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• Fostering Positive Relationships

  • When
    05/01/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    51
  • Registered
    9 registrants

  Register

  

  This workshop provides tools which help practitioners to empower clients with unhealthy relationship backgrounds, offering them a better chances for success going forward.

  Relationships are a fundamental part of our lives as human beings. Often the focus in professional settings is recognizing and challenging unhealthy relationships. However, understanding the fundamental components of healthy relationships is key to building the client's skills to allow them to foster healthy relationships.

  This training will provide helping professionals with psychoeducation on the psychological roots of building healthy relationships, techniques on how to build your client's skills in developing healthy relationships, and opportunities to practice implementing those skills.

  It also offers practitioners an opportunity to explore how their personal relationships affect their interactions with clients.

  Learn how to intentionally model healthy relationships with your client through

  • Boundary Setting
  • Parallel Processing
  • Modeling healthy relationships

  Learn how to use strength-based approaches to promote positive relationships in your clients through:

  • Psychoeducation on recognizing healthy relationships
  • Techniques to help clients cope with uncomfortable feelings
  • Using a client-led approach to empower clients in setting boundaries and relationship standards

  Learn practical tools to teach your clients how to foster positive relationships in their lives using

  • The 5 secrets of communication
  • Gottman Relationship Theory
  • Healthy Communication techniques

  __________

   Presenter: Marisol Velez Murray is the director of Marisol Homes, an extended stay shelter for single and expectant mothers and their children. Marisol is a licensed professional counselor. She specializes in populations that have experienced intimate partner violence, Latinx immigrant population, and complex trauma. She has extensive experience in mental health crisis stabilization and response and has worked in a variety of positions with individuals across the lifespan.

  Eligible for two hours Certificate of Completion

  Show details
• Motivational Interviewing - May 6,8,12,14

  • Start
    05/06/2025
  •  
  • End
    05/14/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom webinar
  • Spaces left
    0
  • Registered
    31 registrants

  Join waitlist

  This evidence-based approach has consistently shown positive outcomes in dealing with resistance and defensiveness. Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to change. It has been successfully used with populations where resistance is prevalent, including adults and adolescents who deal with legal problems, substance abuse and mental health issues. 

  Motivational Interviewing provides a “tool box” of techniques and strategies which will help you to be more effective in working with clients who bring a wide range of challenges. This is a four-day online training with a four-hour session each day. A broadband Internet connection and working webcam are required for participation. You must be on-camera during the event to receive a certificate of completion.

   Attendees will: 

  • Understand the basic principles and skills of Motivational Interviewing

  • Experience a collaborative versus an authoritarian communication style and see how you can effectively decrease defensiveness in clients​;​

  • Learn and practice resistance skills​;

  • Learn and practice directive skills that help move a client towards positive behavior change​;​

  • Be able to elicit commitment language from a client that is correlated to positive outcomes​;​

  • Explore proven implementation strategies that help improve your Motivational Interviewing skills in the field​.

  _____
  

  Presenter: Avani G. Dilger, MEd, MA, LPC, BC-DMT, CAS 
  Avani specializes in substance abuse prevention and treatment with adults, teens and their families. She is the founder and director of the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” nonprofit program. Avani has been training professionals in in Motivational Interviewing and other evidence-based practices worldwide for over 20 years. Find out more about Avani HERE.

  Eligible for 16 hours MINT Certificate of Completion, valid worldwide.

  Show details
• Verbal De-Escalation

  • When
    05/12/2025
  •  
    9:00 AM - 2:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    30

  Register

  De-escalation of disruptive behavior has become an essential skill, pertinent to all staff providing human services. The need for safe, effective techniques to manage the disruptive client is no longer limited to those who work with severe mental illness in residential or hospital settings.

  To add to the problem, the current de-institutionalization trend has injected thousands of individuals who once were treated on an inpatient basis, into a society which is not quite sure how to manage their behavior. Outpatient mental health facilities are being asked to service clients who formerly had inpatient care. Frequently, staff at a community-based treatment centers do not have the training or experience to manage the aggressive behaviors of clients who were once institutionalized.

  This training provides attendees with a safe, non-harmful techniques, designed to aid human service professionals in the management of disruptive clients. Strategies and specific skills for dealing with clients in varying stages of escalation will be presented and discussed. Non-restraining physical protective maneuvers will be reviewed, demonstrated and discussed. Principles of debriefing and using teaching moments will also be addressed.

  ___________
  

  De-escalation will be presented in three phases:

  • Phase 1 Avoiding escalation through Self Care and Awareness;
  • Phase 2 Anatomy of crisis development and de-escalating skill sets; and
  • Phase 3 Exit maneuvers and debriefing skills.
  

  By the end of the webinar, learners will be able to:

  • Recognize the importance of self-care in how it relates to escalating/de-escalating any situation;
  • Apply de-escalation techniques effective in approaching and reducing the • tension of an agitated person;
  • Understand the impact of their reactions on the agitated person;
  • Utilize tools to control their anxieties during interventions toward maintaining the best possible professional attitude; and

  • Describe nonverbal, para-verbal and verbal skills to maintain the best possible care and welfare, as well as safety and security, for all involved.

  _____________
  

  Presenter: Tracy L. Hutchinson, LPC, MAC, LAC 

  Tracy has been working in the field of Addictions and Mental Health for the past 40 years. Currently, through her Counseling and Consulting private practice, Tracy is a facilitator of professional growth and development for team building. See more information about Tracy HERE.

  
  

  Eligible for 6 hours Certificate of Completion
  

  Show details
• Advanced MI Training focusing on MI Strategy

  • When
    05/22/2025
  •  
    9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    39
  • Registered
    11 registrants

  Register

  

  A lot of practitioners are familiar with the basic MI Skills and comfortable with using the OARS Skills. Are you interested in going to the next level with your MI Practice and gaining more confidence around the strategic use of MI?

  Motivational Interviewing can achieve powerful results in a very short amount of time when a practitioner knows the MAP of CHANGE and understands how to use MI skills strategically, so when to use which skill set for maximizing the client’s momentum towards positive change.

  During this training you will:

  • Understand and be able to utilize the Map of Change
  • Review the different Skill Sets in MI and their STRATEGIC use
  • Practice MI Strategy with client examples
  • Learn how to assess for success in your MI practice

  Presenter: Avani G. Dilger, MEd, MA, LPC, BC-DMT, CAC III, ADS

  Avani is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Certified Addiction Counselor, a Somatic Psychotherapist, an Acupuncture Detoxification Specialist, and a Motivational Interviewing Trainer (MINT), who specializes in substance abuse prevention and treatment with adults, teens and their families. She is the founder and director of the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” nonprofit program, an innovative, grassroots substance abuse prevention and intervention program that teaches teens to become leaders around healthier lifestyles and positive peer culture. In addition to teaching the Natural Highs program at several high schools in Boulder and at Naropa University, Avani works as a psychotherapist with teens, families and adults with issues around substance abuse, addiction and trauma using approaches such as Somatic Psychotherapy, Brainspotting and Systemic Constellationwork. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and trains Motivational Interviewing for criminal justice, mental health, health care, and substance abuse professionals.

  Show details
• Financial Health for human service providers - I bust my butt every day, so why am I still broke?

  • When
    05/28/2025
  •  
    11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    44
  • Registered
    6 registrants

  Register

  What habits and behaviors are within your control in order to feel more reflective of how hard you work? We'll go over actions you can take to be more financially empowered! Nothing happens overnight; habits are built one action, one step at a time. Often, the steps are easy individually even when all together, it can feel overwhelming. You are more than your portfolio - financial life isn't just your investments or just your retirement. Understanding your money story is your starting point, and financial goals are your next stops on the journey.

  The goal of this workshop is that participants leave having created a financial foundation and a better understanding of their money story.

  Our follow-up, in-depth, two-workshop series in June (event details and separate registration to be posted shortly) will cover:

  June 23 Financial Wellness Considerations for Caregivers  Now you are aware of your spending and we've laid a foundation for savings and debt management, let's talk about some of the risks you don't usually think about: 

  June 30: Why Investing Is Not Simple, But Not Impossible. Why is investing so hard? What does it mean to align your money with your values, and how do we keep fear from making decisions for us? 

  Presenters

  JO Suttles: I have always considered myself a Helper. The first stop on my professional journey was as a Police Officer in Texas. It was in this position I worked diligently to develop relationships using a “community policing” philosophy where trust and understanding are critical, as they are similarly essential in financial planning.  I left police work at the end of 2016 to attend The University of Texas at Dallas as a non-traditional student. I graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Finance (BSF) and started my new career in financial planning. I have found my professional home with Better Pockets Financial.

  Sarah Lassberg: I’m a veteran of the financial industry, starting in 2005, through the Great Recession of 2008 and the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. I have seen and experienced how quickly life changes while we are each simply trying to survive. I was able to leave the corporate world in 2019 to found Elf Army of Light – a 501(c)3 providing nonreligious resources and support for families experiencing pregnancy loss and infant death. My heartfelt motivation for helping others with finance resulted from my years as an analyst, underwriter, and process consultant where I talked to many people who suddenly had to confront their financial plans, leaving them feeling overwhelmed and vulnerable. The opportunity to combine my passions, activism, and professional skills ultimately led me to Better Pockets Financial, where I can focus my time on what I enjoy the most: being a resource and service to help those who help others.

  Better Pockets Financial: We understand that achieving financial wellness can be intimidating and overwhelming. We care, and we want to help you align your financial life with your values. We believe that family, life experiences, creating memories, and bettering our community are more valuable than money. We see organizations - businesses and non-profits - as agents for change. We believe in empowering our clients through education and engagement. As fiduciaries, we will ALWAYS act in your best interest, no matter what. Because everyone deserves financial advice, we strive to make advice accessible, available, and affordable so we do not have a minimum asset requirement. Our fees are clear and transparent and we don't earn commissions of any kind. Our process is about intention and behavior, so we meet you where you are and walk through it together.

  Eligible for one-hour Certificate of Completion.

  Show details
• Understanding and Supporting Immigrants & Refugees

  • When
    06/03/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Registered
    5 registrants

  Register

  For those working in social, medical, mental health, and legal services, understanding how immigration impacts our clients is imperative. Ten percent of Coloradans and 12% of Denver-metro residents are immigrants. Nearly 175,000 (25%) children in Denver and 276,000 (20%) children in Colorado have at least one parent who is an immigrant. 329,000 residents of Colorado are at risk of detention and deportation.
  

  Working with refugees and immigrants in changing environments requires flexibility and adaptability from human service providers. This training will provide an overview of the mental and psychological impact of migration and immigration systems while offering hands-on experience with culturally responsive interventions. Through creative innovative ways participants will gain practical tools to support the unique needs of the population.

  T A K E A W A Y S

  • Help simplify the complexities involved in working with refugee and immigrant populations.
  • Learn about the psychological and psychosocial impact unique to this population.
  • Learn to apply interventions through case-based discussions.
  • Learn how to advocate for refugee clients.
  • Understand the compound impacts of individual trauma, forced migration, US racism oppression, and limited service access on immigrant clients
  • Implement best practices for working with immigrants and refugees

  ____
  

  P R E S E N T E R

  Osmara Medrano, LCSW, PsyD candidate, is a bilingual clinician specializing in trauma-informed, culturally-responsive mental health care for immigrants, refugees, and individuals with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). With a background in clinical social work and psychology, she seeks to promote healing and resilience in marginalized communities. Currently she serves as a doctoral intern at Aurora Mental Health & Recovery, where she delivers individual and group therapy to refugees and immigrants from diverse cultural backgrounds.
  

  Eligible for two hours Certificate of Completion

  Show details
• Direct Service Provider Series 2025

  • Start
    06/09/2025
  •  
  • End
    06/29/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    43
  • Registered
    7 registrants

  Register

  

  Join our live, virtual sessions and learn practical therapeutic theory and approaches that you can implement immediately to provide effective and efficient direct care services. Theory and techniques have been successfully modified to fit helping relationships that are not primarily therapeutic in nature. The goal of each workshop is to enhance knowledge, skill and confidence in providing effective, efficient, client-centered care.

  Topics include Direct Professional Success, Self Care, Healing (Trauma) Informed Approaches, Boundaries, and De-Escalation. Please see the learning objectives below for more information. Attendants are encouraged to define their own learning objectives, as well, for example, “I want to … feel better/have more energy at the end of the day… jump to solutions less & allow participants to work harder…use more empathy.”

  This series of four intensive workshops will be conducted from April 8 through April 29. All are half-day webinars. The goal of each session is to enhance knowledge, skill and confidence in providing effective client-centered care.

  16 hours of intensive personal online training with 6 hours of supplemental virtual training for a total of 22 hours training.

  Learning Objectives

  • Define my Success
  • Understand Self Care
  • Review Best Practices in Case Management/Navigation
  • Understand the Process of Change
  • Learn about the Care Cycle (Intake through Discharge)
  • Learn about Therapeutic Communication
  • Understand Crisis Management
  • Learn about the Care/Treatment Cycle (Intake through Discharge)
  • Apply MI and Other Skills in Work with Clients (Intake through Discharge)
  • Apply Information and Skills to Case Scenarios
  • Plan to Implement Information & Skills on the job

  Supplemental Online Trainings cover the following topics:

  1. Helper as a Person (50 minutes)
  2. Therapeutic Communication (40 minutes)
  3. Multiculturalism (1 hour 10 minutes)
  4. HIPAA (45 minutes)
  5. Mandatory Reporting (45 minutes)
  6. Stages of Change (40 minutes)
  7. Harm Reduction (30 minutes)
  8. Service Planning/Monitoring (40 minutes)
  9. Approaches to Difficult Situations (30 minutes)

  Optional Coaching Sessions - May 5 & 12 / June 9 & 23   9–10:30am 

  Put theory and approaches into direct practice with Coaching. Join others who want to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency by applying Trauma (Healing) Informed Care, Motivational Interviewing & other approaches in this group setting. Melinda will facilitate discussion of relevant direct care topics and will follow your lead. Our goal is to celebrate successes and problem solve struggles with participant scenarios. Available to DSP attendees for an additional fee of  $50 per session or $160 for all four. Registration for coaching opens after DSP ends on April 29.

  Direct Service Provider Certificate: Aspire Training will provide a 22 hours Certificate of Completion for the Direct Service Provider Certification Program, documenting all hours of both in-person and online trainings.

  

  Presenter: Melinda Marasch, LCSW

  Aspire Training & Consulting

  It is my honor to do exciting work with the amazing, compassionate people in the nonprofit world! It has been my life’s passion to help others, first as a psycho-therapist and now as a consultant. I specialize in clinical supervision in the form of training (in-person and online), as well as individual and group sessions. We serve licensed and unlicensed individuals, as well as programs and organizations. I have expertise in many areas, including HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, mental illnesses and much more. I also provide coaching to clients who are motivated to maximize their assets.

  Show details
• Why is this so hard? Learning how to work alongside Personality Disorders

  • When
    06/12/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Registered
    Be the first

  Register

  Are you a helping professional, frontline staff, crisis intervention worker, case manager, or non-clinician supporting individuals with personality disorders? This workshop is designed to help you navigate challenging interactions, improve client outcomes, and prioritize self-care in high-stress environments.

  Serious mental illness scares many providers. A great deal of stigma exists about personality disorders; many believe that they cannot be treated - adding to the cloud of misunderstanding. Personality disorders are typically a long-standing impairment of mental health, identified by maladaptive thoughts and behaviors that arise during adolescence or early adulthood. These emotional disturbances can cause significant and pervasive distress to the whole person if left untreated. This presentation will develop an understanding of personality disorders and the latest evidence-based, science-driven treatments.

  What You’ll Gain:

  • Practical skills to interact effectively with individuals with personality disorders
  • Self-care techniques to prevent burnout and maintain workplace safety at an individual and organizational level

  By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Discuss how personality disorders develop.
  • Explore the stigma associated with personality disorders.
  • Describe evidence-based, research-driven treatments available to providers.

  Kate Leslie, MSW, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker, originally from Atlanta, GA. She received her Honors BA in Modern Culture and Media (Semiotics) from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 2001 where she focused on post-colonial literature and politics. Kate received her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work in Northampton, MA. She completed her post-masters training fellowship at the McAuley Institute at St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco, a psychiatric inpatient unit for adolescents.

  Kate is a member of the AAPCSW, NASW, and the mental health provider representative on the Colorado Medicaid MPRACC committee. Kate works with severe mental illness in families, eating disorders, and trauma, and is private practice in Boulder, CO.

  Eligible for three hours Certificate of Completion

  Show details
• Motivational Interviewing - Aug 5,7,12,14

  • Start
    08/05/2025
  •  
  • End
    08/14/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom webinar
  • Spaces left
    27
  • Registered
    1 registrant

  Register

  This evidence-based approach has consistently shown positive outcomes in dealing with resistance and defensiveness. Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to change. It has been successfully used with populations where resistance is prevalent, including adults and adolescents who deal with legal problems, substance abuse and mental health issues. 

  Motivational Interviewing provides a “tool box” of techniques and strategies which will help you to be more effective in working with clients who bring a wide range of challenges. This is a four-day online training with a four-hour session each day. A broadband Internet connection and working webcam are required for participation. You must be on-camera during the event to receive a certificate of completion.

   Attendees will: 

  • Understand the basic principles and skills of Motivational Interviewing

  • Experience a collaborative versus an authoritarian communication style and see how you can effectively decrease defensiveness in clients​;​

  • Learn and practice resistance skills​;

  • Learn and practice directive skills that help move a client towards positive behavior change​;​

  • Be able to elicit commitment language from a client that is correlated to positive outcomes​;​

  • Explore proven implementation strategies that help improve your Motivational Interviewing skills in the field​.

  _____
  

  Presenter: Avani G. Dilger, MEd, MA, LPC, BC-DMT, CAS 
  Avani specializes in substance abuse prevention and treatment with adults, teens and their families. She is the founder and director of the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” nonprofit program. Avani has been training professionals in in Motivational Interviewing and other evidence-based practices worldwide for over 20 years. Find out more about Avani HERE.

  Eligible for 16 hours MINT Certificate of Completion, valid worldwide.

  Show details
• MI for Supervisors & Champions - Aug 19 & 21

  • Start
    08/19/2025
  •  
  • End
    08/21/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    2 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    19
  • Registered
    12 registrants

  Register

  

  Motivational Interviewing provides a “tool box” of techniques and strategies which will help you to be more effective in working with clients who bring a wide range of challenges. This one-day advanced Motivational Interviewing Training is the next step for teams who are serious about an evidence-based implementation of Motivational Interviewing skills. The development and maintenance of MI skills is a challenge for front-line workers. Participating in the workshops is a great start but ongoing feedback and mentoring are needed in order for most workers to use MI skillfully. This workshop can help enhance both supervisor MI skills and the quality and nature of the mentoring process. It’s a win-win for clients and agency staff alike.
  This advanced MI training is only for those who have already taken the Motivational Interviewing Basic Two-Day training series. The training builds on the two-day MI Skills Training and teaches supervisors and professionals who are passionate about MI how to keep the practice of MI alive within their teams. If you have not undergone the MI Basic Series, please register for that course instead of this one; we conduct MI Basic regularly.

  Participants will leave with an understanding of:
  • the research-based building-blocks of a successful MI implementation
  • MI coaching skills
  • how to facilitate MI practice sessions
  • a manual with tailored MI exercises to build & sustain their team’s MI skills

  _________

  

  Presenter: Avani G. Dilger, MEd, MA, LPC, BC-DMT, CAS 
  Avani specializes in substance abuse prevention and treatment with adults, teens and their families. She is the founder and director of the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” nonprofit program. Avani has been training professionals in in Motivational Interviewing and other evidence-based practices worldwide for over 20 years. Find out more about Avani HERE.

  ________

  Eligible for 8 hours Certificate of Completion

  Show details