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• Healthy Boundaries

  • When
    02/24/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    36
  • Registered
    24 registrants

  Register

  While healthy boundaries can be subjective and consist of many different variables, defining healthy boundaries is imperative to the work we do, and allows us to gain a better sense of agency over one’s feelings, energy, and personal space. Setting healthy boundaries is a learned skill that, if done on a consistent basis, will allow us to form stronger relationships with our co-workers, clients and loved ones.

  When we set healthy boundaries, we lead by example for everyone around us. As we all know, every person has limits. When we demonstrate healthy boundaries we express our limits through verbal, nonverbal, and paraverbal communication. In this workshop we will delve into tools to support creating and maintaining professional boundaries. This two- hour workshop will allow us to get comfortable with setting healthy boundaries no matter how challenging it may feel. We will learn to better trust our instincts and delve into the barriers that make it difficult to set boundaries. In an anxiety ridden society it can be intimidating to establish healthy boundaries.

  Fear of rejection, the unconscious desire to please others, lack of understanding around setting boundaries, or the fear of being seen as someone who is “difficult” to work with are some of the many reasons we choose not to practice this essential piece of self-care. Together we can foster self-respect, community empowerment, and genuine happiness by implementing boundaries that allow us all to get our wants and needs met.

  Learning objectives:

  • Articulate what it means to set healthy boundaries

  • Demonstrate an understanding of boundaries and the intersection of cultural, ethical, and professional boundaries in the workplace

  • Analyze the purpose of boundaries and gain valuable insight as to why healthy boundaries are imperative to the work we do

  • Establish techniques to express ones needs and boundaries

  • Identify the supervisor’s role in dealing with boundary issues and create a protocol around violations.

  • Discuss boundaries and barriers when working with a team

  • Examine the correlation between boundaries and burn-out

  • Dissect issues that challenge our professional boundaries and ways to re-establish boundaries

  Presenter:

  

  Fatima Kiass, Founder & Chief Catalyst.  Empowered Connections

  Fatima is a creative strategist whose life work is committed to strengthening community connectedness and empowering vulnerable populations through leadership, agency, and advocacy. Known for her empathy, Fatima is gifted in having difficult conversations in a way that makes people feel valued and supported. Her communication and interpersonal skills shine at the intersections of community education, organizing, and wellness.

  She was named "Maverick Thinker" by Urban Peak and the City and County of Denver in 2019 for her leadership in designing and facilitating various trainings at national conferences, including the Runaway and Homeless Youth Training Technical Assistance Center (RHYTTAC) and The Race Forward conference. As a mentor, social worker, teacher, and facilitator, Fatima grounds her work in her lived experiences over coming trauma, generational poverty, homelessness, and structural barriers.

  
  

  Eligible for two (2) hours Certificate of Completion

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• Motivational Interviewing - Mar 4,6,11,13

  • Start
    03/04/2025
  •  
  • End
    03/13/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom webinar
  • Spaces left
    0
  • Registered
    33 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
• Fostering Positive Relationships

  • When
    03/10/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    58
  • Registered
    2 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
• Your Legal Rights—Protect Yourself and Your Clients

  • When
    03/19/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    40
  • Registered
    10 registrants

  Register

  This workshop will focus on what providers should do when the police contact their client; whether it be on the street, in a vehicle, or at a residence, providing practical guidance to protect their rights and preserve their future. The first half will be about client rights and best practices. The second half will explore practical tools for applying those rights and best practices. There will be time for discussion and questions after both halves of the presentation.

  Goals and takeaways include:

  • Empowering providers with knowledge of their clients’ legal rights;
  • tools they can use to protect clients and their families;
  • best practices to follow during police encounters;
  • how to discuss these practices with and educate different human services populations;
  • how to remain empathetic through these tough conversations; and
  • resources available to you and your clients.

  OUR PRESENTER

  Eric Faddis is an attorney and a media legal correspondent. He is a former felony prosecutor, current criminal defense and civil litigation attorney, Founding Partner of Varner Faddis Elite Legal, and a regular contributor to Court TV and other media outlets.

  Eligible for two hours Certificate of Completion.

  This event is co-sponsored by

  Varner Faddis Elite Legal

  
  

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• Advanced MI Training focusing on MI Strategy

  • When
    03/25/2025
  •  
    9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    47
  • Registered
    3 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
• Verbal De-Escalation

  • When
    03/31/2025
  •  
    9:00 AM - 2:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    49

  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
• Working with Sex Offenders

  • When
    04/07/2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    49
  • Registered
    1 registrant

  Register

  

  Working with adults and juveniles who have committed sexually based offenses requires an understanding of how Colorado classifies, supervises, and treats such clients, based on the Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB) Standards. This training will provide an overview of best practices in providing therapy to, and working with, this population. Additional relevant information for human service providers will also be presented, including the legal definition of sex offender, the sex offense-specific evaluation requirements, sex offender registry requirements, risk factors, and working as part of a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) or Community Supervision Team (CST). 

  1.     Participants will have basic knowledge of SOMB Standards, and the differences between working with adults and juveniles. 
  

  2.     While there is no simple answer to the question of why people engage in sexual offending behavior, research suggests a number of factors related to the etiology and typology regarding individuals who commit sexual offenses. An overview will be provided about these topics, so participants can recognize there is no “one size fits all” in working with this population.  

  3.     Participants will learn how the sex offense specific evaluation is conducted and used as a source of information to guide treatment planning.  

  4.     Participants will have a basic understanding of what sex offense specific treatment requires, including the client taking responsibility for the sexual offending behavior, developing victim empathy, learning how to utilize appropriate social skills, and managing the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors which lead to the sexual offending. The importance of victim and community safety will be highlighted. Treatment-related topics such as assessing risk, addressing safety concerns, and working as part of a team will also be introduced.  

  5.     There will be several case presentations, so participants will apply this knowledge about sex offense specific treatment to particular cases, utilizing a discussion format.  

  Presenter: Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC

  I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Licensed Addiction Counselor, and Colorado Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB) Full Operating Treatment Provider and Evaluator. I started Enso Counseling in 2016. I specialize in providing individual therapy to address substance abuse, healthy relationships, unhealthy sexual behavior, and trauma. Read more about Ashley HERE.

  Eligible for 3 hours Certificate of Completion

  Show details
• Direct Service Provider Series 2025

  • Start
    04/08/2025
  •  
  • End
    04/29/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    48
  • Registered
    2 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
• Leading your Clients from Anxiety & Depression to Healing & Empowerment

  • When
    04/16/2025
  •  
    11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom Webinar
  • Spaces left
    43
  • Registered
    7 registrants

  Register

  This workshop will define and discuss various aspects of anxiety and depression and how they may present in your clients.

  Anxiety: Anxiety presents itself in different ways in all of us; no two individuals experience anxiety the same. Much like fingerprints, the way an individual experiences and responds to anxiety is unique to them. However, common physiological and neuro responses to stress and anxiety do occur in all of us. We will look at aspects of anxiety that are common across the wide spectrum of anxiety diagnoses. We will focus on these traits and offer actionable approaches in which to navigate acute and chronic anxiety.

  Depression: Recognizing the signs of a depressive episode or period can be critical in taking the necessary steps in preventing its onset. This portion of the workshop will discuss traits commonly associated with a depressive episode. It will offer possible techniques and actions that can be taken to begin the journey out of a depressive episode as well as actionable steps to maintain awareness of signs that an episode may be approaching.

  Actionable Takeaways

  • tools to navigate acute and chronic anxiety
  • techniques to initiate the journey out of a depressive episode
  • signs that a depressive episode may be approaching

  PRESENTER: Charles Floyd (he/him/his) retired from the United States Army after twenty years of honorable service as an Airborne Infantryman. He earned a Master of Arts in International Disaster Psychology from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology and is a Licensed Professional Counselor candidate working on his licensure requirements. Charles is currently a Community Engagement Coordinator focusing on the Veteran population and Jefferson Center’s Gun Shop Project.

  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
    29
  • Registered
    2 registrants

  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
    21
  • Registered
    10 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