Seminars

Marcos Mendez, LMCFT conducts this seminar.

Diversity seminar meets bi-weekly, all year, to increase interns’ self-awareness of multiple and intersecting socio-cultural identities. This awareness allows an increased understanding of how identities have shaped our worldviews, therapeutic stance, and interactions with clients. Awareness also creates an opportunity to articulate how clients’ intersecting identities influence case conceptualization, treatment modalities, interventions, and treatment plans with culturally appropriate interventions. The seminar encourages interns in Health Service Psychology to understand individual and systemic influences of power, privilege, and oppression. Finally, interns take a leadership role in creating a culturally informed outreach program for a selected group or population through their Social Justice project.

Cristine Glendening, LCMFT conducts this seminar.

Seminar Objectives:
1. Interns will be able to identify client characteristics and outcome objectives appropriate to the group therapy format.
2. Interns will be able to articulate the theory and research underlying interpersonal process groups.
3. Interns will demonstrate effective multiculturally sensitive group intervention skills.
4. Interns will be able to identify ethical issues that arise in group and will demonstrate the ability to practice in accordance with related laws and ethical codes.

Group seminar is designed specifically for interns’ training needs. As programs vary and each intern will have varying levels of group therapy experience, this seminar is re-constructed each year to meet those needs. These needs are determined by intern input, general professional developmental milestones, and agency needs/demands. Though there are topics identified for each group seminar we aim to be flexible and group development and co-leader relationships may also be discussed in each meeting.

In a given year the following items are typically covered with varying levels of frequency and depth, depending on the needs of the interns:
1. Understanding how to refer to group and educate colleagues on the benefits of group therapy
2. Identifying barriers to group referrals (both individual and systematic)
3. Identifying appropriate referrals and preparing clients for group (i.e., conducting pre-group meetings)
4. Communicating with co-leaders
5. Being a multiculturally aware group therapist
6. Starting group
7. Stages of group development
8. Content vs. process (here-and-now)
9. Working with difficult group members and problematic behaviors
10. Navigating transference/countertransference
11. Ethics related to group
12. Group termination
13. Types of therapy groups