This training from the International Society of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses is being made available for free to CASA of Lexington volunteers. Please create a new user and use code “casajan21” when completing your registration in order to enroll for free.

Few PMHNP providers today learn psychotherapeutic modalities in their graduate nursing education. In practice, however, they find they need more than medication management expertise when treating children and adolescents. Furthermore, children and adolescents may not yet developmentally possess the insight or language to process maltreatment or psychic wounds. Beginning with defining psychotherapy and its usefulness, this presentation will inform the audience of how psychotherapeutic approaches can be used to provide healing for traumatized children and adolescents. Several modalities will be introduced and highlighted with case studies for discussion.

About the presenter

Elizabeth (Beth) Bonham, PhD, RN, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN, is an award-winning Associate Professor Emerita of Nursing at the University of Southern Indiana where she taught in undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. As an educator, author, clinical nurse specialist, and leader, Dr. Bonham is board certified in child and adolescent psychiatric mental health nursing with experience in acute care, public health, school mental health, and not-for-profit advocacy settings. She received BSN and MSN degrees from Indiana University and PhD in nursing research from the University of Arizona. Her clinical areas of interest are community-based interventions and access to care while her research interests focus on mental health issues of youthful offenders, mentoring, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Dr. Bonham is a Past President of the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses (ISPN) of which she is a Founding Member; a member of the American Nurses Association, National Partnership for Juvenile Services, and Sigma, and a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.