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Introduction to Suicide Assessment and Treatment Edge of Life Model (6 CE hours)

Course Summary

This 6-hour introductory course presents the Edge of Life Model (ELM), a Gestalt Therapy/Humanistic and trauma-informed approach to suicide assessment and treatment.

This model:
  • Integrates established best practices into a relational Gestalt Therapy approach, laying a foundation to meet the standard of care for assessing and treating suicide. 
  • Emphasizes increasing emotional awareness for both the client and therapist.
  • Provides therapists with the practical tools necessary to meet the ethical and legal obligations in treating clients at any level of suicide risk.
  • Reframes suicidal ideation as a call for transformation, supporting therapists and clients to explore the meaning in the suffering, develop new coping skills, and create a life worth living.
Download course PDF to learn more.

Course Reviews

“I really love this holistic approach when working with people who are suffering. The Courage to Live Continuum provides rich opportunities to explore a person's ambivalence to life, and simultaneously instill a thread of hope and compassion. Very rich and spot on presenting this topic. Thank you!”
     
Regina Eramaa, Nevada
“I have held my MSW degree for 11 years now (10 when I took this course) and my licensure for 7 (6 when I completed this course). In my time in the SW field, I have taken numerous suicide trainings - both online and in-person. This is, hands down, the best online course I have taken and one of two of the best courses I have taken overall in 15 + years. Thank you for your thoughtful content and insights.”
     
Elizabeth Grace Thoerner, Washington
“This training has changed how I practice and it is learning a humanistic new language to working with those who have suicidal thoughts. I appreciate this training and this approach and hope to learn more about integrating this approach into my practice and non-profit as I believe this method is far more effective than any other training I have ever taken.”
     
Crystal Bettenhausen-Bubulka, California

Learn More

Learning objectives

  1. Summarize ELM’s approach to suicide assessment and treatment and how it differs from other evidence-based models.
  2. Explain how ideation-to-action theories account for the progression from suicidal thoughts to behaviors.
  3. Explain how to do an assessment and treatment plan that addresses the major risk and protective factors across 4 domains.
  4. Describe how to use the Timeout Toolkit and Incident Report to build emotional awareness, manage distress, and develop an effective crisis response plan.
  5. Describe how and when to conduct lethal means counseling with clients to meet the standard of care.

Course outline

  1. Course Overview (32 Minutes)
  2. Hermeneutics of Generosity (12 Minutes)
  3. Top 10 Things Learned (1 Hour and 7 Minutes)
  4. HEART: Humanistic Foundations (1 Hour and 18 Minutes)
  5. HEART: Emotional Awareness (33 Minutes)
  6. HEART: Ethically Aligned, Responsible, Trauma-Informed, Transformative (22 Minutes)
  7. 10 Goals of ELM (28 Minutes)
  8. Overview of Edge of Life Model (1 Hour)
  9. Timeout Toolkit & Incident Report (24 Minutes)
  10. Lethal Means Counseling (22 Minutes)

Instructors

Amanda Rowan, LCSW, Founder and CEO of TDC
Amanda Rowan, LCSW | Founder and CEO
Amanda Rowan is an LCSW and the founder and CEO of the Therapist Development Center. Amanda graduated with honors from Dartmouth College where she majored in Neuroscience. She earned her Master’s in Social Welfare at UCLA. Since founding the Therapist Development Center in 2008, Amanda has prepared more than 100,000 therapists nationwide to pass their state licensing exams. She is a certified Gestalt Therapist who has worked with a wide variety of clients across a range of settings over the past 20 years. She is a highly effective instructor who has a passion for collaborating with seasoned therapists who understand what works because they do it every day.  
Michelle Seely, MFT, VP of Professional Development of TDC
Michelle Seely, MFT | VP of Professional Development & Co-Chair of Faculty
Michelle is a licensed therapist with a private practice in Los Angeles. She is an experienced teacher of gestalt and meditation and has trained and supervised licensed therapists and associates in the US and internationally. She has served on the core faculty at the Pacific Gestalt Institute for over a decade. She is a contributing author to the academic anthology, The Relational Heart of Gestalt Therapy (Routledge 2022). She was trained to teach Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) by the program’s developers, Kristin Neff, and Chris Germer, and has taught privately and with InsightLA Meditation. She is president emeritus of the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA), where she also served on the executive board for eight years.

Who should take this course

This course is appropriate for mental health clinicians at all levels of experience to work more effectively with clients experiencing varying degrees of suicidal ideation.

CE Credits

6 hours

Price

How to access this course

Once registered, participants will be able to download documents and listen to recorded audio lectures through the Therapist Development Center website.

ADA Needs

We are happy to accommodate your ADA needs, please email:  help@therapistdevelopmentcenter.com.

Certificate of Completion 

The participant can print their certificate of completion immediately after receiving a score of 80% or better on the posttest and completing the course evaluation.

Grievance & Refund Policy

To view our grievance policy, click here. To review our refund policy and terms of use, click here.

Date Published

October 2025

Contact Information

Therapist Development Center email: help@therapistdevelopmentcenter.com
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Therapist Development Center, provider #1449, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 5/30/24-5/30/27. Social workers completing this course receive 6 clinical continuing education credits.*

The Therapist Development Center, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0857.

*If you are an AMFT, MFT, ASW, or LCSW in California, the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) accepts continuing education credits given through ASWB ACE-approved courses.
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