The School of Social Work is pleased to offer the Clinical Lecture Series, where area practitioners, students, and faculty learn together from esteemed and innovative clinicians. The CLS offers monthly lectures to enhance the clinical curriculum for students and offer continuing education for graduates and practitioners. It also aims to foster and strengthen relationships among clinically-oriented students and the wider clinical community. Selection of topics and speakers come from participant feedback.

Responding to client therapy-interfering behaviors using behavioral principles and techniques
Jennifer Kirby, PhD
September 14, 2009

 
Developing an understanding of clients’ problematic behaviors, particularly those that potentially interfere or limit the effectiveness of psychotherapy, is important in creating sound treatment approaches that both assist clients in making gains and therapists in maintaining treatment morale. Drawing from dialectical behavior therapy and behavioral analysis, this workshop will present an approach to assessing and intervening on those client behaviors (therapy-interfering behaviors) that can limit therapeutic progress and greatly frustrate therapists, potentially leading to therapist burn-out over time. This workshop will provide a brief introduction to behavioral principles, a discussion of the treatment strategies of behavioral analysis and solution analysis, and a consideration of how these interventions can be employed with the ultimate goal of enhancing the therapeutic alliance and overall treatment process.

Jennifer S. Kirby, PhD is a Licensed Psychologist and Research Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy, and trains and supervises graduate students in individual and couple therapy using these treatment approaches. Dr. Kirby has participated in the development and evaluation of a number of relationship intervention programs from a cognitive-behavioral perspective. These have included working with couples who are experiencing emotion dysregulation, health concerns such as breast cancer, extramarital affairs, anorexia nervosa, and couples who are preparing for marriage. Her interest and expertise in training others in individual and couple therapy is enriched by her teaching of doctoral courses in dialectical behavior therapy, empirically supported treatments for adults, and clinical supervision. She also maintains an active private practice with individuals and couples.

Engagement Interviewing: Increasing engagement and retention of clients in mental health services
Betsy Bledsoe, PhD, MSW, LCSW
May 4, 2009

Too often clients who could benefit from mental health services either fail to follow through with referrals for treatment or drop out of services prematurely. In this presentation, Dr. Bledsoe provides an overview of “engagement interviewing” that offers clients an opportunity to express the problems they are experiencing in their own words, explore and resolve barriers to entering mental health treatment – including their own ambivalence – and receive psychoeducation about their mental health diagnosis and treatment options. This approach incorporates ethnographic, motivational interviewing and psychoeducational techniques. Examples will focus on the use of this strategy with mothers of young children who are diagnosed with major depressive disorder, a population that has been historically difficult to engage in treatment.

Betsy (Sarah E.) Bledsoe, PhD, MSW, LCSW is Assistant Professor at UNC-CH School of Social Work. Dr. Bledsoe had worked in outpatient, primary health care, residential, and emergency shelter settings providing mental health and case management services for individuals and their families. Her current research is focused on the engagement and treatment of low-income adolescents with perinatal depression, engaging low-English proficiency Latina mothers in treatment for depression, and evidence-based practice.
 

From the clinic to the real world: Empowering clients beyond the therapeutic session
Zach Rosenthal, PhD
February 23, 2009

 
Across psychotherapies, our primary aim is to help clients improve their lives, usually through the process of talking within the context of a safe and supportive therapeutic relationship. We wish to help clients change their lives outside the clinic setting, yet our involvement with them tends to be constrained by conventions and contingencies inside the clinic setting. How do the skills and insights that emerge in therapeutic discussions translate into changes in the messiness of the real world? What alternatives do we as clinicians have to waiting and hoping for change in between therapy sessions? This workshop will expose the frequent disconnect between discourse and action, and will explore traditional and cutting edge strategies for expanding the power of therapeutic tools.

Zach (M. Zachary) Rosenthal, PhD, assistant professor in the Duke University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is director of both the E.M.B. Brout Sensory Processing and Emotion Regulation Program and the Duke Cognitive Behavioral Research and Treatment Program. He is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in CBT and DBT, who trains and supervises students in the Duke medical psychology internship program and provides professional trainings through a partnership with the North Carolina Evidence-Based Practices Center. He has published widely on emotional functioning and emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder, and is currently working on novel computer-based interventions for “treatment-resistant” populations.

Integrating cognitive and behavioral techniques in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder
Jon Abramowitz, PhD
October 13, 2008

 

This workshop highlights the use of cognitive therapy and imaginal exposure therapy techniques in the treatment of clients with so-called “pure obsessions” (obsessions without compulsive rituals), who are considered to be poor candidates for traditional behavior therapy for OCD. Dr. Abramowitz describes strategies that focus on clients’ interpretations of, and responses to, otherwise normal intrusive thoughts, as a way to manage their obsessional problems. Throughout, Dr. Abramowitz draws on empirical research and his rich clinical experience, and will use video and interactive demonstrations to illustrate the therapeutic techniques.

Jonathan S. Abramowitz, PhD, ABPP is a licensed psychologist, associate professor and associate chair of the Department of Psychology, and research associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also founder and director of the UNC Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic. Dr. Abramowitz conducts research on obsessive-compulsive and other anxiety disorders and has authored/edited five books and published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters on these topics. He is associate editor of two scientific journals in the field of cognitive-behavior therapy, and has received awards for his scientific and professional contributions by the American Psychological Association, Mayo Clinic, Obsessive Compulsive Foundation, and the National Institute of Mental Health.
 

 
Mindfulness in clinical practice and daily life: Training attention, reducing emotional suffering, and developing intimacy
John Mader, MA, LMFT
September 15, 2008

This workshop focuses on practical applications of mindfulness-based skills that can be useful to our clients (and ourselves). John Mader will guide participants on how to focus and direct their attention as a way to become aware and effective as clinicians. He will also explore how core mindfulness skills (taught in Dialectical Behavior Therapy) serve as a basis for regulating negative emotions and for reducing conflict and increasing intimacy in relationships. The workshop draws on the innovative work of Alan Wallace, Marsha Linehan, and Alan Fruzzetti, and will include experiential exercises and an introduction to the mindfulness practice of shamatha.

John Mader, MA, LMFT has more than twenty years experience as a therapist in community mental health centers and in private practice. His work includes more than ten years of teaching meditation, core mindfulness skills in DBT groups, and workshops on the parallels between Buddhist Psychology and DBT. He is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor and provides family therapy supervision and training groups and teaches a graduate course on family therapy at North Carolina Central University. In 2005, the North Carolina Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, Triangle Area DBT, and OPC Area Program recognized him for his contributions to the profession.

 
How do we treat perpetrators? The ethics of working with sex offenders
Melissa Grady, PhD, MSW, LCSW
February 18, 2008
 

Much of our work as clinicians focuses on the survivors of abuse in their healing journey. Perpetrators remain more of the “other,” the ones who have traumatically altered the lives of our clients. Indeed, considering the life and experiences of perpetrators is unsettling. In this candid workshop, Melissa Grady discusses the ethical issues involving the role of clinicians in the treatment of perpetrators.

Melissa Grady is clinical faculty in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work and has a private practice in Durham. Dr. Grady has worked with sex offenders at a community mental health center, where she facilitated therapy groups, including groups for female sex offenders and for parents of adolescent offenders. She continues to research and write about the effects of interventions in this population.
 

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