Relational Ethics: A Satir Perspective (Virtual)
⮕Date: January 22, 2027
⮕Time: 8:30am - 1pm ET (with a 30-minute break)
⮕Format: Live via Zoom
⮕ NBCC Continuing Education Hours: 4 hours
Ethics, seen through the lens of connection.
This one-day virtual training looks at professional ethics through the Satir Growth Model—where congruence, authenticity, and the therapeutic relationship itself become the ground for ethical practice. Rather than treating ethics as a set of rules to memorize, we'll explore it as something lived: how presence, self-disclosure, touch, and power show up in the room with a client, and how you navigate them with clarity and integrity.
Through short teaching segments, small-group discussion, and reflective exercises, you'll work directly with real ethical questions clinicians face—dual relationships, self-disclosure, therapeutic touch, and the use of self—and leave with language and tools you can bring back to your own practice right away.
What you’ll explore.
Therapeutic touch
What contracting for touch looks like, and how to think through its ethical use
Self-disclosure and congruence
Where authenticity ends and over-disclosure begins, and how congruence helps you find that line
Dual relationships
How context shapes dual relationships, worked through real case examples
Power and the therapeutic relationship
Naming power imbalances in the room, and building language to address them directly with clients
What the experience is like.
Brief didactic teaching on each topic
Self-reflection exercises
Small-group (triad) discussion
Larger group report-out and integration
Satir Growth Model tools for ethical decision-making: congruence, the Five Freedoms, modeling, temperature reading, centering and presence, and contracting for touch
Who it’s for.
Therapists, counselors, coaches, and other licensed professionals seeking ethics credit for licensure renewal, and anyone interested in a relational approach to ethical practice.
No prior experience with the Satir Growth Model is needed.
Facilitators
Jean McLendon, LCSW, LMFT - Jean worked closely with Virginia Satir for nearly 20 years and is widely recognized as one of her closest protégés. Her teaching brings the Satir Growth Model to life as a lived, embodied practice—clear, precise, and deeply grounded in decades of clinical and training experience.
Regina Taggart, MSW, LCSW - Regina is the Founder and Executive Director of the Virginia M. Satir Center. Her work is rooted in long-term practice with the Satir Growth Model and a commitment to making it accessible, practical, and immediately usable in real-life contexts. She is known for her clarity, warmth, and ability to translate complex relational dynamics into clear understanding and action.
Elizabeth Bach, MASSA, LISW-S, CNM - Elizabeth is a Lecturer at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and faculty with the Center on Trauma and Adversity. A student and trainer with the Virginia M. Satir Center's Legacy Program, she brings over two decades of experience providing continuing education on ethics, trauma-informed practice, and supervision.
Registration
Tuition: $60
NBCC Continuing Education: 4 hours (ACEP No. 7683)
*If your plans change and you are unable to attend, please note that registration fees are non-refundable.