SACES Virtual Professional Development Webinar Series
SACES is pleased to offer webinars for training in a variety of areas for students, professional counselors, supervisors, and counselor educators.If you have questions about the webinar series, please contact webinars@saces.org. If you are interested in being a webinar presenter, please complete the SACES Webinar Presenter form.
SACES strives to ensure all information, presentations, and webinars are equitable and accessible for all. To request accommodations, please complete the webinar registration as you will find a space to request the necessary accommodations for each event. If accommodations are needed, please plan to register for the webinar events one week in advance to provide our support team enough time to fulfill all accommodations needed. Feel free to email our webinar team at webinars@saces.org to further discuss necessary accommodations, if needed.
Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 2076. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. SACES is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.
**Each monthly webinar will be recorded and available for viewing after the live event at http://www.saces.org/webinars.
February Webinar - February 23, 2023, 12-1pm EST
Effective Counseling Strategies to working with Children and Adolescents with Autism
Presenter:
Jennifer Jenkins, Ph.D., LPC, NSC, BC-TMH.jpg)
Bio: Dr. Jennifer Jenkins has been a part of the counseling field since her first class at Virginia Tech in 2006. At Virginia Tech, she completed her Masters in Counselor Education and completed her doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision from Capella University. Professionally, Dr. Jenkins has worked as licensed School Counselor in the states of Virginia and Tennessee, an intensive in-home counselor (VA), a private practitioner (Warner Robins, GA) and Assistant Professor at Albany State University (Albany, GA) in the Counselor Education program. Research interests include counseling children, adolescents, and young adults with autism spectrum disorder, play therapy, the therapeutic alliance and Covid-19 effects on young adults. Personally, Dr. Jenkins has 3 children (26, 15, &13), a loving and patient spouse, 1 very large chocolate lab and 2 quirky cats. She loves spending time with her family and pets, listening to music, going to concerts, and the art of crochet.
Description:
This webinar will address a critical need for the autism population in regards to mental health concerns. This webinar will provide counselors and counseling faculty with real-time strategies to encourage future counselors to not be afraid of working with children and adolescents with autism. By providing specific education on this population and their mental health concerns combined with effective counseling interventions, counselors, counseling faculty, and counseling students can increase their overall awareness, champion inclusion, and provide a much needed service for those with autism.
Recorded Webinar Link: Effective Counseling Strategies to working with Children and Adolescents with Autism
March Webinar - March 23, 2023, 12-1pm EST
Navigating Autism Diagnosis: Overcoming Challenges for Minority Populations
Presenter: 
Carlos Castañeda, MA, LPC, NCC
Bio: Carlos Castañeda is a Licensed Professional Counselor and owner of the practice, The Missing Peace Counseling & Consultation PLLC. Carlos lives in Austin, Texas and is a Ph.D candidate in counselor education and supervision at Texas Tech University. Carlos is a Doctoral Fellow Under the NBCC Foundation's Minority Fellowship Program. He is a specialist in treating and advocating for individuals with autism.
Description:
This webinar will present current research on the disparities in autism diagnosis and treatment for minority populations, particularly in regards to people of color and women being misdiagnosed. This will provide a foundation for understanding the systemic barriers and biases that contribute to these disparities. I will then provide a detailed overview of assessment tools and techniques that have been developed specifically to address cultural and linguistic diversity, and minimize the potential for bias in the diagnostic process. I will also provide examples of effective interventions and strategies that have been used in real-world settings to improve the identification and treatment of autism in minority populations. These will include things like community-based participatory research, culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions, and training programs for healthcare providers to improve their autism competency. Throughout the webinar, I will also address the importance of incorporating social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion in counseling, counselor education, supervision, and research, by providing some practical examples and strategies for how to do this, and how to integrate these considerations in professional practice and research. Finally, I will provide an open session for a Q&A. This will provide an opportunity for attendees to ask any questions they may have about the issues covered in the presentation and get further clarification about the strategies discussed, providing an opportunity for attendees to take away knowledge and apply it in their practice.
Recorded Webinar Link: Navigating Autism Diagnosis: Overcoming Challenges for Minority Populations
Password:$h=rBE^3
April Webinar - April 27, 2023, 12-1pm EST
Autism & Neurodivergence: Current Trends in Treatment & Advocacy
Presenter:
Ali Cunningham Abbott (she/they/ella/elle), PhD, LMHC, Qualified Supervisor (QS)
Bio: Ali Cunningham Abbott is an Associate Professor and Program Director for the CACREP-accredited clinical mental health counseling program at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. She received her PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision from Florida Atlantic University in 2014. Prior to teaching at Lynn, Cunningham worked as a faculty member and Assistant Director for the Center for Autism & Related Disabilities (CARD) at Florida Atlantic University. She has worked with the regional autism community for 15 years. In addition to teaching and supervision, she currently provides individual and family counseling services in a part-time private practice setting and specializes in guiding autistic clients through self-discovery and diagnostic process.
Christin Fontes, M.A.Ed.
Christin Fontes is a newly licensed professional counselor living and working in Ohio. After receiving a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder during her graduate studies, Christin was called to grow against professional norms she was learning in real time. Christin has experience working in inpatient substance use and college counseling settings. Christin has presented on the ethics of group telehealth counseling and the costs of disclosing for neurodiverse counselor trainees and she is a mentee with the Counselors for Social Justice.
Description:
The talk focuses on socially just and inclusive practices for autistic and neurodivergent clients who represent racial, sexuality and gender diverse identities. It will help clinicians learn about the lived experiences of autistic adults and receive messages from the community that can better inform cultural responsiveness and avoid unconscious ableism as practitioners.
Recorded Webinar Link: Autism & Neurodivergence: Current Trends in Treatment & Advocacy
Password: B*wFa7D5
May Webinar - May 11, 2023, 12-1pm EST
Preparing Counselors to work with Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Presenters: 
Julie Hill (she/her), Ph.D., ALC, CRC, NCC
Bio: Dr. Julie Hill is an assistant professor and the clinical coordinator in the Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling program at Auburn University. She graduated with her Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision with an Emphasis in Rehabilitation from the University of Arkansas and her M.Ed. in Counseling and Career Development from Colorado State University. She has worked with individuals with various disabilities in a number of different settings for several years and currently provides group and individual counseling for young adults with intellectual disabilities enrolled in an inclusive post-secondary education program. Dr. Hill believes all individuals should have access to qualitative mental health services regardless of barriers, including disability status.
Claire Carriere Hebert, M.Ed., ALC, NCC currently serves as an adult psychotherapist for individuals with SMI and IDD diagnoses at a local community mental health agency, where she provides person-centered mental health care and treatment planning for her consumers. Claire graduated from Auburn University’s M.Ed. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program in 2022 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision at Auburn University. Additionally, Claire has six years of experience working in inclusive post-secondary education programs for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities serving as a mentor and graduate assistant while completing her studies. Claire is originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, and has a passion for advocating to help promote quality services for individuals with disabilities.
Description:
This webinar will address and assist with closing the current gap in confidence and skills needed by practitioners to provide quality mental health services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Through use of statistics and case studies, conceptualization will take place in efforts to identify how stigma has played a role in assessment and treatment of co-occurring mental health concerns for individuals with IDD to help amplify the voices of those seeking quality mental health care, who have historically been turned away due to mental health professionals viewing this population as outside their scope of practice. Through discussion of practical skills that can be used in the counseling room, as well as providing education on how IDD symptoms might present or impact mental health symptoms, counselors will leave feeling more equipped to challenge and decrease stigma when it comes to providing mental health care to these populations.
Recorded Webinar Link: Preparing Counselors to work with Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Password: t?d=s!5X
After registering for the webinar, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the training.
Questions about the SACES webinar series? Visit saces.org/webinars or contact the SACES Webinar Committee at SACESwebinars@gmail.com.
Past Webinars
(Click links to find webinar information and recordings)
May 2022:
Understanding the Dynamics of Families in Crises: Legal and Ethical Implications for Counselor Educators and Supervisors Working with Court-Ordered Families
Webinar Description: This webinar will discuss the legal and ethical obligations of counselor educators and supervisors who are working with supervisees who are counseling court-ordered families. The presenters will discuss relevant ACA Ethical codes, discretionary confidentiality, the informed consent process, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Emphasis will be given to supervision theory and the role of the supervisor in providing direction to the supervisee. The webinar will close with a discussion of vicarious liability and how counselor educators and supervisors should approach their work to protect their license.
Click here for the webinar recording
April 2022:
A Minoritized Counselor Educator’s Guide to Managing Cultural Taxation
Webinar Description: The experiences of minoritized counselor educators are well-documented. In addition to maintaining rigorous teaching and research agendas, minoritized counselor educators are often tasked with extensive service commitments that surpass their non-minoritized counterparts. The current presentation addresses the concept of cultural taxation in counselor education. The presentation will carefully outline how cultural taxation is manifested in the academy and the subsequent impact on the minoritized faculty member. This interactive session will also offer practical strategies to manage cultural taxation for both faculty and administrators.
March 2022:
Preemptive Gatekeeping in Counselor Education: Identifying Graduate Students as Candidates for Intervention before Remediation.
Webinar Description: Join us as we guide counselor educators through a proposed process that seeks to identify struggling counseling students in an effort to intervene before requiring program remediation. Participants will benefit from learning common trends and warning signs of struggling students, potential ethical violations, and ways to determine whether counseling graduate students are incompatible with the counseling profession.
Click here for the webinar recording
February 2022:
Ethically Speaking: Preparing School Counselors-in-Training to Implement Trauma-Informed Practices
Webinar Description: One out of every three children and adolescents has encountered an adverse childhood experience and the impact is often intensified within underserved communities and schools. Thus, school counselor educators and supervisors have an ethical obligation to prepare school counselors-in-training to address inequities and promote trauma-sensitive learning environments for all students. When school counselors are equipped with the tools to implement trauma-informed practices within their school counseling programs and overall school environments, students will feel safe, comfortable, and ready for learning.
Click here for the webinar recording
December 2021:
The Supervisor’s Role in Building Supervisees’ Empathy for Clients who Express Discriminatory Views
Webinar Description: Experiencing discriminatory views from clients during counseling can be overwhelming, leaving the supervisee/counselor to explore and deal with their emotions. The webinar will address supervisees’ immediate reactions to the discriminatory views and help them to respond in a manner that is not harmful to the therapeutic relationship. The presenters will address the role of the supervisor in building supervisees’ empathy toward clients who express such views, including applying critical self-reflection and reflective listening. In addition, we will present how the utilization of broaching , Relational Cultural Theory (RCT), and Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) can assist the supervisor in implementing the empathetic skills in supervisees to support them in counseling clients with discriminatory views.
November 2021:
The Climate Crisis: Social Justice, Advocacy and Mental Health Implications for the Counseling Profession
The climate crisis is predicted to have a profound impact on the mental health and well-being of individuals, families and communities, with our most vulnerable neighbors being at an elevated risk. This impact includes depression, anxiety, PTSD and pre-traumatic stress, fear, eco-grief, irritability, anger, violence, and loneliness, as well as disease spread, heatstroke, lung disease, heart disease, suicidal ideation, and premature death. The effects of climate change on community mental health and wellbeing are already taking place globally and locally. As counselors, we have an opportunity to bring our understanding of trauma, vulnerability, and resilience to work with clients and to support climate resilience efforts in our communities. This presentation will provide an opportunity to examine the ways mental health, wellness and climate change interact and how you can use your professional skills to mitigate the impact.
Click here for the Webinar Recording
October 2021:
Promoting Culturally-Informed Eating Disorder Training: Recommendations for Pedagogy, Social Justice, and Advocacy in Counselor Education
Webinar Description: Eating disorders (ED) are serious public health concerns that impact millions of people nationally. However, research has drawn attention to gaps in ED research, practice, and education, which perpetuate treatment barriers for marginalized populations. In this webinar, we will explore findings from a recent quantitative survey on clinician attitudes and perceived challenges towards treating ED. The presenters will provide recommendations to strengthen ED education in counselor education and advocate for more inclusive, socially just treatment.
September 2021:
Racial Battle Fatigue: Attending to the Mental Health Needs of Teachers of Color in Schools with Self-Compassion Practices
Webinar Description: Teachers of Color are often hyper-aware of their differences in race and culture in order to adapt to the dominant white school environment. In this presentation, participants will learn how self-compassion interventions can address emotional exhaustion in teachers of Color that have experienced racial injustice, now more evident by the pandemic. The proposed interventions are presented in a clinical framework in which mental health counselors create safe spaces for teaching self-regulation skills and processing emotional stressors related to racial tensions in school settings.
Click here for the Webinar Recording
February 2021:
Fostering Empathy in Graduate Students: Experiential, Student-Focused, and Innovative Approaches
Among the many roles and responsibilities of counselor educators and supervisors, the fostering of empathy development among students is tantamount. Attendees will learn experiential, student-focused, and innovative approaches that have proven successful in developing empathy in students and supervisees.
This webinar is sponsored by Capella University
December 2020:
Grant Writing in Counselor Education: Strategies for Identifying and Developing Strong Proposals
Grants provide researchers/practitioners the opportunity to conduct innovative, impactful, and socially significant research. Yet, counselor educators may feel unprepared to navigate the grant development process. In this webinar, we will discuss strategies for new investigators to identify a high-impact, fundable area of research science that also supports development of a grant portfolio. We will present a collaborative framework and team science approach to proposal development. Finally, we will discuss select funders and funding mechanisms with specific examples as they relate to counselor education specialty areas.
Sponsors: This webinar was sponsored by Counseling Books, Etc., Liberty University's Counselor Education program, and South University Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program.
November 2020:
School Counselors can do Virtually Anything: School Counseling in a Virtual World
School counselors are tasked with meeting the career, academic and social/emotional needs of students through the implementation of a comprehensive school counseling program. Due to the recent pandemic, many schools across the country have moved to some form of virtual education. This impacts every aspect of a school environment, including the school counseling program. Virtual school counseling, although effective, presents a whole new array of challenges. This session will focus on how to approach these challenges practically and also guide professional school counselors in meeting the diverse needs of all students.
Sponsors: This webinar was sponsored by Dove Self-Esteem Project, Liberty University's Counselor Education program, and South University Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program
October 2020:
Creative, Supportive, and Evaluative Techniques for Online Supervision
This workshop applied the framework of traditional counseling supervision models as teaching tools in providing instruction and feedback in online supervision platforms. The presenters actively demonstrated their student-centered, creative, supportive, and evaluative approaches to supervision in an online environment which can translate to using with clients during telemental health sessions. This session included participation opportunities in an interactive online platform.
Sponsors: This webinar was sponsored by Ascend Wellness, Liberty University's Counselor Education program, and Sam Houston State University's Counselor Education program.
September 2020:
Antiracist Leadership in Higher Education and Counselor Education
This was a SACES Presidential sponsored panel presentation. SACES hosted a panel discussion with three prominent higher education and counselor education leaders, who are also all SACES members: Dr. Kent Butler, UCF’s Interim Chief Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Officer and President-Elect of ACA and Dean Andrew Daire, Dean of the VCU School of Education. The panel was moderated by Dr. Marlon Johnson, co-chair of the SACES Social Justice and Human Rights Interest Network.
Sponsor: This webinar was sponsored by the Florida Atlantic University Counselor Education Program.
Webinar Materials: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RbUAS-GNTLJZtiP_iEgtPHspM3d6zBEz?usp=sharing
July 2020:
Research Team Collaboration with Doctoral and Masters' Students
This webinar will identify the process of creating a collaborative research team with three separate universities. The webinar will offer steps one can take to offer research opportunities to both doctoral and masters' level students, as well as creating a team based approach to research.
Click here to view the recording of this webinar.
June 2020:
Structured Peer Feedback in Supervision and Skills Development Courses
Peer feedback is an important vicarious experience holding potential to increase counseling self-efficacy and behaviors related to performance. Researchers have reported that supervisees perceive peer feedback to be at times more helpful than supervisor feedback yet peer feedback in group supervision was less constructive and not always helpful (Borders, Welfare, Greason, Paladino, Mobley, Villalba, & Wester, 2012). This presentation will explore the use of peer feedback and ways to integrate the Structured Peer Group Supervision model in teaching and supervision of counselors in training.
Click here to view the recording of this webinar
Click here to view the PowerPoint slides
May 2020:
Cross-Racial Supervision in Black and White
The central purposes of supervision are to foster the supervisee's professional development and to ensure client welfare. It is imperative for White supervisors to have a clear understanding of their own personal awareness, knowledge, and skills in relation to multiculturalism when working with African American supervisees. This presentation will highlight approaches to cross-racial supervision that can improve supervisor's cultural understanding.
Click here to view the recording of this webinar
Click here to view the PowerPoint slides
April 2020:
Using 21st Century Contracts as a Tool for Building Egalitarian Supervisory Relationships
As supervisors and supervisees enter into new supervision relationships, it is easy to overlook key elements that can create friction in the relationship. This talk explores components that should be identified and negotiated in a 21st century contract including virtual supervision options, social media policies, payment structures, and much much more. (An article on the topic in Counseling Today)
Click here to view the recording of this webinar
Click here to view the PowerPoint slides
March 2020:
Advocacy Considerations for LGBTQ+ Youth and Youth of Color in K-12 Public Schools
Despite some progress, LGBTQ+ youth are still excluded from many state protections. This reality places equity out of reach for this marginalized student population, particularly youth of color, and jeopardizes student safety. Counseling professionals are uniquely positioned to counter these barriers, yet many feel their role is or are unsure of their own rights within their organization. This presentation takes this seemingly grey dilemma and reveals a clearer path forward for ensuring a safer and more supportive environment for our precious LGBTQ+ youth.
Click here to view the LGBTQIA Issues in School Counseling Resource List
Click here to view the recording of this webinar
Click here to view the PowerPoint slides