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• Los Angeles Networking Event

  • When
    Thursday, November 21, 2024

  This event has been canceled.

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• Retirement Discussion Group - November 2024

  • When
    Tuesday, November 26, 2024
  •  
    8:30 AM - 9:45 AM
  • Location
    Online ZOOM

  Register

  Retirement! Is it on the horizon for you? The California Society for Clinical Social Work (CSCSW) invites you to join its Retirement Discussion Group (RDG). 

  Free group for CSCSW Members who are thinking about retiring

  The group will provide a mutually supportive space for participants to explore how it's done, logistics, tapering down, clinical issues with clients, and our feelings about it. As we benefit from consultation and assistance at the beginning and middle phases of our careers, it is no different when it comes to closing out a fulfilling career in a way that we feel is ethically and practically sound. 

  Make a cup of coffee and join us 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. 

  
  

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• All's fair in love and war: Fighting Fair

  • When
    Saturday, January 11, 2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:15 PM
  • Location
    Online WEBINAR
  • Registered
    9 registrants

  Register

  Presenter: Sinead Smyth, LMFT ONLINE ZOOM -  WILL BE RECORDED Costs: CSCSW Member: $69 | Nonmember (with CEUs): $99 | Student: $49 2 CEUs

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  Description:

  In this workshop we will review the 6 key skills from the Gottman Method for helping couples manage conflict. This workshop is designed to give therapists some practical tools to help clients have more productive conflict with their partners.

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  Learning Objectives:

  At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Understand the importance of physiology for partners in conflict, and teach your clients how to better self-soothe.
  2. Coach clients with the antidotes to the 4 most destructive communication patterns.
  3. Use an intervention to help clients de-escalate and repair.
  4. Coach clients how to accept influence from each other in conflict.
  5. Use an intervention to help couples deal with gridlocked conflict.
  6. Help a couple move to effective compromise using a 3-step process.

  ABOUT THE PRESENTER Sinead Smyth, LMFT is an Advanced Clinical Trainer in the research-based Gottman Method Couples Therapy and is a Consultant with The Gottman Institute. She is a former lawyer and the owner and Clinical Director of East Bay Relationship Center in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sinead has personally trained with Drs. John and Julie Gottman since 2005 and presents couples weekend workshops based on Gottman principles across the U.S. She works with individuals, couples and professional organizations seeking to improve their most important relationships. She trains therapists in the US and Europe in Gottman Method Therapy. Sinead also presents to leadership teams in organizations on effective leadership, stress and conflict management and communication skills.

  This ONLINE WEBINAR meets the qualifications for 2.0 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.  Note: With supervisor approval, registered ASWs may use CEs toward LCSW hours. Cancellation Policy 14 days or more before event date: Full refund 13-7 days before event date: 75% refund 6 days or less before event date: No refund Note:  Registration will be canceled if payment is not made at least 7 days prior to the event.

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• Support group for Social Work students and ASW’s (January 2025)

  • When
    Thursday, January 16, 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
  • Location
    ONLINE ZOOM Meeting

  Register

  Please join us at our next support group for Social work students and ASWs.

  Feeling lost, stressed, excited? Don't have time for the self care everyone keeps talking about? You are not alone! 

  Bring your questions and concerns, share your journey and connect with others, through this open group for any social work student or ASW in need of support.  The group will meet with members once a month to discuss topics related to being a social work student or graduate in pursuit of a clinical license.

  The forum will provide a semi-structured discussion in a safe and encouraging space. Topics are expected to be broad in range but may include: internships, managing hours and licensing exams, supervisors and supervision.  The goal of this group is to meet with other aspiring clinical social workers and share successes, challenges, stressors and ethical issues.

  Group will meet on Zoom the third Thursday of each month from 5:00 to 6:00.  Cost is free to members and non-members.

  If you have any questions about the support group, please contact Emily Plain, MSW |   cscswgla@gmail.com

  If you are not a member join today - click here to learn more. 

  This Consultation/Support Group does not award CEUs.

  
  

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• 2025 THE ART AND PRACTICE OF GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY

  • Start
    Wednesday, January 22, 2025
  •  
  • End
    Wednesday, February 26, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    6 sessions
  • Location
    Online WEBINAR
  • Spaces left
    27

  Register

  Presenter:  Michael P. Frank, LMFT, AGPA-LF, CGP    therapy@michaelpfrank.com   
  phone:  818-679-7490   
  CEUs 12 units;  registration limit - 49 

  2 hour sessions on Wednesday evenings from 6-8 pm, on the following dates:  1/22/25, 1/29/25, 2/5/25, 2/12/25, 2/19/25, 2/26/25 (The program will be recorded so that members can access it if a session is missed.)

  Cost: Member - $95 | Non-Member - $135 | Student - $30

  COURSE DESCRIPTION:

  Adding to his highly successful class given in 2018 for CSCSW, Michael Frank weaves together the four modes of therapy group leadership, the phases of the therapy group development, and the underlying dynamics between group members and between the members and the leader.  Attention is paid to issues of diversity and how they are an essential part of the process of the group both internally and externally.  The course attends to both theoretical understanding and practical application throughout.  It will include didactic presentation, case examples, a live demonstration group, and discussion.

  LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  1. Identify the four modes of therapy group process.
  2. List the phases of group development.
  3. Apply W.S. Schutz's theory of internal conflicts to group therapy.
  4. Identify how countertransference and projective identification can be used diagnostically. 
  5. Explain how scapegoating occurs both in the group and in society at large.
  6. Identify the effects of historical racial, ethnic, and cultural oppression on group members. 
  7. List three characteristics of a successful termination.

  ABOUT THE PRESENTER:

  Michael P. Frank, MA, LMFT, AGPA-LF, CGP is a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles, a Certified Group Psychotherapist, a Life Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, and Clinical Supervisor and Coordinator of the Group Therapy Program at Maple Counseling in Los Angeles. He has been leading therapy groups in his practice for 40 years.
  
  Michael has been an Institute Group leader at the AGPA Annual Conference since 2010. He has been the Practicum Coordinator for the Wagner Human Services Training Program at the University of Judaism, a clinical supervisor for the San Fernando Valley Counseling Center and the Antioch University Los Angeles Counseling Center, and is a regular guest lecturer in group therapy at the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology. He supervises therapists who are working towards becoming Certified Group Psychotherapists and teaches the Principles of Group Psychotherapy course.
  
  Michael is a past president of the Los Angeles Group Psychotherapy Society (now the Group Psychotherapy Association of Los Angeles), and is a recipient of the American Group Psychotherapy Association Affiliate Societies Assembly Award and the LAGPS award for outstanding contribution to the advancement of group psychotherapy. He currently serves on the International Board for Certifying Group Psychotherapists and, in 2021, he was recognized by that board for “exceptional contributions to including diversity, equity and inclusion learning in our recertification requirements and advancing creative, new ways for group therapists to access the consultation/supervision opportunities they need and deserve”. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Group Psychotherapy Association of Los Angeles.
  
  At Maple Counseling, Michael trains and supervises group therapy interns who co-lead five therapy groups. These groups include a group for gay men and a group for LGBTQ+ folks. He also supervises a group of interns who treat individual adults. He was a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee from its inception in 2020 until it was incorporated into the general clinical staff in 2023. Maple Counseling is a non-profit community counseling center.
  
  Michael currently runs two psychodynamic/interpersonal process groups in his private practice. He also sees individual adults and the occasional couple.
  
  In his previous career, Michael was an elementary school teacher in the Los Angeles public school system. He was a music specialist, a math and computer specialist, and a classroom teacher. He taught at predominately Latinx and Black schools as well as culturally and racially diverse schools.
  
  Little-known facts: Michael is a talented photographer who has exhibited in galleries. He is also a skilled craftsman who has completely rebuilt three kitchens and remodeled three houses including building some of the furniture. He has a life-long addiction to reading Science Fiction and is currently not in recovery.

  Contact: Ingrid Chung Nishimoto | ingrid@ingridnishimototherapy.com

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• Clinical Use of Mindfulness for the Treatment of Anxiety

  • When
    Saturday, January 25, 2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:15 PM
  • Location
    Online WEBINAR
  • Registered
    14 registrants

  Register

  Presenter: Diana Winston   Moderator: Dr. Nikola Alenkin, LCSW ONLINE ZOOM -  WILL BE RECORDED    CEUs: 2   Costs:   Members: $69 | Non-members: $99 | Students: $30

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  Description:

  Significant evidence supports the efficacy of mindfulness in addressing anxiety. In this workshop we will learn the basic mindfulness approach and tools relevant to working with anxiety, with an emphasis on a 4-step model: (1) calm (2) awareness of anxiety via the RAIN methodology (recognize, allow, investigate, not identify with), (3) cultivating kindness for self in the midst of anxiety, and (4) “enlisting the wisdom mind”. Then we will focus on particular practices which clinicians can do both to deepen their own mindfulness practice and to work with individuals in anxious states. Previous exposure to mindfulness would be helpful.

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  Learning Objectives:

  At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Articulate scientific studies that emphasize mindfulness use for anxiety.  
  2. Utilize a 4-step model for working with anxiety: calm, aware, kind, think. 
  3. Interpret the RAIN methodology for personal and clinical use.  
  4. Practice the 4-step model to be used within a clinical setting.

  ABOUT THE PRESENTER Diana Winston is the Director of UCLA Mindful, the mindfulness education center of UCLA Health. She is the author of The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness, and the co-author, with Susan Smalley, PhD, of Fully Present, the Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness. Called by the LA Times “one of the nation’s best- known teachers of mindfulness,” she has taught mindfulness since 1999 in a variety of settings including hospitals, universities, corporations, nonprofits, and schools in the US and Asia. A sought-after speaker, she developed the evidence-based Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPS) curriculum and the Training in Mindfulness Facilitation, which trains mindfulness teachers worldwide. She is a founding board member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. Her work has been mentioned in the New York Times, O Magazine, Bloomberg, the Los Angeles Times, CNN.com, Women’s Health, and in a variety of magazines, books, and journals. More recently, Diana’s meditations were featured on the California governor’s Covid-19 response website. She can be found on the UCLA Mindful, Waking Up, and Ten Percent Happier Apps. Moderator Dr. Nikola Alenkin, LCSW, is a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual social worker who has been in the field for 25+ years. He has worked with marginalized populations in Skid Row Los Angeles and communities of color in East Los Angeles. Dr. Alenkin is an LCSW in the state of California and supervises associate social workers working towards their licensure. His clinical experience includes administration and management of programs with the public and private sector, as well as delivery of direct clinical services to those most in need. He is also an educator of social work, psychology, and child and family studies for the past 20+ years. He works not only within communities, but also conducts research and is a sought-after speaker in the areas of stress and coping, homeless population service delivery, and work with specialized populations. He is currently with the Department of Veterans Affairs working in the largest residential treatment facility for veterans in the country and is also at California State University, Los Angeles as a faculty member in the school of social work. He is co-founder and co-director of a community organizing and policy advocacy institute, California Organizing and Policy Institute. He devotes his time to mentorship and lifelong learning.

  This ONLINE WEBINAR meets the qualifications for 2.0 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.  Note: With supervisor approval, registered ASWs may use CEs toward LCSW hours. Cancellation Policy 14 days or more before event date: Full refund 13-7 days before event date: 75% refund 6 days or less before event date: No refund Note:  Registration will be canceled if payment is not made at least 7 days prior to the event.

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