Continuing Education and Expert Speaker Series
We provide a context for mental health service providers to earn the continuing education hours necessary for license renewal. Workshops are scheduled in response to the needs voiced by local professionals seeking further training. We attempt to offer an ethics training each year as well as hosting various speakers with expertise in an area that educates on current trends and research, enriches clinical practice and fosters creative application of knowledge to mental health service provision. Our expert speakers series offers clinicians and interested professionals the opportunity to work with master practitioners. Most programs provide continuing education hours for professionals. (NBCC #4488).
Eastern Mennonite University - Master of Arts in Counseling has been approved by NBCC
as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 4488. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Eastern Mennonite University - Master of Arts in Counseling is solely
responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Fall 2026 Workshop:
DDP: A Model of Psychotherapy and Care for Children and Teens who have Experienced Relational Trauma
Children who have experienced abuse and neglect within their family when they were young are very likely to experience many developmental challenges in their lives as they mature. These challenges are pervasive and are likely to remain even if they are placed to live in an alternative home where they receive good care. They are often not able to respond well to caregivers in these new homes because they are unable to trust their new caregivers. These children are often unable to regulate their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral functioning. They have difficulty reflecting on their experiences and seem unable to learn from mistakes. They have trouble resolving conflicts and experience routine frustrations as if they are being abused again. They try hard to control everything they encounter rather than relying on their caregivers.
This presentation seeks to provide guidance to therapists, caregivers, teachers and other professionals who are attempting to offer healing and therapeutic experiences for these children who desperately need assistance while at the same resisting such help. Ways to successfully engage these children through maintaining an attitude of playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy (PACE) will be presented. These children will be helped to develop, based on trust and hope, rather than fear and shame. This presentation will help those who relate to these children to be able to perceive their strengths and vulnerabilities that lie under their behavioral problems. These children will be helped to discover who they were—and may one day become again—before they were betrayed and traumatized by their first parents.
The workshop consists of a formal presentation with many specific examples of successful interventions. It will also include videos and/or role plays of these interventions along with opportunities for questions and answers.
Date: Tuesday, December 8th, 9am - 4pm ET. There will be a break for lunch from 12 - 1pm.
Location: Martin Chapel
Presenter: Dan Hughes, PhD
Price to attend: Free. Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. Registration closes 12/1/26
Learning Objectives
Following the seminar, attendees will be able to:
- Describe four common developmental problems secondary to abuse and neglect.
- Describe the three characteristics of attunement that are central in the traumatized child’s therapeutic journey.
- List four characteristics of engagement (PACE) that will facilitate the traumatized child’s development of trust.
- Describe therapeutic conversations that help the traumatized child develop a new life story.
*Can provide up to 6 CE hours
For more information, download the flyer
Dr. Dan Hughes
Dan Hughes, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist who founded and developed Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), the treatment of children who have experienced abuse and neglect and demonstrate ongoing problems related to developing healthy relationships and also resolving past traumas. This therapy occurs in a family setting and the model has expanded to become a general model of individual and family therapy. He has conducted seminars, workshops, and spoken at conferences throughout the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia for the past 40 years. He is also engaged in extensive training and supervision in the certification of therapists in his treatment model, along with ongoing consultation to various agencies and professionals. He is past-president of DDPI, a training Institute which is responsible for the certification of professionals in DDP. Information about DDPI can be found on ddpnetwork.org. Dan resides in Damariscotta, Maine. His three children and two grandchildren also live in Maine.
Dan is the author of many books and articles. These include Building the Bonds of Attachment (2012) and, with Jon Baylin, Brain-Based Parenting (2012) and The Neurobiology of Attachment-Focused Therapy (2016). More recently he wrote Healing relational trauma with attachment focused interventions (2019) with Kim Golding and Julie Hudson, and Healing relational trauma workbook (2024) with Kim Golding.
Dan can be contacted at: Dhughes202@gmail.com
His website is www.danielhughes.org
Registration Information
To register prior to the training, please complete this registration form. Registration closes 12/1/26
Area hotels
Need a place to stay while training with us? Check out our hotel guide.
Past Trainings Presenters or Topics
- From Rupture to Restoration: Attending to Cultural Rupture Trauma by Bianca Augustine, CCTP, LPC, PhD - 2026
- Promoting Regulation with Attachment-based Trauma-informed Experiential Interventions with Children and Families by Anne Stewart, PhD - 2025
- Entering the Heart of Trauma by Bonnie Badenoch, PhD - 2024
- Treating Childhood Abuse and Trauma: A Trauma-Focused Play Therapy Approach by Sueann Kenney-Noziska, MSW, LCSW, RPT-S - 2023
- Knowing What We Don't Know: Meeting Our Ethical Obligation to Maintain and Develop Competence by Rebecca Vauter, Psy.D., ABPP - 2022
- Recognizing the Challenges in your Own Setting presented by Mary Alice Fisher, Ph.D, The Center for Ethical Practice - 2019
- DSM-5 (and Supplements) Refresher: Overview & Strategies presented by Cheree Hammond, Ph.D - 2019
- Sex is Not a Dirty Word: The Importance of Sexual Health and Wellness Training for Mental Health Practitioners presented by Emily Petkus, Ph.D - 2019
- Exploring Identity and Dreams through Altered Books presented by Mert Brubaker, MA, Rebecca Peifer, MA , LPC - 2019
- 10 Ethically Important Distinctions presented by Mary Alice Fisher, Ph.D, The Center for Ethical Practice - 2018
- Addictions Symposium facilitated by Christine Spilman, LPC, CSAC, Tara Langston, LPC, CSAC, Nate Koser, PhD, LPC, and Richard Wettstone, EdD, LPC, LMFT - 2018
- Expressive Arts Series “Altered Books as an Expressive Arts Platform for Work with Anxiety” facilitated by Cherée Hammond, PhD, Mert Brubaker, MA, Rebecca Peifer, MA – 2017
- Circle of Security-Informed 4 day Training, Dr. Bob Marvin, Director, Mary Ainsworth Attachment Clinic – 2017
- Clinical Supervision: Theory, Practice and Logistics, Facilitated by Dr. Teresa Haase w/Dr. Cheree Hammond – 2016
- Co-hosted, CVCA Fall Workshop "Recognizing the Ethical Challenges In Your Own Setting " presented by Mary Alice Fisher, Ph.D, The Center for Ethical Practice – 2016
- Evening of Discussion with Dr. Bob Marvin and Dr. Nate Koser – 2016
- Dan Goleman – 2016
- Mindfulness, Supervision, and Jacques Lacan – 2015
- Michelle Wade (ACA ethics specialist) – 2014
- David Whyte – 2014
- Dan Hughes – 2013
- Erin Martz (ACA ethics specialist) – 2013
- Sue Johnson, Ed.D – 2011
