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Continuing Education Workshop Preview: Group Therapy with Substance Abuse

MSP is pleased to offer Continuing Education (CE) workshops that highlight the clinical strengths of our faculty.  Dr. Blackstock offers insight into his experience leading and facilitating CE courses at MSP:

Dr. Ryan Blackstock, PsyD

How do you prepare for teaching CE workshops?

Any time I start one of these training projects, I always reflect on the things I learned early on in my career, and many of them I just took for granted that everyone knew. But then I remember that my training was different, and in a particular zeitgeist before managed care, where essentially you just worked with clients until they were well. Sure, there were limits on treatment stays, but those limits were 2 to 4 times more than what a person might get today. 

For this specific course about Group Therapy for Substance Abuse clients, I reflected on all the different types of groups I have led, and how they came to be. Generally, no one disputes that there is a need for groups, but the question becomes what type of group, and what should the group be doing? How does a person go about setting up a group? There are many more considerations than you might expect.

What is your experience teaching CE workshops at MSP?

Providing the CE Workshops is always exciting, as I generally have a mix of alumni, practitioners who have been in the field many years, and new clinicians who graduated from other programs. I make it a point to always add something new to each session, so it is never just a rehash of class material (I teach a course in group therapy here at MSP every year too). I push myself to provide as much value as possible.

In an Ericksonian perspective, providing the CE Workshops is very much a generative experience. I have had an overwhelming positive response from attendees over the past 2 years, and that keeps me writing new material. A lot of my early training in Addiction Counseling took a very similar form, and so it feels like getting back to my roots with each session. 

Ryan Blackstock, PsyDRyan Blackstock, PsyD, core faculty at in the MA program, will be presenting “Group Therapy with Substance Abuse” on Wednesday, October 5 from 6-9:15 PM.   For more information or to register, click here.