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Course excerpt from Ethics and Professional Wills
“Preparing well for the closing of psychology practice is an essential process that is often overlooked or indefinitely deferred, especially by younger clinicians, due to a variety of practical and psychological factors. Psychologists may feel they are too busy completing the immediate tasks involved in providing clinical care and running a practice to think about such a distant event. They might also perceive the closing of practice as not being a relevant issue in their current lives, thereby denying the possibilities of unexpected incapacitation or death. Certainly, anxiety in considering the prospect of especially premature death or incapacitation deters some individuals from focusing on developing such plans.
In reality, however, the task of closing your practice is inevitable, sooner or later; as Pope and Vasquez (2005) satirically state, “unless a therapist is invulnerable and immortal, it is a good idea to prepare . . .” such plans well in advance, in their view even before first opening your practice. To perform this task ethically involves careful pre-planning, done well in advance, balancing clinical, ethical, legal, financial, emotional and practical considerations. Specific plans depend upon a variety of factors, including whether the closing is planned or unplanned, temporary or permanent, and whether the psychologist is available to participate in the closing.
For example, the temporary closing of your practice for a maternity leave is a planned and temporary event. Based on a specific patient’s clinical needs, the pregnant psychologist might choose to transfer care to another provider or temporarily suspend care but make arrangements for coverage in case of an emergency. However, the sudden incapacitation or death of that psychologist is obviously an unplanned, typically permanent situation, with no chance of future professional availability. Psychologists in solo practice do not have the safety net characteristic of group or agency work environments, and thus have even greater practical concerns regarding unexpected closings, including the transfer of patient care to new providers.
The importance to your patients of preparing for the closing of a practice is underscored within the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2016), via its inclusion as Ethics Standard 3.12: “Interruption of Psychological Services: Unless otherwise covered by contract, psychologists make reasonable efforts to plan for facilitating services in the event that psychological services are interrupted by factors such as the psychologist’s illness, death, unavailability, relocation, or retirement or by the client’s/patient’s relocation or financial limitations.” The focus of this course is on how to develop a clearly established plan to follow, or for colleagues to follow in the psychologist’s absence, in order to help patients by minimizing disruption to their care, and by addressing their anxieties or distress regarding the change.”
In the course ‘Ethics and Professional Wills’, the author provides practical information on how to meet the APA Ethics Code standards regarding the pre-planning for the closure of a practice, while being sensitive to the possible anxiety and/or resistance that surrounds this topic. Clinical consideration on how to best meet the patients’ needs are discussed and an outline of steps to take as you preplan for the closure of a practice is provided, along with useful templates to help get the process started. To learn more, click on the link below!
Professional Development Resources is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Professional Development Resources maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Professional Development Resources is also approved by the Florida Board of Psychology and the Office of School Psychology and is CE Broker compliant (#50-1635).
Course excerpt from High Functioning Autism in Children
Children with high functioning autism (HFA) differ from other children on the spectrum in that they wish to interact with others but lack the know-how. Thus, social skills training is an important component of remediation for children with HFA.
Michelle Garcia Winner (2007) created the “Social Thinking” program. This approach has gained popularity in recent years because it teaches children the “why” of social decision-making, not just rote social skills. This training can help children with the generalization of their social learning skills across various settings. Such interventions aim at teaching children the thought processes that underlie social behaviors so that they can think flexibly and tailor their behavior to a given situation.
Up until now, professionals have generally tried to teach children specific skills, such as greetings or initiating a topic of conversation and then practice with them to improve the development of these skills. This does not account for the fact that we cannot use social skills in the same way under different social situations. For example, “consider a 13-year-old boy who – based on the culture of his age – is actually expected to say “What’s up?” when greeting his peers, say “Hi” when greeting his teacher and then say “Hello” when brought into a formal meeting.” (For more detail, visit the Social Thinking website at https://www.socialthinking.com )
According to Garcia Winner (2015):
The gap between teaching students behaviorally based, memorized social skills and the need to teach our students how to adapt their social skills based on the expectations of the situation and the people in the situation is the gap between the more tradition social skills teachings and Social Thinking. When teaching Social Thinking we are teaching students to become active social problem solvers who are not focused on memorizing what to do socially but instead are engaged in figuring out what people around them are doing, what they are expecting, what our students are seeking in their interactions with others and all this helps them to figure out how to interact in any given time or place and with different people. (para. 3)
Garcia Winner adds that social thinking is not only employed when we are involved in social interactions, it may be utilized any time we share a common space. For instance, social thinking is engaged when one is at the supermarket and moves their shopping cart out of the way, as a courtesy to a fellow shopper.
Instructing children on social skills involves the conveyance of the presence of other people’s minds, as well as social thoughts. To do this we can employ the four steps of perspective thinking.
The four steps listed and discussed here (adapted from https://www.socialthinking.com/Articles?name=social-behavior-starts-social-thought-perspective-taking) can assist students with recognizing and considering the extent to which they think about other individuals, and adjusting their behaviors to suit, even in the absence of intentional communication. We may engage these four steps to accommodate just about any social interaction:
• Step 1: Whenever you share a common space with another individual, both of you generate thoughts in regard to the other. You have thoughts about them, and they have thoughts about you.
• Step 2: Initially, individuals will typically consider the intentions and motives of the other. If one person or the other appears suspicious, they will be scrutinized more closely by the other individual.
• Step 3: Each individual will likely consider and estimate how the other person is assessing them, whether it be positive, negative, or neutral. Another aspect is that there may be a history between the two individuals, which impacts how these thoughts may be weighed.
• Step 4: Steps may then be taken, in the form of behavior modification, to alter or maintain the perception that we wish to project for the other individual, and the other individual is likely reciprocal in this activity.
The four steps described above occur at an intuitive level (below immediate consciousness) within milliseconds. The initial three steps engage social thought, whereas only the last step involves behavior.
When discussing these steps with students, it can be explained that this process is based on the fundamental assumption that all of us innately wish other individuals to have reasonably “good” thoughts about us, even when our interactions are fleeting. Further, this assumption has the opposite concern embedded within it; we do not wish for other individuals to have “strange” or uneasy thoughts about us. It can indeed be a challenge for spectrum students to simply perceive that other individuals likely have thoughts that are different from their own, let alone mentioning that we all partake in having both good and weird thoughts about others. Most students with social learning difficulties rarely, if ever, stop to contemplate that they, too, can entertain strange thoughts about others.
In addition, many students with autism do not understand that social memories play a critical role in our day-to-day interactions. All of us have emotional social memories of individuals that are derived from how they make us think about them over time. People whose actions convey “good” thoughts in the minds of others are much more likely to be considered as “friendly” and have a far better likelihood of making friends than those who generate “weird” thought memories in the minds of others. In teaching social thinking, students should not only be helped to realize they have to be responsible for their own behaviors over time, but also be made aware of the associated social memories that people retain about them. The rationale behind someone calling a friend or co-worker to clarify or apologize for how their actions might have been interpreted is to instill improved social memories about themselves in their brains.
The Four Steps of Perspective Taking are engaged when we share space with others and are a requirement toward the appropriate behavior of student’s in the classroom. An unspoken rule in the classroom setting requires that all students and teachers participate in an awareness of, and mutual social thought about, the others in the class. Also, that each student, and the teacher, is responsible for monitoring and modifying their behaviors accordingly. A student who is not proficient in these four steps is typically considered to have a behavioral issue.
Students with social learning deficits must learn cognitively what many individuals do naturally and intuitively. Therefore, to assist them with grasping perspective-taking, lessons should be actively taught that include these four steps. To ponder this aspect in more depth, try spending a day observing/noting your own social thoughts, and how they impact your actions in the presence of others. Subsequently, one’s own social thinking may serve as a guide for instructing ASD students. For instance, teachers often discover that students with high functioning autism develop quite an interest in their own, and others’ thoughts, once the process is broken down into discrete elements that can be observed, discussed, and related to their own day to day lives.
Follow this link to learn more about teaching children perspective-taking and to learn strategies to ease transitions, prevent meltdowns, and teach organizational skills.
CE Credit: 4 Hours
Target Audience: Psychology CE | Counseling CE | Speech-Language Pathology CEUs | Social Work CE | Occupational Therapy CEUs | Marriage & Family Therapy CE | Nutrition & Dietetics CE | School Psychology CE | Teaching CE
Learning Level: Introductory
Professional Development Resources is approved to sponsor continuing education by the American Psychological Association (APA); the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC ACEP #5590); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB Provider #1046, ACE Program); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA Provider #3159); the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR Provider #PR001); the Alabama State Board of Occupational Therapy; the Florida Boards of Social Work, Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy (#BAP346), Psychology & School Psychology (#50-1635), Dietetics & Nutrition (#50-1635), and Occupational Therapy Practice (#34); the Georgia State Board of Occupational Therapy; the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0135); the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker & MFT Board (#RCST100501); the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors & MFTs (#193); the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage & Family Therapists (#114) and State Board of Social Worker Examiners (#5678); and is CE Broker compliant (all courses are reported within a few days of completion).
Course excerpt from Managing Anger & Aggressive Behavior
At the root of aggression is an anger system. Anger is an essential human feeling and emotion. It is likely that humans developed an anger system to protect and enforce our own interests against those of other people, other creatures and from environmental threats. Ironically if we did not have an anger system we would not, in all likelihood, maintain our social networks or improve them. Anger allows us to express our concern for one another. In expressing our anger we may incite another to respond with an apology or change in behavior and this in turn leads to the relationship improving and getting repaired. This happens with individuals, within families and communities and at the national and international level. Anger may lead to war and conflict but it also leads society to rectify or respond to social injustices.
Anger is activated by triggers. These triggers vary from person to person and by age, gender and culture. Women are often triggered by their close relationships. For instance, they may feel let down by family members and friends. According to studies conducted into anger and gender, men are more likely to be angered by objects not working correctly, encounters with strangers, and societal issues (Thomas, 2003). Children’s anger is most often roused when they are blocked from doing something they’ve set their minds on, such as when they throw a temper tantrum because their toys are taken away.
Anger, when it is emoted, encompasses everything from mild irritation to intense rage. When a cartoon character gets angry, steams comes out the ears. We say things like ‘That makes my blood boil!’ In real life the response varies from individual to individual, but typical indicators include grinding teeth, clenching fists, or going red and flushed. We may also go pale, experience numbness or muscle tensions, or get hot and clammy.
However, when anger turns into aggression, steps must be taken. Aggression, in general terms, is defined as harmful behavior which violates social conventions and which may include deliberate intent to harm or injure another person. These include overt aggression, passive aggression, covert aggression, verbal aggression and a newer, frequent, form of aggression; online aggression, which can be overt or passive in form. In this article, we will focus on dealing with online aggression.
Anonymity is one aspect behind aggressive online behavior. People are more aggressive and forthright online because they’re anonymous and can act unpleasantly without immediate consequence. Anonymity or operating undercover enables people to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. Online harassment is on the rise and the problem of cyber harassment has escalated in recent times. Some individuals, including politically prominent people and celebrities, have taken to naming and shaming and/or prosecuting those who are aggressive online.
Cyber-bullying, e-bullying, or trolling is intrusive and a form of psychological abuse. This type of bullying takes place through online forums, such as social networking sites, messaging apps, gaming sites, and in chat rooms such as Facebook, XBox Live, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat. Cyber harassment is the act of sending offensive, rude, and insulting messages and being abusive. It may involve:
Tips for Dealing with Aggression Online
As soon as you determine that you are being harassed by someone, tell that person in clear terms to stop contacting you and leave it there. You do not need to explain why, just state that you do not want the person to contact you. Keep a record of the messages. A normal initial reaction upon receiving harassing emails or messages is to delete the communications. However, it is important to save every communication you have with the harasser. If you receive phone calls from the harasser, your local phone company can help trace them. Do not destroy any evidence and, as soon as you can, turn the evidence over to the police.
Complain to the Appropriate Parties – It can at times be a little difficult for people to determine who the appropriate party is. If you’re harassed in a chat room, contact whoever runs the server being used. If you’re harassed on any kind of instant messaging service, read the terms of service and harassment policies provided, and use any contact address given there. If someone has created a website to harass you, complain to the server on which the site is hosted. If you’re being harassed via email, complain to the email service (like Hotmail) used to send the messages.
Holding the Harasser to Account – If the circumstances and behavior of the harasser are threatening to your safety and wellbeing, report the harasser to the police. However online communication is nearly impossible to effectively monitor, and could have dire consequences for freedom of speech. The best way to deal with online negative and aggressive behavior is to refuse to engage with it. If, as a collective body, we refuse to respond or engage with aggressive online behavior then we have a better chance of making it socially unacceptable. Therefore, we each need to do our individual bit online to assert prosocial communication over antisocial forms.
For information on the difference between anger and aggression and to learn more about the different types of aggression, follow the link below:
CE Credit: 3 Hours
Target Audience: Psychology CE | Counseling CE | Social Work CE | Occupational Therapy CEUs | Marriage & Family Therapy CE | School Psychology CE | Teaching CE
Learning Level: Introductory
Professional Development Resources is approved to sponsor continuing education by the American Psychological Association (APA); the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC ACEP #5590); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB Provider #1046, ACE Program); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA Provider #3159); the Alabama State Board of Occupational Therapy; the Florida Boards of Social Work, Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy (#BAP346), Psychology & School Psychology (#50-1635), Dietetics & Nutrition (#50-1635), and Occupational Therapy Practice (#34); the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker & MFT Board (#RCST100501); the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors & MFTs (#193); the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage & Family Therapists (#114) and State Board of Social Worker Examiners (#5678); and is CE Broker compliant (all courses are reported within a few days of completion).
Target Audience: Psychology CE | Counseling CE | Social Work CE | Occupational Therapy CEUs | Marriage & Family Therapy CE | School Psychology CE | Teaching CE
Course excerpt from Motivation: Igniting the Process of Change
Tony Robbins often refers to himself as “The Why Guy.” The point Robbins makes, and has made a fortune promoting, is that why we do something matters more than how we do it. As Robbins says, “There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that, once unleashed, can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality” (Robbins, 2017).
Sense of Purpose
Motivation relies on this driving force, and more specifically, the purpose behind it. Having a strong sense of purpose, as one study shows, doesn’t just drive motivation; it also drives health and longevity.
Looking to expand upon previous research that have suggested that finding a purpose in life lowers risk of mortality above and beyond other factors that are known to predict longevity, Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada and Nicholas Turiano of the University of Rochester Medical Center used nationally representative data available from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study to explore whether the benefits of purpose vary over time, such as across different developmental periods or after important life transitions.
The data included self-reported purpose in life (e.g., “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them”) and other psychosocial variables that gauged their positive relations with others and their experience of positive and negative emotions from over 6,000 participants.
At the 14-year follow-up period, a strong connection emerged: those participants who had died (569 in total) had reported lower purpose in life and fewer positive relations than did survivors. Conversely, greater purpose in life consistently predicted lower mortality risk across the lifespan, showing the same benefit for younger, middle-aged, and older participants across the follow-up period (Hill & Turiano, 2014).
“Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer….So the earlier someone comes to a direction for life, the earlier these protective effects may be able to occur” (Hill, 2014).
While Hill and Turiano noted that there are many reasons to believe that a sense of purpose would have protective health effects in older adults, a surprising outcome was that it was just as important for younger and middles aged adults. Moreover, purpose had similar benefits for adults regardless of retirement status – a known mortality risk factor – and the longevity benefits of purpose in life held even after other indicators of psychological well-being, such as positive relations and positive emotions, were taken into account (Hill & Turiano, 2014). “These findings suggest that there’s something unique about finding a purpose that seems to be leading to greater longevity,” summarizes Hill (2014).
As a sense of purpose seems to act so salubriously in our lives, it makes sense that without it, we suffer.
For information on factors that affect motivation, follow the link below:
CE Credit: 3 Hours
Target Audience: Psychology CE | Counseling CE | Social Work CE | Occupational Therapy CEUs | Marriage & Family Therapy CE | Nutrition & Dietetics CE | School Psychology CE | Teaching CE
Learning Level: Intermediate
Professional Development Resources is approved to sponsor continuing education by the American Psychological Association (APA); the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC ACEP #5590); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB Provider #1046, ACE Program); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA Provider #3159); the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR Provider #PR001); the Alabama State Board of Occupational Therapy; the Florida Boards of Social Work, Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy (#BAP346), Psychology & School Psychology (#50-1635), Dietetics & Nutrition (#50-1635), and Occupational Therapy Practice (#34); the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker & MFT Board (#RCST100501); the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors & MFTs (#193); the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage & Family Therapists (#114) and State Board of Social Worker Examiners (#5678); and is CE Broker compliant (all courses are reported within a few days of completion).
Target Audience: Psychology CE | Counseling CE | Social Work CE | Occupational Therapy CEUs | Marriage & Family Therapy CE | Nutrition & Dietetics CE | School Psychology CE | Teaching CE
PostedCE Sale @pdresources.org
Professional Development Resources is a nonprofit educational corporation 501(c)(3) organized in 1992. We are approved to sponsor continuing education by the American Psychological Association (APA); the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA); the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA); the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR); the Alabama State Board of Occupational Therapy; the Florida Boards of Social Work, Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy, Psychology & School Psychology, Dietetics & Nutrition, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, and Occupational Therapy Practice; the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker & MFT Board and Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology; the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors & MFTs; the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage & Family Therapists and State Board of Social Worker Examiners; and are CE Broker compliant (all courses are reported within a few days of completion).
Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapist (MFTs), Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), Occupational Therapists (OTs), Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs), School Psychologists, and Teachers
Ohio psychologists have an upcoming license renewal deadline of September 30, 2018.
23 hours of continuing education (CE) are required to renew, and must be completed by August 31, 2018.
Ohio Board of Psychology
CE Required: 23 hours every 2 years
Online CE Allowed: No limit
License Expiration: 9/30, even years – CE due 8/31
National Accreditation Accepted: APA
Notes: 4 hours in ethics or cultural competency required each renewal
Date of Info: 8/10/2018
Ohio psychologists can earn all 23 hours required for renewal through online courses offered @pdresources.org. Over 100 courses available.
Click here to view APA-sponsored online CE courses.
PLEASE NOTE: ALL CE COURSES must be sent to OPA or OSPA for certification before the associations send the hours to the Board. This includes APA-approved courses. Unless you send CE certificates to OPA or OSPA, they will have no way of knowing that the course was completed! The Ohio State Board of Psychology does not accept CE certificates directly.
Course Directions
Our online courses provide instant access to the course materials and CE test. Successful completion of the online CE test (80% required to pass, 3 chances to take) and course evaluation are required to earn a certificate of completion. Click here to learn more. Have a question? Contact us. We’re here to help!
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Professional Development Resources is a nonprofit educational corporation 501(c)(3) organized in 1992. We are approved to sponsor continuing education by the American Psychological Association (APA); the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA); the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA); the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR); the Alabama State Board of Occupational Therapy; the Florida Boards of Social Work, Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy, Psychology & School Psychology, Dietetics & Nutrition, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, and Occupational Therapy Practice; the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker & MFT Board and Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology; the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors & MFTs; the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage & Family Therapists and State Board of Social Worker Examiners; and are CE Broker compliant (all courses are reported within a few days of completion).
Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapist (MFTs), Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), Occupational Therapists (OTs), Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs), School Psychologists, and Teachers
