This training is rooted in three years of research and interviews with social workers, therapists, and other helping professionals. This training examines the profound impact of unresolved childhood trauma and adversity on the personal and professional lives of those dedicated to serving others. Drawing on real-world experiences and emerging neuroscience, participants will explore how childhood adaptations—such as people-pleasing, over-functioning, and emotional vigilance—become both strengths and vulnerabilities in their work.

Social workers today face unprecedented challenges: a youth mental health crisis amid provider shortages, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, and shifting demographic and policy landscapes that strain the social safety net. This workshop will examine how these emerging issues intersect with social work ethics and boundaries. Together we will explore critical questions: How can we support youth mental health with declining resources? Is Artificial Intelligence a useful tool to increase productivity and efficiency or a new threat to youth and our profession? What is the role of social workers in responding to anti-DEI policies and other harms to vulnerable groups that our profession is committed to serving? Participants will leave with practical strategies for ethical decision-making and upholding professional boundaries in an era of uncertainty and change.

This training offers practical tools to handle these challenges across different settings and age groups. Participants will learn how to use the NASW Code of Ethics, Wisconsin’s MPSW 20 rules, and Reamer’s Seven-Step Ethical Decision-Making Model to guide their work. Real case examples will explore the balance between client autonomy and safety, the limits of confidentiality, and how documentation and decision-making can affect power and trust. Through discussion and case studies with children, teens, adults, and vulnerable adults, participants will build skills to make thoughtful, defensible choices while keeping clients at the center. By the end of the session, attendees will leave with more confidence and clear strategies for staying true to professional values, even when the best path forward isn’t obvious.

“Bridging the Generational Divide: Ethical Practice in Social Work Across Generations” is a four-hour interactive webinar designed to help social workers understand how generational differences shape values, communication styles, work expectations, and help-seeking behaviors. Through case studies, small-group discussion, and reflection, participants will explore how age-based assumptions and biases can impact engagement, assessment, and intervention. Grounded in the NASW Code of Ethics, this session will focus on practical strategies to build generational intelligence, strengthen cross-generational collaboration, and promote ethical, culturally responsive practice with clients, colleagues, and communities of all ages.