Skills you use the
next morning
What the program covers
A participant enrolled in this program in 2023 told us she had attended a two-day conference the previous year and came home with 40 pages of notes and no idea what to do on Monday. The program is built as a direct answer to that gap: each of the 6 modules ends with an assignment you can use in your actual work within 48 hours of completing it.
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Module 1–2: Foundations. Mental health frameworks, terminology, and how to recognize early distress signals in client conversations.
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Module 3–4: Boundary work and crisis response. Role-played scenarios with facilitator feedback on language, posture, and pacing during difficult conversations.
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Module 5–6: Case review and sustainability. Collaborative review of anonymized real cases, plus a structured self-care audit for long-term practice.
How engagement patterns shift
Looking at 143 cohort completions since 2018, engagement intensity across the 8-week program follows a predictable arc. Weeks 3 and 4 — the boundary-setting modules — consistently show the highest participant activity, with average weekly interaction time reaching 6.8 hours. The heatmap below represents that pattern across a typical cohort week-by-week.
Live sessions twice per module
Each of the 6 modules includes 2 facilitated online sessions scheduled in evening slots to fit around existing work commitments. Sessions are recorded and available for 14 days.
Assignments with written facilitator feedback
Assignments are not scored on a scale — facilitators write 200–400 word responses addressing specific choices you made and alternative approaches you could test.
Peer cohort of 8–14 participants
Each cohort is intentionally kept small. Nadia Kowal, who completed the program in autumn 2022, described the peer discussions as the part she referenced most in the following months.
Get details on the next intake
Cohorts open 4 times per year. Current waitlist for the spring intake sits at 31 people. If you are considering whether this program fits your situation, send your contact details and we will schedule a 20-minute call — no pitch, just a practical conversation about fit.
"I wanted to check whether this was actually practical or another workshop that stays on the shelf. Three weeks in, I had already changed how I handle intake conversations."
— Tobias Brenner, social worker, Guelph