Amanda Good, LICSW, EMDR-C, is the Clinical Director at The Sibley Group in Washington DC, where she has been a psychotherapist for adolescent and adult clients for 15 years. She specializes in treating stress, anxiety, and trauma related symptoms, and is certified in Eye Movement and Desensitization Therapy (EMDR).
Amanda writes, teaches, and consults on a variety of topics relating to trauma treatment, and is passionate about making mental health concepts and treatment easily understandable for clinicians and clients alike. Using a blend of evidence-based treatments including EMDR, IFS, EFFT, CBT, and DBT, as well as a deeply grounded and relational approach, Amanda provides therapy and teaches therapists to go beyond symptom management to healing root problems and achieving lasting change.
All About Parent Work: Building Confidence, Best Practices, and Ethics of Parent Involvement in Therapy with Children and Teens
All About Parent Work: Building Confidence, Best Practices, and Ethics of Parent Involvement in Therapy with Children and Teens is a practical, skills-focused training designed to help social workers feel more confident, grounded, and effective when engaging parents in the therapeutic process, while remaining grounded in ethics and maintaining appropriate boundaries. Parent involvement is one of the strongest predictors of treatment success for children and adolescents—yet many clinicians feel unprepared or anxious about engaging parents. Parent work can bring up a variety of ethical boundarie...Read mores and decision-making challenges, and this training provides an ethical framework for navigating complex family dynamics, setting boundaries, and addressing parental behaviors that may contribute to the child's symptoms.
This training blends developmental science, systemic perspectives, and real-world clinical strategies to help therapists strengthen the parent-therapist alliance, provide impactful psychoeducation, and coach caregivers without shame or blame and while honoring the boundaries of the child's therapy. Participants will examine ethical considerations—such as confidentiality with minors, documentation, cultural humility, working with separated or high-conflict parents, mandated reporting, and self-determination—through the lens of the NASW Code of Ethics.
Through case examples, discussion, and structured frameworks, clinicians will leave with clearer protocols for ethical parent communication and evidence-based parent work that improves outcomes, supports caregiver capacity, and protects the therapeutic relationship. Less...
Learning Objectives
- Explain the clinical rationale for parent involvement in child and adolescent therapy, including research on caregiver factors that influence treatment outcomes.
- Differentiate between various modes of parent work—such as psychoeducation, parent coaching, collateral sessions, and family therapy—and identify how to ethically incorporate each appropriately into treatment.
- Apply best practices for building a strong parent-therapist alliance, including strategies for giving feedback, addressing defensiveness, and supporting caregiver regulation and skill-building while maintaining ethical boundaries.
- Identify ethical responsibilities and boundaries related to parent involvement, including issues of confidentiality with minors, informed consent, cultural considerations, documentation, and navigating conflicting parent agendas.
- Develop a structured plan for integrating ethical parent work into clinical practice, including setting expectations during intake, maintaining clear communication systems, and tailoring approaches for neurodiverse, traumatized, or high-stress families.
Target Audience
This educational activity is intended for behavioral health professionals, including Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, and MFT's. Beginner to Advanced experience levels are welcome.
Learning Levels
- Beginner-Advanced Therapists Providing Services to Children and Families
Friday, June 12, 2026
Live Interactive Webinar
09:00 AM EDT - 12:00 PM EDT
EARN 3 CE Credit Hours
About the speaker
Amanda Good
Clinical Director, The Sibley Group
Agenda
0:00–0:10 (10 min) | Welcome, Introductions, and Course Orientation- Instructor introduction
- Overview of course objectives
- Acknowledgment of common clinician challenges around parent work
0:10–0:30 (20 min) | Why Parent Work Matters: The Research & Rationale
- Developmental and systemic theories supporting parent involvement
- Evidence on parent engagement improving treatment outcomes (CBT, PCIT, TF-CBT, EMDR, etc.)
- Parent factors vs child factors: the surprising impact of caregiver regulation, modeling, and attunement
- The clinician’s role in shifting family patterns, not “fixing the child”
- Discussion prompt: Which parent behaviors most influence progress in your clinical work?
0:30–1:00 (30 min) | Role Clarity: What Is (and Isn’t) Parent Work?
- Differentiating:
- Psychoeducation
- Parent coaching
- Parent-only sessions
- Family therapy
- Collateral contact
- Creating an intentional parent-therapist alliance
- Boundaries and structure around communication
- Frequency, modality, expectations
- Red flags of over-involvement or under-involvement
- Building confidence: scripts and structures to reduce therapist discomfort
- Mini-practice: Write a clear parent involvement statement you can use for your bio or for describing your approach with parents during intake.
1:00–1:45 (45 min) | Best Practices for Working With Parents
- Psychoeducation
- Explaining diagnoses, behaviors, and treatment models in accessible language
- Orienting parents to the nervous system, executive functioning, and development
- Handling skepticism or “fix my kid” expectations
- Coaching Parents Without Shame
- Affirming strengths first: motivational interviewing principles
- The balance of validation and directive guidance
- Teaching co-regulation, modeling, and connection-based strategies across modalities
- Scripts for giving hard feedback with compassion
- Supporting Neurodiverse, Traumatized, or High-Stress Families
- Adapting the approach for ADHD, ASD, trauma histories
- Understanding parent capacity, culture, burnout, and mental health
- When parents need their own referrals
Interactive activity: Case vignette + small group discussion on how to structure parent sessions.
1:45–2:15 (30 min) | Navigating Ethical Challenges and Complex Parent Dynamics
- NASW Code of Ethics:
- Informed consent
- Self-determination
- Confidentiality with minors
- Competence & cultural humility
- Dual relationships in small communities or school-based work
- Managing conflicting parent agendas (co-parents, divorced families)
- Documentation considerations when working with minors
- Handling requests for updates while protecting therapeutic space
- Role of mandated reporting & duty to warn in the context of parent relationships
- Ethical gray area exercise: You receive concerning information from a teen “don’t tell my parents…” — now what?
2:15–2:50 (35 min) | Practical Skills: Structuring Parent Work for Success
- Intake & Ongoing Structure
- How to set expectations in the intake with parents
- Parent involvement plans: clear, written frameworks
- Running an Effective Parent Session
- Sample agenda (check-in, strengths, barriers, skill teaching, alignment)
- How to navigate defensiveness, minimization, or parent shame
- Using curiosity instead of blame
- Strengthening caregiver capacity → improved child outcomes
- Communication Systems That Work
- Email boundaries, updates, and policies for texts
- Monthly or quarterly parent meetings
- Collaborative approaches: schools, other providers
Interactive practice: Scripted role-play—giving parent feedback about behavior reinforcement patterns.
2:50–3:00 (10 min) | Integration, Q&A, and Closing
- Review of key takeaways
- Brief self-reflection:
- “What is one thing you will change in your parent work this week?”
- Q&A
- Provide resource list & recommended handouts
CE Information - Earn 3 CE Credit Hours
CE Approvals
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program
All About Parent Work: Building Confidence, Best Practices, and Ethics of Parent Involvement in Therapy with Children and Teens, Course # pending approval, is approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program to be offered by The Sibley Group as an individual course. Individual courses, not providers, are approved at the course level. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. ACE course approval period: pending approval. Social workers completing this course receive 3 Ethics continuing education credits.
CE Process Info
Before the event, you will receive an email from CE-Go with access to the virtual event. After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link and access to the virtual event will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.
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- Complete evaluation forms for the event
- Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format
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