The nature of boundary issues and dual relationships in the behavioral health professions: Code of Ethics

• Boundary crossings and boundary violations
• Common practitioner mistakes
• Address practitioner impairment and warning signs
• Prevent lawsuits and licensing board complaints
• Unethical conduct
• Assess boundary-related risks
• Importance of careful documentation
• Boundaries and dual relationship case examples

Boundary issues in the digital age

• Communicate with current/former clients online
• Browsing for information about clients
• Challenges related to clients searching for information about their therapists

Patterns of boundary issues and dual relationships

• Intimate relationships
• Emotional and dependency needs
• Personal benefit
• Altruism
• Unavoidable and unanticipated circumstances

Ethical standards: Boundaries and Dual Relationships

• Conflicts of interest
• Unethical conduct
• The boundaries of self-disclosure
• Prevent impairment and boundary violations
• Practitioner incompetence
• Professional negligence
• Standard of care for ethically complex cases
• Importance of supervision
• What healthy boundaries look like

Risk Management Strategies: Protecting Clients and Practitioners

• Professional negligence and malpractice
• Codes of ethics standards
• Statutes and regulations
• Standards of care and ethical practice
• Ethical decision making
• Create a strategy and common warning signs

How Client Identity and Systemic Dynamics Impact Assessment and Treatment

• Social class, race, ethnicity, poverty and religion
• Gender identity and sexuality
• Myths, oppression, stereotypes and microaggressions
• Power dynamics of counseling that can threaten minority groups
• How clinician’s values and biases influence therapeutic outcomes
• Culturally competent assessment techniques
• Research implications and limitations

Ethics and the Equal Treatment of Clients

• Obligations to challenge social injustice
• Respecting the inherent dignity and worth of the person
• Valuing the importance of human relationships

Clinical Strategies: That Meet Clients Where They Are: Proven Approaches for Greater Empathy and Effectiveness

• How to understand clients within their social and cultural environments
• Strategies to recognize your:
  • Inherent biases
  • Histories and generational influences
• Self-assessment – identify personal values that can influence therapeutic outcomes
• Techniques to work with inter-generational and historical trauma
• Crisis intervention strategies

Be a Change Agent: How to Advocate for Your Clients Individually, Communally, and Globally

• Should clinicians hold a neutral position?
• Strategies to reduce barriers to accessing mental health treatment
• Overcome cultural shame surrounding mental health issues
• Tips for working with racial stress and trauma
• Connect clients to resources, agencies and funding
• Intervention at the system level

Case Scenarios

Clinical strategies to address and reduce cultural offenses in the therapeutic relationship

• A Client-centered approach to cultural competence
• Strategies for identifying & addressing microaggressions

Culturally significant influencing factors on treatment

• Ethical implications of cultural competence in assessment and treatment
• Cultural experiences therapists often misunderstand (e.g. ethnicity, diverse families, age, gender, religion)

Increasing cultural self-awareness and other-awareness to improve rapport building in sessions

• Clarifying commonly misunderstood diversity language
• Application of cultural competence on client rapport as well as advocacy

Increase your confidence in your ability to effectively treat clients from all cultures

• Strategies for increased self-awareness and acceptance
• Reducing barriers of shame and guilt in increasing cultural competence

Screening and Suitability of the Client

• Benefits of Telehealth Services
  • Evidenced-Based Research
  • Patient and Setting Contraindications
• The Intake, Mental Status Exam, and Ongoing Evaluation
• Assessment with Clients

Professional Boundary Considerations

• For the Client
• For the Clinician
  • Crossings versus Violations
  • Recommendations for Maintaining Professional Boundaries
• Licensing Board Complaint Examples

Multicultural Considerations

• Issues to Consider
• Geography, Settings, Populations
• Seeking Guidance

Theoretical Considerations for Telehealth

• Evidence-Based Support
• Which Models Transition Well

Self-Care for the Clinician

• Ethics Application
• Causes of Burnout
• Warning Signs in Therapists
• Characteristics of Effective Self-care
• Strategies and Techniques
• Resources

The Unique Nature of Opioid Addiction

• Distinct risks of opioid abuse
• What neuroscience and biology reveal about opioid use
• Brain centers – the relationship between brain centers and pain
• The pleasure factor and the addicted brain
• Differences from other substance use disorders
• How chronic opioid use changes the brain

Psychotherapeutic Approaches for Treating Opioid Use Disorder

• Signs of opioid abuse and questions to ask
• CBT – recent studies
• Motivational Interviewing and commitment to change
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy – confidence and coping skills
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• Family counseling
• How contingency management can be used with opioid use disorders
• Adjunct approaches
• Assessing and modifying treatment to ensure effectiveness
• Research limitations and risks of psychotherapeutic approaches

Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)

• Research and the latest findings
• Methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone
• Benefits, risks and drawbacks of MAT
• Role of the behavioral health clinician in MAT