Experiential Group Work with Adolescents: Addressing the Experience Void

Course Description:
Adolescents are often sophomoric about their perceptions of what they know, then behave accordingly. Adolescents growing up in dysfunctional families, with economic disadvantage, and/or in drug-infested communities are especially vulnerable to the developmentally extant lack experience wisdom necessary to inform sound decision making. As a result, in their search for autonomy, they often find themselves susceptible to negative social influences, engaged in dangerous and/or unhealthy behavior, and/or in trouble at school, home and/or with the law. This webinar will focus on how experiential group work can help fill the gaps caused by this lack of experience, and impart new and more sophisticated ways of understanding themselves and those circumstances that influence and maintain dysfunctional and counter-productive behavior.

Goals:
 

1. Participants will learn how the lack of "experiential wisdom" of adolescents leads to the need to take a "habilitative" approach to prevention and treatment.
    
2. Participants will learn how to use experiential activities in the group modality to convey deep, constructive and meaningful understanding the social dynamics of families, peer relations and communities.
    
3. Participants will learn how to integrate experiential exercises into treatment and prevention programs to address substance use and mental health disorders for adolescents.
    

Presenter:

Dr. Joseph Hunter, PhD, LCSW is a highly experienced and well-educated behavioral health leader with over 16 years of combined state and federal government employment experience, primarily as a subject matter expert in the behavioral health field in the areas of substance use disorders and suicide prevention; he possess strong leadership and team building skills that have contributed to the development of numerous specialized innovations in the areas of clinical practice, research, and treatment programming; and, he is an experienced and talented educator for graduate students, as well as seasoned professionals. His education includes a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology (1989), a Masters Degree in Social Work (1993), and a Ph.D. in Social Work (2010).

In 2005, Dr. Hunter was awarded the SAMHSA Dissertation Grant to complete his study on adolescent substance use disorder treatment. In 2011, Dr. Hunter was selected for two-year post-doctoral fellowship, and as a result was recognized as a VA/Hartford Geriatric Social Work Scholar. This year, Dr. Hunter has received distinguished recognition for his innovative work in behavioral health.

Dr. Hunter serves as the VA Suicide Prevention Coordinator at the Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany, NY, currently on detail to the National Suicide Prevention Office. In addition, Dr. Hunter joined the University of Southern California (USC) School of Social Work as part-time adjunct lecturer in 2013. Currently, as an Adjunct Assistant Professor, he teaches Masters of Social Work (MSW) courses in the areas of: clinical practice with service members and veterans, evidence-based clinical practice in mental health settings, mental health and human development, and mental health research. He is also a New York State approved provider of online and in-person continuing education for licensed social workers in New York State, offering training privately and for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).