Creating Change: Communication Strategies for Working with the Whole Family

Clients come to your office for therapeutic care. And they often go home to a family operating under stress not described on the intake form. Between therapeutic care and the day-to-day of family life, there is a gap where a lot of good clinical work quietly stalls. This workshop is about working inside that gap, relationship first. We will discuss the stress response in clients and their family members, how that changes what the work requires, and when the need has outgrown the individual session. Communication becomes the clinical tool. Drawing on improvisational skills, participants will learn to build alliance with young clients and engage caregivers as partners in effective care. Connection signals safety, and safety is what allows a family to change their relationships without harm.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe the human stress response cycle, the fix and avoidance responses, and how these patterns present in both youth and their caregivers.

2. Recognize when client presentation is shaped by the family stress environment and warrants engaging caregivers as part of the care plan.

3. Apply "yes, and" and other improv-based communication strategies to build therapeutic alliance.

4. Demonstrate generous-interpretation techniques that strengthen connection and reduce the clinician's own stress response in difficult sessions.

5. Explain how connection signals safety and ripples from clinician to caregiver to child, supporting family-centered mental health care and trauma mitigation

Target Audience:
Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologists, Case Managers, Addictions Professionals

CE Hours: 1.50

Fees: $0.00. This event is free. Refunds: N/A

Register by 10/27/2026. Cancellations are permitted until 9am on 10/27/2026.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Wendy Schofer is a board-certified pediatrician and lifestyle physician who retired as a Captain in 2021, after 20 years of practice in Navy Medicine. She is now in private practice as the founder of Family in Focus® (www.wendyschofermd.com), where her work centers on the relationships at the heart of family health: eating disorder prevention, parental stress and burnout, and the communication patterns that shape a child's emotional environment.

Participants must remain in attendance for the duration of the training event and complete the post-course evaluation in order to receive credits. Certificates will be issued by email within 2 weeks.

Care Institute by Sandstone, [2712], is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: [5/22/2026 - 5/22/2027]. Social workers completing this course receive 1.5 Clinical continuing education credits.

CARE Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 8107. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CARE Institute by Sandstone is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.

If you require accessibility accommodations or have any questions, please contact Deborah Lawton at Deborah.Lawton@sandstonecare.com.

For more information on the Care Institute by Sandstone, visit Continuing Education Events | Sandstone Care