It's Not In Your Head Webinar

NASW-WA Live Webinar

It's Not In Your Head Webinar
NASW-WA Live Webinar

Date: July 11, 2025
Time: 9:00 am - 11:00 am, PST, via Zoom
2 CE Credits
Presenter: Jennifer Warner, LCSW, LICSW
Price: $50/members, $80/non-members

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About the Webinar

Years before "long COVID" was recognized as a life-altering syndrome, debilitating complex chronic illness and pain conditions of unknown or multi-factorial origin have been on the rise. Without the attention, resources, and general acceptance afforded a global pandemic, individuals living with chronic conditions including Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia (POTS), migraine, endometriosis, vestibular disorders (and many more) have been historically dismissed by medical and mental health providers as "hypochondriacs." This course offers a trauma and social justice-informed framework for providers to learn about "invisible disability," ableism in healthcare and its impact, how life-altering chronic conditions can be traumatizing and re-traumatizing (even if the DSM doesn't agree), and a unique utilization of evidenced based modalities to restore the mind body relationship.

Objectives

• Learn a brief history of the Rehabilitation Act, ADA, and ADAAA that shaped the definition of disability as well as the rights to which all disabled people have been entitled in the U.S. and the current risk to these rights due to the changing governmental landscape
• Learn about the concepts of “invisible disability” and ableism and their impact
• Learn about how chronic health conditions can be traumatizing, the concept of "enduring somatic threat," and the necessity of ongoing assessment for PTSD and traumatic stress symptoms throughout treatment
• Review key tenets of trauma-informed care and be able to apply them to chronic illness / invisible disability
• Learn a unique combination of evidenced-based modalities to restore the mind body relationship

About the presenter

Jennifer (Jen) Warner is an Illinois, Washington, Oregon, and New York State licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist with advanced training and certification in trauma-informed care and integrative somatic trauma therapy, as well as holistic health and nutrition. Jen has provided direct services to child and adult survivors of interpersonal violence within mental health clinics and as the crime victim social worker at a level 1 trauma center and busiest single site emergency room in New York City. She has created and taught courses on trauma-informed care at the graduate social work schools of Portland State and Columbia Universities. Jen’s decision to shift the focus of her work to support individuals living with traumatic stress related to complex chronic illness, was based on her own experience of navigating the healthcare system as a person with invisible disabilities. Jen is committed to growing understanding of chronic illness as a trauma, the impact of traumatic stress on the body and mind, and the importance of incorporating and implementing trauma-informed care within all systems that serve this population, their caregivers, and providers. Jen currently lives in Chicago with her wife where she maintains a private psychotherapy and consulting practice and continues to see clients remotely across the country.