- Live Webinar
December 4, 2026
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Introduction
Most clinicians already believe in meeting clients where they are. Far fewer can articulate why harm reduction conversations stall in supervision, where the substance-use model quietly breaks when applied to behaviors no one can abstain from, or how to tell genuine harm reduction apart from a clinician avoiding a difficult rupture. This course is built around those harder questions.
Rather than rehearsing harm reduction as a single philosophy, this course separates it into the three distinct layers clinicians actually confuse in practice—a public-health stance, a set of clinical techniques, and a moral position on autonomy—and shows how that confusion drives most of the field’s stalemates. Participants will trace the evidence base, work through the objections that still surface in case consultation, and then confront the central problem of behavioral addictions head-on: there is no clean-needle equivalent for the internet, for gambling cues, or for one’s own sexual response, and that absence forces a genuinely different framework rather than a borrowed one.
Throughout, the course holds substance use and behavioral addictions in equal view, drawing the lines between what transfers directly and what has to be rebuilt. Clinicians will leave with concrete tools, sample language, and case walk-throughs—alongside an honest map of harm reduction’s limits, including the conditions under which it shades into collusion and the situations in which it is simply the wrong call.
This is a 4-CE online seminar delivered virtually in real-time via an industry-standard webinar platform.
Attendance and Location Details
Friday, December 4, 2026
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM (CT)
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM (ET)
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM (PT)
Live Webinar Attendees: Zoom link and course materials will be made available to you 24-48 hours prior to event date.
Agenda:
Three Things We Call Harm Reduction
- Separating the public-health stance, the clinical technique, and the autonomy ethic
- Where each later fits alongside traditional treatment
Tracing the Evidence Base, and the Objections That Survive It
- What the research supports and persistent misconceptions
- Reframing “doesn’t this enable the behavior?” as a layer-confusion problem
The Clinical Stance
- Meeting clients where they are; shame reduction
- MI alignment and alliance-building with ambivalence
- The difference between the technique and the stance
Traditional SUD Application
- Assessment and goal-setting on a spectrum
- Safer-use planning and measuring progress without requiring abstinence
- Establishing the model to stress-test in the next section
Behavioral Addictions: Where the Model Breaks
- The clean-needle problem and the absence of an abstinence baseline
- Adapting the framework across social media, gaming, gambling, and sexual behaviors
- Identifying what transfers directly and what must be rebuilt
Tools for Monday Morning
- Concrete techniques, worksheets, and sample dialogue
- Mapping interventions to both SUD and behavioral presentations
Limits, Collusion, and Contraindications
- Telling authentic harm reduction from conflict-avoidance
- Working within abstinence-based settings
- Documentation, scope, and when harm reduction is the wrong fit
Wrap-Up
- Closing thoughts and Q&A
Objectives:
This training will provide participants clinical knowledge and tools to:
After completing this training, participants will be able to differentiate the three layers commonly collapsed under the term “harm reduction”—public-health stance, clinical technique, and ethical position on autonomy—and explain how conflating them produces clinical and supervisory stalemates.
After completing this training, participants will be able to summarize the current evidence base and reframe at least three common objections (including the “enabling” argument) using the layered model rather than defensive rebuttal.
After completing this training, participants will be able to apply harm reduction as a clinical stance through MI-consistent techniques that reduce shame and strengthen alliance with ambivalent clients.
After completing this training, participants will be able to construct spectrum-based goals, safer-use plans, and abstinence-independent progress measures for clients with substance use disorders.
After completing this training, participants will be able to analyze why the substance-use harm reduction model breaks down when applied to non-abstainable behaviors, and build an adapted framework for gambling, gaming, internet/social media, and sexual behaviors.
After completing this training, participants will be able to select clinical tools, worksheets, and dialogue appropriate to a specific client across both SUD and behavioral presentations.
After completing this training, participants will be able to distinguish authentic harm reduction from clinician-driven collusion, and identify documentation, scope, and clinical conditions under which harm reduction is contraindicated.
Target Audience:
Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologists, Marriage and Family Therapists, Addiction Professionals, and Pre-Licensed Clinicians.
Instructional Level: Intermediate
Instructor(s): Megan Salar, MSW
Material Author(s): Megan Salar, MSW
For additional information about this course, the instructors, or the material authors, please contact Content Assistance at content@onlinececredits.com.
Course Materials & Delivery Method:
- Course Materials – (including the link to view the scheduled live webinar) are made available to all registered attendees 24-48 hours before the event start time
- This training is interactive and provides opportunities to ask direct questions to the trainer as well as request immediate help from staff if needed. The attendee will view the presentation in real-time from their connected device via an industry-standard internet webinar platform.
CE Approvals:
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
Online CE Credits has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6795. Programs that do not quality for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Online CE Credits is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
Mind Works Professional Education, Inc. DBA Online CE Credits, #1974, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: July 23, 2025 – July 23, 2028. Social workers completing this course receive 4 clinical continuing education credits.
Other Helpful Information:
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