The School of Social Work is pleased to offer its ninth year of the Clinical Lecture Series, where area practitioners, students, and faculty learn together from esteemed and innovative clinicians. The CLS offers monthly lectures to enhance the clinical curriculum for students and offer continuing education for graduates and practitioners. It also aims to foster and strengthen relationships among clinically-oriented students and the wider clinical community. Selection of topics and speakers come from participant feedback.

      Partnership with Wake AHEC!

This year we are delighted to announce our partnership with Wake AHEC, which also allows us to  provide pre-approved continuing educational units for psychologists, licensed professional counselors, substance abuse counselors, marriage and family therapists, and other mental health professionals (in addition to “contact hours,” which we will continue to provide).

All live events will take place in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditorium of the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill located at 325 Pittsboro Street on Mondays, from 12 noon to 2:00 p.m. We encourage you to arrive early to mingle with colleagues before the lecture. Sign-in and a catered meet-and-greet reception will begin at 11:15 a.m. Bring your lunch if you wish. Lectures start promptly at 12 noon. (No food allowed in the Auditorium.)

Transportation: The most reliable place to park is in the UNC Hospital lot on Manning Drive. Parking fee is $1.25/ hour. There are also numerous “park & ride” locations in Chapel Hill, with free bus service to (or near) the School of Social Work. Directions.

Download printable flier of 2013-2014 series (pdf).     

Schedule of Events

1. Monday, September 16, 2013 – Transition to DSM-5: Navigating changes for practitioners, presented by Mehul Mankad, MD  | slides | printable handouts |  DSM-5 assessment tools 

Link to view as video (webinar credit not yet available)

After two decades in development and negotiations, the fifth version of the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is now here. In this workshop, Mehul Mankad will provide an overview of DSM-5 and how to use it in clinical practice. He will explain the goals and rationale of the latest diagnostic system and highlight the categories which have changed most significantly from its predecessor, DSM-IV.  Participants will become familiar with the structure of DSM-5 as well as how they can incorporate it into their current practice.

Bio: Mehul Mankad, MD is a board certified forensic psychiatrist and a Clinical Associate Professor at  the Department of Psychiatry at the Duke University Medical Center, who is primarily based at the Durham VA Medical Center.  He is one of two delegates from North Carolina who participated in an in-depth training on DSM-5 by the American Psychiatric Association, and will be offering workshops throughout the state. He is an active clinician-educator at the VA and participates in system redesign efforts for mental health service delivery in VA medical centers in the mid-Atlantic states.   

2. Monday, October 14, 2013 – Early interventions to prevent and improve psychotic disorders, presented by Diana Perkins, MD | SLIDES | printable handouts

Link to view as video

This workshop will present current understanding of the risks of the developing psychotic disorders as well as the effects of early intervention in altering the course of these disorders. Evidence suggests that early signs of psychosis can be detected during formative years and that timely intervention can improve the prognosis. Drawing from her research and clinical work, Dr. Perkins will describe strategies to identify emerging symptoms and tailor treatments depending on the severity of symptoms, and whether individuals are in the acute, early recovery or later recovery period of a first episode. She will discuss psychopharmacological approaches and strategies to aid with negative side effects, as well as psychotherapeutic and psycho-educational family interventions to help individuals and families in their developmental trajectories.

Bio:  Diana Perkins, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at UNC-CH School of Medicine, has long been committed to enhancing the lives of people affected by psychotic disorders, through more than 25 years in direct practice, research, mentorship, and presentations.  She is currently medical director at UNC Outreach and Support Intervention Services (OASIS), an innovative program she launched in 2005 for the treatment of individuals who are either at-risk of psychosis or recovering from a first psychotic episode.  Previously, Dr. Perkins served as director of the UNC Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (STEP).  She has published extensively on schizophrenia, with a current emphasis on its genetic basis and early signs and intervention, including bio-psychosocial approaches. She has won awards both for her path-breaking research and as “best doctor.” 

3. Monday, November 11, 2013 – Healing through loving kindness: The effective use of meditation in personal and professional practice, presented by Mary Brantley, LMFT |SLIDES |Printable handouts

Link to view as video

Loving-kindness is a mediation practice intended to develop the mental habits of friendliness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity, and change habituated negative patterns of mind. Studies show its positive effects on health and wellbeing, including increased positive emotions and connectedness, decreased pain and anger, and with regular practice, physiological changes in one’s response to inflammation and distress. Cultivating feelings of compassion can be particularly fruitful and challenging when individuals are suffering from painful emotions and judgments. Through experiential exercises, Mary Brantley will help participants develop and deepen their experience with this meditation practice. She will also discuss its effect on therapeutic work, strategies to address factors that can get in the way, and tips to help incorporate this practice into healing work.

Bio: Mary Brantley, MA, LMFT, teaches loving kindness meditation in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at Duke Integrative Medicine, in Duke’s Distance Learning phone Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction classes, and in various projects at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has been practicing meditation for thirty years and attends yearly intensive retreats, many at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. She has practiced with luminaries, including Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Joan Halifax, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rodney Smith and Leigh Brasington, and completed the professional training for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli. She is co-author of The Gift of Loving–Kindness: 100 Meditations on Compassion, Forgiveness and Generosity,  and until recently, worked as a psychotherapist in private practice (25 years).

4. Monday, January 13, 2014 – Ready or not: Four processes from Motivational Interviewing to help talk about change, presented by Paul D. Nagy, LPC, LCAS, CCS  | SLIDES  | Printable Handouts   

Link to view as video
Motivational Interviewing, a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person’s commitment to change, sees change as a process in which motivation can be “discovered” through effective dialogue with a skilled helper. In this workshop, Paul Nagy will focus on the use of MI’s four overlapping and recursive processes of engaging, focusing, evoking and planning to help clinicians meet clients “where they are.”  He will also describe several process flow techniques for assessing readiness to change and determining appropriate steps to help guide clients toward their destiny of choice. This includes ways to help motivate clients who feel stuck or ambivalent as well as to help recognize and accept non-judgmentally when clients express unwillingness to make certain changes. Throughout, Mr. Nagy will illustrate these principles with case examples.

Bio: Paul D. Nagy, LPC, LCAS, CCS, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center, is also a licensed clinical addictions specialist and certified clinical supervisor in the substance abuse field.  He has served as a board member for Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA), program administrator for the Duke Addictions Program, expert content director for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and Chair and Co-Chair of several Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) Treatment Improvement Protocols (TIPS).

5. Monday, February 10, 2014 – Where Angels Fear To Tread: Becoming more effective with emotionally vulnerable clients, presented by Becca Edwards, LCSW | SLIDES  | printable Handouts

link to view as video

Working with emotionally vulnerable clients is often a challenging experience for therapists. When clients become easily dysregulated, this can trigger therapists to avoid presenting the client with important feedback and impede forward progress.  For the therapist, this can also lead to feelings of ineffectiveness, increased burnout, and premature termination.  Drawing primarily from dialectical behavioral therapy, Becca Edwards-Powell will provide strategies to help therapists and clients handle this painful territory. These include the judicious use of radical genuineness, irreverence, transparency, validation, honesty, and removing secret judgments.  These techniques are utilized to increase trust and safety in the session and produce a more satisfying working alliance. Drawing from her experience as DBT therapist, supervisor, and trainer, Becca will discuss how increasing awareness and acceptance of their own discomfort and limits can lead therapists to provide increased safety, deeper work, and decreased burnout with this challenging population.

Bio: Rebecca E. Edwards-Powell, LCSW is currently an adult services supervisor at Carolina Outreach, LLC., where she trains and supervises clinical staff in CBT and DBT, provides case consultation, helps implement crisis interventions, and provides psycho educational activities and treatment team services including on substance abuse, educational, vocational, residential, financial, social, and other non-treatment needs. She is intensively trained in DBT through the Behavioral Tech Intensive Training and participates in an ongoing Intensive team. Previously, she worked as an intensive in-home specialist, client services director at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, and support group coordinator at the Family Violence Prevention

6. Monday, March 24, 2014 – Ethics of self-determination: Empowering older adults to make their own life decisions, presented by Tanya Richmond, LCSW  | SLIDES| Printable Handouts

link to video 

In this workshop, Tanya Richmond will address ethical issues involved in promoting self-determination among older adults, particularly in regard to end-of-life decisions. Issues of individual autonomy versus a legal stance of “protection” and the legal parameters of capacity will also be highlighted. This will include considerations of cognitive functioning, legal documents, and family dynamics, and the realities of limited systemic resources and increased demand for legal substituted judgment. Ms. Richmond will focus on the use of person-centered planning to help clinicians in decision making support roles to work ethically with clients who are facing challenging decisions in their later years.

Bio: Tanya Richmond, MSW, LCSW is a program coordinator and assistant clinical professor of social work at the Center for Aging Research and Educational Services (CARES) in the Jordan Institute for Families at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is committed to advocating for vulnerable populations, and works as a liaison to the State and county legal systems to improve the quality of life for older and disabled individuals. She is a very active trainer on effective care for geriatric populations and families with special needs, and has also taught direct practice courses for MSW students. Her experience in direct practice includes work with individuals, families, and groups, and is a certified bilingual practitioner for the deaf, rape crisis counselor, and tai chi instructor.

7. Monday, April 21, 2014 – Assessing and treating chronic pain in clients at risk for substance use disorders, presented by David Marks, MD ||SLIDES  || Printable Handouts  || resources

link to video

This workshop addresses the complexity of working with individuals with chronic pain, who may also be at risk of substance use disorders (SUD).  Traditional addiction treatment emphasizes abstinence, which is less appropriate when individuals also suffer from chronic pain.  In this workshop, David Marks will provide an overview of the comorbidity of chronic pain and substance abuse and clarify the issues involved in effective treatment and associated risks. Drawing from his vast experience as both researcher and practitioner, Dr. Marks will identify the factors that are relevant when assessing for the risks of substance use by people with chronic pain. He will also describe strategies to collaborate with clients to manage these risks and to enhance the treatment of chronic pain with non-pharmacological approaches.

Bio: David Marks, MD is has a joint appointment as assistant professor and attending faculty physician with Duke’s University Medical Center, Clinical Research Institute, and Pain and Palliative Care Center. Previously he as Medical Director of Inpatient and Emergency Psychiatric Services Duke Medical Center. He has published extensively on chronic pain, and the effects of pharmaceuticals on mental health and well-being.

Printable 2013-2014 schedule of Winston-Salem Clinical Lecture Series