in important areas of the client’s life. Applying important principles and approaches of Motivational Interviewing, this program will address some intervention approaches most likely to be effective in inviting the client to reshape his/her belief system in more adaptive ways. This program will also necessarily address the clinician’s professional obligation to intercede in a respectful and appropriately bounded way in accordance with the NASW Code of Ethics principles related to autonomy and respect for the client. To assist in the integration of material, some clinical scenarios will be examined and discussed.

Course objectives:

1. Apply knowledge of conspiracy theory research, including emotional components, cognitive bias, including sunk cost fallacy, and other evidence based understandings, in order to generate effective interventions for client adherence to QAnon and other conspiracy theories.

2. Utilize principles and approaches of the Socratic Method and Motivational Interviewing to assist clients in examining conspiracy theory adherence in a clinically effective and ethically respectful way.

3. Address the professional and legal boundaries for the self necessary to respond effectively to the client’s QAnon adherence without reactivity or countertransference impeding the integrity of the professional relationship.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84201088070?pwd=Y3dudDdWUFl3QTVpZkVrM0wwbmFndz09

Meeting ID: 842 0108 8070
Passcode: 345626

Dave Melnick, LICSW

2 Clinical CEUs approved by NASW VT

In this webinar, we will examine how our mindsets, both implicit and explicit, are driving forces of our actions, interpretations and perceptions, particularly when working in high stress situations with people impacted by traumatic stress. Webinar content will provide unique perspectives about stress, traumatic stress, and resilience in the context of our lives both pre-pandemic and while working through the impacts associated with COVID-19. A special emphasis will be on ways to mitigate stress at an individual and workforce level. The 5 Key Practices for trauma transformation will be introduced.

Gerri King, Ph.D

3 Clinical Category A CEUs pending approval by NASW NH.

Change - both positive and negative - can be very stressful. Even if it results in improvement, with every gain, there is a loss. Complicating the situation is the fact that stress is a main factor contributing to miscommunication, increased conflict, poor concentration, and low productivity. While change may be an inevitable part of life, under normal circumstances, the way organizations and employees can remain effective and healthy is by learning techniques for managing it. The skills required to help people process change with excitement, not threat, will be balanced with empathizing with those who resist. Adapting to our present day challenges will be a major focus.

The session will be both didactic and experiential. A “hands-on” approach will give participants an opportunity to address specific workplace issues and will provide them with practical skills that are immediately applicable.

1 formal CEU approved by NASW VT

Free Member CEU for one hour discussion ($25 for non-members). Free for social work students

Let's explore concepts brought forward by Professor Ibram X . Kendi, director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University This will be a discussion hosted by NASW VT Board President Linda Li, and NASW VT Board Member Judi Daly.

Prerequisite for attendance is having some familiarity with Professor Kendi's anti-racist work to be ready to join the conversation. Many of our members have already read one of his books, Stamped From the Beginning, or How To Be an Antiracist, or engaged with his concepts in other formats. If you have not, don't have the time to read the books, or wish to delve further, here is a a list of easily available articles, podcasts, videos and interviews:

Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzuOlyyQlug

TED Talk:

https://www.ted.com/talks/ibram_x_kendi_the_difference_between_being_not_racist_and_antiracist?language=en

NPR interview:

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750709263/ibram-x-kendis-latest-book-how-to-be-an-antiracist

Articles:

https://www.mindful.org/4-lessons-n-anti-racism-from-brene-brown-and-ibram-x-kendi/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/23/ibram-kendi-being-not-racist-doesnt-cut-it-he-insists-that-we-he-be-antiracist/

Podcaast: with Brene Brown:

https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-ibram-x-kendi-on-how-to-be-an-antiracist/

Ibram X. Kendi website:

https://www.ibramxkendi.com/media

When we go about the business of helping clients increase self-efficacy, agency and strength, often the focus touches on how things go wrong rather than on what can go right. In this didactic and experiential workshop, we will explore the way metaphor (simile and allegory) embedded in the client’s story, and “mini-intuitions derived from the social worker’s inner wisdom, become transformational forces for enhancing psychosocial outcomes in three significant therapeutic dimensions.

1.) Restructuring of negative cognitions.

2.) Transforming painful emotions and maladaptive perspectives (especially those derived from trauma) into resources for coping.

3.) Integrating dissociated cognitive strengths and behavioral skills.

Attendees will be introduced to a novel way of intuitively eliciting and purposefully using key pieces of the client’s story to create extended metaphors that can anchor positive cognitions and bring about new meaning.

We will also discuss the way utilization of intuition and metaphor enhances the differential use of self and can be used with traditional evidence-based modalities.