When
June 24th-25th 2022
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM EST
Where
Online - Zoom
ITC Certification
Certificate of Completion
NEW WORKBOOK
The Invitation to Change: A Short Guide is a practical guide to the 9 core topics of the Invitation to Change Approach, the helping approach at the core of everything we do.
Who
Families, Parents
Loved Ones
Cost
16 Hour Training: $100
(Limited sliding scale available:
Sliding scale interest form)
Continuing Edu.
None
Throughout your loved one’s substance use and related troubling behaviors, you may have wished time and again that you could get them to just snap out of it. You may have felt helpless, wishing that you had the power to just make them stop, or make them see reason so that they would want to stop. Or you may have felt the desire to detach completely, sick of the pain, hurt, and frustration.
But we know that in all likelihood, none of these options are working. So the Invitation to Change Approach (ITC) is what we offer you instead. You cannot force your loved one to change, but you can create an environment where change is more likely to happen. You cannot erase this painful situation from your life, but you can sustain and care for yourself as you march forward. You cannot make their behaviors less painful, but you can find ways to understand where they’re coming from. You cannot control your loved one, but you can communicate in ways that will at least make it easier for them to hear you––and for you to hear them.
ITC Workshops can help you learn how to do all of the above, with the potential to transform your relationship with your loved one and help you support their efforts to stop or reduce their substance use and/or the harmful behaviors that can come along with it. Over the course of 2 days, we invite you to join us to spend some time learning, sharing, and hopefully, growing. We hope to see you there!
“I was very fortunate to come across CMC’s Invitation to Change, and to be able to take some workshops with them. I loved that this new approach fit with my values of compassion and kindness, and it helped me understand, from a deeper perspective, the whole picture…Our kids deserve for us to show up, and now I have learned a way to do that.”
– Antoinette, Parent and Advocate
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The Invitation to Change Approach is grounded in compassion, connection, and the understanding that families can have a powerful helping impact on those struggling to change. The ITC Approach draws on evidence-based practices also found in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and the Community Reinforcement and Family Training approach (CRAFT), as well as decades of clinical experience working with families and loved ones.
Built on the three pillars of Understanding, Awareness, and Action, the ITC first illuminates new perspectives on substance use and the process of change; next, it creates a foundation of self-awareness and willingness to engage with emotional pain. Finally, it emphasizes action, teaching communication and behavior skills to promote and support new behaviors in a person struggling with substance use.
This ITC workshop will give you useful evidence-based ways to understand your loved one’s behavior, so that you can use motivational and behavioral strategies to improve communication and promote change. You will learn skills to:
• Lessen the tension, conflict, and heated emotion in your relationship and household
• Allow yourself to be part of the change process and be taken care of on this journey
• Talk to your loved one in ways that improve collaboration and encourage change
• Respond more effectively both to the positive changes your loved one makes and to their less positive behaviors, while letting natural consequences play a role in motivating change
The ITC can help you take care of yourself while simultaneously staying engaged and practicing active strategies to invite and encourage change in your loved one, in yourself, in your family––and, if you’re inspired to share it, in your larger community.
Get Certified in the Invitation to Change
Certificate of Completion
Those who attend the full 2-day training will receive a Certificate of Completion to signify their understanding of ITC principles and practices––an important first step in integrating the ITC into your helping work.
Full refunds are available up to 72 hours before the training. Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.
Carrie Wilkens, PhD, is the Co-Founder and Clinical Director of the Center for Motivation and Change in NYC and in the Berkshires. She co-authored an award-winning book, Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change with Drs. Foote and Kosanke. Together they also contributed to a user-friendly workbook for parents: The 20 Minute Guide: A Guide for Parents about How to Help their Child Change their Substance Use.
In collaboration with the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, Dr. Wilkens and the CMC team is developing a national parent training program (the Parent Support Network) to provide parent coaches to families in need of support through a free hotline. Prior to these ventures, Dr. Wilkens was the Project Director on a large federally-funded Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant examining the effectiveness of motivational interventions in addressing the problems associated with binge drinking among college students. She is regularly sought out by the media to discuss issues related to substance use disorders and has been on the CBS Morning Show, Katie Couric Show, and Fox News as well as a variety of radio shows including frequent NPR segments such as the People’s Pharmacy and The Diane Rehm Show. Dr. Wilkens sits on the Advisory Council for the Peter G. Dodge Foundation, a forward-thinking non-profit organization that works with world-class partners to achieve lasting change in the field of alcohol use disorders.
Jarell R.O. Myers, PhD is a clinical psychologist, licensed in both New York and Massachusetts, with training in cognitive-behavioral and dialectical behavioral approaches to treatment. He earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University and completed an APA-accredited internship at Mt. Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital on the child and adolescent track. In addition, Dr. Myers completed a two year postdoctoral fellowship in child and adolescent psychology at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center in White Plains, New York where the focus was on treatment for anxiety. He used that experience at McLean Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he worked with children and adolescents diagnosed with Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders in an intensive outpatient clinic. Dr. Myers has expertise in working with adolescents and young adults with comorbid anxiety and substance use disorders and adopts a harm reduction approach when appropriate.
