Peer to Professional Pipeline: Moving Up or Out-The Transitions in the Business of Recovery

Career pathways and steppingstones will be identified and explored for peers and professionals in the SUD/MH treatment field.  Having personal experience may attract a person to the field but does it mean you will be a good fit for the work? Or even enjoy it?

This training will explore what the helping professional’s role really is, including areas such as risk/reward analysis, supervision or lack thereof, relapse potential and burnout concerns. We will identify tips and tricks for managing professional roles and responsibilities as a person explores their place in the helping professions. People often question their “why” when they are new to the field, hitting a mid- point in their professional career, and as they consider exiting the field.

Objectives:

  • Increase recognition of roles, responsibilities, personal and professional goal development and management.
  • Explore professional roles, boundaries, when they get blurred and how to clarify them.
  • Identify career growth paths for peers and counseling professionals in the behavioral health field
  • Discuss self-care, wellness practices, and work life balance to maintain a healthy career
Category
Basic
Best Practices
Clinical
Co-Occurring
Intermediate
Peer
Substance Used Disorder (SUD)

Speakers

MThompson.2021
Martha Thompson, PsyD, CAADC

Dr. Thompson is the founder and lead clinician at Empower the Mind LLC in Central Pennsylvania. She provides outpatient mental health, SUD treatment, clinical trainings, and consultation for professionals in the field.  Since starting her company in 2012 she has helped to grow, develop, and coordinate several community-based prevention programs such as Connected Together – a community violence prevention program providing free mobile trauma therapy to those in need, Breaking the Cycle, Changing the Future – a SUD peer recovery support program for pregnant and postpartum women which includes consultation for the professionals working with this special population, and Lebanon County Student Assistance Program which provides services to six school districts, the career and technology center and runs a free summer camp for county youth.  In 2016 Dr. Thompson was elected to join the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Certification Board (PCB).  Through her involvement with the board, she has helped to develop and implement statewide best practice trainings for peers and professionals credentialled by the PCB and working in programs licensed by the PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP).  Over the last several years she has taught at Harrisburg Area Community College, Alvernia University and Lebanon Valley College.  Her passion to help other learn, grow and be well is illustrated through her work daily!