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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.

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Invitation to Change Workshop

for Professionals

A 17-hour workshop in the Invitation to Change Approach©, with CMC:Foundation for Change.

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More Details

When

Sep 29 (10am—5pm ET)
Sep 30 (10am—3pm ET)
Oct 7 (10am—3pm ET)

Where

Online – Zoom
(info and link emailed upon registration)

Who

This training is primarily for professionals who work with families who have a loved one struggling with substances. Open to professionals at all levels.

Cost

$500
(Limited sliding scale
available—click here)

ITC Certification

Certificate of Completion
(Looking for Level 1 Certification?
Click Here)

Continuing Edu.

14 Contact Hours through NASW
and NYSED for Social Workers. Approved by NAADAC to provide 14 Credit Hours.

Description

We’re inviting professionals in the addiction space to participate in a 17-hour virtual training in the Invitation to Change Approach (ITC), a compassionate and science-backed model for recovery support work.

CMC:Foundation for Change is conducting a virtual training for therapists who would like to learn to support families in the midst of dealing with the challenges of substance misuse.

As we are all well aware, we as mental health providers have been given little to no academic or clinical training in substance use issues, and perhaps even less in working with families caught in the middle of this struggle. CMC:FFC has spent the last 10 years working with families and developing a model, the Invitation to Change Approach, that pulls together a variety of evidence-based approaches (CRAFT, MI, and ACT).

The Invitation to Change offers families a set of down to earth, compassionate tools for navigating through these very difficult moments in their lives, as individuals and families. We have spent enormous time working with families to make this approach as sensible, accessible, and straightforward as possible, and have found families to be deeply appreciative and moved by these ideas and practices.

We are now delighted to invite a wider circle of professionals to learn to work simply and effectively with families and feel confident in providing them with evidence-based behavioral, motivational, and compassion-focused strategies. Without needing to take a deep dive into family systems theory or resort to one-size-fits-all approaches such as Al-Anon or Nar-Anon, the ITC can be readily learned by any professional. We as clinicians have found that working with these families, while initially intimidating and emotional, is deeply satisfying, intense and rewarding, as well as terribly important and needed.

“I have talked to multiple participants that said it blew their socks off.  ‘Life changing,’ ‘Wish I would have had this years ago,’ ‘Everyone needs this information,’ ‘Why aren’t more treatment providers offering this for their families.’ As a family recovery coach, I am so excited to bring this to more and more parents who truly want to do things differently.”

– Pam L., Certified Family Recovery Coach at Thrive! Family Support


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What Can I Expect?

This introductory training offers participants a helping blueprint for working with families. Over the course of the workshop training participants will learn the foundational principles and skills entailed in the Invitation to Change approach and introduced to exercises to help families understand and utilize them to support their struggling loved one.

The ITC is designed to be taught to and implemented by those in supportive roles (i.e. family members; significant others)—it takes complicated psychological principles and makes them understandable for families in crisis. The workshop introduces the ITC concepts and skills in a similar way we expect participants to teach their clients. While you may be familiar with some of the concepts and skills we cover in this training from your professional training, the strategies for teaching and coaching these concepts to families will be new, and vitally important for helping lay people feel confident in the use of them.

More Information about the Invitation to Change Approach

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.

The ITC was created with the idea of a waterfall in mind: the evidence-based ideas and strategies you learn will flow from you, to the families you work with, to the loved ones they are desperate to help. Families, clinicians, and those struggling can all take these ideas and methods and put them to use with practice, patience, and self-compassion.

Learning Objectives

ITC Certification

Get Certified in the Invitation to Change

Certificate of Completion

Those who attend the full 3-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.

In order to receive a Certificate of Completion, you must attend the full workshop.

Continuing Education

This program is Approved by the National Association of Social Workers (Approval #886779708-1078) for 14 continuing education contact hours.

NASW CE Approvals by State: View Here

CMC:Foundation for Change is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers #SW-0581. This program is approved for 14 continuing education contact hours.

CMC:Foundation for Change is approved by NAADAC to provide 14 Credit Hours. Provider approval number 272939.

NAADAC CE Approvals by State: View Here

Refund Policy
Full refunds are available up to 72 hours before the training. Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.

Trainers

Jeff Foote, PhD, is Co-Founder of the Center for Motivation and Change (CMC) in Manhattan, as well as CMC:Berkshires. Dr. Foote is a nationally recognized clinical research scientist who has received federal grant funding for his work on motivational treatment approaches and substance abuse treatment research, focused on the implementation of evidence-based treatments. Dr. Foote was also Psychologist for the NY Mets for 11 years, and continues in sports psychology as an independent performance consultant to professional athletes. Before co-founding CMC in 2003, Dr. Foote was the Deputy Director of the Division of Alcohol Treatment and Research at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in NYC, as well as Senior Research Associate at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) in NYC. Dr. Foote also served as Chief of the Smithers Addiction Treatment and Research Center as well as Director of Evaluation and Research between 1994 and 2001.

He is co-author of the award-winning book Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, a practical guide for families dealing with addiction and substance problems in a loved one, based on principles of Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT). He is also a contributor to two workbooks combining strategies from CRAFT and Motivational Interviewing: The Parent’s 20 Minute Guide and The Partner’s 20 Minute Guide, which offer specific tools and practice in evidence-based strategies for helping a loved one change.
Jeffrey Foote, PhD
Jeffrey Foote, PhDCo-Founder & Co-Executive Director – CMC:FFC

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.

Jarell Myers, PhD
Jarell Myers, PhDTrainer & Special Projects – CMC:FFC

Dr. Nicole Kosanke is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Director of Family Services at CMC:NYC, where she specializes in the assessment and treatment of substance use disorders in individuals and families. Dr. Kosanke works in the research and clinical practice of treating substance use disorders and utilizes the principles of CRAFT, MI, and CBT in different therapeutic modalities and resources.

She co-authored the award-winning book, Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, and also contributed to The 20 Minute Guide. Dr. Kosanke was also featured in an O, The Oprah Magazine article about her client’s experience in treatment at CMC, which was later published in O’s Big Book of Happiness: The Best of O. She is a member of Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and American Academy of Addiction Psychiatrists.

Nicole Kosanke, PhD
Nicole Kosanke, PhDTrainer – CMC:FFC

Kenneth Carpenter, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist and research scientist with over 20 years of experience developing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based motivational and cognitive-behavioral strategies for helping individuals make important lifestyle changes. Dr. Carpenter earned his degree from Hofstra University and completed a three-year postdoctoral research fellowship in the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Training Program at The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He has received federal and private foundation grant money for investigating the psychological, behavioral, and neurobiological factors associated with substance misuse and its treatment.

Dr. Carpenter is the Director of Training for CMC:Foundation for Change, a not-for-profit organization with the mission of improving the dissemination of evidence-based ideas and strategies to professionals and loved ones of persons struggling with substance use through the Invitation to Change approach. CMC:Foundation for Change and Dr. Carpenter have developed a unique approach for families, blending components of CRAFT, MI and ACT together into the Invitation to Change Approach, an accessible set of understandings and practices that empower families to remain engaged and effective in helping their struggling loved one. The approach has been widely used across the country, and is utilized in trainings with laypeople and professionals. Dr. Carpenter also holds an academic appointment in Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry and is a Research Scientist in the Division on Substance Use Disorders at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (M.I.N.T).

He is also co-author of The Beyond Addiction Workbook for Family and Friends: Evidence-Based Skills to Help a Loved-One Make Positive Change.

Ken Carpenter, PhD
Ken Carpenter, PhDDirector of Training, Board Member – CMC:FFC

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.

Dr. Carrie Wilkens
Dr. Carrie WilkensCo-Founder and Co-Executive Director, President – CMC:FFC

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