A Virtual Conference Jointly Sponsored by The American Board of Clinical Social Work
and the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work
ESTABLISHING SAFETY IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY: The Empowering Clinical Social Worker
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The ABCSW Conference Committee is excited to invite you to attend our 2026 Annual Conference. This live, interactive, virtual conference will be held on April 9-10, 2026.
We are working in an atmosphere of growing anxiety that surrounds both our clients and the clinical social workers who are providing services to them in a society that feels increasingly unsafe to almost everyone. This hybrid conference will address that anxiety and enhance our attendees’ abilities to approach their clients with empowering hope and confidence, instead of fear and dread. You do not want to miss this conference!
See you there,
Jana Edwards, LCSW, BCD
ABCSW Conference Committee Chair
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS HAS BEEN EXTENDED THROUGH JANUARY 15, 2026
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Registration Is Open!
REGISTER NOW
INVITED SPEAKERS
Mauricio Cifuentes, PhD, LCSW
“Tools of Understanding and Hope for the Relational Clinician in Challenging Times”
Current societal circumstances are having an impact on those directly facing their consequences, as well as on those who provide services to them and the community at large. Relational mental health providers, regardless of their personal views, are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to its impact. Helping professionals, based on the ethical mandates of their professions, are called to provide a holding environment for their clients. Yet, circumstances such as secondary trauma, and the tendencies to avoid, normalize, and forget trauma may make it more challenging to accomplish the professional ethical mandates. A better understanding of these dynamics can bring healing and restore hope and ultimately maximize the impact of relational clinicians. Using Psychodynamic theories and the Strengths perspective as frameworks of reference, our keynote speaker will expand on the above premises.
Dr. Cifuentes will help us understand the conditions we are trying to cope with today as a unique traumatic event and how it may impact clients and clinicians, explore some specific ways to enhance the wellbeing of clients vulnerable to being directly and negatively impacted by these conditions, and apply specific tools to deal with the potential conflict between the professional core values of the helping professions and the tendency to avoid, normalize and forget traumatic events.
Mauricio Cifuentes received a J.D. from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, his country of origin. He subsequently immigrated to the United States and pursued both an MSW and a PhD from Loyola University Chicago. He has worked as a clinician, supervisor, administrator, and professor for organizations such as Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago, Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES) in Minneapolis/St Paul, and Loyola University Chicago, where he oversaw the first online, bilingual Masters in Social Work. Currently, he is the Director of Programs for Family Service and Mental Health Center of Cicero, Illinois.
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Jennifer Bulow, LCSW, PhD
“Considerations of Safety, Therapeutic Presence, and External Realities in Psychotherapy”
At the heart of psychotherapy is a human relationship. When one, or both, of those in the therapy dyad are in pain, scared, or overwhelmed, that internalized experience can move into the therapeutic space. A therapist uses their professional wisdom and training to manage their own emotional states in ways that meet the needs of the treatment at hand; however, we must explore the impact of scenarios in which the existential and real threats challenging individuals are shared, chronic, and on-going. At times, therapists can be as troubled and distressed as many of their clients. Regulation and neurobiological theories add depth to our potential to understand this phenomenon in psychotherapy sessions, particularly considering the intrusive nature of news and social media.
Dr. Bulow will present concepts of safety, therapeutic presence, and right brain resonance. She will describe the mechanisms by which safety is communicated and experienced on a cognitive, affective, and neurophysiological level between individuals and encourage us to consider the impact of our own response to external realities on our own sense of safety and therapeutic practice.
Jennifer Bulow has worked with children, adolescents and adults in a variety of community based settings and private practice. Currently, she has a private practice in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, working primarily with individual adults and couples. Jennifer has a clinical interest in contemporary relational psychodynamic work, interpersonal neurobiology, and affect regulation. She completed her Masters in Social Work at University of Southern California. Her doctoral education was completed at The Sanville Institute based in Berkeley, CA, and the doctorate was conferred at the Institute for Clinical Social Work based in Chicago, Illinois. She is adjunct faculty at The Reiss-Davis Graduate School (at Southern California University of Health Sciences), teaching doctoral students neurobiology, affect regulation and classical and modern attachment theory.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
ABCSW, #1854, 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: 8/23/2024 – 8/23/2027.
Social workers completing this course receive up to 12 continuing education credits/hours.
Continuing Education Certificate Requirements
Registered conference attendees must fully attend each chosen session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credit/Hours. Session evaluations include attendance attestation statements and must be completed within the same day as the attended session to be considered valid.
To receive a Continuing Education Certificate, you must complete the attestation statement for each session attended and the overall conference evaluation survey. The link to complete the overall conference survey will be emailed to all attendees after closing remarks on Friday, April 10, 2026.
The completion deadline for the Overall Conference Evaluation is Monday, April 20, 2026. Continuing Education Certificates will be electronically sent by April 30, 2026, via the email provided in your overall conference evaluation.
PHOTOGRAPHY NOTICE
Please note that photographs and screen captures may be taken during the event. By registering, you are giving your consent for these images to be used by ABCSW in digital and print publications. Please contact [email protected] directly should you have any concerns.
A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR 2026 CONFERENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE!
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