A Warm Welcome to You!

We invite you to attend our upcoming programs.

We are a membership, non-profit organization that sponsors Professional Development Programs for mental health professionals suitable to all stages of clinical training. Psychologists, social workers, and professional counselors can expand and refine their clinical expertise and skills while earning continuing education credits. We are a Continuing Education Sponsor of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

We also offer Public Lectures, co-sponsored by Smart Love Family Services, on contemporary issues in diverse fields, including early child development, education, parenting, child welfare, self-help, business, and social decision making.

2019 Programs

Next Program

Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas in the Psychotherapy Relationship: A Reflective Approach

Susan S. Zoline, Ph.D.

This workshop will address contemporary and sometimes vexing ethical dilemmas which arise in clinical practice, requiring clinicians to make difficult judgments regarding perceived benefit and potential harm to our clients and other impacted parties. Topics will include confidentiality/disclosure of information (particularly with regard to children, teens and families), management of high risk or crisis situations such as suicide and risk of violence towards others, and emerging standards regarding the interface of technology and psychotherapy. Special emphasis will be placed upon the centrality of the psychotherapy relationship and its foundation of trust and integrity, as well as the critical role of therapist self-reflection, as each of these factors is essential in providing ethically optimal care. Strategies for utilizing informed decision making while balancing clinical, ethical, legal and risk management considerations will be presented. Case vignettes will be examined and group discussion will be integrated into the presentation to illustrate the grey areas surrounding these complex issues.

October 5, 2019, 2-5 pm | Loyola University, Lewis Tower, Beane Hall, 13th Floor, 111 E. Pearson
Please come at 1:30 pm to sign-in/register, meet colleagues, and enjoy light refreshments. The program will begin at 2:00 pm sharp.

3 Ethics CEs for Social Workers, Psychologists, and Professional Counselors

Register Now!

Presenter

Susan Zoline, Ph.D.
Susan Zoline, Ph.D. is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who has been involved in practicing, teaching and consulting in the Chicago area for over thirty-five years. Dr. Zoline was a Professor of Psychology and University Fellow at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Chicago, where she taught clinical masters and doctoral students for thirty years. More recently, Dr. Zoline is a Clinical Faculty in the Psy.D. program in Clinical Psychology at Adler University. Dr. Zoline’s areas of professional expertise include professional ethics, suicide, violence and abuse assessment and intervention, clinical supervision and risk management. Dr. Zoline is a longstanding member of the Illinois Psychological Association Ethics Committee which she currently Co-Chairs. She has worked clinically in a broad variety of settings and regularly consults and provides workshops to mental health and other professionals both locally and nationally on topics related to professional ethics.

Upcoming Program

"BREAKING NEWS: How Psychotherapists, Parents and Other Caregivers Can Help Children and Teens Effectively Cope with Traumatic News in the Media"

Carla Beatrici, Psy.D.

November 2, 2019: 3-5 pm

Our Most Recent Programs

"When Our Choices Are Not Really Our Own: How Hidden Motives for Unhappiness Keep Us from Creating the Life We Truly Want, and What Can Be Done"

Dr. Martha Heineman Pieper will present a new understanding of what goes wrong when choices are unfree, namely that an unrecognized addiction to unhappiness lies behind many of the large and small decisions individuals experience as freely chosen. She will suggest ways in which parents, therapists, teachers, and individuals can enhance their ability to help others as well as themselves develop the capacity to make good choices that are not in the service of hidden agendas. Dr. Pieper will frame her understanding in the broader context of selected philosophical and psychological views of freedom of choice while illuminating some limitations of these views.

Saturday April 13, 2019, 3-5 pm

Presenter

Martha Heineman Pieper, Ph.D.
Martha Heineman Pieper, Ph.D., is an author and psychotherapist who works with children and parents, and serves as a consultant to agencies and other mental health professionals. She authored two best-selling, award winning children's books, Mommy, Daddy, I Had a Bad Dream! and Jilly's Terrible Temper Tantrums: And How She Outgrew Them. And she co-authored with the late William J. Pieper, M.D., the best-selling parenting book, Smart Love: The Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Regulating, and Enjoying Your Child; the popular adult self-help book, Addicted to Unhappiness: Free Yourself from Moods and Behaviors that Undermine Relationships, Work, and the Life You Want; and Intrapsychic Humanism: An Introduction to a Comprehensive Psychology and Philosophy of Mind.

Co-Sponsored by the Women's Issues Section of the Illinois Psychological Association

Q:	“In the Cultural Awakening of the #MeToo Movement, How Can Psychotherapists Help?”

A:	“Using the Therapeutic Relationship to Build Her Inner Strength, Resistance to Mistreatment, and Pursuit of Mutually Caring Relationships”

Carla Beatrici, Psy.D., Marian Sharkey, Ph.D., Tamara Garrity, Psy.D., and Michael Zakalik, Psy.D.

Experienced psychotherapists will discuss the impact negative gender related messages can have on female teens and adults. Using clinical material from teen and adult cases, the presenters will describe how the therapeutic relationship can strengthen and stabilize genuine, internalized self-worth, constructive self-caretaking, and pursuit of mutually caring interpersonal relationships. The presenters will include how to help female teens and women within the therapeutic relationship develop their own minds, take themselves seriously, care for themselves while also caring for others, use their voices to share losses and mistreatment in relationships, stand up for themselves, and turn away from relationships that are harmful to them. They will address how male therapists can think about their roles, and how to help parents provide accurate caregiving responses that foster genuine self-worth. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion with audience participants.

June 22, 2019, 3-5 pm | Loyola University, Lewis Tower, Beane Hall, 13th Floor, 111 E. Pearson

Presenters

	Carla M. Beatrici, Psy.D. Dr. Carla Beatrici is a Clinical Psychologist with over 25 years of clinical experience with a specialization in child and adolescent mental health. Dr. Beatrici is the Director of Clinical Services of Smart Love Family Services. Dr. Beatrici is an adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at Loyola Medical Center.
	Marian Sharkey, Ph.D., LCSW Dr. Sharkey is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 25 years of clinical experience in inpatient and outpatient hospital settings, community mental health, and private practice. She is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago and has been an instructor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.
	Tamara T. Garrity, Psy.D. Dr. Tamara Garrity is a Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years of experience. She is the Director of Training and Staff Supervisor at Smart Love Family Services. Along with treating patients, she manages the Internship and Postdoctoral training program. Dr. Garrity is a bilingual, Spanish-speaking psychologist.
	Michael Zakalik, Psy.D. Dr. Michael Zakalik is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 15 years of experience working with diverse populations of children, adolescents, parents and adults. Dr. Zakalik supervises doctoral candidates and staff at Smart Love Family Services. He has provided parent education seminars on important mental health topics.