Trainings

The Division of Community Behavioral Health (CBH) at Rush provides professional training and education programs for trauma recovery, with or without substance use. CBH has a special interest in promoting healing of communities that have been systemically marginalized and continuously traumatized. CBH believes in centering the voices of survivors and the mental health providers who work alongside them to fight for systemic change.

Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) Training

Natalie R. Stevens, PhD

Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) Training – Professional Training
“To heal our communities, we must regain authorship of our own stories and tell the tales we conceive as our futures.” 
Rachel Godsil and Brianna Goodale in Telling our Own Story: The Role of Narrative in Racial Healing

What is NET?

Exposure Therapy (NET) is a mental health/counseling intervention that can provide significant relief from trauma-related distress in a short period of time. Training in NET is offered using live and asynchronous experiential learning via workshops and consultations (see upcoming workshops offered at Rush). NET training workshops and consultations provide learners with evidence-based, trauma-focused mental health tools through gatherings in community spaces and online, strengthening social connection to foster community recovery.  

Current NET workshops focus on maternal-perinatal trauma, birth equity, and support for new parents / caregivers, especially affecting people of color and immigrant communities in Chicago. We also have experience training clinicians who provide treatment for individuals and groups affected by gun violence, substance use, incarceration, and housing instability and homelessness.

Training Model

Our NET trainers are part of a co-creative international network of practitioners, educators, and researchers called “NET Collect.” We work together to address complex and continuous trauma - both individual and collective - at the intersection of multiple global public health crises: Systemic racism, mental health and substance use, human trafficking, maternal and perinatal mortality, refugee and immigration crises, and countless human rights violations.  

CBH at Rush offers expert training in NET embedded within a global network of experienced practitioners and in consultation with Vivo International, an independent non-profit organization committed to the provision of mental health services to “those who need it most,” scientific laboratory and field research, sustainable development and human rights advocacy. 

Contacts

Lead Trainers

Primary Admin Contact

Maria Torres
Email: maria_g_torres@rush.edu

2023 Perinatal NET Training Workshops

  • March 8 - 10, 2023
  • May 31 - June 2, 2023
  • October 25 - 27, 2023

Tuition: $600 per registrant* 

Continuing Education Credits: 16.75 Hours
Available for psychologists, counselors, LCSWs
(CMEs and CNEs also offered) 

* Please inquire about student/trainee discount, sliding scale and scholarships; no applicant will be denied based on ability to pay tuition.

What prior Perinatal NET workshop participants had to say…

"Amazing and informative! The trainers were excellent instructors and I will remember this for a long time."

"This was by far the best CE training I've ever done. It was so useful and applicable. I have not ever participated in something so experiential that is directly relevant!"

"Loved the practicum, great examples and live demos, wonderful group of trainers, appreciated having a helper present throughout whole practice w/ partner."

"This was one of the best online trainings I've ever been to. All presenters were informative and encouraging and having a trainer present in each breakout room while getting to practice the sections of NET was genius. I felt completely supported and think this break out room set up is a BETTER format than in person."

"Love this workshop - the content, delivery format, and group size were perfect."

Based on the content of this activity, participants intend to change their practice by... 

  • "integrating NET into my treatment of PTSD"
  • "Continuing to be in the NET consultation calls, enacting this protocol immediately for relevant patients."
  • "Adding narrative exposure therapy to my toolbox of skills and offering it to my clients."
  • "Allowing lifelines to be done for new clients before entering therapy services with my staff."