Women's Mental Health Specialist Certificate

Full Course Description

Women with Trauma and Serious Mental Health Disorders

Women’s treatment needs are impacted by gender differences.

And in women with serious mental health conditions (PTSD, major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia) traumatic experiences tied to gender and power differentials are often a major component in the development and presentation of their symptoms. From motherhood and family relationships to sexual, racial, ethnic, class, work and religion, these differences encompass every facet of female identity.

But traditional mental health models and training neglect to account for the impacts of female clients intersecting identities on treatment. Clinicians are left struggling to get results, lacking the tools to treat this population in a non-pathologizing way.

How can you provide compassionate care that empowers these women in treatment?

Drs. Lauren Mizock and Erika Carr are the authors of Women with Serious Mental Illness: Gender-Sensitive and Recovery-Oriented Care (Oxford University Press, 2021) and co-chairs of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force for Women with Serious Mental Illness.

Watch them for this groundbreaking one-day program as they provide you with a gendersensitive therapy approach so you can more successfully address the issues impacting the treatment of women with mental health issues.

In just one day you’ll get:

Don’t miss this one of a kind training!

Purchase today!

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Evaluate research examining potential gender and sex-based contributors to serious mental health conditions in women.
  2. Investigate the implications of sexual trauma on the diagnosis and treatment of women.
  3. Apply treatment strategies with an evidence-base for women with PTSD and serious mental health disorders.
  4. Incorporate a trauma-informed care approach that takes the unique needs and nuances of women into account.
  5. Apply clinical strategies to promote a culturally sensitive, intersectional clinical practice with women with serious mental health issues.
  6. Use case studies to guide you in applying a gender-sensitive lens in treatment with women from a variety of backgrounds.

Outline

Unique Issues Impacting Women with Mental Illness

Best Practices for Providing Culturally Sensitive Treatment with Respect to: Maximize Self-Determination and Empowerment:
A How to Guide on Employing Gender Responsive Treatment Models in Your Practice PTSD, Severe Depression and Other Serious Mental Health Disorders:
Tools to Enhance Your Clinical Treatment of Female Clients Experiential Learning Activities and Treatment Planning Putting it All Together: Case Studies

Target Audience

Copyright : 10/22/2021

Treat Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder, Premenstrual Syndrome & Emotional-Dysregulation with DBT & CBT

“My emotions feel like they’re non-stop!” “I have no energy.” “I want to hide my body.”

For most women, traditional pharmaceutical interventions fall short for treating the mental and emotional rollercoaster of Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD).

Many clinicians ignore the diagnosis that affects millions of women.

But, the reality is the depression, anxiety, mood swings, trouble sleeping, panic, and body image issues – even suicidal thoughts – can make day-to-day life for these women unbearable. Relationships with loved ones, work, diet, doing the laundry, all these areas suffer for women bogged down mentally, emotionally, and physical by PMDD.

Be the therapist that listens! The therapist that does more than refer to a medical provider for birth control or hormones.

Join Kristine Spano, PsyD and licensed psychologist for an all new training that incorporates principles of DBT & CBT into the therapeutic treatment of PMDD. In this training you’ll shatter the myths that are keeping women shackled in the pain of PMDD and be able to provide genuine evidence-based interventions that support women – you’ll learn:

How to assess and diagnose PMDD

How the body’s biological changes impact mental health

Interventions across all affected domains – relationships, career, body, and more!

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Diagnose PMDD.
  2. Perform screens and assessments for PMDD.
  3. Utilize psychoeducation about the impact of PMDD on the nervous system.
  4. Create a self-care toolbox that is customizable to your patients’ lifestyles. 
  5. Assess areas of intervention for family members.
  6. Apply principles of DBT to clients struggle with PMDD and premenstrual mental health concerns.

Outline

Assessing & Diagnosis PMDD

PMDD and the Adrenal Overload Lessening the PMDD Burden

Target Audience

Copyright : 06/13/2022

An Integrative Approach to Menopause

Menopause is a naturally occurring event in a woman’s life in which many treatment options are available. Knowing which treatment options are available, proven integrative approaches, and ways to develop an individualize approach are key to treating menopause and reducing risks. Being at the forefront of understanding the menopausal transition and treatment options is important in caring for women along the lifespan. This presentation will help you to better understand the hormone cascade and how hormones change during menopause and will provide you will various treatment options for your patients utilizing pharmaceuticals and supplements. 
 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Define the complex process of menopause and peri menopause transition.
  2. Determine the risks and benefits of bio identical hormone replacement.
  3. Discuss alternatives to hormones in treating menopause.

Outline

What Happens During Menopause

Treatment of Menopause Potential Risks of Hormone Replacement Therapy for Menopause

Target Audience

Copyright : 06/28/2023

Perinatal Loss: An Attachment-Informed Treatment Framework for Helping Clients Process and Heal from Pregnancy Loss

It’s not a topic that people will bring up at work, over coffee, or even at get togethers with close friends. Instead, 1 in 4 women suffer in silence, because it’s not something that they are supposed to talk about – it is a topic that stays firmly behind closed doors and if you dare breach that social boundary, you may hear well-intentioned, but hurtful statements such as:

“At least you were only a few weeks along.” “Everything happens for a reason.” “Why don’t you just adopt?” “Just think positive.” “You just need to relax and it’ll happen in time.”

There really should be a book titled What Not to Say when it comes to pregnancy and infant loss.

I know because I’ve been there. After my experiences of loss, I heard the invalidating statements and I experienced the paradoxical sense of isolation – paradoxical because the reality is so many of us have experienced this kind of loss. The reality then becomes that many individuals only feel comfortable discussing their experience of pregnancy loss within the confines of a confidential therapeutic space.

Yet, while we may serve as one of the few if not the only safe harbor for individuals to share and process their experience of loss, in our clinical training, pregnancy and infant loss was quickly brushed over – most often as an aside in larger, generalized discussion of grief.  Clients seeking psychotherapy for pregnancy or infant loss may have kept it hidden, feel unsure where to turn for help and may already be hesitant about the validity of their pain and the usefulness of therapy in supporting them. You need to feel confident in your ability to help them navigate one of the toughest struggles they will ever face – their story of not only loss, but of love.

In this specialized, intensive training, I will walk you through the challenging realities of a pregnancy or infant loss - the accompanying emotional roller coaster, and specific steps to take to help your clients move forward. You’ll learn the best interventions for treating grief after a loss and uncover the mistakes you may be making – without even realizing it!

Whether you’re a specialist already or just getting started in this area, this training is for you! Watch me in this powerful training and learn proven strategies that will help your clients heal.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Utilize clinical strategies to assess, conceptualize, and treat pregnancy loss.
  2. Employ evidence-based grief and trauma interventions to treat pregnancy loss and to support clients in future reproductive journey.
  3. Investigate clinical considerations and adaptations to treat pregnancy loss within couples and group psychotherapy.
  4. Build the development of greater insight in both clinicians and clients they are treating.

Outline

Perinatal Loss: Common Misconceptions

Assessment: Exploring Clients’ Reproductive Story

Treatment Planning for Pregnancy and Infant Loss

Treatment Interventions: Helping Clients Move Forward, Not On

Clinical Considerations

Target Audience

Copyright : 02/25/2021

Black Women, Body Image, and Eating Disorders

So often, the hidden assumption in assessment and treatment for poor body image is that clients’ negative views of their bodies are subjective and can shift with individual interventions. Yet oppression and race-based trauma informs the ways in which disordered eating and poor body image presents for Black women. Black women are confronted every day with the contradictory message that their bodies are both “too much” for Western society and also “not enough” for Western society.  In this session, we will explore how weight stigma and thin privilege are influenced by racism, specifically anti-Blackness, and learn how to better serve Black women in treatment settings where eating and body image are at the forefront.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Analyze racial bias in eating disorder and body image research.
  2. Conduct culturally relevant and sensitive assessments and interventions for Black women clients struggling with eating and body image.
  3. Determine strategies for skillfully raising conversations about race and gender into discussions about food and eating disorder recovery.

Outline

Target Audience

Copyright : 02/24/2022

Emotional and Disordered Eating

When your clients struggle with eating, your first move as a therapist may be to develop plans for specific behavioral changes - a list of things clients can do instead of reaching for the fork or limiting food intake.

But these efforts won’t work over the long term. Emotional eating – and the eating disorders it can become – is rooted in nervous system dysregulation and disembodiment that behavior change strategies alone won’t shift.

The body needs to be included for treatment to be effective. Without it, disembodiment will continue, keeping your clients stuck in the cycle of disordered eating and losing hope in your work with them.

Watch Ann Saffi Biasetti, PhD, LCSWR, CEDS, specialist in eating disorders and somatic psychotherapy, for this in-depth training where you’ll discover how to integrate the body in treatment in a way that fosters real change in your clients’ relationships with food and their bodies!

Packed with practical interventions, this comprehensive seminar will provide you with strategies to:

Purchase today to help clients manage what is happening on the inside to build resilience, improve emotion regulation, and establish a new compassionate and forgiving relationship with their body!

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Conduct psychoeducation about the nervous system and oppression-related cultural factors.
  2. Employ body literacy skills to improve clients’ interoceptive awareness.
  3. Apply somatic and nervous system tracking in session to improve emotion regulation.
  4. Utilize the skill of somatic tracking for co-regulation.
  5. Describe the three components of self-compassion and utilize self-compassion skills to reduce shame.
  6. Differentiate between emotional eating and a clinical eating disorder to determine appropriate level of care.

Outline

The Nervous System Intake
Reduce Shame and Open Self-Compassion

What Happens in My Body, Happens in My Brain
How Embodiment Heals Co-Regulation: Relationship Matters!
How the Therapist’s Nervous System Impacts Clients The Intersection of Culture and Disembodiment:
Systems that Dysregulate and Their Impact on Body Image Embodying Self-Compassion
Self-Compassion as Essential to Emotion Regulation When Emotional Eating is Really Eating Disorder
And Other Clinical Considerations

Target Audience

Copyright : 01/30/2023

Help Women with ADHD Embrace Neurodiversity, Live Boldly & Break Through Barriers

More women with ADHD are seeking treatment than ever before.  

This can feel daunting for many clinicians, as oftentimes women with ADHD wasn’t a topic afforded much time or training in graduate studies in previous decades.  

This presentation will give you the most fundamental knowledge necessary to work competently and confidently with women with ADHD. You will deepen your own understanding of common challenges and experiences unique to women with ADHD, which will in turn allow you to deepen your practice with clients and better validate and support their therapeutic journey. This presentation aims to help clinicians feel more confident in providing ADHD-informed treatment that honors neurodiversity and expands the treatment paradigm to better represent and support women with ADHD.  

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Describe, understand, and validate the unique impact of ADHD on women.
  2. Provide up to date psychoeducation to clients who are women with ADHD.
  3. Reassess and update treatment objectives in collaboration with clients to more broadly address lifetime impacts of ADHD in women.

Outline

How ADHD is Different for Women 

The Impact of Hormones on Women with ADHD - What Clients and Clinicians Need to Know 

Hiding and Masking as Compensatory Strategies 

Relational Impacts of ADHD for Women 

Rethinking treatment goals for women with ADHD 

Risks and limitations of research and techniques discussed 

Target Audience

Copyright : 11/09/2023

Fair Play: Rethinking the Domestic Workload with Couples

We know from recent research that many women do two-thirds of what it takes to run a home and a family, regardless of whether they work outside the home or earn the larger income—having significant impacts on mental and physical health, employment, and life and relationship satisfaction. This recorded session will introduce a method of helping couples improve communication and negotiate issues related to resentment, burnout, establishing equity, and redistributing the mental burden of unappreciated and unpaid domestic work in the home. The Fair Play system utilizes structured decision-making and communication approaches to make invisible work visible and valued. Fair Play methodology has been tested on hundreds of couples from different socioeconomic levels and cultures. In this session, therapists who want to use this tool in their practice will discover how to help clients in relationships:

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Theorize how inequitable and unpaid labor impacts mental and physical health, perpetuates gender inequity, and leads to couple dissatisfaction and burnout.
  2. Propose a method for helping couples share domestic labor from Conception to Planning and Execution, clearly defining expectations.
  3. Support how structured decision-making tools with couples can be introduced to clients to address burnout, and inequity in the home.

Outline

Target Audience

Copyright : 03/17/2023

Maternal Mental Health and Pregnancy

Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) are the number one complication during pregnancy and childbirth. This illness affects over 20% of pregnant and postpartum women and has increased exponentially since COVID. Any woman who can be identified, as at risk for PMADs during pregnancy, using validated screening tools, can be proactively assessed, diagnosed, and treated, potentially erasing the emergency/crisis intervention for a new postpartum mom. With evidence based multidisciplinary treatment modalities, all women get better, and return to their normal baseline of mental health. Gestational diabetes affects approximately 4-6% of the same population, and the medical community is always  assessing for that illness, why is it, that an illness that affects upwards of 4x that number is not given the same attention and respect. If you are a healthcare provider who treats women in the childbearing age range, work in behavioral mental health, or a pediatrician, this information will give you what you need to start to be able to identify these women, give proper screening tools, and refer to resources and treatment that is appropriate for this temporary and treatable illness.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Recognize PMAD risk factors that increase a pregnant woman’s chance of developing PMADs during pregnancy.
  2. Determine four screening tools we can use, during pregnancy, to assess a woman’s risk for developing PMADs.
  3. Argue the question “can PMADs be prevented”.
  4. Determine treatment modalities that are safe and effective during pregnancy for PMADs.

Outline

Perinatal Mental Health Conditions

Patient Screening Assessment and Treatment of Perinatal Mental Health Conditions Education and Resources

Target Audience

Copyright : 03/10/2023

Take Charge over PCOS

Women everywhere are searching for the answers to their PCOS symptoms and striking out. Having PCOS herself, Angela knows how frustrating living with this condition can be and firmly believes that you can help patients take back control. She has dedicated her career to be on the leading-edge of helping people with PCOS improve their health and has evidence-based nutrition strategies to enhance your patient care. Learn her top tips for managing reproductive and metabolic aspects of PCOS along with unwanted symptoms and beneficial supplements.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Determine common symptoms, diagnostic criteria and lab tests used to identify PCOS.
  2. Implement targeted nutrition interventions for improving insulin resistance.
  3. Utilize effective and evidence-based lifestyle practices in the treatment of PCOS.

Outline

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: Symptoms, Causes, related conditions, Diagnosis

Lifestyle as Medicine to Heal PCOS

Target Audience

Copyright : 04/13/2023

Sexuality and Pleasure of Cisgender Women

How comfortable are you talking with your patients about their bodies, their sexuality, and their sexual pleasure? You can become well suited to deal with patients’ needs regarding sexuality, because when you understand the issues, you will feel better prepared to talk with your patients and provide the intimate nature of care that is needed for these conversations. Featherstone will explain the many influences around sexuality and help you develop the skills needed to listen, understand, and guide your patients.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Analyze the impact of healthy sexuality on mental and physical health of women.
  2. Identify FDA approved medications for treatment of female sexual dysfunction, and their mechanism of action.
  3. Synthesize how body image, culture, media and religion impact sexual messaging and functioning.
  4. Integrate education of the SIS/SES dual control model into patient education and assessment of female sexual functioning.
  5. Review how reproductive health, pregnancy, infertility, and access to contraception and termination services impact sexuality.
  6. Analyze the complex relationship between mental and physical health conditions and associated treatments on sexual functioning.

Outline

Introduction/Relevance

Influences

Sexual Anatomy

Lubrication of the Vagina and Vulva


Squirting


Female Sexual Response

Sexual Pathology and Dysfunction

Target Audience

Copyright : 06/28/2023

Intimate Partner Violence

Nearly 20 people per minute are abused by an intimate partner in the United States.  

As a mental health professional, you WILL have clients experiencing intimate partner violence and domestic abuse in your caseload during your career.  

This FREE LIVE 1-hour webinar will build your clinical skills and competence so you can better understand the multilayered impacts of this abuse and work with survivors in a trauma-sensitive manner. 

This crisis isn’t going away. 

Whether you’re a social worker, counselor, psychologist, or marriage and family therapist, this program is too important to miss.   

Register now! 

Program Information

Target Audience

Copyright : 07/23/2021