Fall Workshops

2022 Fall Workshop Series

Join us for our 2022 Fall Workshop Series. All workshops will take place virtually through Zoom.

IDFPR and IL Certification Board Approved:
Counselors, Social Workers, CADC, Employee Assistance Counselors, Psychologists, and Nurses

NOTE: Workshops are 3 CEUs each, with the exception of full day workshops which are 6 CEUs each. 

Workshop	Date	Time	Topic	Presenter(s)
A	Sept. 10	9am – 12:15pm	Queering the Conversation: How the Trauma(s) of Marginalization of LGBTQIA+ People Show Up in Therapeutic Spaces.	Benji Marton, LCSW
B	Sept. 17	9am – 12:15pm	Managing the Client’s Emotions and Behaviors While Self-Managing Your Own	Jim Scarpace, MS, LCPC
C	Oct. 1	9am – 12:15pm	Cultural and Historical Traumas: Invisible Barriers to Healing and Trauma	Anita Mandley, MS, LCPC
D	Oct. 8	9am – 12:15pm	Co-Parenting with a Parent Who Struggles with Addiction	Ashley Starwood, LCSW
E	Oct. 15	9am – 12:15pm	Good Grief: Helping Clients Cope with Loss	Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC
F	Nov. 5	9am – 12:15pm	Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue & Burnout: Impacts of Our Work on Our Bodies, Our minds, and Our Hearts	Amy Johnston, LCSW
G	Nov. 12	9am – 12:15pm	Creative Counseling:  Using Experiential Therapy to Enhance The Counseling Process	Kim Pinkston, LCPC, CADC, BC-DMT, GL-CMA
H	Nov. 19	9am – 4pm (FULL DAY)	Unpacking Intergenerational, Historical and Collective Trauma: An Experiential Workshop	Dr. Marcia Nickow & Joe Whitlock, CADC

Workshop Pricing

# of Workshops	General Admission	Student/Senior Discount
1	$80	$70
2	$125	$115
3	$195	$170
4	$260	$220
5	$300	$230
6	$390	$340
7	$450	$400
8	$500	$460

Course Descriptions

WORKSHOP A: Queering the Conversation: How the Trauma(s) of Marginalization of LGBTQIA+ People Show Up in Therapeutic Spaces.

Saturday, September 10th | 9AM – 12:15PM
3 CEUs
Presented by Benji Marton, LCSW

This workshop will facilitate a discussion around the impacts of identity on our bodies; in particular, how experiences of oppression and marginalization can lead to stored unresolved trauma reactions in our nervous systems. A shared language around various identities and understanding of systemic prejudice will be explored, and a foundational understanding of fight/flight/freeze/fawn will be presented and its implications for LGBTQIA+ people. Attendees will participate in a deeper conversation on how traumatic reactions through identity oppression impacts the relationship to self and community, including mental health and substance use disparities amongst LGBTQIA+ folks. The idea of clients bringing up despairingly, “I don’t even know who I am,” will be explored in relation to unresolved trauma. Furthermore, intervention implications will be considered and explored. Lastly, participants will explore their own relationship to sexuality and gender and how that relationship impacts holding space for LGBTQIA+ clients.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to describe common terms related to the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.
• Participants will analyze their own internal biases towards the LGBTQIA+ community.
• Participants will have a foundational understanding of the mental health needs and mental health/substance use trends of LGBTQIA+ clients.
• Participants will describe the ways in which system oppression impacts the therapeutic relationship with LGBTQIA+ clients.

About the Speaker: Benji Marton, LCSW (he/him) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Director of Operations and Therapist at Head/Heart Therapy. Benji is currently in his second year of the Somatic Experiencing three-year training program. He has presented on LGBTQIA+ competencies in multiple settings, including schools, community mental health, and the broader mental health community.

With his somatic background, Benji focuses on exploring the ways internalized biases show up for clinicians, whether conscious or unconscious, and how that impacts our own nervous systems when working with queer clients.

Through extensive group-work training, Benji seeks to provide a space where these biases can be explored, named, and challenged in a brave and compassionate way. Benji believes that through somatically exploring our internalized messaging on gender and sexuality, we can not only hold safer spaces for our queer clients but to live in ways that are more authentic for us.

WORKSHOP B: Managing the Client’s Emotions and Behaviors While Self-Managing Your Own

Saturday, September 17th | 9AM – 12:15PM
3 CEUs
Presented by Jim Scarpace, MS, LCPC

In this workshop we will learn to be mindful of the many experiences clients may have with professionals that may cause distrust, anxiety, and even behavioral escalation. These experiences not only shape the way they see the world but also distorts the way others may perceive them and their intentions and struggles. As a result of these perceptions, individuals can become frightened, unheard, and blamed, creating an environment that can lead to emotional escalation and even physical outbursts. This workshop will help listeners gain a better understanding of how to identify individuals who may be becoming emotionally overwhelmed and be at risk for verbal or physically acting out. It will also provide listeners with strategies and interventions to decrease risk of aggressive behavior thus improving a client’s chance of staying calm and feeling hopeful. Participants will leave this experience equipped with the skills and strategies needed to help clients who are experiencing difficulty managing their emotions and behaviors.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize signs and symptoms of anger and client escalation
• Develop strategies to meet clients where they are at and help them manage their emotions and behaviors
• Supportive strategies for staff and clinicians to help them self-manage their own emotions when dealing with these types of behaviors.

About the Speaker: Jim Scarpace is the Director of Operations for the Behavioral Medicine Service Line for Ascension Hospital systems. Jim oversees the suburban Ascension hospitals in his current role. Jim has over 28 years of experience in the mental health, substance use disorder and criminal justice field. He has his Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and has been licensed clinical professional counselor for the last 22 years. He currently is also an assistant professor at Benedictine University and has taught graduate classes in clinical and forensic psychology. His previous roles included being the Executive Director for Gateway Foundation in Aurora where he worked for 14 years overseeing multiple sites across the state of Illinois in the community division. Previous to this role he was a supervisor for the Department of Probation and court services in DuPage County where he assisted in developing a mental health program for high-risk youth, as well as supervised therapists and probation officers in the forensic setting who worked with juvenile offenders with mental health and substance use issues in addition to criminal behaviors. In addition, He has also worked with chronically mentally Ill adults in a hospital setting focusing on treatment planning, assessment and family counseling preparing for discharge as well as for several years in the community as a therapist with adolescents with severe mental health disorders. Jim also coordinated a residential facility for high-risk children and adolescents involved with the department of children and family services. His areas of expertise include Addiction, Trauma, Group Therapy, Crisis intervention, Family Therapy and advocacy.

WORKSHOP C: Cultural and Historical Traumas: Invisible Barriers to Healing and Trauma

Saturday, October 1st | 9AM – 12:15PM
3 CEUs
Presented by Anita Mandley, MS, LCPC

If you work with African Americans, Native Americans, holocaust survivors and their descendants, intergenerational poverty, or refugees, then whether you realize it or not, your work is being influenced by the legacies of cultural and historical trauma. If your clients differ from you in the areas of race, culture, religion, sexuality, class or gender, your own biases are there as well. This workshop brings these issues out of the shadows and into consciousness and opens a new path toward addressing the hidden grief of cultural and historical wounds. You’ll discover how to:

• Assess the impact of cultural and historical traumas on clients and yourself to improve clinical outcomes
• Move clients from reflexive reactivity to a conscious state of presence that allows for connection, fluidity, and coherence in the here and now
• Uncover the survival narrative, validate the trauma, and facilitate a strengths-based process of change with clients

Learning Objectives:

• Assess the impact of cultural and historical traumas on clients and yourself to improve clinical outcomes.
• Use methods to move clients from reflexive reactivity to a conscious state of presence that allows for connection, fluidity, and coherence in the here and now.
• Explain how to uncover the trauma, validate the survival narrative, and facilitate a strengths-based process of change with clients.
• Maintain a therapeutic stance of Cultural Humility

About the Speaker: Anita is an Integrative Psychotherapist specializing in Complex and Development PTSD, Intergenerational and Cultural Trauma, Relational Wounds, Ancestral Wounds, and Interpersonal Violence.  She works with clients who struggle with developing internal safety and safety in relationships and in the world.  She works with those who have been marginalized and want to restore or acquire their capacity to be empowered, feel safely connected, have a sense of personal value, and expand their capacity to heal any grief that burdens them.  She works primarily with older adolescents and adults as individuals or couples, as well as in groups.  She has developed, along with Francine Kelly, LCPC, a decolonized group healing model for Complex and Developmental PTSD.

She holds a BA degree in Psychology from Spelman College and a Masters of Science degree in Counseling from National Louis University.  She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor.  In addition, she has extensive training Trauma, Somatic Experiencing, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Touch Skills for Trauma Healing.  She is a certified practitioner of Transforming the Experience Based Brain as taught y Stephen Terrell, PhD.

In her over 40 years in the field of mental health, she has worked in Substance Abuse, Community Mental Health, Partial Hospitalization Programs, ad most recently at The Center for Contextual Change for over 20 years.

WORKSHOP D: Co-Parenting with a Parent Who Struggles with Addiction

Saturday, October 8th | 9:00AM – 12:15PM
3 CEUs
Presented by Ashley Starwood, LCSW

Managing addiction with the added responsibility of caring for another life can be difficult; it is also hard helping your partner while they are struggling with an addiction. This workshop focuses on how to co-parent with someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Supporting a child and helping them to understand what is happening with the addicted parent is a part of the co-parenting dynamic. The presentation will include mental health resources as well as necessary tools to cope with stress. These skills can not only be used in practice with your partner, but with the children involved as well. Additionally, we’ll discuss methods for communication that can be effective in the co-parenting relationship.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will gain the skills and knowledge base to be able to effectively communicate with partners.
• Participants will be able to identify negative or harmful behaviors that can impact the child(ren) involved.
• Participants will be provided with resources for addiction recovery & partner assistance.
• Participants will learn mindfulness tools to reduce the stressors related to co-parenting & parenting.

About the Speaker: Ashley earned an undergraduate degree from Northern Illinois University and an MSW from Aurora University. She is well versed in trauma and crisis therapy and is committed to helping clients become the best version of themselves. In addition to her clinical experience, Ashley has training in happiness coaching, hypnotherapy, crisis prevention, and is a certified yoga teacher. She is also a published author and uses her book, “Writing with Love: A Guided Journal for Couples,” to help clients strengthen their relationships. In therapy, Ashley creates a warm and supportive environment and incorporates extensive therapeutic training and mindfulness into treatment plans. Her goal is to provide clients with the tools they need to move forward and grow. As a public speaker and mental health specialist, Ashley has a passion for providing information to communities that want to learn about the mind and mental illness. Ashley has presented to large audiences, and loves engaging the crowd with humor and compassion.

WORKSHOP E:  Good Grief: Helping Clients Cope with Loss

Saturday, October 15th | 9AM – 12:15PM
3 CEUs
Presented by Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC

Dealing with loss can be debilitating. This presentation will prepare you to help clients cope with the wide range of losses they experience, including: the death of a parent, child, or sibling; ambivalent losses; unspeakable losses; unacknowledged losses; parental abandonment; the end of an addictive or toxic relationship; loss of the peer group; “not making the cut “, loss of dreams; loss of employment; and betrayal. We will discuss: models of grief recovery; the 6^th stage of grief and finding meaning in loss; what grief counselors do; global grief rituals; non-traditional approaches to grief recovery; helping clients turn the pain of loss into purpose; 15 strategies for helping clients cope with loss; the use of the termination phase of counseling as grief work.

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate the wide range of losses clients grieve
• Utilize five models of grief recovery in your work with clients
• Use 15 strategies to help clients cope with loss
• Articulate how the 6^th stage of grief facilitates recovery. utilize the termination phase of counseling to help clients cope with loss.

About the Speaker: Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC is an international speaker, trainer, and consultant in the behavioral health field whose work has reached thousands throughout the USA, Europe, Canada, Caribbean, and the British Isles.

Mark is the author of five books, which focus on behavioral health. Recent writings include: Slipping through The Cracks: Intervention Strategies for Clients; Multiple Addictions and Disorders: Recovery Management; Relationship Detox: Helping Clients Develop Healthy Relationships. He has had two stories published in the New York Times best-selling book series, Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Mark has been a Certified Addiction Counselor for 40 years. He has received numerous awards, including A Lifetime Achievement Award from the IL Certification Board and the Barbara Bacon Award for outstanding contributions to the social work profession and as an alumnus of Loyola University of Chicago.

Mark is co-founder of Serenity Academy of Chicago, the only recovery high school in IL. Previously, he had served as President of the IL Chapter of NAADAC. He has had a 30-year career as a university educator, having taught at Chicago State University; School of Professional Psychology; and Loyola University of Chicago.

WORKSHOP F: Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue & Burnout: Impacts of Our Work on Our Bodies, Our minds, and Our Hearts

Saturday, November 5^th | 9AM – 12:15PM
3 CEUs
Presented by Amy Johnston, LCSW

We have all experienced collective trauma over the past two years. Those of us in roles which hold space for those impacted by addiction, address injustice, or tell stories for those who don’t have a voice are particularly at risk for increased distress.

Hearing, witnessing, and sharing the stories of others in distress has an impact on our own wellbeing. When we work in spaces where our clients, colleagues, or communities experience trauma, we become marked and changed by their experience as well. Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue and Burnout are different, but related concepts which impact people who care.

This workshop explores why we are vulnerable to this type of distress, helps us identify our trauma exposure response, and creates space to reflect, process and develop tools for supportive self-care.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the concepts of secondary trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout, especially within the realm of substance use services.
• Identify your Individual trauma exposure response pattern and understand potential Impacts on others
• Understand the value of curiosity, paradox and self-compassion and practice these concepts in real time.

About the Speaker: Amy is a licensed clinical social worker with extensive experience working in mental health, trauma, and burnout. Amy studied at Northwestern University and The University of Chicago before moving to Dublin, Ireland, to begin her career in mental health. She then supported parents and staff in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Lurie Children’s Hospital, before joining Urban Wellness in 2019.

As a clinician, Amy specializes in burnout, grief and trauma, and compassion fatigue. Amy is a certified perinatal mental health specialist.

WORKSHOP G: Creative Counseling:  Using Experiential Therapy to Enhance The Counseling Process

Saturday, November 12^th | 9AM – 12:15AM
3 CEUs
Presented by Kim Pinkston, LCPC, CADC, BC-DMT, GL-CMA

Experiential learning is the process of learning through experience or learning through doing. In the late 80’s researchers identified four distinct styles of learning: reading/writing, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Current research indicates that clients respond well to structure and an informal, tactile-kinesthetic approach.  This workshop will focus specifically on the importance of adding experiential therapies, a kinesthetic approach, into your practice to enhance opportunities for growth, development, and change.  Examples of these approaches include expressive art therapies (i.e., dance, art, music, drama), as well as recreation therapy, adventure therapies, CBT, Gestalt, and ART. This workshop will provide opportunities to explore non-traditional, kinesthetic approaches that can be used in addition to and in conjunction with traditional counseling.  A number of experiential and creative tasks will be presented to assist in the learning process.   

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will develop an embodied understanding of experiential therapies through participation in varied activities including art, music, movement, and team building. 
• The participants will experience and identify how experiential therapy can support the counseling process and enhance growth and change. 
• The participants will learn multi-disciplinary ways to engage clients in the counseling process. 

About the Speaker: Kim Pinkston, Clinical Director of Brightside Recovery, has been working in the Addictions field for 25 years specializing in dance/movement therapy and other creative, expressive, expressive therapies.  Her experiences include providing individual and group counselling services for adults struggling with substance use and co-occurring concerns, supervising clinicians, and students on clinical skill development.  She is a member of the Training of Leaders and has presented at ICB and IBHA conferences on a variety of subjects for over 15 years. 

WORKSHOP H: Unpacking Intergenerational, Historical and Collective Trauma: An Experiential Workshop

Saturday, November 19^th | 9:00AM – 4:00PM (FULL DAY)
6 CEUs
Presented by Dr. Marcia Nickow & Joe Whitlock, CADC

Those who suffer from addiction and trauma transform by attaching to cultures of recovery. Building on liberation psychology themes, attachment and family systems theories, 12-step concepts and community organizing principles, this full-day experiential workshop targets recovery from addictive disorders, trauma, intergenerational trauma and historical trauma. Traumatic re-enactments and racialized aggressions will be explored in the context of anti-racist clinical practice. Rage, terror, despair, experiences of betrayal and devastating intergenerational effects of systemic racism as well as other collective trauma will be explored in demo groups offering “liberated zones” to share work, family and personal experiences.  The co-therapists will share how their own ongoing personal recovery from different legacies of historical trauma shapes their work with patients. 

Learning Objectives:

• Describe addiction as a dynamic disease with multiple manifestations, such as substance abuse, eating disorders and process addictions (e.g., compulsive gambling, sex, internet, spending, raging, rescuing, etc.)
• Define “cultures of resilience” (Nickow, 2007) and transcendence in the context of addiction recovery concepts, liberation psychology themes, historical and intergenerational trauma and community organizing principles 
• Describe how race-based trauma, experiences of oppression and everyday exposure to aggressions rooted in systemic racism both contribute to addictive disorders and pose barriers to long-term recovery. 
• Explain how clinicians’ own personal and family histories and personal labor may inform their work and enhance treatment engagement and effectiveness 

About Marcia Nickow: A substance use disorder psychologist and group psychotherapist, Marcia Nickow, Psy.D, CADC, CGP, designed and implemented an intensive, long-term group psychotherapy program in her downtown Chicago private practice at Working Sobriety Addiction and Trauma Recovery Center. Marcia leads 14 long-term process groups weekly — men’s, women’s, multigender, couples, professionals and artists/writers groups. Her clinical interests include intergenerational trauma and substance use disorder, historical trauma, pedagogies of oppression, and anti-racist organizational transformation.

Marcia serves as senior organizational and clinical advisor at SunCloud Health Outpatient Treatment Center. She also conducts clinical staff trainings at Haymarket Center. This past February, she co-led a day-long workshop, “Groups as Cultures of Resilience: A Psychodynamic-oriented Decolonizing Approach to Treating Addictions and Trauma,” and an open session, “A Tale of Two Cities: Pandemic Response Narratives from New York and Chicago,” at the annual conference of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA).

With more than 30 years’ experience treating the full spectrum of substance use disorders, eating disorders, and trauma, Marcia has worked in inpatient, outpatient, halfway house, forensic, correctional, hospital, veterans’ hospital, social welfare, school, homeless, and street outreach settings. Her earlier work as a journalist and a community organizer helped inspire her trauma-focused, multigenerational treatment model.

A presenter at conferences nationally and internationally, Marcia has taught substance use disorder, trauma, group psychotherapy, social psychology, diversity studies, and forensic psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Marcia is a co-author of A Group Therapist’s Guide to Process Addictions. She also is co-recipient of the 2015 Alonzo Award for Excellence from AGPA for her contributions to the scientific literature on psychodynamic group psychotherapy.

Marcia is co-chair of the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma and Resilience Special Interest Group of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). She formerly served on the boards of the Foundation for Advancing Mental Health, the Chicago Center for the Study of Groups and Organizations, the Illinois (now Great Lakes) Group Psychotherapy Society, and the Serenity Academy in Chicago.

About Joe Whitlock: Joe Whitlock’s career in the health care field, primarily in substance use disorders and mental health, spans more than 25 years. For the past five years, he has worked as a substance abuse specialist at SunCloud Health Outpatient Treatment Center, running process and psychoeducational groups, and conducting individual therapy. Joe also co-leads couple’s groups at Working Sobriety Addiction and Trauma Recovery Center. 

A graduate of National Louis University with a degree in human behavior, Joe has worked at agencies and treatment centers throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, including Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, Southwood Interventions, Alexian Brothers, and Bonaventure House-Amita Health. He has provided training in various aspects of substance use disorders and mental health.  This past February, he co-presented a full-day workshop at the annual conference of the American Group Psychotherapy Association.: “Groups as Cultures of Resilience: A Psychodynamic-oriented Decolonizing Approach to Treating Addictions and Trauma,”

Joe’s agency work has focused heavily on substance use disorder treatment and case management services for criminal justice and other marginalized populations. He has engaged the homeless as an outreach worker, counseled clients and runs groups.  Joe has also administered social service programs and supervised teams.  Joe is dedicated to treating substance use disorders and process addictions, and to helping clients discover life beyond addiction.

Joe is drawn to working with people struggling with substance use disorder from all racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds, striving to remove the stigma of SUDs and uplift those devalued by systems. He is committed to transforming institutions to better serve people, families, and communities. The joy and rewards that one gets from helping people, Joe states, “The work I do is not something that can be put in a pocket or a bank account, but something that I hold in my heart.”

Registration and Contact

For questions or more information, please contact: 
Ryan Patterson, Project Specialist at rpatterson@hcenter.org or (312) 226-7984 Ext. 594

OR

Lisa Abrams, LCPC, CSADC, Director of Staff Training & Development at labrams@hcenter.org or
312-226-7984 ext. 581

If you are mailing your payment, please make a check payable to:

Haymarket Center
ATTN: Education Department
932 W Washington Blvd
Chicago, IL 60607