UHCL symposium offers continuing education for mental health pros

April 12, 2017 | Jim Townsend

Behavioral and mental health professionals from all over the Greater Houston area will convene at University of Houston-Clear Lake on April 21 for the 2017 Emily G. Sutter Symposium: Current Issues in Clinical, Health, and Applied Sciences.

Keynote speaker is UHCL’s Sharon K. Hall, professor of Psychology and department chair of Psychology and Women’s Studies.

The all-day symposium will provide 7.5 continuing-education units – including three full hours of Ethics and three full hours of Diversity – for licensed specialists in school psychology, licensed marriage and family therapists, licensed masters of social work, licensed clinical social workers, licensed psychologists and licensed professional counselors. UHCL is a state-approved provider of continuing-education credits.

The day includes a keynote address on intersectionality and diversity, an Ethics plenary and three breakout sessions throughout the day that address the following topics:

• “Grey Areas: The Ethics of Working with Sex and Tech as an LMFT”
• “Treating Pediatric Medical Populations: The Intersection of Psychology and Health”
• “Executive Function Skills: Assessment and Intervention”
• “Motivational Interviewing: A Brief  Counseling Intervention for Schools”
• “Increasing Cultural Responsiveness: Working with Muslims in Therapy”
• “Treating Emotional and Behavioral Comorbidities in School-Age Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders”
• “Advanced Applications of Cross-Battery Assessment”
• “Meeting the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Needs of a Diverse Student Population”
• “Ethics for LSSPs: 2017 Annual Update”
• “Working with Fathers of Children with Special Needs”

Registration is 7:30-8:10 a.m. and sessions begin at 8:15 a.m. in UHCL’s Bayou Building, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston. Lunch is on each attendee’s own. The afternoon ends at 6 p.m.

Admission is $140, with discounts available for public school employees, retirees and university students. To register or for more information, visit www.uhcl.edu/human-sciences-humanities/sutter-symposium-2017 or call UHCL’s Psychological Services Clinic, 281-283-3330.

Proceeds support UHCL’s Psychological Services Clinic, where advanced graduate students see clients for evaluation and therapy under supervision from licensed faculty. The event is the clinic’s primary source of revenue, as clients are seen on a significantly reduced sliding scale.

The symposium was named for Professor Emerita Emily Sutter, who joined the UHCL faculty in 1981 and twice served as interim dean of what is now the College of Human Sciences and Humanities. During her first tenure as interim dean, she initially proposed the symposium’s creation.