The Conversations We Didn't Have in Training

Over twelve months, we'll move through the work together — one topic a month.

Each month has a 60-minute teaching class on that month's topic and a separate 60-minute Q&A class that's entirely yours, live on Zoom, 7–8 p.m. Pacific.

MONTH 1 — Who consents? Intake + capacity

We'll explore intake, healthcare consent and capacity, and the separate agreements for treatment, information-sharing and parent communication. The goal isn't simply to collect a signature. It's to think carefully about whether the child, youth and adults involved actually understand what they're agreeing to.

MONTH 2 — Confidentiality, before you need it

How to explain the limits of confidentiality plainly, before they're needed, what caregivers will hear, and what changes when you're seeing a young person online.

MONTH 3 — Notes: writing clearly about complicated work

What actually belongs in the clinical record? We'll explore the difference between what was observed, what was reported, what you interpreted and what action you took and what to do when a parent asks to read your notes.

MONTH 4 — When a child tells you: disclosures

A young person tells you something hard. Now what? Disclosures and reporting get their own month: how to respond without leading questions, when and where to report (including when an Indigenous child and family service agency serves the family), sexual consent as a reporting question, and how to talk with caregivers afterward.

MONTH 5 — Suicide, self-harm + other safety risks

Asking directly, safety planning, when to involve caregivers, and knowing when you need consultation rather than more confidence.

MONTH 6 — The parent session + meeting the child

How do you meet the child beyond the problem everyone has brought them in to solve? We'll explore the caregiver session, meeting the child, creating a welcoming space and giving a young person time to settle without pressure to immediately talk or "do therapy."

HALFWAY — My Oops

A bonus 60-minute class built around my own carefully considered reflections, mistakes and learning from clinical work. Not a highlight reel a conversation about the moments that taught me something. It comes between Month 6 and Month 7, when we know each other a little and you may be ready to ask the questions you weren't ready to ask in Month 1. Q&A included, and recorded like every class.

MONTH 7 — Keeping trust when adults want info

One of the trickiest parts of child and youth work. We'll explore protecting the therapeutic relationship, deciding with the young person what is shared and how, what to do when the school calls, and how a young person can tell you therapy isn't working.

MONTH 8 — Two households: who decides + taking sides

Who actually holds decision-making authority, what parenting agreements do and don't tell you, communicating with each household, the pull to take sides and becoming the messenger without meaning to all while keeping the young person's needs and voice in view.

MONTH 9 — Court: orders, letters, records + subpoenas

Reading court orders, what to say when a parent asks you to write a letter for court, the difference between a treating therapist and an assessor, and how to respond to records requests and subpoenas and when reading a document isn't enough, and you need legal clarification.

MONTH 10 — Cancellations, pauses + endings

Missed sessions. Caregiver-led withdrawal. Changing priorities. Young people who feel finished before the adults do. Families who simply disappear. We'll consider follow-up, boundaries, documentation and how to preserve the young person's voice even when therapy doesn't end with a perfect final session.

MONTH 11 — Carrying it home, and putting it down

Some sessions finish when the clock runs out. Others follow you home. We'll talk openly about transitioning out of clinical work after demanding days and explore simple personal practices that may help while also recognizing when the answer isn't another ritual, but a workload boundary, consultation or additional support.

MONTH 12 — What you're taking forward + ethics

We'll take time with ethics not as a lecture, but as a conversation: the values in the BCACC Code of Ethical Conduct and the BCCSW Code of Ethics, what happens when those values pull against each other, and where they showed up across our year together. Then we'll look back: what's changed in the way you listen, where you feel clearer, and which questions you've learned to take to consultation.

BONUS — A guest expert session

Once during the year, we'll bring in a guest to go deeper on one part of this work. [Guest and topic to be announced.]

Your six private consultation calls

Six times across the year, whenever it's most useful to you, you'll have a 60-minute private call with me on Zoom, booked through Jane App. This is your time bring any question you're carrying, from your practice, from the month's learning, or the one you didn't want to ask in front of the group.

Book them when you need them: early, late or spread across the year. Any calls you haven't used by the end of the 12 months end with the program. You can reschedule with at least 48 hours' notice with less, the call counts as used unless there's an emergency. What you bring stays de-identified. Calls aren't recorded and I don't keep notes: this is consultation and training, not supervision.