In addition to personal growth & relational restoration for individuals, Village Counseling is dedicated to providing ongoing practical & theoretical exploration to a diverse community of practicing LCSWs by providing continuing education opportunities and community. 

Training Programs & Workshops

Our training programs and workshops are designed for Social Workers for the general purpose of enhancing the worker’s emotional intelligence and professional efficacy. While each workshop/course may have a different title and focus (i.e. group therapy, couple’s therapy etc.), the core teaching revolves around the concept of empathy and its application. We do so because the true nature of empathy is generally misunderstood in society and, in our experience, is underemphasized in much of health care workers education/training, including Social Work. Supporting this secondary mission, we elucidate how empathy is recognized for its fundamental role in all forms of effective therapeutic activities. This conclusion is supported by diverse research: for example, in the field of Psychotherapy, empathy has long been recognized as an essential aspect of positive psychotherapeutic treatments. In addition, recent research in the medical profession clearly indicates that greater practitioner empathy enhances diagnostic accuracy as well as positive treatment outcomes.

Continuing Education Goals

• Provide practical and sustainable tools that improve participant’s empathy-skills and efficacy when engaging with others (i.e. clients, patients supervisees, etc.).
• Provide a comprehensive and systematic learning process that strengthens specific skills which are key to empathic attunement (e.g. empathic listening, empathic inquiry, mirroring and feedback, and correcting breaks in empathy).
• Integrate theoretical constructs on an organic level with Empathy Games® and other forms of interactive learning. (See detailed description of the Organic Learning Method)
• Provide participants with immediate feedback on their empathic ability employing our newly developed EMQ (empathy quotient), a unique non-self-reporting method of measuring empathic accuracy. 
• Strengthen respect for cultural, individual, and role differences through greater empathic awareness and sensitivity to all aspects of age, gender identity, race, ethnicity, cultural, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, and socioeconomic status.

Sample Courses

• Empathy and Race: Bridging the Divide
• Freud Plus 120 Years—An Update on Current Psychoanalytic Theory
• The Bifurcated Self: An Updated Self Psychology Primer
• Exploring Psychodynamic Group Therapy
• Exploring Psychodynamic Couple Therapy

Village Counseling and Licensed Clinical Social Work Services, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0604.

Village Counseling and Licensed Clinical Social Work Services, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0096

Village Counseling and Licensed Clinical Social Work Services, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0218