Continuing Education for Social Work

From Arrest to Reintegration: Clinical Tools and Interventions for Supporting Justice-Impacted Clients and Their Families

FRIDAY, January 31, 2025
10:00 am – 12:00 pm (eastern time)
Live Webinar on Zoom
(You will need to register to receive login information)

Registration: 2 CEU Credit Hours
General:  Through Jan. 21, $50; Jan. 22-Jan. 30, $60
Wurzweiler Alumni and Current WSSW Field Instructors: Through Jan. 21, $40; Jan. 22-Jan. 30, $60
All Current Students: $15
Registration closes on 01/30/25 at 5:00 Eastern Time (EST)

This training provides a comprehensive overview of the criminal legal system, guiding clinicians through each stage – from arrest to reintegration – while examining emotional, psychological, and social impacts at every phase. 
Designed for social workers and other mental health professionals, the session offers practical, trauma-informed interventions and evidence-based tools, including mindfulness techniques for emotional regulation, cognitive restructuring methods for trauma processing, and family systems approaches to improve communication and foster healthier relationships. Participants will also learn strategies to build trust, enhance resilience, and support individuals and families as they work toward long-term stability and healing..

Learning Objectives

Participants will be better equipped to:

Understand the Criminal Legal Trajectory: Identify key stages of the criminal legal process and examine the psychosocial impacts on justice-involved individuals and their families.

Recognize Systemic Challenges and Trauma: Gain insight into the common forms of trauma, stigma, and systemic barriers faced by clients, and understand how these factors influence overall well-being.

Apply Evidence-Based Interventions: Explore core therapeutic interventions to address trauma and enhance coping, communication, and personal growth.

Foster Resilience and Healing: Develop strategies to build resilience, strengthen therapeutic rapport, and foster trust.

Integrate a Trauma-Informed, Person-Centered Framework: Apply an holistic, trauma-informed lens and person-centered principles to ensure culturally responsive, ethically grounded, and effective clinical support for justice-impacted clients. 

Elia Johnson, LCSW is the Director of Social Work at Appellate Advocates in New York, where she integrates social work practice with post-conviction representation. She has over ten years of experience in forensic social work. Previously, she headed the Client Services Program at the Office of the Appellate Defender. Prior to joining OAD, Elia worked at Brooklyn Defender Services in the Adolescent Defense Practice, working with youth charged with serious felonies. 

Elia trains lawyers and law students on trauma-informed interviewing techniques to better connect with and represent clients. Elia obtained her MSW from Columbia School of Social Work and holds a Post-Master's Certificate in Trauma Informed Clinical Practice from New York University.

PODCAST

Rabbis, chaplains, and social workers are often called on to provide spiritual care near life’s end. Whether in response to serious illness, advanced cognitive or physical decline in old age, or unexpected, tragic violence, health care professionals and clergy need to respond compassionately and effectively with families facing spiritual, emotional, and existential crises. Clips from Wurzweiler School of Social Work’s “Spirituality Near the End of Life” Conference in July 2019 include leading clergy, chaplains, and social workers offering their knowledge, skills, and wisdom to assist professionals seeking to better integrate spiritual care into their professional and community work.

Episode 1

Episode 2