Summer 2022 MSW Credit Course Electives

Current UB SSW students: Register through the Hub Student Center in the same manner that you register for all other classes.

Not a current UB SSW student? (Non-Degree or Non-Matriculated Students): Apply for non-degree status, which must be completed prior to registration. This requires proof of immunization status if not already on file at UB.

Billing is sent electronically to your buffalo.edu email address. Paper bills are no longer mailed by UB. If you do not check your buffalo.edu email and pay your tuition bill on time, you will be charged late fees by UB.

Review the in-state and out-of-state tuition and fees.

Field Educators with SUNY Tuition Waivers may use the waivers to pay for tuition costs. Waivers do not cover standard course fees or the nondegree application fee. For more information call the MSW Field Education Office at 716-645-1234 or email sw-field@buffalo.edu.

• The Buffalo Niagara Summer Institute courses are considered non-standard courses. Please refer to the Office of the Registrar's non-standard session dates for add/drop dates. 
• Full attendance is required for credit. 
  

This program will review advances in cognitive behavioral therapy from the field of positive psychology and contrast these approaches with traditional CBT interventions.

This course will provide training in practical, evidence based, youth friendly positive psychology interventions that attendees can readily use with young clients to help them be resilient and persevere through challenges, experience positive emotions, build supportive inter-personal relationships and pursue their passions and goals with courage and confidence.

Through the use of structured therapeutic activities, client handouts and worksheets attendees will learn how to implement a variety of innovative positive psychology interventions such as: resilience, self-regulation, perseverance, gratitude, self-compassion, optimism, a growth mindset, grit, identifying & utilizing personal character strengths, goal setting, identifying personal values, communication & social skills, peer conflict resolution and many more. 

In addition to learning skills to intervene with youth, the training will provide a number of practical methods to involve parents and enlist their participation as therapeutic allies in helping their children learn the skills being offered. 

This course is an introduction to the principles, strategies, and the spirit of the Motivational Interviewing (MI) approach to help clients build commitment and reach a decision to change problematic behaviors. The theoretical basis of MI lies in the construct of “ambivalence” and the conflict between indulgence and restraint that is so prevalent when clients consider behavior change. The difficulty in changing problematic behaviors is an occurrence that extends well beyond “addictive behaviors.” The immobilizing effects of ambivalence can be seen in many practice spheres. In addition, the course will discuss MI’s application to practice with “mandated” and “resistant” clients.

This course focuses on attachment wounds that occur in childhood and explain why our clients struggle in therapy. This course will offer interventions for use with adults and children to help repair the wounds.

Do you want to know why your adult clients struggle with?

• Difficulty forming close emotional relationships
• Extensive conflict with spouse, children, family and friends
• Rigid, inflexible and struggles to have fun and relax
• Seek other adults or inappropriate activities to soothe
• Others “disappoint” them and client has a hard time trusting
• Clinical interventions have very little impact and progress is slow
• Regressive behaviors to a younger age with behaviors such as a temper tantrums
• Multiple diagnoses from many providers

Do you want to know why your child clients struggle with?

• Exhibit severe behaviors including stealing, lying, arguing, defiance, and aggression
• Act like two different children: nice and sweet, enraged and defiant
• Sexualized behaviors
• Hoarding food and overeating
• Meltdowns for hours at a time
• Multiple diagnoses including Reactive Attachment Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Disruptive Behavior Disorder, ADHD, and Conduct Disorder

As practitioners or helping professionals, we find ourselves faced with clients who present as annoying, passive, aggressive, stubborn, refusing to communicate fairly, stuck in the past, and unwilling to move forward. This behavior affects the communication and learning process and limits our clients’ ability to benefit from the services we provide. Familiarity with typical trauma reactions will allow conflict resolvers and other professionals to shift their thinking and take a different approach.

Many trainings give you the textbook information about trauma. This training gives you a powerful experience and insight into trauma effects, how your clients are affected every day of their lives, and why they can’t just “get over it” and move on. This experiential workshop will equip you to recognize clients’ trauma and help them break free and move forward.

This training is rooted in polyvagal theory, provides core concepts and skills from neurobiology, conflict transformation, spirituality, and restorative justice to address the needs of trauma-impacted individuals and communities.

Trauma affects individuals, families, and communities and can fuel continuing cycles of conflict and harm. This training pulls together a wide variety of professionals and paraprofessionals into an experiential trauma training that goes right to the core and helps you connect on a deeper level with other participants and your clients. It will challenge your assumptions about why some trauma survivors seem stuck and not be able to “just get over it” and move on. After completion of this program, you will reach a level of providing trauma-informed care beyond what you were previously able to give to your clients.

This intermediate level course is designed for students and practitioners who have some training in Motivational Interviewing (MI) and have applied basic skills with a client population.  Building upon the Spirit of MI and understanding of ambivalence and stages of change, the course will explore ways of responding to challenging conversations and focusing conversations. Using advanced moves with the basic strategies of Open Questions, Affirmations, Reflections, and Summaries, we will practice tipping the scales of sustain talk to the direction of change talk. Training activities will focus on understanding the role of trauma and trauma-informed care during assessment and planning phases, giving advice in an MI-adherent style, and supporting clients for action steps toward their goals. Participants will also learn about the role of trauma in conflict and responding to upset and angry clients. We will approach MI content from a trauma-informed perspective, combining trauma informed approaches with MI for working with marginalized populations.

Prerequisite:

This is an intermediate level course. Previous coursework or continuing education in Motivational Interviewing that prepared the learner with the foundational theories in the Spirit of MI, Stages of Change, and an introduction to the OARS, and either client or peer practice with the techniques, is required. We will build on this foundational practice.

This is a skill focused course on how to assess and respond to adults with psychiatric emergencies where there is a risk of lethality (suicidal/homicidal/self-harm). It will include identification of high risk factors and how to conduct lethality assessments for individuals, including those who are diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness and/or under the influence of substances. Participants will learn the levels of lethality; how to use lethality assessment tools and rating scales; how to complete documentation of services which reflect clinical assessments in accordance with the most current evidence and best practices; how to create an intervention plan for identified lethality, and when it is appropriate in professional social work practice to break confidentiality based on a current lethality assessment.

This course will focus on using Dialectical Behavior Therapy theory and interventions to assess and intervene with problematic behavior patterns including behaviors associated with suicidality and self-harm, substance use, and impaired functioning. Marsha Linehan’s theory, psychoeducational material, and phases of treatment will be reviewed and practiced with didactic and experiential methods.