0731 - Connected Practice: Advancing Social Work Across Individuals, Teams and Communities

Location: This Professional Development course is being held remotely through Zoom. 
Website: wlu.ca/fswpd

Climate Distress: Eco-Grief, Eco-Anxiety and Nature-Informed Social Work Practice
Practical, justice-informed tools for supporting climate distress — without pathologizing it.

Climate change is increasingly entering social work practice through disasters, displacement and the eco-anxiety, grief and uncertainty clients carry about the future. Drawing on research, practice and lived experience of climate-related displacement, this interactive workshop explores eco-anxiety, ecological grief and solastalgia through trauma-informed, person-in-environment and environmental justice lenses, helping participants distinguish understandable responses to real environmental threats from distress that may warrant further support.

Participants will examine how climate distress intersects with poverty, racism, colonialism, migration, disability, age and access to resources, then practice concrete responses including validation and normalization, grounding and emotional regulation and accessible nature-informed practices -- through case examples and guided reflection. The workshop moves beyond individual coping to consider social workers' role in community resilience and collective action, without placing responsibility for a systemic crisis on individual clients.

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate eco-anxiety, ecological grief, and solastalgia, and distinguish understandable climate-related distress from distress that may warrant further assessment or support.
• Assess climate-related distress using trauma-informed, person-in-environment, and intersectional approaches that consider environmental and social determinants of health.
• Apply practical interventions for climate-related distress, including validation, grounding and regulation, agency-building, values-based action, social connection, and appropriate nature-informed practices.
• Recognize how environmental inequities shape climate distress and identify ways to avoid individualizing concerns rooted in structural inequality, racism, colonialism, and unequal access to environmental resources.
• Integrate individual, community, and systems-level responses so that coping, connection, advocacy, and collective action reinforce one another.

Instructor: Rubaiyat Karim, MSW, RSW
Rubaiyat is a professor in Seneca Polytechnic's School of Community Services, a registered social worker, psychotherapist and applied researcher. She brings more than 20 years of experience across frontline social work, postsecondary education, nonprofit leadership, public policy and program evaluation. Her work is grounded in anti-oppressive, trauma-informed and intersectional approaches, with particular experience supporting women, immigrants and refugees, as well as people from equity-deserving communities.

Rubaiyat's teaching and professional interests include environmental justice, gender-based violence, migration, community safety and the social determinants of health. She has previously facilitated professional learning for the Ontario Association of Social Workers on environmental justice and environmental racism. Across her teaching, research and practice, she explores the relationship between individual wellbeing and the broader social, political and environmental conditions that shape people's lives, with a focus on connecting evidence to practice, policy and systems change. In a CBC First Person essay, she drew on her lived experience of climate-related displacement to explore the human consequences of climate change and environmental inequity.

Location: This Professional Development course is being held remotely through Zoom. 
Website: wlu.ca/fswpd

Connected CBT Practice: Brief Interventions, Reflective Practice, and Trauma-Informed Supervision
CBT tools that work in ten minutes, not ten sessions -- for your clients, and for your own reflective practice.

CBT is often associated with structured, longer-term treatment; however, many of its most useful principles apply within brief social work encounters, crisis intervention, case management and supervision. This interactive workshop introduces practical strategies for rapidly understanding presenting concerns, collaboratively setting goals and supporting change while staying relational and trauma-informed.

The first half of the workshop focuses on brief CBT interventions for anxiety, using the five factor model to build a concise formulation and identify where brief intervention can have the greatest impact. Participants will also learn to identify assumptions and rules for living and apply three practical cognitive interventions.

The second half of the workshop turns the same lens on practitioners, examining how our thoughts, assumptions and reactions shape professional relationships and extend to trauma-informed supervision, exploring how supervision can offer a psychologically safe space for reflection, learning and professional development.

Learning Objectives

• Apply the five factor model as a brief formulation tool for understanding anxiety and other common presenting concerns, and to identify focused, achievable treatment goals for brief intervention.
• Identify common assumptions and rules for living that contribute to anxiety, avoidance and unhelpful coping patterns.
• Apply three practical cognitive interventions for anxiety within brief social work encounters.
• Use CBT self-reflective strategies to examine how thoughts, emotions, assumptions and behavioural responses may influence professional practice.
• Recognize how trauma exposure, stress and practitioner beliefs can influence clinical decision-making and professional functioning, and apply trauma-informed principles to supervision in ways that strengthen practitioner well-being, team functioning and the quality and safety of client care.

Instructor: Charity Fleming, MSW, RSW

Charity is a social worker, psychotherapist, educator and Indigenous mental health leader with 20 years of experience in clinical practice, education, leadership and community mental health across Canada. She teaches within and leads the CBT program at Laurier’s Faculty of Social Work, teaching CBT fundamentals, CBT for anxiety and depression, trauma and CBT with children and youth. 
 
Charity serves as First Nations Director on the Board of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association and works with First Nations communities, health organizations, universities and mental health professionals. Her work focuses on Indigenous-adapted psychotherapy, trauma-informed practice and strengthening the capacity of practitioners and organizations. 

She previously served as Assistant Professor with McMaster University’s Mental Health Behaviour Sciences Program, teaching brief 10-minute CBT interventions, trauma-informed care and Mikwendaagwad Sacred Circle CBT for brief Indigenous-adapted practice. Charity is a contributing author to the Routledge text Co-occurring Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders: Evidence-Based Integrative Treatment and Multicultural Application, authoring the chapter Embracing Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) for Recovery. Charity is currently completing her Doctorate of Counselling & Psychotherapy.

Time Zone: All remote courses are ET (Ontario, Canada).

Location: This Professional Development course is being held remotely through Zoom. 

Website: wlu.ca/fswpd

Beyond Talk: Practical Somatic Tools for Anxiety and Emotional Regulation

Simple, body-based tools you can use in session today -- no somatic background required.

Anxiety and emotional distress show up in the body, not just in thoughts and feelings -- clients may present with hyperarousal (racing thoughts, tension, rapid breathing) or hypoarousal (numbness, withdrawal, low energy). This practical, experiential workshop introduces accessible somatic and parts-informed strategies for supporting nervous-system regulation within the window of tolerance, using a simple clinical framework: Notice → Get Curious → Resource → Re-Notice.

Participants will practice movement, orienting, breath awareness, sensory grounding, somatic tracking and bilateral self-tapping, along with a simplified IFS-informed 6Fs approach for bringing curiosity and compassion to emotional responses without moving into trauma processing. Because these are brief, adaptable tools, they translate well beyond one-to-one private practice -- into high-traffic healthcare settings, schools and family health clinics, wherever practitioners need fast, low-barrier ways to help clients regulate in the moment.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize hyperarousal, hypoarousal and regulation within the window of tolerance.
• Help clients safely notice and track how anxiety and emotional distress are experienced in the body.
• Use simple parts-informed questions to explore what an emotional response may be communicating, protecting or needing.
• Select and practice brief somatic resources including movement, orienting, grounding, breath awareness, sensory strategies and bilateral self-tapping.
• Reassess the client's response to determine whether an intervention is supporting greater present-moment regulation.

Instructor: Camille Lloyd, MSW, RSW

Camille is a registered social worker and psychotherapist specializing in trauma- and dissociation-informed practice. Her clinical approach integrates EMDR, IFS-informed parts work, somatic approaches, mindfulness and nervous-system regulation to support clients experiencing trauma, anxiety, emotional dysregulation and attachment and relational concerns.

Her teaching focuses on translating trauma and nervous-system concepts into accessible, experiential and practical strategies that social workers and mental health professionals can integrate into clinical practice.

Time Zone: All remote courses are ET (Ontario, Canada).

Location: This Professional Development course is being held remotely through Zoom. 

Website: wlu.ca/fswpd

Claiming the Social Worker's Role in Leadership Within Interprofessional Teams

Practical tools -- and a renewed sense of agency -- for stepping into leadership on interprofessional teams.

Social workers bring deep expertise to interprofessional teams, yet often struggle to articulate that value within outcomes-driven healthcare systems. This interactive virtual workshop invites participants to examine the systemic pressures that leave social work's contributions open to being overlooked, undervalued or absorbed into more "visible" disciplines. Drawing on lived experience leading and building interprofessional teams, Lauren will guide participants through naming this problem, building the skills and evidence to articulate their unique value and identifying concrete opportunities to step into formal and informal leadership roles within their own practice settings. Participants will leave with practical tools for representing their impact and a renewed sense of agency in shaping the teams and systems they work within.

Learning Objectives

• Describe the systemic challenges that act as barriers to social workers feeling understood or valued within their practice setting, as well as stepping into leadership roles on interprofessional teams.
• Begin to articulate their unique role, skills and value within an interprofessional team.
• Identify opportunities within their own practice setting to lead from within or step into leadership.

Instructor: Lauren Massey, MSW, RSW

Lauren is the Clinical Manager, St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team, a large interdisciplinary primary care team serving Toronto's Downtown East. Prior to this role, she spent six years as Manager of Collaborative Practice at St. Michael's Hospital, providing discipline-specific oversight for professions including social work, dietetics, occupational therapy, psychology and others.

Her frontline social work experience spans psychiatric emergency, community mental health and addictions and traumatic brain injury. In her current role, she has led the development of systems to capture psychosocial data and create low-barrier care pathways for patients lost to follow-up, working within existing structures to close gaps in access, as well as focused work on system-level attachment for community members who have barriers to care.

She is currently developing a paper examining the impact of neoliberalism on social work practice, and serves on several Ontario health team committees, including the Interprofessional Care Team Implementation Committee, the Mental Health Working Group and SCOPE.

Lauren is passionate about bringing the social work perspective to system-level leadership and helping social workers claim their expertise within interprofessional teams.

Time Zone: All remote courses are ET (Ontario, Canada).

Location: This Professional Development course is being held remotely through Zoom. 

Website: wlu.ca/fswpd

Metaphors in ACT: A Pathway Toward Change

Turn abstract ACT theory into vivid, in-session tools your clients will remember.
This three-hour workshop explores the use of metaphors in ACT and how they can be used to facilitate both awareness and behavioural change. Participants will learn how the ACT processes integrate with metaphor use, and how metaphors can be introduced in session to support mindful awareness and contextual behavioural work with clients, with dedicated time for skills practice and reflection.
Drawing on experience across a range of practice settings, Sarah will highlight how these tools translate beyond private practice -- into agency-based, hospital and community mental health work -- wherever ACT is applied. Participants will leave with a working understanding of how to explore metaphors with their own clients to support awareness of where they get stuck and how to become more psychologically flexible.

Learning Objectives

• Relate the six core ACT processes to the use of metaphors in ACT.
• Understand how metaphors relate to functional analysis of behaviour and creative hopelessness in ACT.
• Explore the use of experimenting with metaphors with clients to jointly develop workable assessment and behavioural change tools.
• Learn how to assess with clients whether a metaphor is working to support change.

Instructor: Sarah Walsh, MSW, RSW

Sarah is a registered social worker and has been learning and practicing in the field of psychotherapy for over a decade. She is currently working in private practice, and hasve past career experience ranging from inpatient psychiatry to community based mental health services. I began learning the ACT model in 2018 and haven’t for a moment lost interest. It is dynamic, has great depth and broad applicability to many clients. ACT and other Contextual Behavioural Science (CBS) approaches are compassionate, meaningful and accessible. I have been part of learning and supporting learning in the ACT community in Ontario since 2019, when I joined the Ontario Chapter for the Association of Contextual Behavioural Science. My values as a clinician are to remain curious and continue growing.

Time Zone: All remote courses are ET (Ontario, Canada).

Location: This Professional Development course is being held remotely through Zoom. 

Website: wlu.ca/fswpd

Leading Social Work Teams: Balancing Psychological Safety and Accountability

For leaders ready to build teams that are both safe to work on and accountable.

Psychological safety enables team members to ask questions, raise concerns, acknowledge mistakes and seek support. However, it doesn't mean avoiding difficult conversations or removing professional accountability. This workshop examines how social work leaders can foster openness, inclusion, learning and wellbeing while maintaining clear expectations and ethical standards. Participants will explore how leadership behaviours, power, identity, workplace stress and organizational culture affect whether people feel safe to speak honestly.

Through practical examples and reflection, participants will learn strategies for responding to mistakes, providing constructive feedback, navigating difficult conversations, managing performance and strengthening both psychological safety and accountability. The workshop will also explore how leaders can influence organizational culture beyond their immediate teams. The concepts and strategies will be applicable across different levels and forms of leadership, including team and organizational leadership, as well as policy, advocacy, and systems-level work.

Learning Objectives

• Explain the relationship between psychological safety, accountability and team and organizational effectiveness.
• Identify leadership behaviours that strengthen or undermine psychological safety across different levels of an organization.
• Recognize how power, identity, stress and workplace culture influence communication, decision-making, and organizational culture.
• Apply practical strategies when approaching feedback, conflict, difficult conversations and performance management.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen psychological safety and accountability within teams, organizations and broader policy, advocacy, or systems-level work.

Instructor: Sharlene Gumbs, MSW, RSW

Sharlene is the Founder and CEO of True Ally and a registered social worker with experience in clinical practice, leadership, consultation and organizational support. Her work focuses on trauma-informed practice and leadership, reflective practice, workplace wellbeing, equity and healthier organizational cultures.

Sharlene has worked across healthcare, community and mental health settings, supporting individuals, families, practitioners, leaders and organizations navigating complex challenges. Her facilitation approach combines evidence-informed frameworks, practical examples, critical reflection and tools participants can apply within their own professional settings.