The Office of Continuing Education at The Chicago School provides continuing education and professional development programming that meets the needs and requirements of professionals in the fields of psychology and related behavioral and social sciences. Core values of diversity, innovation, community, and service ground each program. Skilled professionals and experienced scholar-practitioners lead our work in support of the ongoing advancement of psychology locally, nationally, and internationally.
If you are an expert in your field interested in presenting on behalf of the Office of Continuing Education, please email us at [email protected] and we can discuss the requirements needed for presentations and provide you with our continuing education application.
Office of Continuing Education at The Chicago School Courses Available for Homestudy
Mysteries of the Medicine Wheel
The Indigenous Cultural Explorations series begins with an exploration into one of the ancient phenomenon known as the Medicine Wheel, a sacred symbol representing the knowledge of the universe. Participants will learn about the interconnectedness of psychology, archeoastronomy, astrophysics, geography, anthropology, and theology the medicine wheel represents in an effort to bring harmony into one’s own life…
Body Image and Therapy
The Body Image & Therapy Training Program is tailored to assist therapists working in community mental health agencies in effectively addressing clients’ body image concerns…
Neurophysiological Impact of IPV Victimization: One Reason Victims May Return to Abusive Relationships
One aspect of working with victims of intimate partner violence that often frustrates and confuses clinicians is the fact that victims often return to abusive relationships, either with the current abuser or through serial abusive relationships…
Assessment of Spousal/Partner Abuse: Intersectionality, Diversity, and Culture
This program provides a comprehensive exploration into the complexities of intimate partner violence (IPV) as it intersects with diverse identities. It emphasizes the importance of understanding IPV through the specific communities they are part of to underscore the widespread nature of this issue and the unique vulnerabilities faced by marginalized groups…
Alcohol/Chemical Dependency and Co-Occurring Disorders
This training will review the changes in diagnostic criteria from DSM IV-TR to DSM 5 (TR) and review the need for continued education of all stakeholders to avoid being complicit in a denial of the appropriate level of care needed for the individual…
Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders Treatment Interventions
This training will review the different levels of substance use treatment and how to make collaborative treatment intervention level decisions for your clients…
How to Care for Detoxing Clients
Clients who are actively detox from substances are a challenging group that require care and attention specific to their environment…
Clinical Practice, Sex and Ethics: Beyond "Thou Shalt Not"
Sex is central to health and wellbeing; yet healthcare providers rarely receive any training or supervision on addressing sex and sexuality issues in therapy and within clinical relationships…
Couples Therapy for Aging Adults
This presentation aims to equip mental health providers with the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver effective care to older adults in couples therapy…
How to Engage Adolescent Males in Therapy
Historically, male clients attend therapy at a lesser rate than female clients, so address this disparity, this presentation will focus on the therapy practices and considerations for male clients…
The Beauty of Brokenness in Ethical Leadership
This presentation explores how challenges and imperfections can be transformative tools in mental health administration. Participants will learn to leverage ethical challenges and organizational setbacks as opportunities for growth, promoting more transparent, inclusive, and client-centered practices in their work…
Introduction to Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy
Ketamine can amplify emotional experience and access to memory, while disrupting defenses, creating what has been called a “pivotal state” where change is possible in a therapeutic set and setting…
When Helping Hurts: Understanding the Impact of Compassion Fatigue
This training is designed to shed light on the far-reaching effects of compassion fatigue, offering a supportive space where professionals can explore this phenomenon in depth and equipping frontline workers with practical tools and strategies to manage the emotional toll of their work…
Financial Stress and Trauma Informed Treatment
This workshop will focus on a potential treatment modality to address financial distress as well as inform participants of practice implications in financial social work…
Ethical Considerations of AI in Mental Health: Balancing Innovation and Responsibility
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into mental health care, it presents a unique set of ethical challenges that must be carefully navigated. This program will explore the critical balance between leveraging AI’s innovative potential and maintaining ethical responsibility in mental health practice…
Cultural Competency in Therapy for Hispanic/Latino Adolescent Males
This program aims to equip clinicians with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively address the unique therapeutic needs of Hispanic/Latino Adolescent Males. This program will delve into the cultural, social, and psychological factors that influence the mental health of Hispanic/Latino Adolescent males, highlighting common barriers to accessing care and how these barriers can be overcome…
Harnessing the Potential of Occupational Therapy for Better Mental Health
This session will cover how occupational therapists support mental health, common treatment modalities, case examples, and share best practices for working as a team with other clinicians and professionals in all settings…
From Hangry to Happy: Food Choices for Emotional Balance
This interactive session explores the science behind the “hangry” phenomenon and how blood sugar fluctuations affect emotional regulation. Attendees will learn practical strategies to guide clients towards dietary choices that promote emotional balance…
Sis, I Can Relate: Examining the Benefits of Impactful Relationships of African American Women in Clinical Supervision
This presentation will explore the often-overlooked contributions of African American women in clinical social work, focusing on the challenges posed by cross-cultural clinical supervision. The importance of solid and durable supervisory relationships, which are key to fostering professional growth, cultural sensitivity, and effective communication within the field, will be discussed…
Prolonged grief disorder from an ethical and cultural perspective
The recent inclusion of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in the DSM-5 TR has stirred a great deal of controversy. Understanding the context of the inclusion of this diagnosis in the DSM and the arguments for and against inclusion are important as counselors are faced with deciding whether or not to diagnose PGD…
Beyond the Altar: Unlearning the Black Church Model on Mental Health
This panel will introduce a transformative dialogue on mental and emotional health in Black communities. Panelists will confront the critical need to expand mental health discourse and interventions beyond ingrained traditional coping mechanisms often steeped in religiosity and rooted in the historical experiences of black people in America…
Innovations in Treatment for Postpartum PTSD
About 1/3 of those who have given birth experience a stressful or traumatic pregnancy or childbirth, and as many as 9%of people who give birth worldwide develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from their experience. Postpartum PTSD can have significant negative implications for parent-child bonding and healthy family dynamics…
The Use of Sand Tray Therapy When Working With Families Impacted by Pediatric Illness
This workshop will introduce and provide an overview to participants of sand tray therapy, application of the intervention, and how this can be utilized to treat families facing pediatric illness…
Oral Healthcare's Role in Management of Behavioral Health
The intersectionality of oral health and behavioral health often goes ignored in routine clinical practice. The challenge health care providers are tasked with is making the connections, and subsequent referrals, for patients facing oral health challenges that may be exacerbating their behavioral health conditions…
Marine Culture and Mental Health Stigma, Barriers, and Resources
Each military branch provides a unique cultural experience for service members. There are several areas contributing to the concerns Marines face when attempting mental health care…
The Value of Self Care for Workers in the Helping Profession: An Ethical Imperative
Those working in the helping profession have an imperative to practice and model self-care as part of mainlining positive wellbeing. This presentation will define self-care as viewed across various disciplines, discuss the ethics involved in self-care, provide strategies to practice self-care, and examine the efficacy of creating a personal self-care contract…
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Private Practice
In this presentation we will provide psychoeducation on what ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) is, how it works on the brain, who is an ideal candidate for it, and how we provide this service in a private practice setting…
Mental Health as a Basic Public Service
This presentation will highlight the unique framework of the clinical and human services work being done at the local government level. Participants will learn about how this suburban town has made mental health and human services a basic public service, as impactful and valuable as police, fire, and public works departments, but offering very different services…
Black Women, ADHD, and the Struggle to Be Seen: Experiential Diagnosis
ADHD is frequently underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed in Black girls and women. This leads to a lack of experiential and clinical validation, appropriate support and intervention. In addition to real-time underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis, there is an obvious absence of this issue as a primary concern in the body of published research and professional dialogue for this population…
Maximizing of Trauma-Informed Care in Mental Health Organizations
Mental health organizations that integrate a trauma-informed approach acknowledge and understand how trauma, both past and present, impacts the clients overall functionality. A trauma-informed care approach aims to: recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, and staff; integrate knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and actively avoid re-traumatization…
Assessing Clients in a Changing World - What Clinicians Need to Consider When Assessing Diversity
The program will touch on assessment and treatment planning for clinicians and the various ways of looking at different assessments in order to help the diverse population that lives in the state of Texas and the Southwest. The program will aim at educating clinicians on best practices…
Exploring the Financial Landscape to Sustain Mental Health Initiatives
Navigating funding sources for mental health can be daunting; however, by leveraging diverse funding sources, strategic partnerships, and innovative fundraising methods, mental health clinicians can be empowered to achieve financial sustainability and expand their impact. This presentation will present actionable insights and effective techniques to secure funding for their mental health organizations…
The Evolution of the DSM and Challenges in the DSM-5-TR
This program will provide an overview of the evolution of the DSM and diagnostic models, and after summarizing the changes across different versions, we will discuss the most current DSM (DSM-5-TR) and challenges that have emerged since its release…
Sexual Harassment Prevention Training for Mental Health Professionals – Updated for 2024
As mental health professionals, you understand far better than most people do about the effects that harassment can have on individuals…
Global Trauma: Transdiagnostic Screening for Mental Health Outcomes
Potentially traumatic events (PTEs) may lead to a range of interconnected symptoms across several disorders, thus indicating their transdiagnostic nature…
The Addicted Family
The devastation of addiction cuts a wide swath through the lives of those struggling with substance use disorders and those who love them…
Spotlight on Transgender Health in the Illinois Department of Corrections
The State of Illinois is implementing the highest caliber gender-affirming care to transgender people who are incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections…
Medicare Application for Mental Health Providers: Counselors, Therapists, Social Workers, Clinical Psychologists, MDs, and More
The new CMS guidelines allow Mental Health Counselors and Marriage & Family Therapists to join as Participating Medicare practitioners…
Child Abuse and Cultural Considerations
Cultural norms play a significant role in shaping the probability of adult discovery or child disclosure of sexual abuse…
Child Abuse and Ethics in Reporting
Child abuse reporting is a hard process and continues to be a challenge for clinicians, and many feel confused, guilty, or unsure on when to report…
DBT 101
This introductory session will consist of a “DBT 101” where information about what DBT is, the structure of the treatment, who Dr. Marsha Linehan is and how she created this theory, and what types of presentations and issues are treated with DBT will all be presented…
A conceptual map for understanding health-related anxieties in pediatric populations in the post-pandemic era
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, prevalence rates of psychiatric diagnoses among children and adolescents are rising…
Freeze Frame: The Use of Adlerian Play Therapy to Encourage Holistic Healing in Children
In a world where mental health needs are on the rise and access to supportive mental healthcare has been in steady deficit to meet this need, there is a movement amongst the helping professional community to evaluate the efficacy of time old approaches functioning within the sick model of medicine and mental health wellness…
Recognizing the Role of Sex in Optimizing Health
Healthcare providers, including those focused on metal health, receive little if any training on human sexuality…
Basics of DSM-5-TR: Overview and Understanding
This program will provide a review of the chapters, cover changes from the DSM to the DSM-TR, and offer a refresher for the practicing clinician…
DSM-5-TR: Substance Use & Addictive Disorder
This workshop will present an overview of the diagnostic criteria for Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders in the DSM-5 TR with a review of the changes made in the DSM-5-TR…
DSM-5-TR: Trauma
In this training, you will learn about the overview on the main trauma related diagnosis for the DSM-5-TR as well as the issues regarding the new controversial diagnosis for Prolonged Grief Disorder…
DSM-5-TR: Eating & Feeding Disorders
All DSM-5-TR eating disorder diagnoses will be reviewed, in addition to providing commentary as to how to assess the eating disorder diagnostic criteria…
DSM-5-TR: Anxiety, Depressive, and Bipolar and Related Disorders
This session will review Mood Disorders in DSM-5-TR including revisions and additions to diagnoses/diagnostic criteria…
DSM-5-TR: Personality Disorders
This session will review the Personality Disorders diagnoses in the DSM-5-TR…
DSM-5-TR: Sex & Gender
No section of the DSM has gone through more revisions, or been more controversial, than sexuality…
DSM-5-TR: Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders
This discussion will include the evolution of our diagnostic models through recent decades and further explore the emerging importance of recognizing trauma exposure in this spectrum of disorders…
DSM-5-TR: Neurodivergent & Neurocognitive Disorders
Combining our best understanding of systemic theory with the most current research into neurodiversity, this presentation aims to depathologize neurodiversity, allowing clinicians to both diagnose and support their clients more accurately and comprehensively…
DSM-5-TR: DEIB
This DSM-5-TR: DEIB training takes a crucial look at the diverse backgrounds of clients and how it affects their mental health during the diagnostic process…
DSM-5-TR: Children
In this training, you will learn about the overview on the main disorders for children and adolescents when using the DSM-5-TR as well as the issues regarding the new controversial diagnosis for Prolonged Grief Disorder. We will also discuss the ICD-10-CM codes for suicidal behavior and non-suicidal self-injury…
DSM-5-TR: Ethics
This DSM-5-TR: Ethics training will examine the ethical standards and considerations within the DSM 5-TR, discuss importance of ethics in the diagnostic process, as well as learn to utilize practical tools and strategies when making ethical decisions in assessment…
Introduction to Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias
This course provides an overview of the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other common dementias, strategies for their management and care, and effective communication methods for individuals with dementia and their caregivers…
Introduction to Sex Therapy: Assessment, Referrals, and Best Practices
This program will cover a variety of topics to assist participants in feeling a greater degree of comfort and competence when assessing clients for sexological issues that impact their presenting problem, or are expressed as satellite concerns…
Hypnosis Versus Psychedelic Therapy: An Ethical Quandary?
Advanced students of hypnosis and/or psychotherapy will learn to tease out any ethical dilemmas inherent in choosing between the use of hypnosis and/or psychedelic therapy in the clinical setting…
Understanding the Brain-Gut Connection Through Hypnosis
This talk will cover the role of clinical hypnosis in the treatment of disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBIs) or functional gastrointestinal disorders…
From Trauma-Informed to Trauma-Responsive: Concretizing Trauma-Informed Care with Clinical Skills of Co-Regulation
This presentation will explain and concretize how principles of trauma-informed care translate into clinicians’ interactions with clients through a focus on nervous system co-regulation…
From Trauma-Informed to Trauma-Responsive: Concretizing Trauma-Informed Care with Clinical Skills of Co-Regulation -- PART II
Findings from psychological, biomedical, and social sciences make it clear that we cannot ignore the role of the body and nervous system in trauma treatment…
Incorporating Knowledge and Techniques of Substance Abuse into Daily Practice
This workshop will review the competencies necessary for proper identification and treatment options for clients dealing with substance abuse concerns…
Child Sexual Abuse: Warning Signs and Support
This workshop will provide ethical and legal updates to child abuse reporting law in CA (to encourage participants to check on state updates where they are) and will focus on exploring not just the types of child sexual abuse but how it can present itself…
Child Abuse and Ethics in Reporting
Child abuse reporting is a hard process and continues to be a challenge for clinicians, and many feel confused, guilty, or unsure on when to report. This workshop will provide introductory ethical and legal considerations around child abuse when doing a report…
Child Abuse and Cultural Considerations
This workshop will provide into how ethnic and religious cultures impact the disclosure and reporting of child abuse, both domestically in the United States and globally. It offers guidelines for conducting culturally sensitive interviews with abused children to enhance disclosure in formal settings across diverse cultural backgrounds…
Coexisting Conditions in Children and Teens with ADHD (including Conditions that Can Cause ADHD-Like Presentations)
There are a number of sleep, neurodevelopmental, sensory processing, fetal substance exposure, psychological, trauma, substance use conditions which can frequently occur with and worsen ADHD, or cause ADHD-like symptoms when true ADHD does not exist…
Evaluating ADHD in Children and Adolescents
Dr. Carroccia’s evaluation approach will help clinicians more accurately conduct evidence-based ADHD evaluations, as well as identify and better understand the numerous other possible coexisting conditions that may present along with and worsen true ADHD, or cause ADHD-like presentations when ADHD does not exist…
The Six Step ADHD Treatment Approach for Children and Adolescents
Utilizing a long-term and evidence-based treatment approach for children and adolescent is essential for effective management of ADHD…
Coding and Documentation Excellence for Prescribing Psychologists
This seminar will provide a comprehensive exploration of documentation requirements and payer policies for psychiatric diagnostic evaluations, associated treatment plans, and evaluation and management services in the outpatient setting specific to prescribing psychologists…
Running A Successful Mental Health Practice in A Post-Covid Era
In this two-hour training session, you will learn the most important aspects of building and maintaining a successful practice, including credentialing, enrollments, billing, and managing accounts receivable…
Is DEI an Ethical Issue?
In this fast-changing world, there are growing concerns among employers on accommodating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)…
Increasing Self-Awareness to Strengthen Cultural-Awareness
Personal cultural awareness is a critical component for creating an effective learning environment…
Reflections: Reminiscence Therapy with People Diagnosed with Neurocognitive Disorders
Participants will learn about reminiscence therapy (Westerhof, & Bohlmeijer, 2014) and the application of the therapy to support the wellbeing of individuals diagnosed with a neurocognitive disorder…
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Embracing Diversity to Improve Care
Developing cultural competence within healthcare is critical to go beyond discrimination to examining how social and economic forces impact the structure of healthcare and its delivery for the individual…
Billing, Insurance Credentialing & Contracting for Mental Health Professionals
Want to ensure you have all necessary processes in place while building your practice?…
Ethics in a Changing World
It is important to understand more than the prescribed code of ethics for each profession…
Terapia Cognitivo Conductual en Español
Es muy importante comprender cómo trabajar con niños bilingües y sus familias que están lidiando con un trauma…
Spanish 101 for Mental Health Providers
A Four-Part Series in Spanish
According to Deborah Bailey and Bruce Hogan (2019), while 18% of Americans identify as Hispanic, less than 6% of Psychologists in the U.S. can provide services in Spanish…
The Impact Credentialing & Enrollment Has On Your Revenue Cycle
This presentation will provide training on accurate credentialing and payer enrollment for mental health professionals. The presenter will provide comprehensive review of insurance enrollments and it’s impact on your revenue cycle…
The 411 on Telehealth: A Guide to Ethical Practice for Practitioners and Supervisors
Telehealth, or the delivery of health-related services through the of technology, is continually developing and evolving, based on the changing needs of society. Most recently, COVID-19 has tasked healthcare systems with the rethinking and rapid development of technology-assisted delivery of care (Shachar, Engel, and Elwyn, 2020)…
Telehealth 101
Ethical and legal tele-assisted counseling and supervision require specialized skills and knowledge. This presentation will assist mental health professions in developing a transition plan from an on-ground delivery to an online delivery model…
NRCI Annual Conference: COVID 19 - Grief & Stress During a Global Pandemic
This presentation, part of the 2021 NRCI Annual Conference, is moderated by Dr. Michael Kocet and features panelists Dr. Serena Wadhwa, Dr. Jillian Blueford, David Firemen, and Michael Catania…