Courses | Psychology

Antioch University Seattle is a qualified provider of continuing education for mental health clinicians in the State of Washington and is a National Board for Certified Counselors approved provider of continuing education workshops.

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Diagnosis and Treatment
Clinical Supervision: Improving Skills in a New Era

Professional Ethics and Technology: Practicing in a Connected Age

Cognitive Therapy for Psychosis
Pain: What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know
Couples in Crisis: The Trauma and Treatment of Infidelity
The Elements of Dementia — Working With Clients and Their Families

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Diagnosis and Treatment
(6 CE hours)
Friday, Oct. 1, 2010, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuition: $130 general; $120 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff.

D.I.D. (formerly known as Multiple Personality disorder), can appear to mimic Borderline Personality, and is often misdiagnosed as Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia. Learn the etiology and history of the disease and be able to identify and define D.I.D. with clear documentation necessary for an Axis I diagnosis. Develop treatment and counseling techniques and strategies. Find out what you need to know about the medication management of these clients. Other topics to be covered include assisting clients through crises, couples work, therapeutic boundaries, hospitalization vs. outpatient treatment, integration, fusion, and non-integration.

The first part of the day features didactic presentation and discussion on diagnosis and treatment. The second part of the workshop offers you an opportunity for interactive examination of real case studies in small groups. With instructor guidance and feedback, you and other workshop participants discuss and determine whether the clients in the cases are, in fact, presenting as D.I.D. or whether they have another diagnosis. Each group develops treatment strategies for these clients and plans for referrals as necessary and appropriate.

Instructor: Antioch alumna Nina Merendino, RN., MA., LMHC, specializes in PTSD and D.I.D. in private practice. She was trained by two of the West Coast’s top psychiatrists to do this work. Merendino has spent 31 years as a psychiatric nurse and 12 as a Licensed Mental Health professional.

Clinical Supervision: Improving Skills in a New Era (15 CE Hours—meets DOH requirements)
Two Fridays: Oct. 8 and 15, 2010, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Tuition: $250 general; $225 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff

One way to become an approved supervisor in Washington State is to take a 15 hour continuing education course in clinical supervision. This course meets that requirement. Good clinical supervision benefits the client, the clinician and the organization. In this two-day course, learn about new developments in the WAC as it applies to clinical supervision of associates, certified counselors and certified advisors. Improve your supervisory skills, and develop a better understanding of the difference between supervision and consultation. Explore the effects of gender, age and ethnicity on the supervisory relationship, and learn about the developmental stages of supervisors and supervisees. In a safe and supportive environment, engage in collaborative problem-solving of particular supervision challenges you may be experiencing.

Instructor: Lisa Erickson, M.S., L.M.H.C., has been a mental health counselor, clinical supervisor, program director and consultant for more than 25 years and is an adjunct faculty member in Antioch's School of Applied Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy. She has been very active at the state level with issues related to licensure and supervision. For more information, visit her website.

Professional Ethics and Technology: Practicing in a Connected Age (6 CE Hours)
Friday, Oct. 22, 2010, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuition: $130 general; $120 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff

Mental health professionals practice in an environment that is impacted increasingly by computer technologies whether they are technology-savvy or not. In this training you will use Codes of Ethics to problem-solve sample technology-related situations in a lively small group format. What should or should not be on your website? How do you handle issues related to confidentiality and secure communication? What are the pros and cons of using e-mail? Are there things on your Facebook page that you wouldn't want your clients to see? What are the ethics around the use of Skype for therapy sessions or clinical supervision?

Learn the key elements of the ethical decision making process.

Increase skills in using your profession's Code of Ethics with a focus on technology in clinical practice.

Improve awareness of current ethical issues shaping our practice environment.

The day of training is designed to be lively and participatory, and meet the Washington State law and ethics requirement. You do not need to be a techno-wizard to attend.

Cognitive Therapy for Psychosis (6 CE Hours)
Friday, Nov. 5, 2010, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuition: $130 general; $120 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff

Cognitive therapy for psychosis is an evidence-based method (over 30 randomized studies) to reduce both the intensity of psychotic experiences and related distress and disability. Learn to collaborate with clients, "explore the evidence" rather than impose beliefs, and develop options so clients are no longer forced to rely entirely on the often limited effectiveness of medication for symptom reduction. No prior knowledge of CBT for psychosis is assumed: course includes one brief experiential exercise and some video examples.

In this training, you learn how to refute the misconceptions that have often discouraged professionals from attempting psychotherapy for schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. Become familiar with research showing that "medical model" explanations actually increase stigma. Find out how to shift to a truly integrated bio-psycho-social model that better emphasizes our common humanity.

Develop an understanding of psychotic symptoms as existing on a continuum with other human reactions to distressing circumstances. Learn to utilize the collaborative-empirical style of cognitive therapy for psychosis and the essential steps of normalizing, developing a formulation, and guided discovery of solutions to distressing psychosis-related problems. Explore a variety of case examples that illustrate effective strategies for reducing psychotic symptoms and making progress toward recovery.

Instructor: Ron Unger, LCSW, is a therapist specializing in cognitive therapy for psychosis. He has given numerous seminars on this topic and the relationships between trauma and psychosis. His presentations emphasize practical and humanistic ways of working with difficulties that can too easily be perceived as being "beyond understanding."

Pain: What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know (6 CE hours)
Friday, Nov. 12, 2010, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuition: $130 general; $120 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff

Pain affects more than 76 million Americans with the annual cost estimated at 100 billion dollars from chronic pain individuals lost income, health care costs and lost productivity. Pain issues interfere with goals, progress and mental health. Chronic, and intense acute pain, can often become the dominant issue and may even derail any therapeutic partnership between client and clinician. Treating pain and providing types of pain management is complex.

This introduction workshop is designed to provide to clinicians and therapists basic insights on the effects of chronic pain on the body and mind. Learn tools to reach beyond the challenges of pain to the behavioral and perceptional core issues. Discover how personal belief and perception can influence and manipulate the physical body and alter the mental process. This workshop will also look at pain in the context of social, gender and historical factors and perceptions to illustrate the many outside consequences of pain, including the opportunity from helping professions to provide a great asset of support or damaging expectations and demands. Explore how clients see pain in the reflection of a multitude of influences and interactions, including family, friends, media and the medical community.

Instructor: Antioch alumnus John K. Yeoman, M.A., LMHCA, ACPA facilitator, is a chronic pain specialist and facilitator. He has been a counselor extern and group facilitator at the YWCA Pathways in Lynnwood since 2006, an advocate for Providence Intervention Center on Assault and Abuse in Everett since 2004, group facilitator and peer support facilitator for the American Chronic Pain Association in Mukilteo since 2004, and peer support facilitator for the Veterans Affairs Hospital Seattle.

Couples in Crisis: The Trauma and Treatment of Infidelity (6 CE hours)

Friday, Nov. 12, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuition: $130 general; $120 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff

Build solid therapeutic strategies for helping couples navigate the crisis of infidelity. Discover what works, what doesn't and the most common mistakes therapists make. Learn to recognize the dynamics of infidelity, including risk factors and warning signs of affairs, and the prevalence of infidelity in couples counseling. Gain skill in implementing a three-phase process of recovery from infidelity. Examine the ethical issues associated with client secrets and how to balance the needs of both partners while maintaining hope, managing ambivalence, rebuilding trust and helping the couple move past the affair. Gain an understanding of potential issues of secondary traumatic stress and counter-transference for therapists who work in this area. Workshop format includes interactive, experiential and didactic elements, and multiple case examples are presented.

Instructor: Suzi Mohn, M.A., LMFT has a private practice in Issaquah, WA where she specializes in working with couples in crisis, particularly those dealing with infidelity, abusive relationships and divorce adjustment. . Mohn is an adjunct faculty member in Antioch's School of Applied Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy, where she teaches the Abusive Relationships course and supervises students in the Pre-Internship Practicum. She is the newsletter editor and marketing/media relations chair for the Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

The Elements of Dementia — Working With Clients and Their Families (6 CE hours)
Friday, Nov. 19, 2010, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuition: $130 general; $120 Antioch alumni, faculty, staff

Dementia affects all elements of life both for the client and their families. Many of these elements include issues of legal, financial, social, emotional well-being and safety. For professionals, working with both the client and his or her family is a necessity to adequately meet everyone's needs. This workshop provides an understanding of the diagnosis of dementia, role of the professional and caregiver, how the different elements of life affect the person of dementia and what to do when providing professional services to clients and their families with dementia. Case examples will be used to illustrate issues when working with clients and families.

This workshop is appropriate for professionals in private practice, case managers, mental heath, social workers and other related fields in geriatrics.

In this day-long training, gain a deeper understanding of dementia and develop skill and knowledge to enable you to more effectively work with clients and their families.

Instructor: Betsy Zuber, M.S., GMHS, LMHC, received her master's in counseling from Seattle Pacific University in 1993. She received her Geriatric Mental Health Specialist certificate in 1995 and is a licensed mental health counselor. She has worked with older adults since 1989. She has experience in counseling, providing support groups, providing home and in-facility assessments, information and referrals, consultation for adult children, offering trainings, advocacy and promoting healthy aging. Zuber utilizes the strengths of her clients as a way to enhance their ability to problem solve issues around aging.