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Ethical Healing Frontiers: Trauma-Informed Practice That Transforms

CLINICAL EVENTS

Innovate, Educate, and Elevate

Ethical Healing Frontiers: Trauma-Informed Practice That Transforms

Jan. 16, 2027

10:00 AM - 1:15 PM (EST)

Virtual Event
3 CE Ethics Credits
Strengthen your trauma-informed practice with this immersive 3.5-hour CE training integrating ethical standards, evidence-based care, and culturally responsive approaches. Learn practical strategies to prevent re-traumatization, navigate complex ethical decisions, strengthen therapeutic relationships, and apply trauma-responsive frameworks that promote client safety, resilience, professional integrity, and improved clinical outcomes.

This immersive 3.5-hour continuing education session is designed to equip clinicians with advanced trauma-informed practice skills grounded in ethical standards, interdisciplinary frameworks, and evidence-based concepts. Clinicians across disciplines will explore the intersection of professional ethics and trauma-responsive care, enhancing their capacity to foster safe, culturally responsive, and healing-centered environments for clients across diverse settings. Participants will critically examine how trauma experiences impact client behavior, engagement, and recovery, and how ethical decision-making drives both client outcomes and professional integrity. Emphasis will be placed on integrating trauma-informed principles with core ethical codes (e.g., NASW, ACA, APA, ANA), safeguarding client dignity, promoting autonomy, and mitigating risks of re-traumatization. Through interactive case application, participants will build competence in ethical assessment, relational attunement, boundary clarity, and self-awareness as central pillars of transformative trauma-informed practice. By the end of this session, clinicians will be prepared to implement trauma-responsive frameworks that strengthen therapeutic alliances, enhance cultural humility, and support ethical accountability in complex clinical contexts.

Session Highlights
  • Participants will explore how trauma-informed principles align with core ethical standards such as autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and confidentiality.
  • Clinicians will learn how everyday clinical interactions, documentation, and systems processes can either reduce or unintentionally reinforce trauma responses.
  • Participants will apply structured ethical decision-making models to real-world traumarelated dilemmas.
  • The session will address vicarious trauma, boundary strain, and ethical self-care practices that support sustainable professional functioning.

This live interactive webinar is designed for behavioral health professionals, including:

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychotherapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Substance Use Disorders Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C

Ethics, Trauma-Informed Care, and Clinician Wellness Educator

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, author, educator, consultant, and professional speaker whose work connects clinical ethics, trauma-informed care, clinician wellness, leadership development, relationship health, and organizational culture. She is the founder, owner, and lead therapist of Selah Wellness & Therapeutic Services, a virtual specialty practice serving therapists, leaders, other professionals, individuals, and couples.

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, is also the chief executive officer of SJL Professional Services, where she provides coaching, consultation, continuing education, and organizational training. Her programs address ethical competence, communication, conflict resolution, mental health, professional development, workplace wellness, diversity and inclusion, and sustainable leadership. Her work is shaped by the belief that professionals cannot consistently support others while ignoring their own emotional health, boundaries, and decision-making capacity.

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, is known professionally as a “Therapist for Therapists” and the SelfCarePreneur. These descriptions reflect her focus on people whose roles require them to care for, supervise, educate, lead, or make decisions affecting others. Her teaching encourages clinicians and leaders to recognize that wellness is not separate from ethical competence: exhaustion, unresolved stress, isolation, financial pressure, and unclear boundaries can influence judgment, communication, documentation, and the quality of care.

Professional Background

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, earned a Master of Social Work from the University at Buffalo and completed a Doctor of Education in Leadership at the American College of Education. Her doctoral research examined leadership wellness as a factor in ethical leadership, productivity, and organizational performance. She also holds training or credentials related to financial social work, telemental health, clinical supervision, life coaching, couples assessment, anger management, employee-assistance services, Christian ministries, and workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, founded Selah Wellness & Therapeutic Services as a virtual practice focused on the needs of clinicians, leaders, professionals, and couples. Current practice materials describe services involving stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, workplace concerns, relationship difficulties, boundaries, emotional regulation, and life transitions. Her integrative clinical approach may draw from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, EMDR-informed work, DBT-informed strategies, and Prepare/Enrich, depending on client needs and professional scope.

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, leads SJL Professional Services from Tampa, Florida. The company provides professional speaking, coaching, consultation, workplace training, and continuing education for clinical and organizational audiences. Its programs connect staff wellness with communication, retention, conflict resolution, leadership behavior, team development, professional boundaries, and responsible workplace culture.

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, is currently listed by Bowie State University as an adjunct professor in sociology. Her professional materials also describe teaching in human services at Prince George’s Community College. Her academic work helps developing professionals connect human behavior and social-service theory with the realities of ethical practice, supervision, organizational systems, and client care.

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, has professional experience across mental health, substance-use treatment, foster care, family court, developmental-disability services, higher education, community agencies, healthcare systems, and organizational leadership. This breadth supports a teaching style that uses practical examples and structured reflection rather than presenting ethics as a set of memorized rules.

Areas of Expertise

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, teaches clinicians and leaders to consider how personal wellness, power, professional role, organizational demands, and cultural context affect ethical decision-making. Her work is especially relevant to professionals who carry responsibility for vulnerable clients, supervise other practitioners, manage teams, or routinely absorb the emotional consequences of helping work.

Clinical Ethics and Ethical Decision-Making. Dr. Lawrence emphasizes that ethical practice requires more than technical compliance. Clinicians must identify competing duties, examine client vulnerability and power differences, review applicable law and professional standards, seek consultation when needed, and document the reasoning behind consequential decisions. Clinical Events’ guide to therapy ethics, boundaries, confidentiality, and competence offers a complementary framework for structured ethical analysis.

Trauma-Informed Care. Her education presents trauma-informed practice as an organizational and clinical responsibility involving safety, transparency, collaboration, choice, cultural responsiveness, and the prevention of avoidable re-traumatization. It does not require assuming that every symptom is caused by trauma. Instead, it asks professionals to consider how earlier or current adversity may affect trust, engagement, emotional regulation, and responses to authority. Clinical Events’ trauma therapy guide for clinicians provides related context for assessment and treatment planning.

Professional Boundaries and Clinician Wellness. Dr. Lawrence explores the relationship among burnout, overfunctioning, role confusion, self-disclosure, after-hours availability, dual relationships, and ethical vulnerability. Boundaries are presented as structures that protect the therapeutic relationship, not as emotional distance or inflexibility. Clinical Events’ resource on professional boundaries for therapists includes additional examples involving digital contact, gifts, community overlap, and gradual boundary drift.

Clinical Supervision and Professional Development. Her supervision work addresses case conceptualization, documentation, competence, countertransference, cultural humility, professional identity, and the responsible use of supervisory authority. Effective supervision should create room for questions and mistakes while still protecting clients and maintaining clear performance expectations. Her official profile identifies her as a board-approved clinical supervisor in social work.

Leadership and Organizational Wellness. Dr. Lawrence’s doctoral and consulting work examines how leader wellness may influence communication, productivity, ethics, staff retention, conflict, and organizational performance. She encourages organizations to look beyond individual self-care and examine workload, role clarity, psychological safety, supervision, access to support, and whether workplace expectations are sustainable.

Financial Wellness and Financial Social Work. Her Certified Financial Social Worker background informs education on the emotional and relational effects of money. Financial stress may influence anxiety, sleep, conflict, healthcare decisions, professional performance, and feelings of safety. Her approach focuses on financial behavior and emotional awareness without crossing into individualized investment, tax, or legal advice.

Telebehavioral Health. Dr. Lawrence’s telemental health preparation supports education on privacy, informed consent, emergency planning, client location, secure communication, and digital boundaries. Clinical Events’ guide to telehealth ethics and client privacy provides complementary risk-management information for virtual practice.

Relationships, Communication, and Conflict Resolution. Her clinical, coaching, and Prepare/Enrich work addresses communication cycles, expectations, boundaries, emotional safety, finances, commitment, and conflict within couples and professional relationships. The objective is not to eliminate disagreement but to support clearer communication, accountability, and more intentional responses.

Authored Publications

The following works are supported by her official author catalog, dissertation repository, and professional publication records.

  • Exploration of Leadership Wellness as a Key Factor in Ethical Leadership Productivity, and Organizational Performance: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study
  • Balance Boldly!: 12 Strategies to Improve Relationships, Self-Care and Boundaries
  • Balance Boldly! The Journal: 21-Day Reflection Journal
  • 7 Simple Ways to Shape Your Marriage
  • My Everything Gratitude Journal
  • My Everything Gratitude Journal for Youth: I Am Everything from A to Z

 

Other Events

Ethical Healing Frontiers: Trauma-Informed Practice That Transforms

Oct. 3 | 3 CE Ethics Credits

Professional Boundaries, Ethical Integrity, and the Modern Clinician

Dec. 18 | 3 CE Ethics Credits

After this training, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the core domains of trauma-informed care and their alignment with professional ethical standards, including respect for client autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and confidentiality.
  • Apply ethical decision-making strategies to trauma-related clinical dilemmas, through structured case analysis that incorporates trauma history, risk factors, and client strengths while safeguarding client well-being.
  • Identify and address risks of re-traumatization and vicarious trauma, including strategies for clinicians to maintain self-care, boundary clarity, and professional responsibility in high-stress environments.
  • Demonstrate culturally responsive, trauma-informed communication and engagement techniques, ensuring interventions respect client identity, lived experiences, and holistic healing processes.

10:00 -10:05 am – Introduction
10:05-10:30 am – Foundations of Trauma-Informed Care and Ethical Principles
10:30-11:00 am – Understanding Trauma Impact on Client Behavior and Engagement
11:00-11:30 am – Ethical Standards Across Disciplines (NASW, ACA, APA, ANA)
11:30-11:45 am – Break
11:45-12:15 pm – Ethical Decision-Making in Trauma-Related Clinical Dilemmas | Managing Vicarious Trauma
12:15-12:45 pm – Preventing Re-Traumatization Through Trauma-Responsive Communication
12:45-1:05 pm – Case Application and Interdisciplinary Practice Strategies
1:05-1:15 pm – Q&A

All levels.

Registration Cost

Registration $67 | Jan. 16 | Virtual Event | 3 CE Ethics Credits | 10:00 am – 1:15 pm ET

Registration Deadline:  Jan. 16, 2027

Cancellation Policy

All registrations are non-refundable. However, you may request a full credit toward a future training if:

  • You notify us at least 72 hours before the event start time.
  • Credit is valid for up to 6 months from the original event date.
  • No credit will be issued for no-shows or cancellations made on the same day.
  • When you register for an event, you agree to these terms

Please email [email protected] to request a credit or reschedule.

A total of 3 CE Ethics credits are available.

This program meets the continuing education requirements in Ethics as required by state licensing boards and national accrediting organizations.

Additional Approvals Pending.


ASWB ACE

Clinical Events, LLC, (provider # 2201) is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 11/01/2025 – 11/01/2028.

NBCC

Clinical Events, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved   Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7643 Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Clinical Events, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

NAADAC

This course has been approved by Clinical Events, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #320899, Clinical Events is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

NY State Board of Psychologists

Clinical Events, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0292.

NY State Board of Psychoanalysts

Clinical Events, LLC 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 psychoanalysts #P-0073.

NY State Board of Social Workers

Clinical Events, LLC 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-0828.

NY State Board of Mental Health Counselors

Clinical Events, LLC 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-0329.

NY State Board of Marriage & Family Therapists

Clinical Events, LLC 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-0140.

NJ State Board of Social Workers & Professional Counselors

The New Jersey Social Work Examiners Board accepts ASWB ACE Provider credits. The New Jersey Professional Counselors Board accepts NBCC-approved CE provider credits.

All Other States Social Workers & Professional Counselors

All other states accept ASWB ACE Provider credits and NBCC-approved CE provider credits. Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their jurisdictions. States and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Florida Certification Board

Clinical Events is approved by the Florida Certification Board (FCB) to offer continuing education programs (Provider # 5527-A).

Canada Social Workers

BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, and QC accept ASWB ACE-approved provider programs to meet licensure renewal requirements.  Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their province. Provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Canada Counsellors

Clinical Events is an NBCC-approved provider.  Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their province. Provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Please contact us if you would like to inquire about applicable approvals for your continuing education (CE) needs.

Each professional is responsible for understanding and meeting the specific CE requirements set by their individual licensing board or regulatory agency. We encourage you to reach out to your licensing body directly to confirm how our programs apply toward your licensure renewal.

Questions:  [email protected]

In accordance with continuing education standards and requirements, the presenter discloses that they have no relevant financial relationships, affiliations, or conflicts of interest to report.

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