Practical Professional Training for Social Workers and Allied Health Professionals
Screening, Assessment, and ACT-Informed Support for People with Complicated and Beautiful Brains.
Recognizing the symptoms is important. Knowing how to respond effectively can make all the difference.
Too often, individuals and families encounter professionals who genuinely want to help but have not received the specialized training needed to recognize the complexities or adapt their approaches to fit accordingly. Individuals need therapy that makes room for how they learn, remember, communicate, process information and manage everyday life.
Families deserve support that is informed, practical, compassionate, and relevant to their needs.This training helps social workers and allied health professionals strengthen screening, and functional assessment skills while developing more relevant counselling, therapy and coaching for individuals and their caregivers.
We explore complex neurodevelopmental disorders and differences, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and learning disabilities, alongside trauma, attachment difficulties, personality disorders and complex mental health needs. A particular focus is on the impacts of prenatal alcohol and substance exposures, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), with attention to changing needs from childhood through older adulthood.
Many of these symptoms and experiences overlap or co-occur. Understanding the individual means considering developmental history, strengths, environment and current needs without assuming that one diagnosis explains everything.
The research is clear; we need and can do better. Better understanding should change what happens in the therapy room, at home, in school and in the community.
From Understanding to Helpful Support
Recognizing possible neurodevelopmental differences and needs is a starting point. This program asks what that understanding means for the next conversation, the next therapy session and the support plan that follows.
Participants learn to consider whether a person can understand, remember and use what is being discussed, and how to adjust the pace, language, activities and expectations accordingly. We give equal attention to the person seeking support and the parents and caregivers, family members and partners who may need guidance, validation and practical coaching.
VIDEO | An overview of the training program.
What Participants Will Learn
Recognize patterns that warrant further exploration, including differences in memory, language, executive functioning, sensory processing, adaptive skills and emotional regulation.
Gather developmental histories and use appropriate screening and functional assessment tools within professional scope, documenting strengths, support needs and areas requiring further assessment.
Discuss prenatal alcohol and other substance exposures respectfully, with consent and without blame. Consider each exposure separately rather than assuming that different substances have the same effects.
Develop clear reports and care plans that connect observed needs to relevant recommendations and referrals, while distinguishing observations, reported history and clinical hypotheses.
Adapt therapy and coaching through concrete language, visual supports, repetition, collaborative practice and realistic steps between sessions.
Apply an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy informed lens to values, acceptance, present moment awareness and meaningful action, with adaptations for the individual’s communication and learning needs.
Coach parents and caregivers, support school advocacy and plan accessible individual and group programming across the lifespan.
Coordinate warm referrals and shared support plans so families have help navigating services and putting recommendations into practice.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Practice
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a central part of Angela’s approach. Training explores ways to make values work, mindfulness and responses to difficult thoughts and feelings more concrete and accessible. Practitioners consider when metaphors or abstract questions are confusing, how to use experiential activities, and how to build small, supported actions around what matters to the person.
Acceptance does not mean accepting unsafe situations or giving up on change. It includes recognizing current abilities and needs, reducing shame and supporting meaningful choices. ACT informed adaptations are offered as clinical learning and practice considerations, rather than a claim that one approach fits every person or diagnosis.
Training Facilitator and Next Steps
This training program is facilitated by Angela Geddes CYW, BA (Psych), MSW, RSW, YTT, drawing on more than 30 years of experience supporting individuals, families, and professionals.
Explore the online program or join the interest list for upcoming live training. Contact us to discuss professional development for your team.
GET ON THE WAITLIST
Please complete the form and we’ll notify you as soon as new Live Training dates are added.
If you would like to discuss private training for your team, please contact us at info@angelageddes.ca
TAKE THE ONLINE PROGRAM
Available online and learn at your own pace.
Training Session Outline
SESSION 1: Recognizing needs and responding across the lifespan
Build a shared framework for screening, assessment and responsive care.
Explore PAE, FASD and other prenatal substance exposures without treating them as interchangeable or assuming exposure from a person’s behaviour.
Consider ASD, ADHD and learning disabilities alongside trauma, attachment difficulties, personality disorders and complex mental health presentations. Examine overlap without erasing existing diagnoses.
Review pathways for FASD assessment and how each profession can contribute within scope. Separate screening, functional assessment, clinical formulation and diagnosis.
Translate a first presentation into immediate communication and environmental adjustments while further assessment is considered.
Practice Activity: Review a fictional child or adult vignette. Identify strengths, questions to explore, possible referrals and one change to the next support session.
SESSION 2: Relationships, the impact of stigma and the importance of caregiver partnerships
Build trust and support both individuals and caregivers.
Explore how shame, professional assumptions and repeated service failures can affect engagement.
Consider the person’s perspective, caregiver knowledge and the impact of chronic caregiving demands without assigning blame.
Use respectful conversations about developmental history, prenatal exposures and attachment experiences, including when information is unavailable.
Practise caregiver coaching that addresses stress, grief, boundaries, co-regulation and expectations matched to the person’s current abilities.
Clarify consent, confidentiality and caregiver involvement, including when supporting an adult who makes their own care decisions.
Practice Activity: Rework a difficult family conversation into a collaborative discussion with one agreed and achievable next step.
SESSION 3: Screening developmental history and functional assessment
Gather information that improves both referral decisions and therapy planning.
Gather developmental, educational, health and social histories with appropriate consent and collateral information.
Explore everyday functioning, including communication, memory, planning, adaptive skills, sensory needs and the effort required to cope.
Consider the difference between performing a skill once and using it consistently across settings.
Select screening tools appropriate to the person and the practitioner’s training; document uncertainty and avoid diagnostic conclusions based on a screen.
Turn findings into a plan for session length, pace, reminders, accessibility and supported practice.
Practice Activity: Develop a brief strengths and needs profile and identify the missing information that would change the support plan.
SESSION 4: Adapting therapy and coaching
Make therapeutic work understandable, relevant and usable.
Use an ACT informed approach to help people identify what matters and take manageable actions, with supported choice and autonomy.
Adapt values activities, mindfulness and defusion using plain language, visual choices, short exercises and examples from everyday life.
Consider when abstract language, cognitive demands, homework or reliance on memory may make therapy difficult to use.
Build session structure around a clear focus, understanding checks, in-session rehearsal and a concrete take-home reminder.
Respond to trauma, emotional distress and complex mental health needs while accounting for developmental differences and the practitioner’s therapeutic competence.
Provide parallel caregiver coaching when appropriate, with clear roles and consent.
Practice Activity: Adapt one ACT exercise for a person with memory or receptive language difficulties. Develop a linked caregiver coaching activity without transferring responsibility for therapy to the caregiver.
SESSION 5: School advocacy and individual and group programming
Connect therapeutic understanding with everyday settings.
Help families prepare for school meetings and describe strengths, functional needs and useful accommodations in accessible language.
Translate assessment findings into collaborative school recommendations, including communication supports, task adjustments, regulation breaks and transition planning.
Explore how consent based communication between school, family and clinicians can support consistent responses.
Plan individual and group sessions with predictable routines, accessible materials, sensory considerations, opportunities for practice and flexible participation.
Consider caregiver groups, youth and adult skills programs, relationship support and transitions in education, employment and community life.
Choose individual, group or combined support based on the person’s preferences, needs and ability to participate meaningfully.
Practice Activity: Write a short school meeting summary and adapt the same support goal for an individual session and a group activity.
SESSION 6: Reports coordinated care and putting learning into practice
Connect assessment, therapy, referral and review.
Write a concise report that separates confirmed information from hypotheses and links recommendations to observed needs.
Create warm referral plans that identify who will make contact, what information can be shared and how follow-up will occur.
Develop accessible, collaborative safety plans appropriate to the person’s circumstances and communication needs.
Review a case from first contact through an adapted therapy session and a coordinated support plan, incorporating lived experience perspectives.
Identify ways to review progress through participation, understanding, everyday usefulness and the person’s own goals.
Practice Activity: Complete a one-page plan with a therapy adaptation, caregiver support step where appropriate, referral responsibility and review date.
100% of participants say they:
would recommend this training to another Social Worker, allied health practitioner, or other front-line professional
have a better understanding of how stigma can be a barrier to accurate diagnosis and helpful supports.
have learned more about the unique and subtle implications of prenatal alcohol exposure and what FASD looks like across the lifespan.
feel more competent and confident in their ability to screen and identify people with complex neurodevelopmental conditions; who may be affected by PAE.
feel they have learned new skills that make sense and can be used on a day to day basis.
know where to go to get access to ongoing FASD training and resources to help with comprehensive multidisciplinary assessment and FASD/CND supports and services.
CND/FASD Integrative Assessment and Support Services; opportunities for ongoing learning with Geddes Specialized Support & Integrative Wellness Inc.
An opportunity to join a community of qualified professionals who can competently and confidently offer screening, assessment, and support services to people with complicated mental health and learning presentations that may be linked to PAE or developmental trauma. Working with Angela Geddes’ established and industry recognized practice, we’ll help put more individuals and families on a path to helpful and relevant multi-disciplinary assessment, support and services.