Clinical Skills

Everyone experiences stress.  Our ability to cope effectively with life’s myriad stressors has a direct impact on our overall health and mental wellbeing. People come to therapy because they are unable to cope effectively with their life stressors. This course will provide an in-depth look at two different assessment tools, the Holmes-Rahe Life Stressors Inventory and the Brief-COPE, that have been used in both clinical practice and in research to help understand individuals’ experiences dealing with common life stressors. Therapists will learn how to incorporate these assessment tools into their clinical practice, understand the role of different life stressors on their clients’ functioning, and how to strengthen and build their clients’ coping skills.

CE Hours - 6

This course provides clinicians with an overview of Gestalt therapy, including its history and the context within which the theory emerged. Participants will become familiar with differences between Gestalt theory and other existing theories of the time. Foundational underpinnings, as well as defining clinical characteristics of Gestalt theory as a third force in psychotherapy will be discussed. Clinical concepts, such as “I-It / I-Thou”, “contact”, “awareness”, “paradoxical theory of change”, and “creative adjustment” will be explained and clinically exemplified.  Participants will be introduced to three important elements of the dialogic method and its therapeutic implications. In addition, this course will discuss the concept of phenomenology, its components and clinical application.  Finally, the instructors are going to walk the participants through the concepts of field theory, as well as paradoxical theory of change and their clinical implications.

CE Hours - 9

This CE course will help mental health clinicians gain an understanding about Structural Family Therapy and how it provides a road map to assist clinicians in conceptualizing how individual problems are maintained by family interactional patterns. 

CE Hours - 3

This CE course will help mental health clinicians gain an understanding about Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), an evidenced based practice proven to be helpful in treating Depressive Disorders, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Social Phobia and some Eating Disorders. This course provides 4 hours of CE. 

CE Hours - 4

This CE course will help therapists increase their professional knowledge related to HIV/AIDS and will enhance the therapist’s skills and application in practice. The CE course will not only increase the therapist’s knowledge of the virus and the disease, it will explore HIV/AIDS stigma which affects prevention, treatment and services.

The course fulfills the BBS first renewal requirement. 

CE Hours - 7

This unique CE course gives users an introduction to a way of understanding the "attitudes, expectations, behaviors, and emotional processes that shape our possibilities and limits." Taken from a live training course with Lynne Jacobs, PhD, the audio lectures cover common character styles (NOT pathological behavior patterns or diagnoses) that are often seen in clients who seek therapy. This course provides 7 hours of CE.

CE Hours - 7

This course provides mental health practitioners with a solid foundation for working with children in private practice. This engaging course, presented by Amanda Rowan and Beth Kanne-Casselman, addresses many of the key issues that arise when working with children in private practice including legal and ethical issues, how to set up an office tailored to a younger client population, and  different therapeutic considerations for all stages of treatment.

*The BBS accepts courses approved under ASWB ACE for all licensees in California.

CE Hours - 8