Category: Clinical Strand Updates - UNCONDITIONAL EDUCATION

UNCONDITIONAL EDUCATION

UE West Bay Clinical group Book Club

11/11/2024

As a part of our focus on professional development this year in our West Bay program, we have been dedicating time to discuss Decolonizing Therapy by Dr. Jennifer Mullan. Dr. Jennifer Mullan offers practical steps that we can take to engage in decolonizing our therapeutic work. Clinicians in our program have been really engaged in exploring the impacts of oppressive systems on the clients and families we serve and the role that we play in those oppressive systems. So far, we have had several lively and rich discussions about the book. If you are more interested in learning about Dr. Mullan's work, watch the video linked in this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxhCPY88hGA

Blog By: Jalecia Jones, Clinical Supervisor

Clinical Highlight: CCA Group/PLC at HEART

10/14/2024

Beginning of this school year the HEART clinical team started an Intern, CCA (Clinical Counseling Associate) group supervision and PLC. This group brings together our interns and CCA’s who are currently enrolled in graduate school or getting ready to apply to graduate school, in Social Work and Counseling Psychology studies. This group is led by our amazing, rock star Lead Clinicians and Veteran Clinicians Shocka Heights, Rachel Williams and Tiffany Fox. We also have other fantastic clinicians from our team dropping into the group throughout the school year to teach different techniques/modalities such as DBT, play therapy, and EMDR. The group participants have all shared positive feedback around the community this has created for them and how enjoyable this learning process has been. It has been a really joyful experience to watch the group members support each other, deepen their clinical skills, and grow within this work. We hope to continue this group each year.

Blog By: Leslie Davidson, Clinical Supervisor

What is a Collaborative Alliance?

10/7/2024

Researchers in the field of psychology have long questioned what makes therapy effective. Study after study has shown that, after controlling for variables such as different therapeutic modalities, interventions, therapist experience, etc., the greatest predictor of successful therapeutic and behavioral outcomes is the relationship between the therapist and the client.[1] We call this bond the therapeutic alliance. What makes a strong therapeutic alliance? Think about your own experience of needing social-emotional or behavioral help from someone else. Chances are the issue(s) that brought you to that point touch on vulnerabilities that you don’t share with just anyone. What are the qualities that you need in a relationship to accept that help? Here are some common answers to that question: trust, empathy, non-judgmental acceptance, understanding, honesty, and accountability.

For those of us who interact with kids on the daily (parents and caregivers, school-based therapists, behavioral aides, teachers, afterschool staff, coaches, etc.) it comes as no surprise that relationship is the most powerful factor in supporting social, emotional, or behavioral change. The concept of therapeutic alliance can be generalized to include any support team.[2] In the Unconditional Education model, we seek to partner with all adults in a young person’s life as we work to support the social-emotional and behavioral health of the students that we serve. For this reason, we use the concept of the collaborative alliance to describe the relationship between the student/caregiver, the school team, and any other support people that the family identifies as important to the youth’s growth. When we are working closely with a student, we aim to establish strong relationships within the team built on the same qualities that were mentioned above: trust, empathy, non-judgmental acceptance, honesty, and accountability. There are three practices that we implement to build and maintain a strong collaborative alliance:

Center the voice of the student and family:
- Listening openly to gain a complete understanding of their experience(s)
- Expressing curiosity about their point of view
- Focusing on and elevating their goals, in their own words
Transparency:
- Openly and consistently communicating about what we are doing and why
- Regularly sharing data (quantitative and qualitative) on progress towards the youth and family’s goals
Accountability:
- Regularly reflecting with the team (formally and informally) on progress and interventions
- Soliciting feedback from students and families about how things are going, if they feel supported and understood, and if they feel like their experience is being centered and elevated
- Using the information gathered above to inform next steps in treatment

Maintaining a strong collaborative alliance, like all relationships, is a process that requires ongoing attention and dedication. It is not enough to engage in the practices above only when you first start working with a student. These practices must be integrated into every phase of treatment. By tending to and nurturing the relationship, you are focusing on the factor that has the greatest potential to help a student meet their goals.[3]

[1] Prusinski, Thomas, The Strength of Alliance in Individual Psychotherapy and Patient's Wellbeing: The Relationships of the Therapeutic Alliance to Psychological Wellbeing, Satisfaction With Life, and Flourishing in Adult Patients Attending Individual Psychotherapy. Front Psychiatry. 2022; 13: 827321.Published online 2022 Jan 31. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.827321

[2] Ablon, Stuart J., The Biggest Predictor of Success in Helping Someone Change: Social science research tells us what to focus on. Psychology Today, 2019

[3] Pierson, Rita, Every Kid Needs a Champion, TED TALK. May, 2013

Blog By: Robyn Ganeles, Clinical Supervisor

Healing Through Community Care

10/9/2023

In our Berkeley Clinical Group, we have been discussing intergenerational trauma and what healing can look like as a collective community supporting the families and youth we serve as well. As we do the work with communities that have been historically marginalized, discriminated against and oppressed, we find it even more important to decolonize therapy and our practices along with providing support through the lens of healing centered approaches. We are learning from the works of Dr. Shawn Ginwright, Dr. Thema Bryant, and Dr. Jennifer Mullan. In addition, a lot of our team members working at Seneca have also experienced intergenerational trauma and it is equally important that we hold a space that supports their experiences providing quality care to the families and youth we serve. Please feel free to spend time watching the videos below of the above trainers and experts in our field that are doing groundbreaking work to reimagine what our work can look like with the families and youth that are served at Seneca.

Blog Post Written By: Eidit Choochage, Clinical Supervisor

From Self-Care to Collective Care: Building Individual and Team Connection Through a Liberatory Somatic Practice

5/8/2023

Unconditional Education Partnership’s cohort of clinicians, interns and clinical supervisors is almost 100 people strong. Our clinical strand works across the Bay Area from San Jose to Martinez, including teams in San Francisco, Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward and parts in-between. I am incredibly lucky to provide leadership and consultation to this group of heart-and-healing-centered people. When we gather together the room generally buzzes with creativity, compassion and curiosity. People are also often totally exhausted, putting themselves last as they work late supporting a child through a crisis or finish documenting services accurately before they head home. These folks are honoring the stories of so many children. They hold the hard stuff so the kids can process and heal.

No one can sustain in this work of caregiving without support and care in return. I listen to the feedback from our clinicians and know a priority is for us to find ways to deepen our connection to one another and in the work so that people feel nurtured and seen. I love the idea of moving from self-care to collective care. It can be a challenge to find ways to build resilience together. From my role, I see the importance of creating opportunities for learning and growth that we can do together, where we also get to know each other and ourselves better, to open ourselves to vulnerability, and hopefully to feel nourished.

This year, we sponsored a training series that was offered to every clinician across the UE Partnership continuum. The series from Awakening Kinship Collective is called Somatics as a Liberatory Tool: Deepening our Practice. It included three workshops and three affinity spaces for staff to “experience somatic exploration and increase access to the fullness of their humanity while examining the ways that systems of harm have led to our collective disembodiment.” Awakening Kinship Collective simultaneously held three workshops for UE clinical supervisors, along with the option of an individual leadership coaching session, so that everyone in our cohort had an opportunity to deepen into this different way of knowing and growing.

We will be asking for feedback from folks who attended the series so we can learn more about how the opportunity has impacted them and their work, and we will continue to look for ways to create learning and healing spaces for our clinical strand. I believe wholeheartedly in prioritizing the fullness of our humanity, and in highlighting the unique qualities of our ever growing, ever evolving team of incredible clinicians!

Blog Post Written By: Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Intervention Services

Building Community

4/10/2023

The demographics of our students in Oakland are ever shifting and changing. In recent years, we have started to serve more students who are recent immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America. Some of them came to the U.S. alone, many of them traveling long distances under harrowing circumstances. Some are multilingual and others are monolingual in the indigenous language of their region. Their needs and experiences are unique and diverse.

Over the past two years, our program has implemented several new services tailored specifically to the immigrant experience. First, two therapists have collaborated to provide newcomer groups. These groups bring together students who are new immigrants to process their experiences and get support from their peers as well as the therapist facilitators. Topic areas include sharing cultural values and practices, celebrating their heritage, processing their immigration journeys and discussing their experience living in a new country. One group started a practice of wearing traditional dress on Friday as a way to share their cultural heritage with their larger school community. These groups were such a resounding success that they were featured in a KQED radio program. Take a listen!

Second, at a middle school, a therapist has started a Spanish language parent support group. While this group is not specifically for parents of newcomer students, there is a strong focus on helping monolingual Spanish speaking parents to support the social-emotional wellness of their children. Group topics include communication strategies, adolescent development, love languages and much more!

Meeting the needs of our students and families has always been at the heart of our school-based work. These new and creative interventions strategies have helped us to continue to meet those needs and build on the resilience of the immigrant communities we support.

Blog Post Written By: Amy Blair, Clinical Supervisor

What if the Adults Didn’t Always Need to Stay Calm?

1/9/2023

Is it realistic to always remain calm when we’re working with youth? Nope. And guess what? It can be productive, instructive, and ideal for us to be honest about our own dysregulation. When you pretend to be calm with youth, you are not fooling them: they see it, feel it, and might chalk it up to one more reason adults are not safe. Here is an explanation of this neurological phenomenon:

“When another person gets dysregulated, we are designed to feel the dysregulation too!  Think of it like your nervous system and their nervous system are saying “hello” to each other.  We can partly thank our mirror neuron system for this phenomenon. When we see someone experiencing emotions, we actually imagine having the same experience. The wisdom in this is that it supports our ability to attune and have empathy.  It also gives us information about what might be going on for the other person. One of the other reasons we get dysregulated is because our brains are constantly scanning our environment for safety clues and whether or not there is a challenge to overcome.” (Dion, L., 2022) 

Staying honest about your emotional state when you are dysregulated in interactions with youth can lead to trust and the always important feeling of connection. First, own your feelings: “When you climb on that wall it makes me feel really nervous.” “When you hide the Uno cards it makes me feel frustrated.” Second, model the way you regulate “Wow I’m going take a break here to calm down and do three deep dragon breaths.” “I need to just stop a minute and ground myself with this fidget.” This not only demonstrates ways to regulate but also models self-awareness and expression of emotional states for our clients. The icing on the cake here is you become more attuned to your own triggers and challenges while remaining authentic. That’s self-care!

Once a youth learns that you are honest about your emotions and willing to regulate yourself when with them, they are much more willing to join in or experiment with it themselves. Co-regulation becomes an incredibly useful touchpoint when a youth is distressed. “Yikes, you seem really frustrated, I can feel it, let’s do some breaths together and see if it helps.”

For more information check out some of Lisa Dion‘s podcast and YouTube videos; she started Synergistic Play Therapy, which draws on neuroscience, neurosequential work, play therapy, and psychotherapy.
https://synergeticplaytherapy.com/

Blog Post Written By: Laurie Kindel, Clinical Supervisor

Transformative Healing in the Time of COVID-19

10/26/2020

There is a standard opener in most settings I find myself in these days, a variation of “things are so hard right now!” With the current convergence of social, political and physical upheaval, folks are tired. We search each other’s Zoom faces for connection, validation, engagement. We drop encouraging comments in the chat box or click an icon to indicate we love what we heard. Maybe someone asks the check-in question “what’s something good in your life right now?” and we search our memories for a meaningful answer. For some it is more time with a partner, for others a walk outside after work. Almost every casual conversation I have with coworkers and friends these days ends with an exchange of favorite podcasts and TV shows. We are desperate for a way to fill our free time and trying hard to come up with ways to help each other do that too. In these unprecedented circumstances of whatever week we are in, we are looking for something to help us feel good.

Recently Julie Kim brought a resource to our clinical supervisor team, an infographic from the Genesis Healing Institute that opened my eyes to another way to consider how we navigate this year. The concept is Transformative Healing, and the ideas presented on this graphic filled me with a new sense of hope and courage. At best, this offers a roadmap that helps guide us through the stages of reckoning and healing that this unprecedented time presents to us. At it is simplest, it is a beautiful collection of affirmations that capture so much of what many of us are feeling and exploring right now. I share the graphic with you here and invite you to consider:

Does something here validate an experience you are having?
Does something here point in a direction you would like to go?
Does something here change how you think about what is possible?

It might be helpful to think of this as ‘less as a roadmap, more like a cycle,’ such as the stages of grief. We may go through these stages in and out of order each time we are presented with a new 2020 challenge. My hope is that you find this thought-provoking and that it offers you a new way to consider how you can survive (and thrive!?) during this unprecedented time.

In solidarity,
Emily Marsh

Blog Post Written By: Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Intervention

What is Clinical Supervision?

2/18/2020

From Wikipedia’s description of clinical supervision:

Milne (2007) defined clinical supervision as: "The formal provision, by approved supervisors, of a relationship-based education and training that is work-focused and which manages, supports, develops and evaluates the work of colleague/s. The main methods that supervisors use are corrective feedback on the supervisee’s performance, teaching, and collaborative goal-setting. It therefore differs from related activities, such as mentoring and coaching, by incorporating an evaluative component. supervision’s objectives are “normative” (e.g. quality control), “restorative” (e.g. encourage emotional processing) and “formative” (e.g. maintaining and facilitating supervisees’ competence, capability and general effectiveness).

Each week, our therapists and interns meet with a licensed clinical supervisor who oversees their training and development as well as treatment of clients in their schools. Generally speaking, both licensed and unlicensed therapists meet with their clinical supervisor for individual supervision at least one hour a week, and then in a group-setting with up to seven other therapists for a weekly two-hour group supervision. These units of supervision are non-negotiable, mandated structures put in place to support clinicians who are not yet licensed and are practicing under their supervisor’s license. We use a similar model for our licensed therapists in order to support their connectedness and growth.

**Why so much clinical supervision?**

Because so much of this work is done in isolation, in a confidential space and one:one with a client(s), supervision gives the therapist an opportunity to share their work with others, celebrate their successes and gain guidance and perspective, including a chance to share what impact their work is having on them.
Because the work is done under someone’s license, supervision is one important way the clinical supervisor can ascertain what the therapist is actually doing, and can give input or direction when needed with attention to client safety.
Because it’s essential to know ourselves. The heart of our work is relational, which means the therapist must practice self-reflection and understand their own triggers and motivations, biases and blind spots in order to support their clients to do the same. Ideally, this work can be done with a supervisor in a trusting environment.
Because it’s a learning opportunity - supervision is structured to be supportive of professional development at every level of experience.
To identify and avoid the slippery slopes! Ethical dilemmas, difficult decisions and complicated relationships come up regularly in our lives; as a therapist we are required to tend to our client’s well-being first. This means we need to regularly “check our work” with others who can help us consider ethical and legal issues and catch ourselves before we go off course.

So what goes on in there, anyway?

So much of what our school-based therapists do is not visible to others. Recently a colleague asked, “What do you do in [group] supervision, actually?” Great question!

In individual supervision, the clinician typically brings areas they are struggling with in their work or successes they’d like to share. They check in about required paperwork needs, professional development goals and the logistics of the work, and spend most of the time talking about their caseload, ethical issues and intervention plans. Supervisors are always listening for risk and safety issues for clients and making sure that the clinician is monitoring their clients’ safety in addition to their treatment goals. The relationship between supervisor and supervisee is attended to, discussed, and feedback is invited in both directions to enhance the quality of the relationship.

In a group supervision, up to eight therapists gather to learn from one another. With eight therapists and only two hours, we rarely have enough time to get to everyone’s clients, so the group prioritizes together how to use their time. The therapists identify themes in their work and talk through strategies for understanding their clients and responding to them. Every school year, each of our therapists spends between three and four hours across several groups to do a deep dive into their work with a chosen client. Their colleagues listen, ask questions and offer reflections to help move the therapist forward in their work. At times we read and discuss articles, watch videos or welcome a trainer into the group supervision to further develop clinical practice. Supervisors are always monitoring for safety concerns and making sure clients are always getting the best care. Experiential supervisions are some of my favorites -- that’s when we bring in interventions like play therapy techniques or art therapy activities and we try them out together.

Once our therapists achieve licensure (usually they’re required to have had at least 3000 hours of supervised experience before taking their exam), we continue using a similar supervision model to support their growth. In All-In!, our licensed therapists have the option of joining a “consultation group” instead of continuing in a supervision group. The consultation group is peer-led and gives licensed clinicians the chance to practice facilitating group supervision and supporting one another. For those who are interested in becoming clinical supervisors themselves, this consultation group is a chance to practice clinical leadership.

The goal of clinical supervision is to not only enhance and develop therapists’ clinical skills but also to further their professional development.

Thanks for reading!

Blog Post Written By: Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Intervention

Advancing Behavioral and Clinical Careers within All-In!

1/29/2020

Behavioral Strand Highlight

In All In, growth-mindset is part of our culture. In individual and group supervision, we are constantly discussing personal and professional growth opportunities as a result of this work.

As we wrapped up 2019, the Behavioral Strands Leadership Team hosted a Seneca Career Fair. The objective of the career fair was to provide the Behavioral Team, specifically our Student Support Assistants an opportunity to meet, actively engage with, and learn from their fellow Senecans about various career tracks held within Seneca Family of Agencies. On the panel of participants were an array of representatives for positions including, but not limited to:

Academic Intervention Specialist
Assistant Director of Implementation
Clinical Intervention Specialist
Director of Operations
Director is School Partnership
DESI (Data, Evaluation, and Strategic Initiatives) Project Manager
Program Assistant
School Psychologist
School Psychologist Intern
TBS (Therapeutic Behavioral Services) Clinician
UE (Unconditional Education) Coach
and much more!

It was a magical event, and the plan is to host this type of engagement activity on an annual basis.

As we enter into 2020, “Stay Interviews" have begun. We use this interview format to inquire about plans and professional development goals for next school year. The majority of our All-In Student Support Assistants are motivated to pursue higher learning opportunities, with the hope of staying with or returning to Seneca as a Teacher, Therapist, or Data Evaluator. Additionally, many of our Student Support Assistants have followed up with Career Fair representatives to further discuss their goals and plans for moving in that direction, which is AWESOME!!

So, be on the lookout for our amazing Behavioral Team. They have some aspiring teachers and therapists on the rise. Some are looking forward to starting grad school Fall 2020 and others are exploring potential Universities for Fall 2021. As Eric Thomas said, “When you find your why, you find a way to make it happen.”

Clinical Strand Highlight @ Education for Change

The EFC Clinical Strand has had a busy first half of the school year. For our new clinicians, it was a process of learning all the ins and outs of the Clinical Intervention Specialist role: integrating into a new school site, developing a caseload, creating relationships with clients, caregivers and school partners, finding time to do documentation and finding time for self-care. For clinicians who returned to their sites, they built on continuity with clients and school partners while also adapting to ever evolving school-wide needs, a reminder that each school year is unique. Through it all, our Clinical Team’s consistency and commitment to our clients, their families and capacity building with school partners has been outstanding. Their work embodies the foundation of Unconditional Education and is truly inspiring to witness.

As we all know, data is one of the most powerful tools to inform, engage, and create opportunities for growth and also helps us make connections that lead to insights and improvements. Thus, Increasing progress monitoring efforts has been a huge focal point this year for the Clinical Team, incorporating quantitative data with qualitative data to deepen the narrative of client experiences in connection with our #datatellsastory launch.

Whether connecting progress to a change in intervention or connecting a step back with a new stressor and then adjusting it, the ultimate goal is to track progress and share it meaningfully with clients and all stakeholders involved. The first months have been a learning process of navigating data collecting systems, finding ways to incorporate progress monitoring into already busy schedules, and writing meaningful goals that can be realistically tracked but with great momentum, the Clinical Strand has taken on this work head on and are looking forward to incorporating progress monitoring more seamlessly into future collaboration opportunities! Way to go team!

Blog Post Written By: Toshia Mears, Director of School Partnerships