Counseling Skills Online Course(s) & Continuing Education
Access the latest clinical skills and research for Counseling Skills for IBCLC/Lactation Consultants professional training. These Counseling Skills online courses provide practice-changing skills and valuable perspectives from leading global experts. This Counseling Skills education has been accredited for a variety of CEUs / CERPs and can be accessed on-demand, at your own pace.
We’re Human, Too: Hidden Dynamics in Our Communication with Clients
Cynthia Good, MS Clinical Psychology, is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Clinical Counselor, author, consultant, and internationally recognized speaker. She is the Director of LifeCircle Consulting, LLC and is Certified in Acute Traumatic Stress Management. She is based in the Seattle, Washington, USA area, where she formerly served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University where she taught counseling skills and is a therapist at Sandbox Therapy Group where she works with children, adults, and families. Cynthia has a strong interest in the emerging field of lactational psychology. She brings the evidence and insights of psychology and lactation consulting to her presentations, providing information and teaching skills that are essential to understanding and effectively responding to the complex psychosocial realities of families living in diverse contexts. The focus of her presentations includes communication skills and counseling techniques for perinatal care providers; equity, diversity, and inclusion; infant feeding rhetoric; perinatal mental health; perinatal loss, grief, and trauma; ethics; serving as an expert witness in lactation-related court cases; cultural competence and humility; vitamin D; and more.
Topic: Cultural Competence or Cultural Humility? A Roadmap for Lactation Specialists - [View Abstract]
Topic: Heartbroken: Loss and Grief in the Perinatal Time Period - [View Abstract]
Topic: It Wasn’t Supposed to be Like This: Traumatic Birth, Traumatic Stress, and Breastfeeding - [View Abstract]
Topic: My Brain is Doing What? Bias, Ethics, and the Lactation Specialist - [View Abstract]
Topic: Perinatal Mental Health Screening: A Primer for Lactation Specialists - [View Abstract]
Topic: The IBCLC as Expert Witness: Role, Strategies, and Resources - [View Abstract]
Topic: The Rug Pulled Out from Underneath Me: Depression During Pregnancy and After Birth - [View Abstract]
Topic: Unpacking the Invisible Diaper Bag of White Privilege: An Overview of Racial Inequities in Breastfeeding Support - [View Abstract]
Topic: We’re Human, Too: Hidden Dynamics in Our Communication with Clients - [View Abstract]
On the best of days, providing quality lactation care to families in the perinatal time period is a challenging endeavor. IBCLCs, for example, are mandated to effectively utilize history taking and assessment skills, a broad collection of skills to assist the dyad, general problem-solving skills, skills related to techniques and devices, and skills needed to develop, implement and evaluate an individualized feeding plan in consultation with the client. Communication skills are the bedrock of everything a lactation supporter must do. Our training in this area logically tends to focus on understanding and responding to the human context of the dyad. However, there are two sides to communication in a lactation-related encounter: the client and the care provider. And, care providers are also human. In spite of our compassion and good intentions, we are impacted by the stresses, losses, and traumas of life, which can then impact our ability to work well with our clients. This presentation addresses common challenges in the lactation supporter’s own context (such as cognitive load, burnout, and traumatic triggers), their impact on communication, and strategies that can help us improve our ability to communicate effectively with our clients.
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When Evidence and Empathy Aren't Enough: Changing Your Lactation Practice to Boost Client Success
Johanna Sargeant is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, teacher and writer based in Zurich, Switzerland. She is passionate about utilising her background in education, biological science, psychology and language to empower parents with empathetic support and evidence-based information through her private practice, Milk and Motherhood.
Originally from Australia, Johanna provides much-needed English-speaking support to many thousands of parents throughout Switzerland and across Europe, and has recently been writing new education modules for the European Society of Paediatric Research and the European Society of Neonatology. She has taught at the University of Zurich, has spoken as a panelist for the WHO's Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative congress in Geneva, has been an expert speaker and facilitator for Google, and has presented at a wide variety of international conferences. The complexities of her personal feeding experiences fuels her passion for providing knowledgeable, guilt-free infant feeding support globally.
Topic: Mastering Lactation Conversations: Creating Successful and Achievable Care Plans - [View Abstract]
Topic: Seeing the Bigger Picture: Finding Clues in Our Breastfeeding Clients' Surroundings - [View Abstract]
Topic: When Evidence and Empathy Aren't Enough: Changing Your Lactation Practice to Boost Client Success - [View Abstract]
Lactation professionals often accompany clients through the process of making difficult decisions: The client who wants to exclusively breast/chestfeed but loves that their partner gives infant formula each evening; The client who wants to and doesn’t want to stop pumping simultaneously; The parents who feel unsure about a potential frenotomy procedure; The client with breastfeeding aversion, desperately struggling with their 18 month old. Lactation professionals aim to provide empathetic care and to give the evidence needed to make informed decisions, and yet there are times where this is not enough and where clients continue to struggle to choose what works best for them. Here, learners will explore some Motivational Interviewing strategies that will actively empower clients, resulting in a significant shift in lactation practice overall. Discover how the strong desire to inform, advise and fix client problems can significantly reduce positive outcomes, and how a focus on the client’s own ‘change talk’ and ‘sustain talk’ can actively mobilize them towards their goal. Learn specific tools to immediately apply in consultations so parents feel deeply supported, feel motivated towards change, feel ownership of their plan, and to ultimately increase the likelihood of their success.