Continuing Education and Events
The NBASW develops, coordinates and promotes professional education opportunities to support members in meeting the continuing professional education requirements. The NBASW does this in five ways:
• Free NBASW Mandatory Ethics, Standards, and Guidelines Training for members
• Free and Discounted Resources
• NBASW Professional Development Fund
• Additional Continuing Education Opportunities
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Upcoming Events
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Transference and countertransference: Training for mental health professionals
Wed, Sep. 24, 2025 9:00am — 4:00pm
Date: September 24, 2025
Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET
Facilitator: Natalie Zlodre Choy, MSW, RSW.
CE hours: 6
This training is suitable for:
Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, family doctors
Direct Service Workers: drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers
Level of training: Introductory
Client age category: For professionals who work with clients over the age of 18
Please note: Some of the material in this training is also covered in Certificate in trauma counselling for mental health professionals: Level 1.
Description: Trauma that is unhealed, unresolved and unintegrated into a healthy balance within the self has the potential to be repeated, reenacted, acted out, projected or externalized in relationships.
Working with human suffering on a daily basis and being sensitive to the despair, frustration and fear embodied in clients is an integral aspect of the work by mental health professionals. In order to be effective, professionals need to be aware of the clients and their own unconscious self-protective reactions (transference/projection). A professional who is unaware or unresponsive to countertransference experiences can be thrown into a cycle of reactivity – both within the specific client dynamic and within one’s own psyche.
In this webinar, we will understand the core features of the metapsychological phenomena: transference, projection, projective identification, and countertransference. We will use real case examples from direct service settings to illustrate the complex dialectic of balancing empathic attunement with experiences of empathic strain.
Learning objectives:
-Understand key self-protective strategies that clients use (transference, projection).
-Understand key self-protective strategies that professionals use (countertransference).
-Apply skills in “catching,” repairing and integrating the metapsychological phenomena.
Register here: https://web.cvent.com/event/242f336e-8dab-4691-be0d-a1878da3e494/summary -
Level 1 Theraplay Virtual Training: October
Oct. 3 — 24, 2025
Theraplay® is a short-term, structured therapy which focuses on enhancing attachments. It promotes self-esteem, language skills, behavioural skills, social skills as well as enhances relationships between significant others. Theraplay can be used with a single child, an entire family or with groups of children. Professionals around the world have been trained in Theraplay and are using Theraplay in a wide variety of settings and populations, including: Attachment therapy for foster/adopted children, Therapy for trauma and abuse victims, Therapy for children with behavioral and developmental problems, and Group settings such as schools and residential treatment facilities.
This 4-week ONLINE training is open to qualified, licensed, certified or registered professionals in a field that prepares them to work with children and families. Participants who have experience working with children and families, but who have not yet completed their post graduate professional degree (for example: those with degrees or diplomas in Teaching, Early Childhood Education or Child and Youth Work) can be admitted into Theraplay training and may become certified to the Foundation Level (when accepted into practicum). Opportunities to become fully certified as a Theraplay Therapist are outlined during this course. Course handouts are included.
Course includes 32 CEU hours AND includes:
• Online content is available starting September 26, 2025. Weekly live zoom sessions Fridays, 11:00am – 3:00pm EST starting October 3, 2025
• 4 hours of Independent online weekly assigned Webinars and readings and short assignments
• All topics from live Theraplay workshop will be covered during this online workshop
• PLUS how to use MIM and Theraplay VIRTUALLY
More info and registration here: https://www.theraplaycanada.ca/upcoming-training-gallery/blog-post-title-one-yytfy-sm57j -
Level 1 Theraplay Virtual Training: October
Oct. 3 — 24, 2025
Theraplay® is a short-term, structured therapy which focuses on enhancing attachments. It promotes self-esteem, language skills, behavioural skills, social skills as well as enhances relationships between significant others. Theraplay can be used with a single child, an entire family or with groups of children. Professionals around the world have been trained in Theraplay and are using Theraplay in a wide variety of settings and populations, including: Attachment therapy for foster/adopted children, Therapy for trauma and abuse victims, Therapy for children with behavioral and developmental problems, and Group settings such as schools and residential treatment facilities.
This 4-week ONLINE training is open to qualified, licensed, certified or registered professionals in a field that prepares them to work with children and families. Participants who have experience working with children and families, but who have not yet completed their post graduate professional degree (for example: those with degrees or diplomas in Teaching, Early Childhood Education or Child and Youth Work) can be admitted into Theraplay training and may become certified to the Foundation Level (when accepted into practicum). Opportunities to become fully certified as a Theraplay Therapist are outlined during this course. Course handouts are included.
Course includes 32 CEU hours AND includes:
• Online content is available starting September 26, 2025. Weekly live zoom sessions Fridays, 11:00am – 3:00pm EST starting October 3, 2025
• 4 hours of Independent online weekly assigned Webinars and readings and short assignments
• All topics from live Theraplay workshop will be covered during this online workshop
• PLUS how to use MIM and Theraplay VIRTUALLY
More info and registration here: https://www.theraplaycanada.ca/upcoming-training-gallery/blog-post-title-one-yytfy-sm57j -
Worry & Indecisiveness: Tackling Decision-Making Worries in the Context of GAD
Fri, Oct. 3, 2025 1:00pm — 4:30pm
Introduction
On Friday, October 3, 2025 at 12 pm EST / 1 pm AST, Dr. Melisa Robichaud will deliver a half-day workshop on CBT strategies for decision-making worries within the context of GAD.
Workshop Outline
The primary feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is excessive worry about daily life events, with the content of worry tending to be dynamic and regularly shifting according to the day. As a consequence, CBT for GAD is typically most effective when targeting processes that underlie excessive worry, rather than the specific worries themselves. Despite this, there are certain common worry themes that do emerge for many GAD clients, and can be more directly addressed within a larger CBT protocol for GAD. Among these is worries related to indecisiveness. Daily life decisions, such as what to wear on a given day or which colour to paint one’s walls, are inherently uncertain as there is no clear “right” answer. Within the CBT for GAD protocol targeting intolerance of uncertainty (CBT-IU), uncertain situations are a trigger for worry, such that daily life decisions can become a significant catalyst for worries.
This workshop will discuss the clinical application of CBT-IU for GAD, with a particular focus on targeting the worry theme of indecisiveness in daily life situations. Although the role of intolerance of uncertainty in the development and maintenance of worry will be highlighted, its specific impact on decision-making worries and associated safety behaviours will be emphasized. This presentation will include a discussion of the following: 1) presentation of the CBT-IU model for GAD; 2) review of behavioural experiments targeting intolerance of uncertainty 3) presentation of maximizer and satisficer decision-making styles, and their influence on how people approach daily life decisions and evaluate their choices; 4) the impact of cognitive dissonance with respect to the relationship of effort and value; 5) safety behaviours for decisional worries, and the unique goals of “straddling the line” and “controlled spontaneity” when developing behavioural experiments involving decision-making. Specific examples of decision-making worries and how to target them will be provided, and case vignettes will be presented throughout.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will learn to:
-Understand a clinical model of GAD within a CBT framework that highlights the role of intolerance of uncertainty
-Describe the unique presentation of decision-making worries and associated safety behaviours
-Describe decision-making styles and the problem with the search for a ‘perfect’ or ‘correct’ choice when making daily life decisions
-Develop behavioural experiments for excessive worries that specifically target negative beliefs about uncertainty
-Develop behavioural experiments that are adjusted for decisional worries and their unique presentation
This workshop is most suitable for mental health professionals with some prior exposure to CBT and its application to GAD and to excessive worry across the anxiety spectrum.
Fees
-Professionals: $100 CAD + tax
-Students*: $80 CAD + tax
* Proof of student status may be required in order to qualify for a student rate.
Register here: https://www.bespokementalhealth.ca/live-events/advert/worry-%26-indecisiveness%3A-tacking-decision-making-worries-in-the-context-of-gad -
Virtual Canadian Children’s Grief Symposium
Nov. 12 — 13, 2025
The Canadian Alliance for Children’s Grief (CACG) is hosting their FIFTH annual Virtual Canadian Children’s Grief Symposium for child serving professionals on November 12th and 13th, 2025. Offering over 16 virtual sessions from experienced practitioners and educators in Children’s Grief from across Canada, this two-day virtual Symposium will help you better support grieving children, youth, and their families.
On Wednesday, the Keynote Speaker this year is Dr. Lucy Hone with a session entitled “Resilient Grieving: Realistic Resilience Practices That Work”
On Thursday, the Plenary Speaker is Donna Schuurman with a session entitled "Drop the Dysfunction! Stop Resisting Open Conversations About Dying and Death."
Registration opens in August and is $175 for both days. One of the benefits of this national conference is that with registration, you will have digital access to all the recorded sessions, not just the ones you attended, which will be available to you for 3 months post conference until February 2026. Please note this includes access to *most session recording however a limited number of sessions will NOT be recorded.
The speakers and topics for this Symposium have been carefully selected to support professionals in education, healthcare, victim services, funeral homes, grief and bereavement, and other community organizations.
To register when registration opens: https://www.grievingchildrencanada.org/index.php/grief-symposium