Cascadia Training for Professional Development

Law and Ethics of Imminent Harm: Understanding Mandatory Reporting and Client Lethality Obligations
2026-01-09 09:30 - 12:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom
Law & Ethics CEs!
Law and Ethics of Imminent Harm: Understanding Mandatory Reporting and Client Lethality Obligations
Presented by: Eric Ström, PhD, Attorney at Law, LMHC
When: Friday, January 9th, 2026 | 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
CEs: 3 Law & Ethics CEs | Cost: $99.00

For many clinicians, client lethality and mandatory reporting are among the most challenging topics to navigate.

In this workshop, we will examine the applicable Washington State and Federal laws regarding mandatory reporting obligations, with a specific focus on how these rules apply to behavioral health and substance use disorder clinicians.

We will also discuss the boundaries and standards of clinician liability for client harm to self or others as defined in Washington State case law.

Participants will gain increased ability to implement strategies to minimize risk and to limit liability to best support their clients. This course is intended to meet ethics CEU requirements
Objectives:
• Describe Washington state legal standards regarding duty to warn/duty to protect
• Locate and compare legal and ethical standards regarding mandatory reporting obligations
• Create and evaluate strategies to meet legal reporting requirements while maximizing client support

REGISTER HERE

🆕BRAND-NEW! Lunch & Learn: All About the ACE Study: Understanding the Long-Term Impact of Childhood Trauma🆕
2026-01-12 12:00 - 13:30
Brand-New!
Health Equity or Cultural Competence CEs!
Lunch & Learn: All About the ACE Study: Understanding the Long-Term Impact of Childhood Trauma
Presented by: Dreya Blume, LCSW
When: Monday, January 12th, 2026 | 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 1.5 CEs Meets Criteria for Health Equity or Cultural Competence CEs | $25.00
Childhood trauma doesn’t just live in the past – it echoes into adulthood, shaping how clients think, feel, and relate to the world. This training invites clinicians to dive into the groundbreaking Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study and discover how its findings can illuminate what unfolds in the therapy room every day. Together, we’ll connect the dots between early adversity and the struggles clients bring into treatment, from anxiety and depression to health issues and relationship difficulties.
Through reflective discussion and practical applications, participants will learn how to use the ACE framework as a lens for deeper understanding and compassionate clinical work. Therapists will walk away with strategies to integrate ACE awareness into assessment, treatment planning, and interventions, while also empowering clients to build resilience and create new possibilities for growth.
Workshop Objectives:

Develop an ability to recognize how ACE-related patterns show up in clients’ presenting concerns and relational dynamics.
Learn practical ways to apply the ACE framework to assessment and treatment planning in everyday clinical practice.
Identify strategies to foster resilience and post-traumatic growth in clients with high ACE scores.

REGISTER HERE

Youth and Adult Suicide: Recognition, Assessment, and Treatment of Suicidality
2026-01-15 09:00 - 16:30
This workshop meets the suicide assessment requirements for re-licensure.
Youth and Adult Suicide: Recognition, Assessment, and Treatment of Suicidality
Presented by: Randi Jensen, MA, LMHC, CCDC
When: Thursday, January 15th, 2026 | 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 6 CEs | $199.00
Other 2026 Sessions:

Thursday, April 30th, 2026: MORE INFO & REGISTER>>>

Friday, July 24th, 2026: MORE INFO & REGISTER>>>

Friday, November 6th, 2026: MORE INFO & REGISTER>>>

This workshop meets the Washington State suicide assessment requirements for re-licensure. The Washington State Department of Health has approved this 6-hour workshop for its 2022 Model List. This workshop also satisfies the continuing education requirements set by the Department of Health related to suicide assessment, management, and treatment.
Historically, mental health treatment for suicidal individuals has involved extensive psychopharmacology, repeated cognitive behavioral therapy, positive psychology methods, stress reduction exercises, and/or deep therapy into family-of-origin issues, all proven individually insufficient for the long-term prevention of suicide and suicidality.
The World Health Organization (2019) reported decreasing trends in suicide mortality in most countries across the world. Unfortunately, the mortality of suicide showed an increasing trend in the United States. Between 2000 and 2018, the suicide rate skyrocketed, increasing by a whopping 35% (CDC, 2020). Interestingly, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2020 and 2021, there was a decrease in suicide rates. This was short-lived, unfortunately, as suicide rates began to increase again by 2% in 2022 (CDC, 2022).
What can we do? As clinicians, we need to understand there are many roads to suicidality — each usually requiring individual intervention.
This workshop presents original concepts in the development of suicidality as an ingenious coping mechanism that develops over time. The brain’s neuroplasticity forms neural pathways that underpin the reinforcing suicidal thought pattern. Brain retraining provides the formation of new healthy neural pathways. The healing process is directed, encouraged, and supported through a specifically designed peer protocol based on existing evidence-based social support.
Research shows that the first suicide attempt is often the first time anyone intervenes. However, it is generally not the first time the danger has been known. Loved ones just don’t know what to do. They take the suicidal individual to a hospital or professional where the treatment protocol has not changed for decades. When the suicidal individual comes home after the attempt, family and friends don’t know how to help prevent the next one. The Jensen Suicide Peer Protocol (JSP3), based on evidence-based principles, is a prescribed method for the family members and concerned others to take an active part in the recovery of their loved one. Randi has used this method for decades and has saved lives.
OBJECTIVES:
• Describe the extent of suicide in the general and special populations, including children, adolescents, and military personnel.
• Distinguish what suicidality is and the difference between self-harm and suicidality
• Explain the psychobiology of suicidality and its progression
• Articulate warning signs and symptoms using simple and effective suicide assessment tools
• Express and practice Motivational Interviewing techniques used in counseling suicidal individuals
• Explain a life-saving peer support protocol and how to implement it
• Describe ethical considerations, documentation, and confidentiality issues.
The Washington State Department of Health has approved this 6-hour workshop for its 2022 Model List. This workshop also satisfies the continuing education requirements set by the Department of Health related to suicide assessment, management, and treatment.
Randi consistently receives excellent evaluations from attendees of her workshops. Here are just a few quotes from past attendees:
* “I took a different class about suicide a few months back. It was so heavy with content and so focused on how to cross every “T” and dot every “I” that I actually left more anxious about treating suicidal clients than before. In contrast, Randi’s workshop gave me a broader general understanding and a way to connect the clinical skills I already have to the treatment of these clients. I feel much more confident and competent working with suicidal clients now.”
* “Ms. Jensen is an extremely competent clinician and presenter. Over my 30+ career in mental health work, this is one of the very best workshops I have attended. Thank you, Cascadia and Randi!”
* “This is the most impactful continuing education class I’ve ever taken!”
REGISTER HERE

🆕BRAND-NEW! Mindfulness with Ethics in Mental Health Care 🆕
2026-01-16 09:00 - 13:00
🆕BRAND-NEW!🆕
Law & Ethics CEs!
Mindfulness with Ethics in Mental Health Care

Presented by: Dr. Brenda Butterfield, EdD, MSW, LMHC
When: Friday, January 16th, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM, Pacific Time
Where: Live via Zoom. You’ll receive the link via email the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 4 Law & Ethics CEs | $125.00
Increasingly, the “mindfulness movement” is influencing Western culture in education, business, and mental health care. Different clinical interventions called Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) are increasingly used to effectively treat clients suffering from chronic pain and stress, depression, anxiety, substance use, suicidality, and more. These evidence-based interventions honor the mind/body connection and align well with integrated health care using the bio-psycho-social treatment model.
While psychological interventions are typically knowledge-based and directed toward client change irrespective of the clinician’s health and well-being, MBIs are quite different. A mindfulness-based therapist is ethically obligated to teach from one’s own lived experience. Practicing improves their health and well-being, which research shows correlates with clients’ treatment outcomes. Therefore, developing a mindfulness practice benefits both the clinician and the client. There are many ways to cultivate mindfulness in daily life, with and without meditating.
In this experiential workshop, you will learn a variety of simple self-care practices to use anytime, anyplace, from the grocery store to the forest! Yes! Mindfulness in nature is an evidence-based practice that is even more accessible to many people. Whether indoors or outside, MBIs improve our health and well-being. Learn more about the mind-body connection through practicing somatic and emotional awareness better to understand your behaviors and your clients’ behaviors, too.
In addition to learning practices for oneself and clients, we’ll explore questions like what mindfulness is. What does it mean to BE mindful and to practice mindfulness? What’s the difference between mindfulness and meditation? What’s the therapeutic value of mindfulness in therapy? And perhaps most important of all, what are ethical imperatives for calling oneself a “mindfulness-based therapist?”
Workshop Objectives:

Understand the benefits of integrating mindfulness in mental health care and the ethical implications for doing so.
Learn the difference between meditation and mindfulness by learning simple self-care practices to activate the parasympathetic nervous system for emotional regulation anytime.
Explore the language, concepts, and phenomena of mindfulness, and practice ways of introducing mindfulness to clients (e.g., automatic pilot, present-moment awareness, inner experience, noticing, cultivating, practice, and ways of being).
Learn about the mind/body relationship between chronic stress (CBT thinking errors) & health (depression/anxiety/panic attacks), enabling you to explain the functioning of the autonomic, sympathetic, and parasympathetic nervous systems in easy ways.

REGISTER HERE

Let’s Talk About Sex
2026-01-16 09:00 - 16:30
Law & Ethics, Health Equity, or Cultural Competence CEs
Let’s Talk About Sex
Presented by B Lourenco, MA, LMHC (she/her)
When: Friday, January 16th, 2026 | 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Pacific Time
Where: Live via Zoom (you’ll receive the link the week of the workshop)
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 6 Law & Ethics, Health Equity, or Cultural Competency CEs | Cost: $199.00
Research shows that if sex isn’t brought up in the first three therapy sessions, it is unlikely to ever come up in the therapy space.
A large majority of clinicians don’t know how to talk to their clients about sexuality and, subsequently, aren’t able to help their clients with issues about their sex lives. Many clinicians also believe that conversations about sex are out of their scope of practice, and while this is true in rare cases, it’s usually not true.
Every single person has a relationship with sexuality, whether they are asexual or very sexually experienced. Everyone we work with as therapists has a relationship with their sexuality.
Discussing sexual health is well within our scope as clinicians! It is ethically mandated for clinicians to continue learning and growing so we can offer the best and most tailored support to our clients.
That need has prompted the creation of this workshop, NOT Your Mom’s Sex Ed Class!
Socialization teaches us that everyone is cis-gender, hetero, and monogamous. Everyone is taught that certain sexual behaviors are “normal” and others are “not.” These norms are echoed in the education systems that clinicians are trained in. Because of the shame-filled way our society treats sexuality, most folks have a complicated relationship with it.
We can serve the entire person when we choose to include conversations about sex and sexual health with our clients.
This course will go over the basics of human sexuality and anatomy, including sexual and gender identities, as well as the roles of desire, arousal, and libido. This course will explore types of sexual dysfunction commonly experienced by clients and how to know if a referral is needed. In addition, this course will identify ways that all clinicians can become more informed and sex-positive with everyday clients.
Objectives:

Learn the process of expected sexual development over the lifetime
Identify sex organs and their functions
Review gender and gender identities
Review sexual identities
Differentiate between types of arousal, desire, and variations in libido
Explore concepts about sex/porn addiction vs. out-of-control sexual behaviors
Identify the role of society in determining sexual norms and expectations
Define the impact of expectation of sexual normativity
Explore common non-normative identities and behaviors
Learn common types of sexual dysfunction experienced by everyday clients
Distinguish the role of attachment wounds and trauma on sexual experiences
Identify when a referral to a sex therapy specialist is needed
Understand the basics of sex-positive therapy and how to explore sexual topics with clients
Learn common types of sexual dysfunction experienced by everyday clients
Distinguish the role of attachment wounds and trauma on sexual experiences
Identify when a referral to a sex therapy specialist is needed
Understand the basics of sex-positive therapy and how to explore sexual topics with clients
Discuss ethical best practices around client sexuality and identify possible misdiagnoses due to clinician misinformation
Explore how cultural norms impact sexual attitudes and perpetuate stigmatizing myths
Identify the ethics that mandate we provide culturally sensitive and inclusive clinical practices

REGISTER HERE

Shame, Guilt & Self-Criticism: Therapeutic Techniques for Client Recovery
2026-01-21 09:00 - 12:15
Shame, Guilt & Self-Criticism: Therapeutic Techniques for Client Recovery
Presented by: Diane Bigler, LCSW, LSCSW
When: Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 12:15 PM, Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 3 CEs |$95.00
It is not uncommon for clinicians to encounter clients who are experiencing shame in various aspects of their life. Shame, guilt, and self-criticism play a critical role in quality of life and mental health. Fear can lead to unhealthy coping strategies and emotional distress.
This training will explore elements of shame common in mental health that may disrupt healthy functioning. Strengthen your skills and clinical knowledge in facilitating therapeutic interventions with clients to end the powerful hold of shame, guilt and self-criticism. A resilience-growth model will be presented to help your clients develop acceptance of themselves, others, and the reality necessary for the effective treatment of trauma, stress, anxiety, depression, binge eating, substance use, and anger issues.
OBJECTIVES:

Explain at least five core concepts of shame and three examples of shame related to mental health.
Discover multiple therapeutic approaches and interventions to address shame with clients.
Employ resilience-growth models of shame recovery to enhance coping and wellness.

REGISTER HERE

SOLD OUT! Register for upcoming sessions | Tarot Certificate Program: The Clinical Use of Tarot Card Imagery in Psychotherapy 🆕
2026-01-23 09:00 - 2026-01-25 16:30
This certificate program is now sold out.
Please register for one of the following upcoming sessions of the certificate program:

Friday, September 25th – Sunday, September 27th, 2026 – 3-Day Series | Live via Zoom: MORE INFO & TO REGISTER>>>

🆕Brand-New Certificate Program!🆕
Register before November 30th for Early Bird Pricing of only $499.00. Price increases to $599.00 after that!
Limited Spots Available!
Law & Ethics, Health Equity, Cultural Competence, and Professional Roles & Boundaries CEs!
Tarot Certificate Program: The Clinical Use of Tarot Card Imagery in Psychotherapy
Presented by: Dreya Blume, LCSW
When: Friday, January 23rd to Sunday, January 25th, 2026 | 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Pacific Time each of the three days
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 18 CEs, 6 of which are Law and Ethics CEs, 2 of which are Health Equity CEs, 2 of which are Cultural Competence CEs, and 2 of which are Professional Relationships CEs | $499.00 (price includes PDF copies of Dreya’s three-volume book The Clinical Use of Tarot Card Imagery in Psychotherapy (a $40.00 value) – price increases to $599.00 after November 30th.
***see below for payment options
All 2026 Sessions Scheduled (so far…more to come!)

Friday, January 23rd – Sunday, January 25th, 2026 – 3-Day Series | Live via Zoom: MORE INFO & TO REGISTER>>>
Friday, March 6th – Friday, April 17th, 2026 – 6-Week Series | Live via Zoom: MORE INFO & TO REGISTER>>>
Friday, September 25th – Sunday, September 27th, 2026 – 3-Day Series | Live via Zoom: MORE INFO & TO REGISTER>>>

This innovative 18-hour continuing education program invites psychotherapists into a rich and rigorous exploration of tarot as a clinical tool—one that bridges history, psychology, metaphor, and meaning-making. You will discover how tarot card imagery functions as a dynamic visual and symbolic language, uniquely suited to therapeutic conversations. From its historical roots and cultural controversies to its contemporary relevance in the therapy room, this course provides a comprehensive introduction to the clinical applications of tarot.
Tarot is a particularly powerful tool in psychotherapy because it engages both intuition and structured exploration. Its archetypal and narrative richness make tarot an ideal companion for therapists working at the intersection of the unconscious and creative expression. Tarot cards can externalize internal experiences, evoke epiphany, and stimulate insight, allowing clients to access feelings and ideas that may be difficult to articulate in more traditional ways. Whether used for parts work or accessing suppressed emotions, tarot meets clients where they are, supporting both depth and flexibility in the therapeutic process.
In becoming a “tarot-friendly therapist,” you will discover that incorporating tarot into your practice opens up a creative and intuitive space for clients that is rich with possibility. Tarot allows clients to externalize internal experiences, access inner wisdom, and engage in symbolic storytelling that can be both playful and profound. Whether used as a metaphor, visual prompt, or reflective tool, tarot can make therapy feel more accessible, empowering, and emotionally resonant, especially for those who struggle to articulate feelings through words alone. Clients who already have a relationship with tarot (or are simply curious about the cards) will be thrilled to learn that this powerful tool can be integrated into their treatment.
Throughout the course, we will explore the projective potential of tarot through the lenses of Jungian psychology, narrative therapy, psychodrama, and Gestalt practices such as chairwork. We will also examine tarot’s compatibility with modalities such as EMDR, Internal Family Systems, Poetry Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, broadening your understanding of how to integrate tarot into diverse treatment approaches.
With an emphasis on ethical, inclusive practice, you will learn how to introduce tarot imagery to clients in ways that honor spiritual and religious diversity while respecting professional boundaries. The course includes guidance on spiritual competency, clinical documentation, and ethical considerations. This highly experiential training offers ample opportunities to practice, reflect on, and personalize the material. Whether you are an experienced clinician seeking new depth or a newer therapist curious about symbolic tools, this program offers both theoretical grounding and hands-on application: The goal is for you to leave feeling comfortable and confident integrating tarot into your therapy practice. By the end, you will have an expanded toolkit and a new lens through which to view healing, insight, and transformation.
Note: No prior experience with tarot is required.
This course is based on Dreya Blume’s book, The Clinical Use of Tarot Card Imagery in Psychotherapy (2025) (Amazon link)
Exciting News! The tuition for this 18-hour first-of-its-kind certificate program includes your own PDF copy of Dreya Blume’s three-volume book.
Workshop Objectives

Identify various ways in which visual imagery can be used to address mental health issues
Utilize tarot card imagery for creative expression
Analyze the archetypal uses of tarot card imagery
Apply tarot card imagery to inner critic work
Assess which tarot card activities to use depending on client population and issue
Create therapeutic applications of tarot card imagery
Identify how to use tarot card imagery for intuitive work with the subconscious
Utilize tarot card imagery for emotional externalization purposes
Describe how to use tarot card imagery for facilitating emotional expression
Apply tarot card imagery to narrative therapy techniques
Describe how tarot card imagery relates to dialogue work as found in Gestalt Therapy
Demonstrate how tarot card imagery relates to parts work
Develop tarot activities that can be used in core values generation
Explain how tarot card imagery can be ethically introduced to clients
Prepare tarot-based activities for clients that are ethically grounded
Explain the ethics behind processing tarot-based activities with clients
Demonstrate how to create and maintain healthy boundaries between client and counselor in terms of integrating tarot card imagery into session
Identify ways to ensure well-defined roles in the professional relationship
Demonstrate cultural competence in terms of identifying the cultural background of tarot
Demonstrate cultural competence in terms of exploring and then integrating clients’ personal relationship with tarot into counseling

Workshop Breakdown by Day
Day One

The History of Tarot
The Clinical Benefits of Using Tarot Cards
The “Evidence-Based” Bugaboo
Spiritual/Religious Competency in Therapy
Tarot, Creativity and Therapy
Tarot Is/As Metaphor
Beyond Metaphor: Pataphor
Projective Tools in Psychotherapy
Carl Jung: Therapeutic Tarot’s Forefather
Shadow Work
The Hero’s Journey

Day Two

Tarot And/As Visual Imagery in Art Therapy
Narrative Therapy
Psychodrama
EMDR, Visual Imagery and Metaphoric Cards
Inner Critic Work
Introjections
Parts Work
Chairwork
Solution-Focused Therapy

Day Three

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Poetry Therapy
Asemic Writing for Healing
Introducing Tarot Cards to a Client
Clinical Documentation
Tarot and Professional Ethics
Marketing oneself as a “tarot-friendly therapist”

***Payment Options:
Cascadia Training values quality continuing education that is accessible, inclusive, and without barriers to all. We never want the cost of our workshops to be a barrier to attending one of our workshops, particularly our multi-session workshops.
We offer several options to make our workshops cost-inclusive: payment plans, a limited number of full and partial scholarships, discounts for students, and discounts for early professionals. Please email us at hello@cascadiatraining.org for more information.
For payment plans, you can select paying 50% today and 50% due on January 31st, 2026.

Clinical Documentation Considerations of Changing Federal and State Laws
2026-01-23 09:30 - 12:30
A Must-Take Law & Ethics CE Workshop!
Clinical Documentation Considerations of Changing Federal and State Laws
Presented by: Eric Ström, PhD, Attorney at Law, LMHC
When: Friday, January 23rd, 2026 | 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 3 Law & Ethics CEs | $99.00
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
Recent changes to US federal law and policy have given states more leeway to regulate in vastly different ways. These changing laws may impact clients in a variety of ways – particularly when telehealth is delivered across state lines. Through a discussion of a range of various state laws, we will identify the impacts this current regulatory situation has on clinical documentation, on our exposure to liability, and to protection of marginalized populations when delivering clinical services. This 3-hour workshop meets law & ethics continuing education requirements.
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
After this workshop, participants will be able to:

Describe the regulatory impact of providing clinical services across state lines.
Identify some other states’ laws that may impact us as Washington-based clinicians and clients.
Understand Washington’s new Protected Health Care Statutes.
Create strategies to appropriately conduct and document clinical services while protecting clients and ourselves.

REGISTER HERE

🆕BRAND-NEW! | Marketing 101 for Therapists: The Road to Your Ideal Private Practice 🆕
2026-01-28 09:00 - 12:00
BRAND-NEW!
Marketing 101 for Therapists: The Road to Your Ideal Private Practice
Presented by: Dreya Blume, LCSW
When: Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 3 CEs | $90.00
In this lively, hands-on workshop, clinicians will learn how to attract ideal clients in ways that feel authentic, ethical, and aligned with their professional values. Forget cookie-cutter marketing advice — this training helps you clarify your niche, communicate your unique therapeutic voice, and create a sustainable marketing strategy that feels genuine, not salesy. Through practical exercises, real-world examples, and reflection on mindset blocks around visibility, participants will leave feeling confident, empowered, and ready to let their practice thrive.
Objectives:

Participants will be able to identify and articulate their clinical niche and unique therapeutic value in a way that aligns with their professional identity and ethical standards.
Participants will learn to design a personalized, sustainable marketing plan that reflects their authentic voice, reduces “salesy” pressure, and increases visibility to their ideal clients.
Participants will be able to recognize and address common mindset barriers—such as visibility fears, impostor syndrome, and scarcity beliefs—that interfere with effective and ethical marketing.

REGISTER HERE

🆕 BRAND-NEW! The Ethics of Caring for Both the Body and the Psyche: A Two-Part Workshop 🆕
2026-01-29 10:00 - 17:00
Brand-New!
Law & Ethics CEs!
The Ethics of Caring for Both the Body and the Psyche: A Two-Part Workshop
Presented by: Eric Ström, PhD, Attorney at Law, LMHC and Dr. Kristen Allott
When: Thursday, January 29th, 2026 | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 6 CEs – 3 are Law & Ethics CEs | $199.00
This two-session workshop offers the clinician a new holistic lens for approaching clients whose cognitive, somatic, and physical symptoms can very often be directly linked to dis-harmony between our bodies, the foods we eat, our polyvagal states, and our Internal Family System (IFS) parts.
Many mental health practitioners have been incorrectly told that discussing the physical body and its interactive systems will be viewed as operating “out of our lanes” or areas of competence. Because of this, clinicians may avoid having all-important and life-altering discussions about the connection between our bodies and our psyche—how the foods we eat and our nutritional health impact not only our physical but also our mental health.
To address the reluctance of mental health practitioners to discuss the very real connection between the somatic and the cognitive, the body and the psyche, we have invited Eric Strom to present the first session of this two-session day. Eric Strom’s Law and Ethics training will address the law and ethics around the Scope of Practice as it applies to mental health practitioners.
Kristen Allott will then follow Eric Strom’s three-hour law and ethics training and present her unique, effective approach to explaining why many highly motivated clients still cannot make lasting changes in their dietary habits. Kristen shares how our IFS parts and protectors could be causing the subconscious resistance to dietary changes that could fuel inner harmony. Kristen’s approach to finding inner harmony and health using both IFS parts work and polyvagal states has proven to be highly effective AND entertaining, a truly novel holistic approach to providing therapy. Her afternoon session will be both informative and engaging as she combines her specialties in nutrition and mental health. You will never view dietary habits in quite the same way after hearing Kristen’s techniques for incorporating IFS and polyvagal states in finding and fueling inner harmony and lasting change.
MORNING SESSION (10:00 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time): The Law and Ethics of Operating within Our Scope of Practice
Presented by: Eric Ström, PhD, Attorney at Law, LMHC
As behavioral health providers, it is essential that we practice only within the legal scope of our clinical license. At the same time, many clinicians find it difficult to identify clear boundaries around the scope of practice for their licensure. In this three-hour morning session of a two-session workshop, we will focus on demystifying the legal, ethical, and practical boundaries with regard to clinical scope of practice. We will also consider areas in which clinicians are most likely to find themselves needed to extend or adjust those boundaries. This course is intended to meet law and ethics continuing education requirements.
Learning Objectives:
Participants in this workshop will be able to:
1) Identify the legal standards that define the scope of clinical practice;
2) Describe the ethical standards that define clinical competency;
3) Create and evaluate strategies to support client best interest through consultation, termination, referral, and coordination;
4) Apply best practice standards to engaging in advocacy activities for clients.
AFTERNOON SESSION (2:00 PM – 5:00 PM Pacific Time):
Fueling Your Inner Harmony: Using Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Polyvagal States to Improve Your Relationship with Food and Your Body
Presented by: Dr. Kristen Allott
In the last 20 years, Internal Family Systems, Polyvagal Theory, and somatic practices have offered new insights into mental health that mirror ancient systems, such as Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, in our understanding of what it means to be human.
Dr. Kristen Allott, a naturopathic doctor with a master’s degree in acupuncture, a black belt in Aikido, and a Polyvagal practitioner, will connect how our food choices influence the vagus system and impact our Internal Family System.
In this seminar, we’ll delve into how our food choices profoundly influence both our vagus system and our internal family system. You’ll discover how the body itself can often manifest as an “exiled child,’ how a “rebel” part might seek sugar for protection, and how our “protectors” can wage war over what we “should” or “shouldn’t” eat. You will learn how, by consciously fueling the prefrontal cortex, we can access our compassionate, creative Selves, significantly reduce acute distress, improve sleep quality, and cultivate a much deeper connection to our bodies and ourselves.
This live virtual training equips clinicians with practical tools to manage acute emotional distress by integrating Polyvagal Theory, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and nutrition-based interventions. Participants will learn to identify nervous system states and internal “parts” that arise during emotional reactivity and apply targeted strategies to support regulation.
The course explores how diet, stress, and glucose levels affect emotional stability and introduces rapid-response tools, such as the Protein for All Initiative and Lizard Brain Treats, to help clients shift out of fight, flight, freeze, or collapse. These techniques are especially effective for anxiety, anger, mania, emotional withdrawal, and self-harm ideation. Through case examples, interactive demonstrations, and downloadable resources, attendees will gain actionable methods to enhance therapeutic outcomes. The virtual format enables flexible participation and ongoing access to learning materials.
Learning Objectives:

Learn the Polyvagal Ladder and its relevance to emotional regulation and therapeutic engagement.

Learn to apply IFS principles to identify and work with internal parts activated by physiological dysregulation.

Learn how diet and stress impact glucose levels, and how these fluctuations influence mood and behaviors.

Learn to implement nutrition-based interventions to stabilize the nervous system and reduce emotional reactivity.

Learn to utilize physiology-based calming techniques to support clients in acute reactive states.

REGISTER HERE
