Full Course Description

Suicide Prevention Reimagined

For decades, suicide prevention training has been shaped more by fear, liability management, and professional self-protection than by healing and human connection.

Clinicians are often taught to respond reflexively: assess risk, document carefully, secure a safety contract, force hospitalization, and medication.

And while these steps may reduce professional anxiety, research increasingly shows that many traditional practices lack strong evidence of effectiveness and may unintentionally alienate, shame, or intensify despair.

If we are serious about preventing suicide -- not just managing risk -- we must make a fundamental mindset shift.

In this session, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas – award-winning speaker and suicide prevention expert – will help you examine the internal narratives, fears, and biases that shape traditional suicide prevention strategies so that you can reframe suicide care from self-protection to dignified support. You’ll get:

Relational skills to shift from containment to connection when meeting with a client expressing suicidality
Collaborative strategies for risk formulation that communicate respect for self-determination
Powerful tools to center lived experience as a catalyst for empathy, cultural responsiveness, and stigma reduction

Program Information

Objectives

Identify and examine fears, biases, and liability-driven assumptions that influence suicide-related clinical decision-making.
Differentiate between risk-containment models and collaborative approaches to suicide care.
Summarize how coercive practices may unintentionally undermine therapeutic alliance and engagement.

Outline

Compassionate Competence over “Clipboard Counseling” for Suicide Prevention

Shift from “don’t get sued” to “don’t leave people alone in pain”
Isolation in suicide risk work
Fear, bias, and the self-protection reflex
Identifying suicidal intensity with curiosity versus categorizing
Clinician lived experience
Interactive guided reflection

Side-by-Side Care for Clients with Suicidality

How to treat clients as active partners in care with relational impact
Use of humanizing versus stigmatizing language
Collaborative meaning-making versus checklist interrogation
MI and self-determination theory for suicide risk formulation
How client experiences of coercion can damage alliance and engagement
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/17/2026

Beyond Safety and Survival

Much clinical training is necessarily focused on risk assessment and safety planning – but what do you do after the crisis is over with a client who has suicidal thoughts?

How do you go beyond safety to focus on helping a suicidal client want to stay alive?

In this session, Dr. Stacey Freedenthal – esteemed suicidologist and author of Helping the Suicidal Person and Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts – will give you the tools you need to work effectively with clients who have suicidal thoughts. You’ll learn:

Specific questions to ask that will help clients evaluate their reasons for living
Interventions that go beyond survival to help find meaning and hope
Evidence-based tools designed to help clients respond differently to their suicidal thoughts

Program Information

Objectives

Identify at least two techniques to increase insight into clients’ ambivalence about suicide.
Utilize at least two approaches for generating hope in people with suicidal thoughts.
Integrate at least two methods for clients to respond differently to their suicidal thoughts.

Outline

“Suicide Anxiety” Among Mental Health Professionals

Fears of liability and suicide can compromise client-centered care
The need to go beyond survival to finding meaning, hope, and benefit in life

Practical Tools for Clients Struggling with Suicidality

Specific questions to tap into ambivalence about living and dying
Fear-based versus hope-oriented reasons for staying alive
Interventions to increase clients’ access to hope
CBT and ACT strategies to help clients respond differently to suicidal thoughts
Therapist self-care – maintaining hope when clients feel hopeless
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/17/2026

Strategies That Save Lives: Crisis Response Plans and Letal Means Safety in Suicide Prevention

When a client is in an acute crisis, a survival-focused approach can save lives.

But an overreliance on survival-focused strategies with clients who struggle with chronic suicidality can unintentionally keep treatment reactive...

...rather than preventing future episodes of increased risk that can wear away at clients’ resilience.

In this session, Dr. Craig Bryan, renowned developer of the Crisis Response Planning intervention, will teach you how to help your clients recognize early warning signs and take action before suicidal thoughts escalate. You’ll learn:

A clear framework for intervention with clients who have cycled in and out of suicidal crises
How and when to best utilize coping strategies to improve clinical outcomes
Strategies to help clients who feel out of control regain a sense of empowerment

Program Information

Objectives

Summarize research findings specific to safety planning interventions.
Identify mechanisms of action underlying the effects of suicide-focused treatments.
Utilize Crisis Response Planning with suicidal clients.

Outline

Background on Suicide-Focused Interventions

Common ingredients and elements across treatments
Findings from meta-analyses and component analyses
The paradox of differential effects for suicidal ideation versus attempts
Why and how suicide-focused interventions work
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Crisis Response Planning

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/17/2026

Client-Centered Suicide Prevention

When you’re fearful of malpractice liability, you’re likely to offer interventions to suicidal clients that are an empathic miss and they may even make matters worse.

It’s time to shift to a client-centered, suicide-focused approach to clinical suicide prevention – care that centers empathy, collaboration, and honesty.

In this session, Dr. David Jobes – developer of the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) treatment method – will help you transition away from an anxiety-based, clinician-centered practice to a framework that reliably decreases suicide ideation and attempts. You’ll learn:

An evidence-based approach to assess, target, and treat suicidal risk
How to avoid overreliance on hospitalizations that may lead to more harm than good
Interventions to help clients cultivate purpose and meaning

Program Information

Objectives

Utilize an effective screening tool and assessment tool for suicidal risk.
Define effective stabilization care for acute suicidal states.
Identify root causes that prompt a client’s suicidal thoughts and urges.

Outline

Foundations of Effective Clinical Suicidology

Medical model bias with little empirical support
Clinician-focused practice due to fear of malpractice liability litigation
Default to most restrictive practice
Overview of evidence-based treatments for suicidal risk
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicide (CAMS)

Importance of client-centered suicide care
Screen and assess for suicidal risk
How to stabilize clients who are acutely suicidal
Identify and treat client-defined suicidal drivers

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychologists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/17/2026

Ethics in Suicide Care

It's hard to feel prepared for the ethical dilemmas that show up in suicide prevention practice -

Like, how to manage confidentiality when it seems like now is the time to involve family and friends in supporting your client’s safety...

Whether involuntary hospitalization – which may cause harm – is truly the least-restrictive care environment...

Or how to provide clients with what is evidence-based while institutional demands require a different course of action.

In this session, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas will walk you through the evolving ethical landscape of suicide-informed care to give you what you need to know when you’re working with clients, whether they’re in crisis, live with chronic suicidal thoughts, or survived a suicide attempt. You’ll get:

An ethical compass to balance autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice
Tools drawn from contemporary ethics frameworks, cultural humility practices, and lived experience perspectives
A framework to balance professional duty of care with compassion and respect

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice in relation to clinical and organizational dilemmas in suicide care.
Evaluate the ethical implications of intervention strategies by differentiating between coercive and collaborative practices.
Develop ethically grounded decision-making frameworks that balance professional duty of care with compassion, cultural responsiveness, and respect for client dignity.

Outline

Ethical Foundations in Suicide Prevention

Relevant bio-ethical principles – autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice
Ethics and suicide research
Recognize over-identification or avoidance in suicide-exposed helpers.
Ethics in justice and systemic constraints
Moral distress in clinicians

Ethical Tensions in Suicide Intervention

The paradox of protection
Potential harm and trauma in forced “treatment”
Weigh duty-to-protect vs self-determination to integrate least-restrictive, person-centered care
Ethical use of safety plans and advanced directives
Right to die and ethics in suicide-grief and trauma support
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/17/2026

Beyond Crisis Intervention

Most suicide prevention training focuses on what happens when risk is already high - safety planning and crisis response.

While essential, this downstream approach alone is not enough. Countless more lives can be saved when clinicians focus on upstream prevention.

In this session, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas shares with you the keys to reducing psychosocial hazards long before a crisis emerges – including prevention efforts for youth and special populations. You’ll learn:

Practical, concrete strategies to strengthen resilience, increase connectedness, and reduce risk
How to help clients build hope, meaning, and a sense of purpose
Tools to help clients increase physiological safety, regulate mood, and manage stress

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate upstream, midstream, and downstream suicide prevention approaches and explain why crisis-only models are insufficient for reducing suicide risk at a population level.
Identify at least two treatment targets focused on building meaning and community for upstream suicide prevention
Utilize at least two upstream counseling strategies to build resilience and reduce suicide risk.

Outline

The Waterfall Model of Suicide Prevention

Upstream, midstream, and downstream prevention
Why downstream-only approaches are insufficient for population-level change
Innovative upstream interventions with special populations: youth, culturally diverse communities, LGBTQ+
Micro-interventions with macro impact

Building Buffers to Reduce Suicide Risk

Increase body regulation and physiological safety to facilitate clarity of thinking and feeling
Help clients build internal narratives of worth, capability, and resilience
Gratitude and positive cognitive framing to regulate mood and buffer stress
Build meaning and sense of purpose
Hope-building interventions
Peer-led and community-based interventions to reduce thwarted belongingness
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/18/2026

Postvention in Practice

When your client lost a loved one to suicide, it can be hard to know where to begin.

And without suicide-specific postvention training, therapists may unintentionally over-pathologize normal responses, miss critical themes, or prematurely push for meaning-making.

Traditional grief work isn’t enough for the layered psychological, relational, and existential impact that suicide loss survivors are facing – leaving them at elevated risk for depression, PTSD, prolonged grief, and their own suicidal ideation.

In this clinically grounded and emotionally resonant seminar, Dr. Marlon Rollins integrates current research, professional expertise, and lived experience to provide structured, trauma-informed tools for suicide-specific bereavement care. You’ll learn:

Strategies to strengthen the therapeutic alliance with suicide loss survivors
Evidence-based, culturally responsive tools to address survivor guilt and stigma
Practical techniques to differentiate traumatic and complicated grief

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate traumatic grief and complicated grief in suicide loss survivors.
Integrate evidence-based strategies to facilitate meaning reconstruction and post-traumatic growth in suicide loss survivors.
Utilize trauma-informed and culturally responsive postvention interventions.

Outline

The Impact of Suicide Loss

Epidemiology of suicide exposure and survivor prevalence
Complicated grief, traumatic grief, and PTSD
Disenfranchised grief and stigma
Increased mental health and suicide risk among survivors
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Clinical Mistakes and Missed Opportunities

Language and stigma in the therapy room
Avoidance of suicide-specific themes
Over-pathologizing grief or minimizing trauma
Premature reframing toward growth
Risk of imposing meaning prematurely
Countertransference and clinician discomfort

Evidence-Based Postvention Interventions

Meaning reconstruction theory
Addressing survivor guilt and moral injury
ACT-informed values-based grief work
Narrative and identity reformation strategies
Incorporating rituals and structured reflection
Frameworks that support healing and identity reformation
When and how growth emerges after loss
Facilitating advocacy and legacy-building
Working with families, groups, and community systems

Ethical, Cultural, and Practical Considerations

Culturally responsive postvention strategies
Spiritual and existential dimensions
Ongoing suicide risk assessment
Documentation and scope of practice

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/18/2026

Interventions for Suicide Exposure

Typical grief interventions don’t fit for suicide loss.

They don’t account for traumatic reactions of survivors – the disorienting intrusive thoughts, the overwhelming guilt, and the unnerving moral injury.

And when therapists skip over stabilization and try to get right into deeper therapeutic work, they may inadvertently increase distress, reinforce shame narratives, and pathologize normative trauma reactions.

In this session, Sarah W. Gaer – nationally recognized suicide prevention specialist and trainer – will walk you through a sequencing-based response to suicide exposure that integrates trauma science, field experience, and applied frameworks. You’ll learn:

The common clinical missteps to avoid in your work with suicide loss survivors
How to use Psychological First Aid principles to provide emotional support and bolster coping
Interventions to transform moral injury and survivor’s guilt into opportunities for meaning making

Program Information

Objectives

Identify acute trauma reactions that accompany suicide loss beyond traditional grief responses.
Define the core principles of Psychological First Aid (PFA) and differentiate early stabilization support from formal therapy.
Summarize how the Soul Care framework addresses moral injury, identity disruption, and meaning reconstruction.

Outline

Suicide Loss as Both Bereavement and Trauma

Grief reactions versus acute trauma responses
Neurobiological stress responses after suicide exposure
Intrusive imagery, guilt, self-blame, anger, and disorientation
Shattered assumptions and meaning disruption
Secondary trauma in clinicians and responders

Common Clinical Missteps Following Suicide Loss

Premature emotional processing
Over-pathologizing acute trauma responses
Confusing therapy with stabilization
Minimizing existential or moral injury components

Psychological First Aid (PFA): Principles and Application

Core elements of PFA
Differences between PFA and critical incident stress debriefing
Applying PFA in suicide loss contexts
Scope of practice and ethical considerations
Limitations of the research for PFA

Therapy vs. Early Stabilization Support

When to provide PFA vs. formal therapy
Timing considerations in trauma processing
Referral pathways and stepped care models

Soul Care for Depletion After Suicide Loss

Soul Care defined
The role of understanding & forgiveness in suicide loss
Moral injury and survivor’s guilt
Shame and responsibility narratives
Support social connection recovery

Limitations and Risks

Limitations of current suicide bereavement research
Cultural variability of trauma response
Risks of premature processing
Importance of referral for complex trauma

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage and Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/18/2026

THRIVE

Most suicide-specific psychotherapies initially focus on physical safety from suicide, risk mitigation, and lethal means restriction. While interventions focused on safety from suicide are essential for suicide prevention, not all suicidal clients exhibit sufficient readiness to engage in these approaches. Furthermore, safety-centered approaches may reduce suicide attempts but fail to treat immense psychological suffering associated with the desire to die. This experience can be anxiety-provoking and demoralizing for providers, begging the question, “What do I do next?”

In this session, Dr. Jennifer Lockman – developer of the Toward Hope, Recovery, Interpersonal Connection, Values, and Engagement (THRIVE) treatment intervention - will help you examine how recovery-centered approaches to suicide prevention can help you engage suicidal clients in their care-plans, work with clients to decrease their desire to die, reduce care re-admissions after a crisis, and engage patients in belonging, giving, and meaningful living. You will learn:

Common pit-falls encountered in safety-centered, risk-mitigation suicide-specific approaches to treatment and how to overcome them
How to maximize suicidal clients’ treatment engagement using emerging recovery-centered best practices
How to help clients achieve holistic recovery from suicidal experiences through interpersonal, values-driven, and meaning-centered daily practices

Program Information

Objectives

Define suicide recovery as a critical and unique component of suicide prevention.
Describe the unique recovery components of THRIVE, including clinical strategies to promote recovery readiness and interpersonal belonging and giving.
Deploy three engagement-based strategies to engage suicidal persons in treatment, including individuals who may initially refuse safety-focused interventions and treatment required in healthcare systems.

Outline

Suicide as a Public Health Concern: The Role of Recovery in Suicide Prevention

Leading cause of death despite widespread use of safety planning and means restriction
Why crisis‑based interventions alone do not lead to sustained suicide prevention
How suicide recovery represents an overlooked but critical prevention frontier of suicide prevention
What a person‑centered, lived‑experience‑driven recovery approach adds to suicide care
Strengthening public‑health approaches with integration of recovery into acute risk‑management systems

THRIVE: A Recovery‑Centered Approach to Suicide Prevention

Strong preliminary evidence, including support from pilot randomized controlled trials
Relevance for crisis and brief‑intervention settings where recovery options are limited

Core Recovery Clinical Targets of THRIVE

Emphasis on assessing and strengthening recovery readiness
Clinical strategies targeting:
- Intrapersonal recovery readiness
- Interpersonal belonging
- Interpersonal giving
- Suicidal ideation and behaviors
- Life purpose and legacy
Conceptual grounding in contemporary suicide recovery theory

Engaging Suicidal Clients in Care Using THRIVE Strategies

Recovery‑centered engagement techniques unique to the THRIVE model
Approaches for working with individuals who resist or refuse safety‑focused interventions
Practical applications within healthcare systems that require mandated treatments

Implications for Practice and Prevention

Using THRIVE as a recovery-centered complement to safety‑focused suicide‑prevention strategies
Engagement, retention, and holistic recovery outcomes as potential benefits
Current research limitations and potential clinical risks to consider
Ongoing research, evaluation, and implementation as essential next steps

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

It Takes a Network

Many suicidal individuals will never show up to therapy or call a hotline.

That’s why your community needs your expertise outside of your office -

Because suicide prevention should be a networked effort that extends beyond clinical walls.

In this session, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas will show you how you can partner with organizations to assist peer support systems that reach suicidal individuals where they are actually showing up at work and in their communities. You’ll get:

Insight into how peer allies are an essential pathway back to meaning, connection, and a passion for living
Strategies for reaching populations that need your help but may never seek care
Tools to become a strategic partner and consultant to organizations seeking to utilize peer support networks

Program Information

Objectives

Summarize how workplaces and peer allies can aid in suicide prevention and recovery.
Identify four elements of recovery around which peers can assist suicidal individuals.
Name at least two practical ways clinicians can partner with workplaces and professional groups in delivering effective peer support programs.

Outline

Clinical-Only Solutions Leave Gaps in the Chain of Survival

The therapy office isn’t enough – build networks
Demographics missed by traditional systems
Stigma, self-reliance, and other factors impacting support
Workplaces and peers as the missing link

From Survival to Living with Workplace Peer Allies

Elements of recovery and how work can help clients access them
Role of peer allies in early noticing and bridging to care
Why organizations are investing in workplace peers
High-risk industries
Workplace culture issues and common barriers
Case studies

The Clinician’s Role as Strategic Partner

Shift from treating individuals to strengthening ecosystems
Unions, associations, and other partnership pathways
How to provide psychoeducation about peer allyship
Advisement of peer support programs
Contribute ethics and risk awareness
Care referrals and training on linkage (and limits)
Integrate peer support into treatment plans for clients in therapy
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Documentation and Record Keeping in Psychotherapy

Six step framework for protecting yourself from legal and ethical liability
Clear, practical guidance on handling real world documentation dilemmas
The latest codes and laws on record keeping

No one becomes a therapist to stress over SOAP notes – but here you are, still finishing them at 10 p.m.

Because documentation and recordkeeping are essential for protecting your clients, your licenses, and your practice.

But let’s be honest, you probably didn’t receive much training on how to do it right. Not in grad school. Likely not in supervision.

So you can end up second-guessing what to include, worrying about missing important details …

… and often spending a lot of time trying to get it all right – even if it means taking extra time on your evenings and weekends.

And today, it’s more complicated than ever before with electronic health records, AI, client record requests, and evolving privacy laws.

That’s why you need this training.

Watch ethics and legal expert Dr. Kathryn Krase, JD, MSW, a licensed social worker and practicing attorney, as she shares her knowledge of the clinical and legal sides of documentation challenges inside and out.

She’ll show you everything you need to create clear, ethical, and defensible clinical documentation PLUS best practices for recordkeeping, managing digital communication, client access, and more.

From writing effective progress notes and managing client record requests to handling teletherapy documentation and navigating termination and fair information practices …

… you’ll leave this program feeling more prepared than ever before.

So you can stop stressing over your notes and start focusing on what matters – your clients.

Don’t wait. Purchase now!

Program Information

Objectives

Determine the ethical responsibility of mental and behavioral heath professionals to maintain client records.
Distinguish between the ethical responsibility and related legal requirements of mental and behavioral health professionals to maintain client records
Identify best practices when reusing content in documentation.
Utilize strategies that protect client confidentiality whether using physical or electronic health records.

Outline

Protect Yourself from Legal & Ethical Liability

The 6 Step Decision-Making Framework
Develop awareness of emerging professional challenges
Weigh possible responses through an ethical and practical lens
Take thoughtful, well-supported action with appropriate safeguards

Explore Ethical Codes & Legal Requirements on Record Keeping

AAMFT
- Code 2.5 – Confidentiality in non-clinical activities
- Code 3.5 – Maintenance of records
ACA
- A.1.b – Records and documentation
- B.6 – Records and documentation subsection
NASW
- 3.04 – client records
APA
- Section 6 – Record keeping and fees
Federal Law: HIPAA
- Privacy Rule and safeguards
- Patient rights and psychotherapy notes
Specific State Law Examples
- NY: Expectations, and retention
- CA: Retention rules

Practical Documentation

Essential content examples
Security of paper and electronic records
Benefits and risks associated with the use of templates
Dangers of note cloning and best practices for reusing content
Clinical records vs. psychotherapy notes

Special Documentation Issues

Electronic communications: Ethical risks, consent, and secure systems
Amending records: Legal process for making changes or corrections post entry
Client requests for records: Right of access rules and exceptions

Responsibilities around Termination, Job Transitions, and Retirement

Importance of keeping complete records
Informing clients (past and present)
Retention timelines and best practices

Impact of Electronic Health Records (EHR/EMR)

Legal & ethical implications
The latest security standards
Informed consent for digital systems
Fair information practices
Post-termination responsibilities
Client access to EMRs

Special Topics

Records of minors
Guidelines for sharing records
Teletherapy documentation and consent/disclaimers for virtual care
Using AI in documentation

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Case Managers
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Case Managers
Other Mental Health Professionals
Physicians