UB School of Social Work to Co-Sponsor First International Interdisciplinary Conference on Clinical Supervision

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Mental-health professions representing a variety of fields will gather in Buffalo June 16-18 for the First International Interdisciplinary Conference on Clinical Supervision, the first interdisciplinary conference devoted to clinical-supervision theory, practice and research.

The conference will provide psychologists, social workers, nurses, marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, substance-abuse counselors and other mental-health professionals the opportunity to learn about current issues, practice and research findings related to clinical supervision of students and practitioners.

To be held at the Buffalo Marriott Hotel in Amherst, it will focus on core issues in clinical supervision that cut across professional disciplines, as well as issues specific to particular fields.

Co-sponsors of the conference are the School of Social Work; the Graduate School of Education; School of Nursing; Counseling Services; Research Institute on Addictions, and departments of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology; Psychiatry, and Family Medicine, all at UB, and The American Board of Examiners for Clinical Social Work.

Sessions will be held on "Multicultural Clinical Supervision for Practice with Under-Served Populations," "The Clinical Supervisor-Practitioner Working Alliance: The Parallel Process," "Hot Topics in Clinical Supervision and Training" and "Tracing the Development of Clinical Supervision." In addition, a pre-conference workshop, "Advanced Skills of Clinical Supervision: The Parallel Process", will be presented by Alex Gitterman, Ed.D., professor of social work at the University of Connecticut, and Lawrence Shulman, Ed.D., UB professor of social work.

Nationally recognized experts in their field who will be presenting at the conference include Madonna Constantine, Ph.D., professor of psychology and education, Columbia University Teachers College, and Janine Bernard, Ph.D., NCC, professor and chair of counseling and human services, Syracuse University.

In addition, presentations and workshops led by National Institutes of Health staff will describe current funding priorities, mechanisms for funding and tools for developing submissions. Participants also will have the opportunity for individual consultation.

The conference also will include a series of roundtable discussions on topics such as "Supervision of School Counselors: Challenges and Points of Entry," "Using Supervision to Foster Reflectivity," "Infusing Clinical Supervision into Substance Abuse Treatment Agencies: Organizational Challenges and Supports," "Working Through Conflict in Supervision," "Clinical Supervision of Practitioners Who Have Experienced Traumatic Events," "Researching Clinical Supervision: Issues and Answers" and "Harmful Supervision: Help for Graduate Students, Interns and Practicing Counselors."

Selected presentations from the conference will be included in a special issue of The Clinical Supervisor Journal, and participants will be eligible to receive continuing education credits from a number of professional associations.

The conference is appropriate for practitioners, clinical supervisors, educators, doctoral students and researchers.

For more information, go to http://www.socialwork.buffalo.edu/csconference or contact the School of Social Work's Office of Continuing Education at 716-829-3939 or sw-ce@buffalo.edu.