UB School of Social Work offers boundaries training to meet new NYS continuing education requirement

By Matthew Biddle

Under a new regulation from New York State, all licensed psychologists, social workers and mental health practitioners in New York must complete three hours of coursework in appropriate professional boundaries during each 3-year registration period.

The rule went into effect in April — and this summer, the University at Buffalo School of Social Work’s Office of Continuing Education will host a live online webinar to fulfill this requirement for attendees.

“Ethical Practice and Self-Care: Emerging Stronger from Challenging Times” will be taught virtually by Lisa Prefontaine, a licensed mental health counselor in private practice.

The workshop will be offered twice on the following dates:

• June 15 from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. EDT. Register for the June training here.
• August 9 from 1-4 p.m. EDT. Register for the August training here.

To be as inclusive as possible, each training is offered for a reduced fee of $30. Licensed social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, creative arts therapists and psychologists can receive three CEs/contact hours for completing the webinar.

For questions, contact the Office of Continuing Education at sw-ce@buffalo.edu. To keep up with future trainings on professional boundaries, bookmark ubswce.ce21.com/category/boundaries-ethics.

Challenging times is an understatement given the state of world health and social issues since the start of the pandemic. Helping professionals have faced unique challenges and unprecedented levels of stress (personally and professionally), and have had to change their practice in many ways. Despite having to pivot in these challenging times, it is essential that ethical decision-making be at the forefront.

This workshop will provide a perspective on maintaining healthy boundaries, setting clear treatment frames and expectations for treatment, and using colleague and supervisory support during this difficult time, while implementing an appropriate ethical decision-making process. It will also identify the unique challenges of the last several years, with a reflective journey on collective trauma and all our trauma responses. Best practice techniques for ethical decision-making while working with trauma will also be discussed.

Learning objectives:

• Examine common ethical dilemmas.
• Identify how collective trauma affects a person in a helping profession role, redefining compassion fatigue during this time of social unrest and pandemic changes.
• Discuss the potential impact of compassion fatigue/trauma response mode on burnout and therapeutic dynamics and effective ethical practice.

Matthew Biddle
Director of Communications and Marketing
School of Social Work
Tel: 716-645-1226
mrbiddle@buffalo.edu