Evidence-Based Mental Health Trainings 

High-quality mental health trainings available for school professionals, caregivers, youth, and community members

UR-SOS trainings are provided by faculty and staff from Pediatric Behavioral Health and Wellness at UR Medicine. The goal of all our trainings is to increase the capacity of school staff supporting youth with behavioral health needs and their families. Trainings can center on the following topics, but can also be modified to include implementation instructions for a variety of behavioral and educational topics, either for individuals or for all children.   Training is also available for caregivers, youth, and community members. Additional trainings available upon request.

School Mental Health Training Categories

Select the category you are interested in to learn more about the types of training we offer. 

1.  District-Wide Quality Improvement Initiatives
2.  National Mental Health Certification Courses
3.  Evidence-Based Practices For School Mental Health Providers
4. School Mental Health Group Interventions
5.  Mental Health Training for Administrators, Educators, & Paraprofessionals
6.  Mental Health Training for School Nurses
7.  For Parents & Families

1. District-Wide Quality Improvement Initiatives

School Mental Health Quality Improvement with The SHAPE System 

Support is available for implementation and execution of the SHAPE System in your school or district. The SHAPE System, developed by the NCSMH at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is a free, private, web-based portal that offers a virtual workspace for school mental health teams at school, district, and state levels to document, track, and advance quality and sustainability improvement goals as well as assess trauma responsiveness. The system offers access to free action planning, mapping, program implementation resources, and other critical tools to advance comprehensive school mental health systems.

SHAPE Supports available include: 

• SHAPE 101: Training District Teams in SHAPE Basics 
• Evaluating with SHAPE: Facilitating NYS Teams in SHAPE Evaluation
• Quality Improvement with SHAPE:  Personalized assistance for NYS Teams in data interpretation and system improvement
• Comprehensive SHAPE Instruction: Instruction in the core components of comprehensive school mental health, including: Foundations of Comprehensive School Mental Health; Teaming Practices; Needs Assessment & Resource Mapping; Screening; Mental Health Promotion; Early Intervention & Treatment; Funding & Sustainability; Impact

National School Mental Health Best Practice Curriculum

The modules align with the national performance domains and indicators established as part of the National Quality Initiative on School Health. Each module includes resources and tools to support learning extensions and can be adapted and built upon to contextualize it for regions, states, and districts.  

Each 1-hour module focuses on the core components of comprehensive school mental health and includes: 

• Foundations of Comprehensive School Mental Health
• Teaming Practices
• Needs Assessment & Resource Mapping
• Screening
• Mental Health Promotion
• Early Intervention & Treatment
• Funding & Sustainability
• Documenting Impact.

Connecting For Kids (C4K)

The Connecting for Kids (C4K) Collaborative Dialogue is a two-hour guided conversation aimed at building effective partnerships between critical sectors that support children’s social and emotional needs. To date, CFK dialogues have focused on facilitating discussion between two critical points of access for youth: education and pediatric primary care. Over the course of these dialogues, educational and pediatric primary care teams develop a shared vision, identify strengths/gaps in existing coordination efforts, generate ideas for streamlined cross-sector collaboration, and determine actionable next steps. Participants also receive the “Connecting for Kids COVID-19 Practice Guide”, a rich aggregation of our community’s best tools, resources, and 

Learn more about Connecting for Kids

Problem of Practice (POP) Consultancy Protocol 

Also known as a “consultancy protocol,” the POP Model is a solution-focused consultation model that enables a group of practitioners to work together to address the difficult dilemmas they face in their work.  The protocol has 2 main purposes: to develop participants’ capacity to see and describe the dilemmas that are the essential material of their work, and to help each other understand and deal with them.  

Learn more at the QPR Institute

2. National Mental Health Certification Courses

Youth Mental Health First Aid

Youth Mental Health First Aid is an early intervention public education program. It teaches adults how to recognize the signs and symptoms that suggest a potential mental health challenge, how to listen nonjudgmentally and give reassurance to a youth who may be experiencing a mental health challenge, and how to refer a person to appropriate professional support and services. (6.5 or 4.5 hour options)

Participants can expect: 

• Hands-on activities and practice
• Training in how to utilize a 5-step action plan
• Typical adolescent behavior vs. potential warning signs
• Overview of local mental health resources and other supports; 
• Manual packed with information on all topics in the course
• 3 year YMHFA Certification upon completion of training

Suicide Prevention: Question, Persuade, Refer

QPR is a suicide prevention training for front-line community members (e.g., educators, paraprofessionals, parents/families).  Just as people trained in CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver help save thousands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone to help.  (1.5 – 2 hours)

Learn more at the QPR Institute

Tending the Roots: NYS Trauma-Responsive & Resilience Informed Care Training

The Trauma Responsive and Resilience Informed Care Training provides foundational knowledge on the effects of toxic stress, trauma, and adversity on health and well-being. Understanding that racism is trauma and should be treated as such in any trauma-responsive care framework is a key component.  This training serves as a standard approach and increases the capacity of individuals and organizations to promote trauma-responsive, equity-based practices that are sustainable and support holistic health across New York. This is a live, interactive training. (7 - 8 hours)

Modules include: Introduction to Trauma and Toxic Stress; Trauma: The mind and the body; Wellness, Resilience, and Healing; Trauma-Informed Approaches; Compassion Resilience; and Action Planning

3. Evidence-Based Practices For School Mental Health Providers

Evidence-Based Assessment and Practice in School Mental Health

Geared towards school mental health practitioners, this training will cover theoretical fundamentals and school-based application of evidence-based child mental health practices.  This three-part series will cover best practices in Assessment of Children’s Mental Health needs, and evidence-based interventions including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance-Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). Presenters will offer school mental health teams a variety of evidence-based tools, resources, activities, books, and manuals to support implementation of practices in a school setting.  

• Session 1: Evidence-Based Assessment & Common Elements of Evidence-Based Practice
• Session 2: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Practices in School Mental Health
• Session 3: DBT, ACT, and SFBT Practices in School Mental Health

Trauma-Focused Interventions in K-12 Educational Settings

This training will focus on best practices in trauma-focused interventions for implementation in schools. Grounded in principals of Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Trauma in Schools (CBITS)/Bounce Back, this session will identify best practices of interventions that can be utilized to support individual children and teens who have experienced trauma, as well as group protocols for implementation in K-12 settings. 

We will first review trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral techniques (e.g., psychoeducation, relaxation, social problem solving, cognitive restructuring, and exposure), and identify free evidence-based tools to teach young people these techniques.  We will then identify elements of school-based trauma-focused group protocols (e.g., CBITS, Bounce Back) that can be implemented in educational settings and discuss best practices for running such a group in schools.  This seminar will end with a discussion of MH-Staff’s own compassion fatigue and resilience-building strategies.

Dialectical & Behavioral Skills Training for School Mental Health Staff

An advanced practice workshop is offered for school mental health staff.  This training will provide advanced insight into topics covered within the DBT Skills curriculum used in the DBT-A Skills Group.  Topics covered include: 

• Mindfulness: The ability to observe and experience the present moment without judgment. Teens will learn to notice their emotions and to experience them— without always acting upon them. 
• Emotion Regulation: Helping teens and their caregivers learn behavioral and cognitive techniques for reducing their vulnerability to, and enhancing their ability to cope with, overwhelming emotion. 
• Interpersonal Effectiveness: Assertiveness and communications skills are emphasized with the aim of helping individuals achieve their goals, maintain healthy relationships, and maintain their self-respect even after conflicts. 
• Distress Tolerance: Helping teens and their families learn ways to get through difficult moments without making impulsive decisions they may regret. 
• Walking the Middle Path: Learning to live a more balanced life and avoid the emotional and behavioral extremes that frequently lead to stress.

Suicide Risk & Threat Assessment

Every 15 minutes, someone in the U.S. takes his or her own life. And for every one suicide, there are 25 attempts. This public health issue affects everyone: families, healthcare providers, school personnel, faith communities, friends, government, and others. It’s important that everyone knows suicide’s warning signs and how to help a person contemplating suicide. 

This is particularly true for healthcare providers, especially those who work in integrated health settings, which are primed to make a great difference in the lives of people at-risk of suicide.  The Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) is a questionnaire used for suicide assessment. Various professionals can administer this scale, including physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, peer counselors, coordinators, research assistants, high school students, teachers, and clergy. Learn more about the C-SSRS and how it can be used to identify kids at risk of suicidality and in need for immediate or urgent intervention.

Supporting Youth with School Avoidance and Refusal 

School refusal describes the disorder of a child who refuses to go to school on a regular basis or has problems staying in school. Children with school refusal often complain of physical symptoms shortly before it is time to leave for school or repeatedly ask to visit the school nurse. In this training, MH Practitioners will develop a clearer understanding of what constitutes school anxiety, avoidance, and refusal, and more clearly identify why a child is avoiding school. Practitioners will also learn strategies to develop initial school-based behavioral plans to help reduce school anxiety and address school avoidance and non-attendance, and increase their knowledge in how to both identify and refer complex/severe situations to appropriate resources.  

Addressing Student Behavior Collaboratively

Do you have students who continue to struggle despite making numerous attempts to help them?  

This experiential training workshop will be fun and engaging while focusing on strategies for solving problems collaboratively and proactively, as well as teaching skills. We will start with a close look at beliefs about why a child is exhibiting challenging behavior.  We’ll practice identifying the skills that a behaviorally challenging student is lacking and the expectations a child is not meeting related to those lagging skills. We will then discuss & practice three ways of handling a problem with a behaviorally challenging student: Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. 

Identifying and Facilitating Linkages to Community Services

In addressing the full array of student needs, schools have access to a wide variety of national-, state-, district-, and school-run programs and resources that can begin to help address the wide array of individual and family needs that can interfere with optimal learning.  Ideally, the available supports and resources complement one another and provide educational, social/emotional/behavioral resources. 

However, with the many demands within a school setting, it's common for these resources to fall through the cracks.   Over time, it becomes easy to lose track of all the available supports and resources, who can access them, how to access them, and why they are offered.  This workshop will focus on identifying what these resources are who each resource is most appropriate for, and how to access and evaluate their quality.  

4. School Mental Health Group Interventions

This series of trainings supports school teams in implementing evidence-based and –informed groups, adapted to general education school settings.  Typical group-based training involves an initial didactic session, then weekly consultation phone-calls to facilitate implementation in a school-based setting.

Bounce Back 

Trauma-Focused Group, K-5

Bounce Back is a school-based group intervention for elementary students exposed to stressful and traumatic events. With 20-50% of American children experiencing trauma within their families, at their schools, and in their communities, it's essential to help children heal. Bounce Back teaches students ways to cope with and recover from traumatic experiences, including the COVID-19 Pandemic, so they can get back to doing what they want to do and need to do.  

Designed to be administered by clinicians, Bounce Back is based on the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS). The Bounce Back program includes 10 group sessions, 1-3 group parent sessions, and 2-3 individual student sessions.

Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Trauma in Schools (CBITS)

Trauma-Focused Group, 6 – 12^th Grade

The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) program is a school-based, group and individual intervention.  It is designed to reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and behavioral problems, and to improve functioning, grades and attendance, peer and parent support, and coping skills.   CBITS has been used with students from 5th grade through 12th grade who have witnessed or experienced traumatic life events such as community and school violence, accidents and injuries, physical abuse and domestic violence, and natural and man-made disasters. 

CBITS uses cognitive-behavioral techniques (e.g., psychoeducation, relaxation, social problem solving, cognitive restructuring, and exposure).  The CBITS program includes 1 group session, 1 – 3 individual sessions hosted by school-based staff, 2 parent psychoeducational sessions, and 1 teacher educational session.

DBT in Schools: Emotional Skill Training for Adolescents

DBT in Schools: Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents (STEPS-A) is a universal social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum designed for middle and high school students in educational settings. The DBT STEPS-A curriculum is designed to help adolescents develop coping strategies and decision-making abilities, especially during emotional distress. 

The DBT STEPS-A curriculum is based on the skills component of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which has been shown to be effective for both adults and adolescents experiencing mild to severe emotional and behavioral difficulties. The primary population for DBT STEPS-A is Tier I of a multi-tier or RTI system; however, it has been effective at all levels of MTSS implementation.   

ALLIES Group for LGBTQ+ Teens

A CBT-based group for LGBTQ+ teens designed to provide a safe, inclusive, and affirming environment for LGBTQ+ youth to foster relationships, explore the evolution of gender and sexual identity, and develop effective coping, communication, and interpersonal skills.

5. Mental Health Training for Administrators, Educators, & Paraprofessionals

Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Burnout for Educators

This workshop will cover signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout as well as preventative strategies and interventions. The importance of self-care and various methods of implementing techniques to enhance and encourage self-care on a personal and organizational level will also be addressed.

Supporting Youth with Specific Mental Health Needs

This training can be tailored to specific mental health diagnoses or offered as a student-focused training in the area of disability.

Mental health disorders are the most common child health concern in the United States; Nearly 1 in 5 students will have a diagnosable mental health concern.   Our mental health trainings are designed to teach educators and community members how to recognize, discuss, and support youth with behavioral health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and other concerns.  This training also provides participants with local and national resources and directs instruction on how to refer children to these resources. 

Emotional Regulation Series

This training series provides teachers, student support specialists, and other school staff with hands-on knowledge on the nature of self-regulation and strategies for improving self-regulation and emotional control in individuals of all ages. A variety of tools (sensory supports, calming techniques, classroom activities, and thinking strategies) will be provided to help students recognize their internal emotions, sensory needs, and thinking patterns.  Tips, skills, and tools will be provided to help children/teens learn to self-regulate and to apply self-regulatory skills when needed.

Topics in Emotional Regulation Training Series: 

• Session 1: Emotional Regulation 101 – Understanding the Cycle of Regulation
• Session 2: Teaching Emotional Regulation Through Play
• Session 3: Teaching Emotional Regulation to Youth with Challenging Behavior
• Session 4: Classroom-Based Emotional Regulation Intervention: The Good Behavior Game

Intervening with Challenging Behavior

This workshop will review challenging behaviors related to aggression, non-compliance, and attention-seeking, and will provide a framework for intervening with these behaviors. Participants will analyze the effectiveness of their current approach and develop insights into what is happening when attempts at intervention do not work. They will gain a clear understanding of how to structure interactions for positive outcomes and will be coached in strategies to bring out the best in youth who exhibit challenging behaviors.

De-Escalation Strategies

The workshop will build important skills that can prevent challenging behaviors that often lead to crisis, and De-Escalation strategies to prompt individuals to use skills developed during prevention activities. We will also discuss post-crisis intervention strategies to reintegrate the individual back into educational programming.  Participants will also learn how to conduct retrospective analysis, which includes ways of improving future interactions in a crisis situation.

Collaborative Problem-Solving in the Classroom

Do you have students who continue to struggle despite making numerous attempts to help them?  

This experiential training workshop will be fun and engaging, focusing on strategies for solving problems collaboratively and proactively, as well as on teaching skills. We will first start with a close look at beliefs about why a child is exhibiting challenging behavior.  We’ll practice identifying the skills that a behaviorally challenging student is lacking and the expectations a child is not meeting related to those lagging skills. We will then discuss and practice three methods for managing a behaviorally challenging student: Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.  

Building Empathy with Difficult Students

This is a vital component of working with challenging youth. Empathy helps connect youth and adults, supporting the development of positive relationships for both. “Drilling Down” to the heart of a child’s concerns helps adults better understand a child’s challenges and begins to teach children to reflect on their own behavior as well.  Children also start to believe that an adult understands and cares for them, and over time, the child becomes more open to discussion. 

Dialectical & Behavioral Skills Training for Educators

Sometimes, teens feel invincible – and yet there are other times when they struggle with anger, sadness, self-esteem, and even substance abuse.   This is an evidence-based training program in Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents in Schools to help individuals ages 12-18 manage stress, improve relationships, and regulate emotions. This training teaches educators the 'basics' in DBT 101 - including mindfulness, acceptance, and cognitive-behavioral skills – and how to apply them in real-life situations with your students.

Social & Emotional Learning in Schools

This training will focus on strategies for teaching critical social and emotional skills to students, recognizing trauma as significant to a child's overall well-being, and creating and maintaining a safe, connected learning environment. Social and emotional learning focuses on developing an individual’s self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. 

Learning to recognize, understand, manage, and express emotions is seen as key to building healthy relationships and achieving academic, career, and life goals.  In turn, a growing body of research clearly demonstrates that climates of connectedness in school buildings, trauma-informed teaching, and the promotion of social and emotional competencies and skills are integral to learning and academic success. 

6. Mental Health Training for School Nurses

Each day, school nurses are confronted with many students who are doing poorly in school as a result of health and psychosocial problems. Increasingly, school nurses find it necessary to do something more than their original training prepared them to do. At the same time, education reform and restructuring are changing the whole fabric of schools and calling upon all pupil services personnel to expand their roles and functions. As a result, school nurses need to acquire new ways of thinking about how schools should address barriers to learning, and they need additional skills to equip them for emerging new roles and functions. Mental Health workshops for nurses are designed to address these roles and functions.

Nurse-focused workshops can include, but are not limited to:

• Introduction to School Mental Health; Mental Health Services & Instruction: What a School Nurse Can Do
• Internalizing Disorders; Externalizing Disorders; Common Psychopharmacological Interventions for Mental Health
• Best Practices in Approaching and Referring Students; Data-Driven Decision-Making
• Cultural Competence; Collaboration with parents and mental health professionals; Working with Others to Enhance Programs and Resources

7. For Parents & Families

All other trainings can be tailored to parents and families

School Mental Health 101 – Parent Nights

Schools have access to a wide variety of services and resources that can help address a wide array of individual and family needs related to child health and mental health.  This parent-focused training will identify important resources available to students and families, including in-school counseling, school-based consultation, and behavioral health visits from our partners at URochester Medicine, as well as out-of-school resources for those seeking more.  This training will also provide parents and family members with hands-on knowledge of the nature of children’s mental health needs and strategies for promoting mental health in youth of all ages. 

Nurturing Healthy Teen Relationships

Presenters will offer insights into teen relationships with both peers and romantic partners, and how parents can guide teens towards safe and healthy relationships.  Parents will gain knowledge and skills in identifying healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors, strategies for helping youth set healthy boundaries, and how to recognize and address warning signs of social conflict and dating violence.  Parents will also learn to facilitate discussions with their teen about conflict, consent, dating, and coping with feelings of regret or heartbreak.

Supporting Youth with Specific Mental Health Needs

Mental health disorders are the most common child health concern in the United States; Nearly 1 in 5 students will have a diagnosable mental health concern.   Our mental health trainings are designed to teach parents and community members how to recognize, discuss, and support youth with behavioral health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and other concerns.  This training also provides participants with local and national resources and direct instruction on how to refer children to these resources. 

Tabling at Parent Nights

A member of our team will attend a Family Resource Night or event and distribute information about services and supports available at the University of Rochester Medicine.