Professional Development

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Psychopharmacology: Essential Information for Mental Health Professionals by Dr. David Dadiomov, PharmD, BCPP

Dr. David Dadiomov, a board-certified psychiatric pharmacist, provides expert insights into common mental health medications, including antidepressants, anxiolytics, and ADHD treatments. Coordinated by our partner in continuing education, PESI, a nationally recognized accrediting institution, the “Psychopharmacology in Mental Health” seminar provides our therapists with substantial continuing education credits, recognized nationally by state boards for licensing and maintaining good status. During the training, our therapists gain comprehensive knowledge about common medications prescribed for mental health conditions. They acquire the skills needed to confidently discuss medication benefits and risks with clients, navigate ethical considerations, and optimize treatment outcomes. This seminar equips them with the expertise to enhance their practice and support their clients’ mental health effectively.

The Unique Needs of Creative Professionals in a Clinical Setting by Alyssa Digges, MA

Leveraging her experience as a counselor for creatives, her research on mental health and burnout in actors, and her background as a former professional actor, Alyssa Digges offers profound insights into the unique challenges faced by creative professionals and outlines best practices for their treatment. This presentation focuses on the unique requirements of individuals in creative fields, particularly actors and performers. Alyssa highlights the distinct needs and challenges these creative professionals face in therapeutic settings, providing valuable insights for effective treatment.

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Made Easy: ACT for PTSD, Anxiety, Depression & Personality Disorders by Dr. Daniel Moran

ACT expert and presenter Daniel J. Moran leads this exercise and intervention-heavy course aimed at providing effective tools for treating clients with PTSD, anxiety, depression, or personality disorders. Sponsored by Clarity Therapy as part of our quality assurance efforts, this seminar is coordinated by PESI, a nationally recognized accrediting institution. Our therapists earn significant continuing education credits recognized by state boards for licensing and maintaining good standing. In the seminar, titled “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Techniques for Difficult-to-Treat Clients,” our therapists learn how to integrate ACT into their practice to achieve positive therapeutic outcomes with challenging clients. They explore how ACT weaves mindfulness strategies with cognitive-behavioral change strategies to revolutionize client outcomes. They discover a variety of ACT techniques to help clients struggling with painful thoughts, feelings, and memories make meaningful behavior changes.

Participants learn to appraise ACT concepts such as experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion, assess client fusion with thoughts about the past or future, and illustrate mindfulness exercises in a clinical setting. They evaluate the role of psychological flexibility in ACT and devise interventions for increasing it to improve treatment outcomes. Our therapists also construct emotional and behavioral willingness exercises to address experiential avoidance and analyze the efficacy of values clarification exercises as they relate to treatment outcomes. By integrating the ACT approach into treatment, they address clinically relevant issues for specific disorders, including depression, anxiety, trauma, and personality disorders. The training empowers our therapists with practical, evidence-based ACT skills that they can immediately apply in their practice, ensuring that Clarity Therapy continues to provide high-quality, effective care for our clients.

Sexual Issues in Therapy Clinical Strategies to Restore Desire, Increase Satisfaction & Empower Clients in the Bedroom & Beyond by Barry W. McCarthy, PhD, ABPP

Barry W. McCarthy, Ph.D., ABPP, leads this seminar, guiding our therapists step-by-step through some of the most challenging sexual issues they face as clinicians. Sponsored by Clarity Therapy NYC as part of our continuing education efforts, this seminar ensures that our therapists stay up to date on the latest treatments to provide quality care. Barry provides clear, session-by-session treatment models to address issues such as lack of desire, sexual trauma, sexual dysfunction, and affairs. He also equips them with tools to adapt those models to the treatment of sexual issues unique to non-traditional couples and older adults. Coordinated by PESI, a nationally recognized accrediting institution, the “Sexual Issues in Therapy” seminar offers our therapists a significant amount of continuing education credit, recognized nationally by state boards for licensing and maintaining good status. During the training, our therapists learn how to give couples a broader sexual repertoire, emphasizing that if it is intercourse or nothing, nothing wins. They walk away with the skills needed to confidently address sexual issues with their clients, helping them rekindle their desire, overcome the biggest challenges of sex therapy, and, most importantly, offer their clients a clear path to sexual fulfillment.

Body Justice for Clinicians by Paula D. Atkinson, LICSW

Paula D. Atkinson is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, working as a psychotherapist in private practice. She has been working for years with those who suffer from disordered eating, food obsession, exercise compulsion, and body image issues. She treats clients with a weight-neutral, anti-diet approach. Paula proudly identifies as a body justice activist, teaching courses on the myths of the U.S.’s measures of health, our culture’s thin idealism, and the oppression of large bodies to mental health professionals and as a professor at George Washington University. Paula is a Health At Every Size registered practitioner, a member of The International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals, the National Association of Social Workers, and the Association of Social Work Boards. The purpose of this training is to provide a brief history of the origins of diet culture and thin idealism and how therapists can help clients re-write their narrative surrounding toxic beauty standards defined by today’s society.

The Intersection of Queer and Racial Trauma by Dr. Antoine Crosby, Ph.D

Dr. Antoine Crosby is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in Washington, D.C. Dr. Crosby’s clinical experience and passion involve working with ethnic, sexual orientation, and gender minorities across the lifespan, individuals living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses, substance use, and other marginalized groups. Currently, Dr. Crosby provides individual and couples psychotherapy through his private practice, Affirmative Spaces. His research and clinical specialty areas include LGBTQ+ mental health, African American Psychology, HIV/AIDS, and working with other marginalized groups.

Research suggests that Black Men Who Have Sex with Other Men (BMSM) experience increased levels of depression, anxiety, social isolation, and substance misuse relative to the general population (Arnold et al., 2014; Fields et al., 2015; Jackson et al., 2020). These reported increases have been attributed to the unique distress this population experiences due to the intersection of their racial/ethnic and sexual orientation identities. The purpose of this training is to explore the complexities present within this intersection, identify how it impacts social, emotional, and behavioral functioning, and gain insight into treatment approaches that may be useful when working with this population. Throughout this interactive learning experience, participants have the opportunity to discuss case scenarios, identify relevant terminology, and reflect on their work when collaborating with this population.

Complex Trauma and Dissociative Identity Disorder by Dr. Rebeca Gonzalez-Scherman, Psy.D

Dr. Rebeca Gonzalez-Scherman is a New York City-based clinical psychologist. She has been in private practice since 2001. In addition to her practice, Dr. Gonzalez-Scherman consults for La Clinica Hispana at Yale Medical School in New Haven, CT. She addresses issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and identity through the lens of trauma. She holds the position of Chair-Elect for the Center for Advanced Studies in Trauma and Dissociation (for the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation) and also is on the faculty. She teaches mental health professionals nationally and internationally on the subject of complex trauma and dissociative disorders. Dr. Gonzalez-Scherman supervises both licensed psychologists and graduate-level interns on issues of complex trauma and on relational trauma, complexities of transference-countertransference configurations, enactments, and the use of psychoanalytic concepts to deepen the work of psychotherapy. Dr. Gonzalez-Scherman believes strongly in the integration of skills-based training/symptoms management with the profound work within the interpersonal field.

Following relational psychoanalytic concepts, she adheres to a two-person psychology in understanding and utilizing what happens in the treatment relationship to further the work and create meaningful change for patients (and often for the clinician as well). Most recently, her area of interest is in the use of what she calls therapeutic courage in the consulting room. During the two one-hour meetings with Clarity Therapy NYC clinicians, we explore areas of traumatic experience ranging from what is typically considered “Big T” trauma (PTSD, Complex PTSD) to what is more often considered relational trauma. Patients typically present with one and/or both kinds of experiences in their lives. From this lens, relational trauma is a fact of living and one we must contend with in the consulting room. We focus our attention on developing a deeper understanding of the effects of trauma on an individual, their sense of self, and their sense of safety in relationships to others and in the world. This complexity often leaves clients/patients and therapists in a quandary because the act of being in a relationship is fraught with ‘pitfalls’ (which are actually enactments) requiring courage on the part of our patients and often requiring the use of therapeutic courage ourselves.

Working with Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Expansive Patients in Psychotherapy: A Starting Point by Dr. Alex Crockett, Psy.D

Dr. Alex Crockett is a non-binary and queer licensed psychologist practicing in Oakland, California. They are a dual diagnosis specialist in an addiction medicine clinic at Kaiser and work extensively with trauma/PTSD, use disorders, severe dual diagnoses, and gender-related issues. They are the clinic champion for work in intimate partner violence, tobacco cessation, and LGBTQ issues, and participate in a psychedelic medicine group that discusses potential uses of psychedelics in aiding PTSD therapy.

Online Engagement for Therapists: Ethical Practices for Mental Health Professionals in the Digital Age by Dr. Ronit Levy, Psy.D

Our therapists from Clarity Therapy are currently participating in an essential seminar on ethical and modern online presence, led by Dr. Ronit Levy, Psy.D, a Clinical Psychologist and private practice consultant with over a decade of experience in SEO strategies for healthcare professionals. Recognizing that 90% of people now find their therapist online, we engaged Dr. Levy to ensure our group practice maintains an ethical and effective online presence. In this presentation, Dr. Levy highlights the techniques and steps necessary for therapists to improve their online presence in this digital age. Clinicians learn how to effectively represent themselves online, ensuring that our practice is perceived as trustworthy and qualified by potential clients and search engines alike. They gain insights into getting in front of their ideal clients, showcasing their expertise, complying with Google standards for healthcare websites, and increasing organic search traffic. By understanding and implementing these strategies, Clarity Therapy ensures that mental health professionals are not only meeting ethical standards but also establishing ourselves as sought-after experts. This seminar is part of our continuing efforts to stay up to date with modern practices, helping clients find us easily and confidently through online searches.

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS): A Transformative Treatment for Healing PTSD, Anxiety, Depression and More by Jory Agate, LMHC, MDiv, MA

Jory has been a student of IFS for over 10 years and has logged thousands of hours with a wide variety of patient populations. As an assistant trainer for the Center for Self Leadership (CSL), the IFS organization founded by IFS creator Richard Schwartz, PhD, Jory presents IFS workshops around the country and abroad. In this PESI-Certified Continuing Ed training, clinicians receive a comprehensive view into the evolution of the model by Dr. Richard Schwartz. Therapists learn IFS concepts, techniques, and treatment interventions, as well as how to apply practical interventions to one’s current clinical practice.