California Society for Clinical Social Work

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California Society for Clinical Social Work

CSCSW empowers CA clinical social workers through education, ethics, advocacy, and connection statewide. Join us! 💙

The California Society for Clinical Social Work - was founded in 1969 to ensure the continued existence and quality of clinical social work as a mental health discipline

CSCSW is the only organization in California focused on the interests of Clinical Social Workers and the clients they serv

GOALS OF CSCSW
Education – to provide educational opportunities, training and information that meet membe

rs’ needs
Advocacy – to advocate for members and the profession before the legislature and relevant regulatory agencies
Ethics – to articulate and uphold professional ethics and standards of professionalism
Monitor Trends – to monitor environmental trends that affect practice and advocate for corrective action
Value - to increase recognition of the value of practitioners and the profession among allied professionals, in the healthcare industry and the public
Mentor – to mentor individuals entering the profession

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
CEU’S Free for members - for District Meetings across the state
Clinical Workshops – including those required by the BBS, such as Law & Ethics
Ethics Consultations –from trained ethics consultants
Mentorship Program – for those entering the field or changing direction
Clinical Update - professionally relevant articles and information

For Associate Social Workers (ASW’s)
Supervisor List – CSCSW Members supervising for licensure hours
Mentorship Program – providing guidance regarding education, career, professional development and networking
Clinical Consultation Groups – CSCSW Fellows leading groups to provide clinical support as an adjunctive learning experience
Board of Behavioral Sciences Liaison – facilitating communication between members and the BBS

CONNECTION
District Meetings - provide clinical education and in-person networking opportunities
Statewide Listserv – online forum to connect with members statewide for information and resources. Therapist Finder – member directory for finding referrals
Online Marketplace – free classifieds, service announcements and job board on our website

ADVOCACY
Social justice
Client advocacy
Legislative alerts
Insurance updates
Licensing

07/25/2025

🗳️ Therapists in a Divided Nation: Bridging the Political Divide

As polarization deepens, it shows up in our therapy rooms — through emotional triggers, relationship distress, and fear for the future. How can we, as therapists, respond with skill and vision rather than get swept into the outrage?

Join William Doherty, PhD, LMFT, cofounder of Braver Angels and author of Becoming a Citizen Therapist, to explore practical tools for bridging divides in your clinical work and beyond.

📅 When: Saturday, September 6, 2025 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
💻 Where: Online Zoom Webinar
🎧 Closed captioning available
🎓 CEUs: 2.0
💵 Cost: CSCSW Members & Students: FREE | Nonmembers: $65

👨‍🏫 About the Presenter:
William Doherty, PhD, LMFT, is a professor and director of the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project at the University of Minnesota. He’s cofounder of Braver Angels, a nonprofit working to depolarize America. His new book (with Tai Mendenhall) is “Becoming a Citizen Therapist: Integrating Community Problem-Solving into Your Work as a Healer.”

✨ Link in bio to register!

07/23/2025

🌀 It’s Membership Renewal Time! 🌀

Whether you’re an MSW student, associate, or licensed clinician—now’s the time to renew or join the California Society for Clinical Social Work!

In a time when our profession and our clients’ rights are under threat, your membership helps protect our clinical identity, independent practice rights, and advocacy voice. 💪

✨ Member Benefits Include:
✔️ Free ethics consultations
✔️ CE opportunities & statewide networking
✔️ Mentorship for early-career professionals
✔️ Legislative advocacy & licensure protection
✔️ Scholarships, job listings, and more!

🗓 Membership runs July 1–June 30—renew now to stay connected, protected, and empowered.

📲 Link in bio to join or renew today!

07/22/2025

✨ CSCSW Member Benefits Spotlight! ✨

Did you know your CSCSW membership gives you access to incredible tools to grow your career and connect with our community?

🔹 Supervisor Finder — find or offer supervision for licensure hours
🔹 Consultant Finder — connect with clinical consultants
🔹 Therapist Finder — promote your practice to the public with our online directory
🔹 Online Forum — collaborate & share resources with members statewide

Not a member yet? Join today and unlock these benefits & more — link in bio!

07/21/2025

🌟 Upcoming Webinar: Engaging with Families Impacted by Individual, Intergenerational, and Historical Trauma 🌟

Join us this August for an inspiring live Zoom training (not recorded!) with Jeanette Lopez-Urbina, LCSW, as we explore how to effectively engage and build positive alliances with families who have experienced generational trauma.

✨ Learn principles of engagement, address common challenges, and discover culturally responsive, trauma-informed strategies to support families from a multicultural perspective.

📅 When: August 17th @ 9AM (live on Zoom)
🎟 Cost: Member: $95 | Nonmember: $135 | Student: $30
👩🏽‍🏫 Presenter: Jeanette Lopez-Urbina, LCSW

Presenter Bio: Jeanette Lopez-Urbina, LCSW has worked in the mental health/social services field since the year 2000, in various settings in Northern and Southern California, including residential and community-based services, through services such as Wraparound, psychotherapy, and violence prevention work. Jeanette has worked extensively with youth and families, especially in the area of trauma, including supporting youth and families in specialized services that address gang involvement, sexual exploitation, immigration trauma, and issues related oppression, racism, and acculturation issues. Jeanette is a bilingual first-generation Salvadoran American practitioner who enjoys practicing mostly from a social justice, relational, and psychodynamic approach. She currently is the owner of a group Private Practice in Berkeley, is adjunct faculty at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, and has been a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare. Jeanette provides trainings throughout the Bay Area on topics related to best practices in serving the Latine population, trauma informed care, and culturally responsive services

✅ Space is limited — don’t miss this meaningful conversation on healing, justice, and connection.

🔗 Register through the link in bio today!

07/15/2025

07/14/2025

💻 Clinical Practice Peer Support Group 💻
July 26th, 2025 @ 10 AM

✨ New Name, Same Support — and More! ✨

Our Telehealth Consultation & Support Group is evolving into the Clinical Practice Peer Support Group! 🌟

This group offers CSCSW members a space to connect, share, and support each other around a wide range of practice topics — from telehealth and professional boundaries to insurance, ethics, and regulations.

Facilitated by: Amanda Lee, LCSW

🤝 Whether you’re in an agency or private practice, all members are welcome to join and build meaningful connections with peers across California.

🗓 Join us and be part of the conversation — link in bio!

07/10/2025

Curious about navigating ethical dilemmas in clinical social work?

As part of your CSCSW membership, you have access to our Ethics Consultation Benefit—a free, confidential service designed to support social workers facing complex ethical questions in their practice. Whether you’re seeking guidance on dual relationships, boundaries, or documentation concerns, we’re here to help.

Meet one of the experienced ethics consultants offering this resource:

✨Tunisia Nelson, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in both California and Louisiana. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. While at Cal Poly Pomona, Tunisia served as a Diversity Ambassador, helping to plan an alternative spring break trip and acting as a liaison for the university to bring awareness of the transatlantic African American experience to campus.

Tunisia later received her Master of Social Work from California State University, Long Beach, where she was inducted into the Phi Alpha Social Work Honor Society. Through the CalSWEC program, she began her career in child welfare with Los Angeles County, working for six years as an Emergency Response Social Worker. In this role, she responded to immediate allegations of child abuse as a first responder.

Currently, Tunisia serves as the Assistant Clinical Director at Canyon Ridge Hospital. In this role, she oversees a range of interns and is passionate about inspiring the next generation of social workers to be well-rounded and trauma-informed.

In her spare time, Tunisia is an avid reader, averaging over 50 books a year. She is also a lover of the arts—frequenting stage plays, musicals, and writing poetry. She has been published multiple times and plans to release a poetry collection in the near future.

Most recently, Tunisia has chosen to continue her academic journey and will be starting her Doctorate in Social Work program this year.

07/09/2025

🗣️ Real Talk: A Clinical Support Space for BIPOC Social Workers 🗣️

Real Talk is a monthly consultation and support group for clinical social workers who identify as Black, Indigenous, Mixed Race, or Persons of Color (BIPOC). Developed under the guidance of CSCSW’s Diversity, Equity, and Transformation (DET) Committee, this group is committed to:

✨ Building solidarity and community
✨ Exploring intersectionality in clinical practice
✨ Decolonizing therapeutic work

🗓️ Meets every second Saturday of the month
🔒 Closed group for individuals who self-identify as BIPOC
👥 OPEN TO ALL

This is a brave space for BIPOC clinicians to process, connect, and support one another. If you do not identify as BIPOC, we kindly ask that you honor the group’s intention by not attending. However, we welcome your engagement in our open DET Committee meetings and other CSCSW offerings.

📌 Facilitator Bio: Flor Chidez, LCSW
“I have been part of the Education Committee for the past 2 years. I have secured several trainings/professional developments during this time. I have managed the zoom trainings, by introducing the CSCSW, engaging the speaker and audience. I have also assisted in organizing an in-person CSCSW networking event.

Social Justice is a big part of how I define myself as a social worker. I work for the Los Angeles Unified School District which I believe is a great equalizer in decreasing the wealth and education gap for our varying ethnic subgroups in Los Angeles. I am also the Social Justice Director and co-chair for the Housing and Homelessness Committee on the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council. In this role, I have organized a Bystander Training, when during COVID, the Asian community was being physically targeted. I have held and Affordable Housing Town Hall to educate our community regarding the disparity between homelessness and the need for more affordable housing in LA.”

💡 Join CSCSW today for access to other member-only peer groups, ethics consults, CE workshops, and more: Link in Bio OR scan the QR code!

07/07/2025

🧠 Psychodynamic Peer Consultation Group

Join us for a monthly consultation group designed to deepen your understanding of clinical dynamics through a psychodynamic lens. We’ll explore transference, countertransference, and relational processes in a supportive and collegial setting.

🗓️ Meets every second Saturday of the month at 9:00 AM (PT)
👥 Open to CSCSW members only — students, ASWs, and LCSWs and other licensed professionals welcome.

Facilitated by:
Joshua David Bienenfeld, LCSW – With over 30 years of experience, Joshua has worked at Children’s Hospital LA, DCFS, and the Jewish Federation Council of Greater LA, bringing decades of insight into relational clinical work.

Monica Blauner, LCSW - LCSW is a graduate of Smith College School for Social Work and earned a certificate in psychoanalysis from the Contemporary Freudian Society Psychoanalytic Training Institute. She teaches in the UCLA MSW program and the Reiss-Davis Clinical Fellowship Program. She has worked at all levels of care in mental health and substance abuse treatment and is currently in private practice in Los Angeles.

📍 Hosted by the California Society for Clinical Social Work
✨ Free for CSCSW members | Monthly virtual sessions

Not a member yet? Join CSCSW today to access this and other exclusive benefits: networking, professional development, ethics consults, and more!

07/06/2025

July Events Are Here!

Don’t miss out:

✨ Psychodynamic Peer Clinical Consultation Group
A FREE member benifit to explore transference, countertransference, and relational dynamics in a supportive, psychodynamically-focused group.

✨ REAL Talk - BIPOC Support Group
A FREE benefit to ALL that provides clinical consultation and support to build solidarity, decolonize practice, and process the impact of systemic violence.

✨ Clinical Practice Peer Support Group
A FREE member benefit that offers a space to connect and support each other on diverse practice topics like telehealth, ethics, fees, and professional boundaries.

Register now + learn how to become a member!
https://clinicalsocialworksociety.org/events

06/10/2025

📢 Stand Up for Immigrant Rights

The California Society for Clinical Social Work (CSCSW) is proud to support legislation that protects the safety, privacy, and dignity of immigrant communities across California.

We stand with our immigrant communities and their loved ones. As clinical social workers, we are called to advocate for systems rooted in care—not surveillance or control.

🗣️ “The California Society for Clinical Social Work supports SB 48, which would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools—as much as legally possible—from allowing immigration authorities to enter nonpublic areas of campuses without a warrant. We also support SB 81, which protects the privacy of immigrant patients by preventing hospitals and healthcare providers from disclosing immigration status to federal authorities without a warrant. In addition, we support SB 841, which restricts immigration agents from accessing homeless and domestic violence shelters.
As clinical social workers committed to advocating for marginalized populations, we oppose fear-based policies that endanger the safety and dignity of the communities we serve. Our role is to help build systems of care—not control—where all individuals can access support without fear of surveillance or harm.” — CSCSW Advocacy Committee Chair

📎 Slide to see resources courtesy of to support you, your clients, coworkers, peers, neighbors, and loved ones.

📬 We're also preparing an email with statewide resources for our members to assist in advocacy and protection efforts.

📸 Photo by

Address

Palo Alto, CA

Telephone

+13102549471

Website

http://clinicalsocialworksociety.org/

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