Therapeutic Mentoring
Interested in this course?
Contact Dr. Alexandra Werntz at alex.werntz@umb.edu
Therapeutic mentors are paraprofessionals who work as part of a larger treatment team, ensuring coordinated care to support youth’s behavioral treatment plans, such as developing social skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving strategies, or daily living skills. By bridging the gap between clinical sessions and daily life, therapeutic mentors help make interventions more effective and meaningful for youth.
Our Certification in Therapeutic Mentoring is a key pathway into the behavioral health field with training focused on building program staff and mentors’ competencies in providing high quality, strengths-based, culturally responsive, and effective care.
Details
This course covers the essential skills for therapeutic mentoring:
- Common mental health challenges and their evidence-based interventions
- Ethics of mentoring
- Cultural humility and taking a strengths-based approach
- Basic cognitive behavioral and motivational interviewing skills to support young people
- Collaborating with a care team and parents/guardians
This virtual course will meet for an hour each week for 12 weeks. Each session will be a combination of live didactics, interactive role-plays, and in-depth discussions. Learners are expected to have their cameras on and be engaged during all of the sessions. At the end of the course, learners will have to pass a one-on-one oral exam with the instructor via Zoom to receive the certificate.
Therapeutic mentors are a growing group of essential workers who can help reduce the overall burden of the mental health crisis. Gain certification and learn critical mental health skills with our passionate team at the Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring!
Schedule:
- What is therapeutic mentoring?
- Common youth mental and behavioral challenges
- Ethics of therapeutic mentoring
- Cultural humility and taking a strengths-based approach
- Thoughts, feelings, & behaviors
- Anxiety & depression
- Motivational interviewing basics
- Values, goals, and supportive accountability
- Encouraging relaxation & self-care
- Challenging thoughts
- Opposite action & problem solving
- Review & wrap-up
- Oral exams (one-on-one)
To receive certification:
- Attend all live, virtual lectures
- Pass both written assignments
- Pass oral exam
