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Supporting Supporters: Clinical Strategies for Working with Parents and Teachers

Tuesday, July 14th, 2026   2:00 PM EDT -3:00 PM EDT
Eli Farkas, LMSW and Yonatan Vinnik, LSW
$29.99 USD Cost For Member: $0

When a child struggles in school, the mental health professional often becomes the bridge between two vital but disconnected systems: the home and the classroom. Yet our training rarely prepares us to work skillfully with the adults surrounding a child — the parents navigating fear and frustration, and the teachers balancing a classroom while advocating for one student. This session explores how clinicians can shift from child-only interventions to a systems-informed approach that equips parents and educators as active partners in a child's progress.

Drawing on practical frameworks and real-world case examples, participants will leave with concrete, ready-to-use strategies for consulting with teachers, guiding overwhelmed parents, and bridging the gap when home and school are in conflict. Whether you work in private practice, a school setting, or an agency, this session will strengthen your ability to create meaningful change by working with the whole village around a struggling child.

About the Presenter

Yonatan Vinnik, LSW, is a licensed social worker at Upward Community and a therapist at the Mozes and Helen Stern Upward Counseling Center, where he works with children, teens, and families navigating emotional, behavioral, and social struggles. After earning his MSW from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work and completing a two-year internship at Upward, Yonatan joined the counseling center in 2023 and continues to serve the community he knows so well. Yonatan is AEDP Level 1 certified and brings a calm, regulating presence to his work with children, parents, and schools. Using a humanistic, psychodynamic, and client-centered lens, he incorporates EMDR, Sand Tray Play Therapy, Child-Centered Play Therapy, expressive arts, and systems work to help children feel understood and supported. A core part of his work is helping parents and teachers better understand what is happening beneath a child’s behavior, so they can respond with more confidence, compassion, and clarity. At the heart of Yonatan’s approach is helping children, parents, and educators move from “I don’t got this” to “I got this.”

Learning Objectives:

  1. Identify key systems-level barriers that impede school success and explain how parents and teachers function as therapeutic allies.
  2. Apply at least two practical strategies for engaging parents and teachers as collaborative partners in supporting a struggling child.
  3. Demonstrate strategies for navigating parent–teacher conflict and facilitating productive communication to support the childs well-being.

Agenda:

0:00–5:00 | Opening — Welcome & Framing (5 min) Presenters introduce themselves, establish the clinical lens, and orient participants to the session's central question: what is the therapist's role in supporting the adults around a struggling child?

5:00–15:00 | Didactic — Understanding the System: Why the Child Can't Be Treated in Isolation (10 min) Overview of a systems-informed clinical lens — how school struggles reflect and reinforce dynamics at home and in the classroom. Common patterns therapists see and what they signal about the broader environment.

15:00–27:00 | Didactic — Working with Parents: Holding the Overwhelmed Caregiver (12 min) How to psychoeducate anxious or resistant parents, reframe school struggles through a clinical lens, and position caregivers as active partners in the child's progress — without taking over their role.

27:00–39:00 | Didactic — Working with Teachers: Consultation That Actually Lands (12 min) Practical frameworks for engaging school staff — building rapport across professional roles, translating clinical insights into classroom-relevant language, and advocating for a child without alienating the teacher.

39:00–50:00 | Didactic — When Home and School Are in Conflict: The Therapist in the Middle (11 min) Navigating the most challenging scenarios — parents who distrust the school, teachers who feel unsupported, and competing narratives about the child. Strategies for facilitating collaboration without taking sides, illustrated through case examples.

50:00–60:00 | Q&A — Open Q&A with Presenters (10 min) Participants bring their own clinical dilemmas and cases to the room. Both presenters respond, offering different perspectives and sparking dialogue.

This workshop offers 1 Live Interactive Continuing Education Credits

This presentation is open to:
  • Social Workers
  • Professional Counselors
  • Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Licensed Mental Health Practitioners
  • Medical Doctors and Other Health Professionals
  • Other professionals interacting with populations engaged in mental health based services
Course Level: introductory
Level of Clinician: beginner
  • New practitioners who wish to gain enhanced insight surrounding the topic
  • Experienced practitioners who seek to increase and expand fundamental knowledge surrounding the subject matter
  • Advanced practitioners seeking to review concepts and reinforce practice skills and/or access additional consultation
  • Managers seeking to broaden micro and/or macro perspectives

Participants will receive their certificate electronically upon completion of the webinar and course evaluation form.

Disability Access - If you require ADA accommodations, please contact our office 30 days or more before the event. We cannot ensure accommodations without adequate prior notification. Please Note: Licensing Boards change regulations often, and while we attempt to stay abreast of their most recent changes, if you have questions or concerns about this course meeting your specific board’s approval, we recommend you contact your board directly to obtain a ruling. The grievance policy for trainings provided by NEFESH INTERNATIONAL is available here Satisfactory Completion Participants must have paid the tuition fee, logged in and out each day, attended the entire workshop, and completed an evaluation to receive a certificate (If this is a pre-recorded program, a post-test with a passing grade of 80% to receive a certificate.) Failure to log in or out will result in forfeiture of credit for the entire course. No exceptions will be made. Partial credit is not available. Certificates are available after satisfactory course completion by clicking here.
There is no conflict of interest or commercial support for this program.
  • NEFESH International, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0116.
  • NEFESH International is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0046
  • NEFESH International is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Mental Health Counselor #MHC-0082
  • NEFESH International is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0048.
Refund Policy:
Full Refund until 48 hours before scheduled date.
48 hours before: full refund less $5.00 processing fee. After event no refund will be given.
*exclusions apply for reasonable need and cause.