Training and Events Calendar

Event Description Group counseling services are considered the mainstay of all clinical services. It is essential that everyone leading groups possess effective group facilitation skills. Facilitators skilled in group counseling methods are better prepared to assist group members in practicing communications skills, can effectively role play difficult situations, can give and receive feedback, can identify and name feelings, and provide support, all of which correlate to positive client outcomes. The goal of this Group Counseling: Intentionally Built & Effectively Facilitated Enhanced Professional Learning series (EPL) is to help group leaders build skills, increase knowledge on evidence-based practices in group counseling, avoid unhelpful or non-therapeutic group activities, and elevate confidence in providing quality group counseling services through feedback and practice. Participants will have weekly learning opportunities to share group counseling experiences and practice group facilitation skills. This EPL will focus on how to envision and build groups and develop/refine facilitation skills, including knowledge and skills related to: · Building group cohesion · Managing conflict · Redirecting clients who monopolize group discussion or stray off topic · Managing unhelpful advice given from one member to another · Eliciting client participation rather than lecturing · Handling content and process issues · Awareness of group work versus individual casework within a group · Using reflection to refine and enhance facilitation skills.   WHEN: Every Wednesday, July 31 – September 25, 2024 from 2 – 3:30 pm MDT / 3 – 4:30 pm CDT INTENDED AUDIENCE: Mental health professionals who are located in the Mountain Plains MHTTC region (HHS Region 8 includes CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, and WY).   PARTICIPANT COMMITMENT & EXPECTATIONS · Attend a live 1-hour Orientation Session on July 31 at 2pm MDT/3pm CDT · Commit to 8-weeks of training for 1.5 hours weekly from August 7 – September 25 · Complete 1-hour of weekly self-study learning activities · Access to appropriate technology to utilize online videoconferencing platform (i.e., an internet connection, webcam, computer/tablet, speakers, and microphone) · Be prepared and actively engage while on camera during the scheduled series time.   Trainers Kate Speck, PhD, MAC, LADC Paul Warren, LMSW Amy Shanahan, MS, CADC

This is Session 4 of 4 in the Applying Holistic Leadership to Create Healthier Workplace Cultures series. Event Description This program aims to equip behavioral health leaders with the essential skills and knowledge to effectively lead teams and foster healthier organizational cultures. Participants will learn strategic and people-focused leadership methods through “Authentic Connection.” The goal of this training series is to enhance their ability to navigate uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict while maintaining resilience and composure in a rapidly changing behavioral health landscape.  Participants will learn:   -          Explore strategies for fostering wellness and resilience to develop a healthier work culture within their scope of influence.  -          Acquire practical skills in self-care, compassion, and inclusive strategies to integrate into their professional roles.  -          Learn communication strategies to collaborate with others to develop adaptive strategies to address challenges in diverse teams.    Trainer Lamarr Lewis Lamarr Lewis, is a dedicated advocate, author, and agent of change. With a focus on community-based mental and public health, he works with diverse groups including individuals living with psychiatric disabilities, people in recovery from substance abuse, and at-hope youth (He does not use the term at-risk).   He is an alumnus of Wittenberg University graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with minors in Africana Studies and Religion. He later received his master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from Argosy University.   His career spans over twenty years with experience as a therapist, consultant, public speaker, facilitator, trainer, and human service professional. He has been a featured expert for such organizations as; Boeing, Region IV Public Health Training Center, Fulton County Probate Court, Mississippi Department of Health, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and many more.   His lifelong mission is to leave the world better than how he found it. 

Event Description Location: Sioux Falls, SD  Costs: Hotel room, workshop registration and related materials are provided free of charge by the Mountain Plains MHTTC. The participant will be responsible for travel and meal expenses.  Based on the latest research of Dr. Brené Brown, Dare to Lead™ is an empirically based courage-building program that Brené refers to as a “skill-based playbook for leaders.”   Participants will:   Recognize vulnerability as the emotion we feel during times of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Explain why courage requires vulnerability. Establish a link between what I learned and behaviors I want to change. Recognize the critical role that self-awareness plays in daring leadership. Give examples to support how armor – not fear –is the greatest obstacle to daring leadership. Identify the four skill sets that make up courage: rumbling with vulnerability, living into our values, BRAVING trust, and learning to rise.  Recognize that courage is a collection of four skill sets that are measurable, observable, and teachable.  Recognize that vulnerability is the birthplace of many of the behaviors that define daring leadership, including creativity, accountability, and difficult conversations.  Give examples of why daring leadership requires showing up for hard conversations and rumbles, including giving and receiving feedback.  Trainer Laurel Smylie Laurel Smylie is an organization development consultant, coach, speaker, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Four Letter Consulting. Over the course of her career, she has supported household names like Hyatt and Bridgestone evolving their cultures and creating and maintaining high-trust workplaces. She has partnered with organizations like SAG-AFTRA and VRBO in developing and rolling out their organizational values. In her time at Great Place to Work, the organization responsible for  FORTUNE's 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Laurel evaluated company submissions while also supported executive teams in times of transition and organizations in building cultures that serve as competitive advantages. She believes that where you start does not predict where you can go, having supported “toxic” leaders in their transformation to brave leadership, just as she has helped some of the strongest leaders continue to refine their capabilities. Whether a name brand or an organization of 25 people, whatever the industry (and she’s worked in them all), Laurel meets her clients where they are and brings her passion to their unique journey. Whether working with individual managers, functional teams, leadership teams or entire organizations, Laurel can help your team be honest about what’s real, define a clear and inspiring vision and support you in bringing that vision to fruition. 

Event Description Recent data from the FBI indicates that over 30% of hate crimes against youth victims occur at school. In this interactive workshop, we will explore how bias, discriminatory behaviors, and identity-based bullying surfaces in schools from covert (perhaps even unintentional) behaviors, like microaggressions, to egregious ones, like hate crimes. These behaviors occur on a continuum that coincides with the dehumanization of individuals based on their identity, culture, or characteristics. However, they can be addressed proactively through fostering a culture of belonging, and they can be responded to effectively through individual and systemic follow-up when biased behavior occurs. Join this workshop to better understand our current context of bias and discrimination in schools, learn about individual sentence stems and systemic interventions to address biased language and behavior, and dedicate some time to actually practicing and integrating your learning into your plans for the next school year.    Learning Objectives:  Understand our current context of bias and discrimination in schools Learn about individual sentence stems to address biased language and behavior Learn about systemic interventions to foster a culture of belonging Practice and integrate your learning into your plans for the next school year Trainer Dr. Rana Razzaque Dr. Rana Razzaque’s commitment to improving opportunity, access, and inclusion for all children has driven her educational and professional journey. This commitment has deepened over time due to her own lived experiences and the continuous learning she seeks out on a variety of topics related to equity and inclusion, the persistent disparities for marginalized communities, and the deep need to build understanding and empathy through courageous conversations with people from multiple perspectives. Rana was born in Bangladesh, raised in Maryland, spent her adolescence in Texas, and spent a couple of years in Arizona before moving to Denver in 2011. In the warmer months, you might find Rana hiking with her husband, Rob, and her dog Eeyore. She also loves reading (especially fiction and poetry), trying out new recipes to cook, going to concerts, boxing, and indoor rock climbing (even though she is afraid of heights). 

Event Description The primary objective of the training is to educate school staff and stakeholders about Rural Behavioral Health Institutes’ Screening Linked to Care (SLTC) Program. Presenters will provide education about STLC, data on effectiveness of the program, challenges, and successes of SLTC and talk about prevention and early intervention of mental health challenges for students. Presenters will talk about work states can do to support prevention and early intervention for mental health and suicide and how schools can sustainably implement screening and follow up care for students. Presenters will share challenges and successes schools have had with implementation and share about connecting students to supports and ongoing care.    Learning Objectives:   1) Learning about implementing universal digital mental health screening.   2) Identifying students struggling and connecting them to support.   3) Learning about the utilization of data to make decisions.    Trainers Janet Lindow, PhD & Kayleigh Brown  Janet Lindow, PhD champions the application of novel research approaches to identify, evaluate and implement preventive and acute treatments for diseases with great public health impact. For the past 12 years, her career goal has been to improve the health of populations with limited access to effective treatment with a primary focus now on those experiencing mental disorders.  Janet’s career path has given her a broad and deep understanding of public health issues and potential solutions. At MIT, she trained as a basic research scientist. After finishing her doctoral work, she taught a science course in Botswana which widened her understanding of health disparities and left her with a fervent desire to help improve the health of people globally. Janet then completed two post-doctoral fellowships, one focused on finding new antibiotics for Gram negative bacterial infections and the other building research programs to help prevent infections in people living in poverty. Next, the Yale School of Public Health recruited her to work full time in Brazil on leptospirosis, the world’s leading cause of hemorrhagic disease and to build research infrastructure. In 2016, Janet’s passion for finding solutions to difficult challenges in public health brought her to Montana where she was recruited as faculty at the Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery at Montana State University. At the Center, she and her mentor, Matt Byerly, MD, focused on suicide prevention across all age groups and digital treatments for depression and anxiety in rural areas where therapy was sparse or not available. She is currently a Research Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Kansas Medical School. Janet lives in Livingston, Montana and is actively pursuing her work on suicide prevention, depression, and anxiety in Montana and Kansas.  Kayleigh Brown is dedicated to delivering and improving mental health care for kids. She has broad experience providing care and education to children, adolescents, young adults, and their families within and external to hospital settings.  Prior to joining the RBHI team, she spent the last decade working at Shodair Children’s Hospital, a nonprofit hospital offering inpatient and outpatient care to children and adolescents with serious mental illness in Montana. As the Shodair Director of Outpatient Services, Kayleigh helped to develop and lead one of the largest outpatient clinic systems serving Montana children and families. She has trained staff in trauma-informed care that focuses on organizational culture and the vicarious trauma that people can experience when working in complex care settings. Kayleigh has also been involved in co-facilitating Dare to Lead training with a Certified Dare to Lead instructor throughout Montana. She is passionate about improving mental health care, educating others about caring for people with a mental health diagnosis, helping families navigate the mental health care system, and increasing access to care, particularly among children and adolescents. 

Event Description This is Session 2 of the Thriving Together series. Learning objectives for this session include: Identify the principles of compassionate leadership by articulating its key components, such as empathy, active listening, and fostering a supportive work environment.  Demonstrate self-awareness as foundational elements of compassionate leadership, recognizing and managing one's own emotions while also empathizing with the emotions and perspectives of others to promote understanding and unity within the team.  Apply techniques for building trust and rapport within a team, utilizing strategies such as vulnerability, authenticity, and transparency to create a culture of trust and psychological safety conducive to collaboration and innovation. Trainers Rachel Navarro, PhD, LP  Topaza Yu 

Event Description Increasingly, rural systems of care are employing a range of Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs), such as Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), supported employment, and supported housing, to meet the needs of persons with serious mental illness. Rural systems often modify these EBP’s in some manner to accommodate rural environments that consistently contend with workforce limitations, small populations, intermittent broadband and cell phone service, and long distances.      Join us for this important knowledge exchange on Tuesday, 9/24 and Thursday, 9/26, from 9:00 am MT – 12:00 pm MT. Please note this training has been changed from an in-person event to two virtual training sessions.   In Session 1, we will focus upon the science and adaptation of EBP to rural practice.    In Session 2, we will focus on rural implementors and providers discussing their real-world rural challenges to implementation and on-going adoption challenges and opportunities.  This will be followed by a summary discussion of State Policy that can support rural adoption of EBPs.    If you have any questions, please contact Genevieve Berry at [email protected] 

Event Description This is Session 3 of the Thriving Together series. Learning objectives for this session include: Explore factors such as leadership styles, communication practices, reward systems, and employee support programs influence the overall culture of care within the organization.  Evaluate the components of organizational culture, including norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors, through qualitative and quantitative methods, to identify areas for improvement or alignment with organizational goals and values.  Establish metrics and identify measures to track progress, identify areas of success, and make data-driven adjustments to strategies and initiatives that promote organizational wellness. Trainers Rachel Navarro, PhD, LP  Topaza Yu