Thursday, January 25th
1:30-4:45 PM EST
Overview:
Given the dramatic uptick in self-destructive behaviors, it’s important for clinicians to effectively and confidently know how to work with them.
Participants will learn how acts of self-harm are attempts to communicate trauma and pain narratives as well as cope with them, self-soothe, and sometimes numb out the unresolved emotional pain, and the negative, distorted thoughts that can overwhelm and de-stabilize.
We will explore both the secure and insecure dynamics of early childhood attachment, and process how the insecure attachment pattern a child is given connects to their inability to regulate their emotions and makes them vulnerable to using self-harm in adolescence and adulthood.
Participants will learn how to take a strengths-based, de-pathologized approach to treating self-harm, incorporate psycho-education, and teach clients a specific cycle of self-harm that shows them the role that triggers, anxiety, negative thoughts and feelings, and dissociation play.
We will also discuss why standard safety contracts don’t work and then learn about CARESS, a treatment model that gives clients alternatives when they get the impulse to hurt themselves. These creative interventions help clients accomplish what self-harm does without evoking guilt, shame, or further injury to the body.
Objectives:
- Identify the four potential attachment patterns in parent-child development and the impact they have on affect regulation versus affect dysregulation.
- Describe the developmental milestones and challenges of adolescence and explain the unique aspects of the adolescent brain and its vulnerability to self-destructive behaviors.
- Identify at least five reasons why teens and adults engage in self-destructive behaviors.
- Describe at least five benefits to the strengths-based perspective when treating acts of self-harm.
- Describe a chronic cycle of self-harm and the ways in which triggering events, negative cognitions and affect, dissociation, and anxiety influence the process.
- Implement CARESS, an alternative to standard safety contracts, and implement at least 3 creative strategies that help re-ground and re-establish a sense of safety in triggered trauma survivors.
Course materials are only available to enrolled students.
-
Lisa Ferentz, MSW, LCSW-C, DAPA
Lisa is a recognized expert in the strengths-based, de-pathologized treatment of trauma and has been in private practice for over 39 years. She presents workshops and keynote addresses nationally and internationally and is a clinical consultant to practitioners and mental health agencies in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Israel. She has been an Adjunct Faculty member at several Universities and is the Founder of “The Ferentz Institute,” now in its seventeenth year of providing continuing education to mental health professionals and graduating several thousand clinicians from her two Certificate Programs in Advanced Trauma Treatment. In 2009, she was voted the “Social Worker of the Year” by the Maryland Society for Clinical Social Work. Lisa is the author of “Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Traumatized Clients: A Clinician’s Guide,” now in its second edition, “Letting Go of Self-Destructive Behaviors: A Workbook of Hope and Healing,” and “Finding Your Ruby Slippers: Transformative Life Lessons From the Therapist’s Couch.” Lisa also hosted a weekly radio talk show, writes blogs and articles for websites on trauma, attachment, self-destructive behaviors, and self-care, teaches on many webinars, and is a contributor to Psychologytoday.com.
National Approvals
eCare BHI, as the accredited and approved sponsor, maintains responsibility for all the programs and must abide by each board’s continuing education guidelines.

Professional Counselors — The National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
E Care Behavioral Health Institute has been approved by NBCC as an approved Continuing Education Provider. ACEP No. 6703. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC are clearly identified. E care Behavioral Health Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Addiction Professionals — NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC)
E Care Behavioral Health Institute is officially on file with NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC) as an Approved Education Provider. They are formally known as NAADAC Provider #139138. Please note that E care Behavioral Health Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.

Social Workers — Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
E Care Behavioral Health Institute, #1706, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. E Care Behavioral Health Institute maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 06-03-2020 – 06-03-2026.

Psychologists — American Psychological Association (APA)
E Care Behavioral Health Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. E Care Behavioral Health Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

CE Broker
CE Broker is a continuing education tracking system in which licensees track their compliance and report their completed CE hours credit (CE Broker Tracking #50-33336)
State Approvals
States that Accept ASWB-ACE Approved Providers |
||||||
Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut |
Delaware | District Of Columbia | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois |
Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland |
Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska |
Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio |
Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee |
Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin |
Wyoming |
States that Accepts NBCC Approved Courses: |
||||||
Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut |
Delaware | District Of Columbia | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Indiana |
Iowa | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Missouri | New Hampshire | New Jersey |
New Mexico | Ohio | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota |
Tennessee | Texas | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | Wisconsin |
- Nevada CPC’s and MFT’s accept ASWB-approved training
- North Dakota Board Of Counselor Examiners LAPC and LAPCS accept ASWB approved training
- Rhode Island Board of Mental Health Counselors and Marriage & Family Therapists MHC’s accept ASWB approved training
- Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council LPC and LPCS accept ASWB approved training
- Utah Division of Professional Licensing – CMHC’s accept ASWB approved training
- Washington State Department of Mental Health MHC’s accept ASWB approved training
- Wisconsin Council on Mental Health LPCS accepts ASWB-approved training
States that Accept NAADAC Approved Providers |
||||||
Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | Delaware | Hawaii | Indiana |
Kentucky | Maine | Massachusetts | Minnesota | Montana | Nevada | New Jersey |
New Jersey | New Mexico | North Carolina | North Dakota | Oregon | Rhode Island | Tennessee |
Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wisconsin | Wyoming |
States that Accept APA Approved Providers |
||||||
Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Delaware | District Of Columbia |
Florida | Georgia | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas |
Kentucky | Louisiana | Maryland | Massachusetts | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri |
Montana | Nebraska | New Jersey | New Mexico | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma |
Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | Tennessee | Utah | Vermont | Virginia |
Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming |