2026 ABCSW Speaker Series: February - Living In Your SOFT Girl Era: A Permission Slip to Slow Down, Soften Up, and Show Up Authentically - Ms. Shevonne Matthews, LCSW-C

Wednesday, February 4, 2026
12:00PM - 1:00PM (EST)

Delivery: Live Virtual Interactive

Continuing Education: 1hr CE

Registration
$25.00 - Non ABCSW Members
Free for ABCSW Members!

REGISTER HERE!

Speaker: Ms. Shevonne Matthews, LCSW-C

Session Description:

Living in Your SOFT Girl Era is a workshop designed to support emotional wellness, self-regulation, and sustainable practice among women in behavioral health, with a special focus on Black women social workers. Grounded in the SOFT framework—Settling onto Our Feminine Stride—this session invites participants to explore the balance between masculine and feminine energy as it relates to professional identity, caregiving roles, and burnout prevention.

Participants will examine how over-functioning, chronic responsibility, and productivity driven expectations can impact emotional health and professional effectiveness. Through guided reflection, interactive tools such as the SOFT Standard (TM), and culturally responsive exercises, attendees will reconnect with intuition, creativity, embodied awareness, and intentional self-care. This session offers practical strategies that can be applied both personally and clinically, empowering participants to cultivate a softer, more regulated approach to their work, their clients, and themselves.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Develop a written vision statement and/or at least two affirmations that support emotional wellness, balance, and sustainability in their roles as social workers.
2. Assess at least two areas within their professional or personal lives where masculine energy dominates, and identify specific strategies to intentionally incorporate feminine centered approaches to client engagement, boundary-setting, and self-care.
3. Articulate a renewed, culturally grounded narrative of self-care and empowerment that reframes softness, emotional awareness, and intentional rest as professional strengths that support ethical, effective, and sustainable social work practice.

Speaker Information

Ms. Shevonne Matthews, LCSW-C

Shevonne Matthews has served in the field of social work for the past 16 years. She is a Licensed Clinical Worker in Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Florida with over a decade of experience in Child Welfare and treating individuals with acute and chronic mental health diagnoses.
Shevonne has helped many of her clients using a client focused and strength-based approach. She uses her theoretical knowledge and applies it in a way that reaches all ages. She has provided services to adults, children and families. She specializes in mood dysregulation, psychosis, anxiety and recently began providing bariatric consulting and therapy services. Shevonne realizes that there is a close correlation between emotional regulation and food consumption. Her goal is to take a journey with her clients as they discover ways to heal and repair their relationship with food and with others. Never to leave one behind, Shevonne also dedicates herself to providing clinical supervision to Licensed Master Social Workers in Maryland. It is her desire to provide support and assist newer social workers realize their clinical niche and to develop their therapeutic footprint. This time of mentoring and pouring out is very crucial in the maturation of a new social worker. Her life’s quote is, “when I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and I could say, “I used everything you gave me.” ~Erma Bombeck

Continuing Education
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 1 continuing education credit/hour.

Continuing Education Certificate Requirements
Registered event attendees must fully attend the chosen session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credits/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 the session attended located in the session evaluation survey. The link to complete the overall conference survey will be emailed to all attendees after closing remarks on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Continuing Education Certificates will be electronically sent by Friday, February 20, 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.

Refunds & Grievances
All refund requests must be submitted to [email protected] by Monday, February 2, 2026 to be eligible for a full refund (less $5.00 admin fee)
All grievances can be sent to [email protected] at anytime.