Specialty Training Workshops and Groups

Online Workshop Offerings

Effective Tools for Telehealth - Part 1 - Calming and Grounding Clients in Difficult Times Online Training Course

Having to hold space for clients in the midst of a pandemic that we’re also experiencing presents a unique challenge for us as helping professionals. Individual and collective anxiety is high, and we’re striving to maintain attunement and provide comfort and calm, despite the inherent difficulties of doing so in Telehealth sessions.

In this online course - co-sponsored by BraveHeart Retreats and Action Institute of California - we will offer effective tools from body-based methods, such as Somatic Experiencing, Reiki, and Psychodramatic Bodywork, that translate well to Telehealth sessions. We will focus particularly on teaching tools that helping professionals can also teach to their clients in order to expand their resources and help them remain more present.

Effective Tools For Telehealth Sessions Part 2 and Part 3 Online Training Courses

These are extraordinary times, and many clinicians have made the choice to shift to telehealth when working with clients/patients.  This situation offers unique challenges, including being of service to others while dealing with our own anxieties. Therefore, it requires unique solutions.  In these online courses - cosponsored by BraveHeart Retreats and Action Institute of California - we will offer effective tools and techniques from Somatic Experiencing, Sociometry, Psychodrama and Positive Psychology for clinicians to use with individual, couples, family and group therapy/counseling clients in telehealth sessions.  We will focus particularly on creating and maintaining safety and attunement, and providing comfort and calm to our clients while supporting their continued emotional and spiritual growth.

You must attend Part 1 in order to attend Part 2 and you must attend Part 2 in order to attend Part 3 as the trainings build from one another and go deeper into skills with each subsequent training.

Using Psychodrama with Groups in Telehealth Sessions

The power of an in-person psychodrama group is difficult to replicate in a virtual setting, however, catharsis and insight can easily happen in Telehealth, if the practitioner understands the techniques and nuances of working in that realm.

In this online course, practitioners will learn specific sociometry and psychodrama techniques for Telehealth sessions with groups that can help their clients bring issues to life – or concretize them – so they can engage in the therapeutic process, deepen affect, resolve internal and external conflicts, and move towards greater life satisfaction.   We will explore the importance of an even more thorough assessment of internal and external resources when engaging clients in Telehealth, as well as ethical considerations of working virtually, so we can ensure clients can remain regulated and effectively integrate their experience.

Using Psychodrama with Individuals in Telehealth Sessions

While psychodrama and sociometry are typically used in group settings, they can be incredibly effective when working with individuals as well, including in Telehealth therapy/counseling sessions.

In this online course, practitioners will learn specific action method techniques for Telehealth sessions that can help their clients bring issues to life – or concretize them – so they can engage in the therapeutic process, deepen affect, resolve internal and external conflicts, and move towards greater life satisfaction.  Through the use of sociometry and psychodrama, clients can be helped to practice new, more effective life skills that can clear away what is no longer working in their lives and move forward in healthier ways.

Using the Social Atom for Assessment and Treatment Planning

Unlike the more linear and structured genogram that is typically used in addiction treatment, the social atom is a free-flowing image that is created solely by a client.  It is up to the person creating the atom to decide who or what gets included in it, thus providing a “snapshot” of the important people and things in the person’s life at any given time.  They can be done in black and white or color, utilizing different sizes, shapes and art media, and reveal a tremendous amount about the nature of the relationship the client has – or doesn’t have – with people, animals, things, and/or parts of self.

Social atoms are an effective assessment tool that can be used upon the client’s admission to treatment – and throughout the client’s clinical journey – allowing the clinician to see what support – or lack thereof – a client has upon entering the process. Moreover, the social atom can provide a “road map” for the client and the clinician, which can directly inform a treatment plan.  From time to time, a social atom can be created by the client to evaluate progress in treatment, and areas of needed focus for the client, especially as they shift over time.

The online course will provide participants with a thorough understanding of how to create social atoms, process them with their client, and how to utilize them for assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning.

Using Sociometry in Telehealth Sessions

Sociometry is an action exploration of the underlying structure of a person, group, couple, family, or organization. Participants answer questions through action, which allows us to identify and make visible the positive, negative, and neutral connections that typically go unspoken, and can often undermine relationships. Participants can then be helped to shift those connections to reduce conflict and bring greater communication, thus establishing an environment of mutual respect and support so that everyone can flourish.

In this online course, practitioners will learn specific Sociometric tools for Telehealth sessions that they can bring directly back to their work, to help address issues of connection and disconnection, and to identify, address, and shift interpersonal dynamics with clients.

No prior sociometry or psychodrama experience is required to attend.

In Person Workshops

12 Steps in Action Training for Professionals

Step work is typically done through writing and sharing with a sponsor.  In this 3-day training workshop, group members will be invited to concretize the experience of the 12 steps, move into action to explore their relationship with self and their Higher Power, and are invited to create a new experience of the 12 Step Process.  Warm up exercises will be facilitated to assist group members in tuning in to which steps are the most challenging to work through and explore new ways of embracing the power of that step to enhance their recovery process and/or provide that service to their clients (if they are not in recovery themselves).

This group is open to professionals only and can therefore serve as a safe, supportive place to explore one’s own healing and transformation without the concern of clients being present. Come join us!

Please note that attendees must have at least 1 year of continuous recovery time to attend this workshop, and must have a strong support system in place.

Action Intervention Training

Addicted family systems are locked into unhealthy roles and behaviors. When conducting an intervention, it is crucial to utilize methods to help lower anxiety, and warm up the family to change. In this didactic and experiential Action Intervention® workshop, we will demonstrate the benefits of treating the entire family system, and how sociometry and psychodrama can motivate the family towards recovery.

Topics at this Advanced Intervention Techniques Workshops will Include:

• Lowering anxiety amongst family members
• Helping family members connect to self and others
• Build family cohesion
• Motivate ALL family members towards recovery

Director’s Weekends

Our 3-day Directing Weekends are designed for those who are interested in learning the nuts and bolts of directing psychodrama and experiential therapy, expanding their expertise, and adding new skills to their directing “tool box.”  We co-create a safe and supportive environment where everyone has an opportunity to direct at their level - from facilitating just one sociometric exercise to directing a full psychodrama. Topics we will explore are:

• Structuring the drama - beginning, middle and end
• Using auxiliaries effectively
• What do I do when I get stuck?
• Role training new behaviors and responses
• Facilitating sharing and action sharing

Engaging Clients Using Action

Clients can arrive in our offices and in treatment centers feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and/or resentful, and often have difficulty engaging in therapy or counseling. In this 1-day workshop, practitioners will learn specific action method techniques to help clients warm up to change and help them engage in the therapeutic process.  Through the use of sociometry and psychodrama, clients can be helped to lower their anxiety, build support and connections and practice new, more effective life skills that can help them move forward in healthier ways.

Ethics in Action:  Why Suffer When You Can Have Fun?

(Meets the 6-hour ethics requirement for Therapists and Counselors)

Ethical issues emerge in interaction – with clients, supervisors, co-workers, etc - so why is most ethics training done in isolation? In this workshop, rather than having you read and take a test (and be seriously bored), we will utilize an action exploration approach to finding answers to ethical issues, drawing upon the wisdom and diverse perspectives of the group members.

Together we will build a safe container that can support transparency and a sense of mutual support. We will use our own learning opportunities to role play ethical choices, and use other action methods to explore dilemmas related to topics such as dual relationships, self-disclosure, confidentiality, and conflicts between personal values and agency mandates.

Foundations of Sociometry Weekend

Our 3-day Sociometry Weekends are designed to train participants on the use of sociometry to engage clients, and create an environment that allows them to feel safe and connected enough to take more risks and move forward in their healing and/or recovery.  We specifically look at the timing of clinical interventions, and participants learn techniques to help address issues of isolation, cliques, transferences, and stuck energy in the group, family, or in an individual. Participants will leave the workshop with a strong set of skills to address interpersonal dynamics that they can bring directly back to their clinical work. No prior sociometry or psychodrama experience required to attend.

Sociometry Weekend For Advanced Students

Our 3-day Sociometry for Advanced Students Weekend is designed for those who have extensive experience facilitating sociometry, and who are looking to deepen their skills.  Participants will learn specific techniques to help shift the sociometry of a group, couple, family, or organization, through interventions and techniques designed to help address issues such as: conflict in group, isolates, cleavages and cliques, transferences, role fatigue and sociostasis.

Together we will create a safe and supportive environment and participants will leave this training with a stronger set of skills to address even the most challenging sociometric dynamics.

Timing is Everything:  Stages of Change and Action Methods

According to Prochaska, Norcross and DiClemente's Stages of Change Model, when we follow the timing of our clients and offer stage-sensitive interventions, we maximize their ability to engage in treatment and motivate them to get - and stay - in recovery. In this didactic and experiential workshop, participants will be taught specific, practical action methods interventions that complement the Transtheoretic Model and can be brought directly back to their work with clients.

Using Psychodrama With Individuals and Couples

While psychodrama and sociometry are typically used in group settings, they can be incredibly effective when working with individuals and couples as well. In our 3-day weekend workshop, practitioners will learn specific action method techniques to help their clients engage in the therapeutic process, use props and chairs to reach deeper affect, resolve conflict and move towards resolution by bringing issues to life. Through the use of sociometry and psychodrama, clients can be helped to practice new, more effective life skills that can clear away what is no longer working in their lives and move forward in healthier ways.

Ongoing Clinical Groups

Monthly Online Consultation Group for Experiential Therapy and Psychodrama

This monthly group - which meets for 2 hours each time via Zoom - will provide clinicians with the support they need to facilitate experiential therapy and/or psychodrama with their clients, whether it’s with individuals, couples, groups, or families. This group will serve as a mutually supportive environment for participants to explore their strengths and their growing edges when facilitating action methods, and to expand their directing skills to better serve their clients.

(Note:  hours from these groups count towards the supervision requirement for Experiential Therapy Certification and Psychodrama Certification).

Psychodrama CP Exam Prep and Literature Review

These monthly teleconference CP exam prep classes are designed to walk you through the process of learning how to answer questions in all 7 categories – History, Philosophy, Methodology, Sociometry, Research, Ethics, and Related Fields. With specific test-taking techniques, and an opportunity to study along with others who will be sitting for the exam, the learning environment is relaxed, supportive, and fun.

Each month, participants are assigned a specific question to answer, based on prior CP exams, as well as reading psychodrama literature to augment their learning, and enhance their answers. By participating with a group, each person has an opportunity to integrate many different ways of responding to a particular psychodrama group issue. In addition, participants have spoken about how the class has helped them to deal with situations in psychodrama sessions moving forward. The group learning process allows for greater spontaneity to emerge for everyone!