Category: Social Work Practice
Build the skills you’ll actually use with clients through practical, case-driven continuing education. Learn assessment, intervention, and communication approaches that enhance client outcomes.
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What is the difference between NASW and ASWB?
Read more: What is the difference between NASW and ASWB?Social workers mix these up constantly, and it’s understandable — both are national organizations, both use the same initials pattern, and both show up constantly in conversations about licensure and professional development. But they do fundamentally different things, and confusing them can create real problems when it comes to your license. Here’s what you actually…
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What Veterans Need From You in the First 20 Minutes
Read more: What Veterans Need From You in the First 20 MinutesMost veterans decide whether therapy is worth their time before the first session ends. That’s not cynicism — it’s how military culture works. When you’ve spent years in an environment that values directness, mission focus, and demonstrated competence, you size people up fast. Veterans walk into your office doing exactly that. Here’s the context worth…
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When Home Becomes Office
Read more: When Home Becomes OfficeYou’re three minutes into a session with Isabel (a composite case representing common telehealth experiences) when your cat jumps onto your desk, knocking over your coffee mug. Behind you, your teenage daughter’s TikTok music starts blaring from upstairs. Isabel laughs and says, “Your house feels so homey—nothing like those sterile office buildings.” Your stomach drops…
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Preventing Burnout and Secondary Trauma in Social Work
Read more: Preventing Burnout and Secondary Trauma in Social WorkYou know that feeling when you’re driving home from work and can’t remember the last three clients you saw? When you realize you’ve been staring at the same progress note for twenty minutes? That’s not laziness—that’s your nervous system waving a red flag. Burnout and secondary trauma don’t announce themselves with a dramatic moment. They…
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Social Work with HIV-Positive Clients
Read more: Social Work with HIV-Positive ClientsMost continuing education reduces complex practice to simple protocols. But if you’re working with HIV-positive clients, you already know it’s never just about HIV. It’s about substance use that predates diagnosis, depression that affects adherence, housing instability that makes appointment attendance nearly impossible, and shame that fragments trust across every system.The excerpt below comes from…
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What “Biopsychosocial” Actually Means in Practice
Read more: What “Biopsychosocial” Actually Means in PracticeYou’re thirty minutes into an intake with Brenda Hayes. She came in saying she’s been “feeling down” for about a year. As you talk, you learn she recently lost her administrative job, lives with chronic back pain that’s getting worse, isn’t sleeping well, and is helping coordinate care for her father, who has dementia. Her…
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How to Build a Therapeutic Alliance Through a Screen
Read more: How to Build a Therapeutic Alliance Through a ScreenThis is an excerpt from SWTP CEU’s 3-CE Telehealth in Social Work Practice course. The first time you meet a new client via video, you’ll notice something feels different. Not worse, not better—just different. You can’t read their full body language. You can’t gauge how they fill the physical space of your office. You don’t…
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Why Family Systems Matter in Substance Use Treatment
Read more: Why Family Systems Matter in Substance Use TreatmentThe following is an excerpt from the 6-CE SWTP CEUs course, Substance Use in Families: Beyond the Identified Patient. The intake form says Miguel Torres, age 16, marijuana use. His school social worker made the referral after the third time he showed up high to class. You’re three minutes into the family session when you…
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Myths vs. Facts About Suicide
Read more: Myths vs. Facts About SuicideThis is excerpted from the SWTP CEU course, Suicide Risk Assessment and Intervention. Given the scope and complexity of suicide as demonstrated by these epidemiological patterns, it becomes crucial to address common misconceptions that can interfere with effective prevention efforts. Understanding and dispelling common myths about suicide is essential for effective social work practice. These…
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Why Spirituality Matters in Social Work Practice
Read more: Why Spirituality Matters in Social Work Practice(This is an excerpt from the SWTP CEU course, Religious and Spiritual Competency for Social Workers.) A client sits across from you, grieving the sudden death of her husband. She keeps saying, “I just don’t understand why God would do this to me.” You nod, validate her pain, ask about her support system. But you…