The Social Work Podcast

Episode 24: In today's podcast I talked with Chris Wolf about Sex Addiction. Sex addiction has been defined as "engaging in persistent and escalating patterns of sexual behavior despite increasingly negative consequences to self and others" (Ewald, 2003). Chris is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a certified sex addiction counselor. She received her masters in counseling psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and trained with pioneering sex addictions researcher, Patrick Carnes. Our interview covered a broad range of topics, including how sex addiction is similar to and different from substance use addiction, common characteristics of sexually addicted clients, basic skills and competencies clinicians need when working with sexually addicted clients, and some resources for further study or learning. Please check our website at https://socialworkpodcast.com for more information.

Episode 22: Today's interview with Dr. Edward Sites is the first in a two-part series on the basics of grant proposal writing. In today's episode, I talk with Dr. Sites about strategies for strategies for developing and writing a grant proposal. In the second episode, Dr. Sites goes into more detail about the three sections most commonly found in grant applications - the narrative, the budget and the appendices.

Episode 20: In this podcast, the last of four on pathological gambling, I speak with Jody Bechtold, LCSW about the process for becoming a nationally certified gambling addictions counselor. Jody compares the national certification process with the process to be designated as "competent" to treat pathological gambling in the state of Pennsylvania. If you are interested in becoming nationally certified, you might want to listen to the podcast a couple of times, as there are a number of steps in the process. Resources on the certification process, including names, email addresses and web sites can be found at socialworkpodcast.com.

Episode 18: Today's podcast is the second of four on pathological gambling. I talk with Jody Bechtold, LCSW about about treatment basics for clinicians who work with pathological gamblers. We start with a quick overview of crisis intervention and then move into some of the techniques and rationales behind behavioral and cognitive treatments. These are brief theoretical overviews. If you are interested in a more in-depth discussion of these approaches, you can find individual podcasts on those subjects at socialworkpodcast.com. We'll end with a discussion of some of the challenges that clinicians often encounter when working with pathological gamblers. A quick disclaimer - this podcast is intended to be a general overview of treatment approaches, rather than a clinical training. If you are currently working with, or intend to work with people with gambling addiction, proper education and training is essential. In the fourth part of this series, Jody and I talk about some of the requirements for obtaining the NCGC-1 - the national certified gambling counselor certification. That podcast is scheduled to air June 11, 2007 and will be available for download from our website at socialworkpodcast.com.

Episode 16: In today's podcast, I talk with Dr. Edward Sites about women in social work. Dr. Sites gives us a historical perspective of the role of women who were born at or before 1900 in the development of social work as a profession in the United States.

Episode 14: In today's podcast, we're going to talk about the therapies that take a cognitive-behavioral approach to working with people. I review the theoretical assumptions, therapeutic process, techniques, use in culturally competent practice, and strengths and limitations of CBT. This podcast is longer than most because I use a lot of clinical examples and dialogue to illustrate the concepts.

Episode 12: In this lecture, I focus on the concepts of stimulus and response, rewards and punishments, and how these concepts make operant conditioning such a powerful approach to behavior change. Also in this lecture I touch on classical conditioning, social learning theory and cognitive behavior therapy. The role of the therapist, client, expectations for treatment, implications for multicultural treatment, and the strengths and limitations of the approach are covered.

Episode 10: IPT is a time-limited psychotherapy that was developed in the 1970s and 80s as an outpatient treatment for adults who were diagnosed with moderate or severe non-psychotic, unipolar depression. Over the last 30 years, a number of empirical studies have demonstrated the efficacy of IPT in the treatment of depression. Although originally developed as an individual therapy for adults, IPT has been modified for use with adolescents and older adults, dysthymia, bipolar disorder, bulimia, anxiety disorders and couples counseling. IPT has its roots in psychodynamic theory, but differs from the latter in that it focuses on improving interpersonal functioning in the present. It is similar to CBT in its time-limited approach, structured interviews and assessment tools, but also differs from CBT in that it focuses on the client's affect, rather than cognitions, and the development of a more supportive social network. And whereas nearly all CBTs use homework as a standard part of treatment, although Brief ITP (ITP-B) uses homework, regular IPT may not. In today's lecture I will will focus on some of the key concepts of IPT, the role of the therapist and client, the structure and goals of IPT - specifically focusing on grief, interpersonal role dispute, role transition and interpersonal deficits, and some of the techniques used in IPT. I'll end with a brief discussion of the applications of IPT, its strengths and limitations.

Episode 8: Today we're going to talk about Carl Rogers and his revolutionary approach to psychotherapy - Person-Centered Therapy. Next to Freud, no other therapist has influenced the practice of therapy more than Carl Rogers. The humanistic assumptions at the core of Person-Centered therapy stand in stark contrast to the problem-centered, expert-oriented approach of what was then the dominant model of psychotherapy - Freudian Psychoanalysis. Rogers gave us an equation that would change the concept of therapy forever: Empathy + Genuineness + Unconditional Positive Regard = Necessary and sufficient conditions for change. Although the last part - that these conditions are sufficient for change - has not enjoyed empirical support, the first part - that these conditions are necessary for change - has been confirmed in thousands of research studies over the last 50 years. In today's lecture I will look at the major assumptions of Person-centered therapy, the goals of treatment, the role and attributes of the therapist, and discuss the one technique attributed to Rogers - reflective listening. I'll end with a discussion of the contributions and limitations of Person-centered therapy.

Episode 6: In this lecture, I discuss key elements of Adler's Personal psychology and how this approach contrasts with Freud's theory. The contrast between Adler's and Freud's approaches can best be summed up in the quote "We are pulled by our goals, rather than pushed by our drives."

Episode 4: This is part two of a two-part series on Crisis Intervention. In this lecture, I discuss individual crisis intervention within the context of Roberts's Seven-Stage Model of Crisis Intervention, and the most popular group crisis intervention model currently in use, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing. The podcast ends with a detailed review of suicide assessment.

Episode 2: This is the second part of a two-part lecture on diagnosis and assessment. In the first episode I reviewed the history of the DSM and the multiaxial system. In this lecture, I discuss the Bio-psychosocial-spiritual (BPSS) assessment as the means for providing context for the client's presenting problems. I discuss the purpose of each of the four life domains and how the information is used in social work practice. Emphasis is placed on solution-focused approaches to assessment.I end with a brief description of traditional format for organizing observations about the client - the Mental Status Exam.