Queer Therapist Network Training Seminar: "Steering Queer of Addiction"

Queer-Affirming approaches to Substance Use, Recovery, & Harm Reduction Presented by Carly Novolesky & Patrick Hill A 2-Hour Continuing Education Training for Queer Therapists working with Queer Clients, brought to by the Queer Therapist Network and Queer Sober Therapy Topic: Steering Queer of Addiction Trainers: Carly Novolesky LCPC, CADC (she/her) & Patrick Hill, MA (he/him) Training Session: 1:00-3:00 PM Solidarity Networking Hour: 3:00-4:00 PM Format: This training will be hosted in-person at the Center on Halsted. Queer people’s relationships with substances don’t exist separately from queer identity, community, stigma, sex, belonging, trauma, and survival and effective treatment has to understand those intersections. This interactive training invites clinicians to examine substance use through a queer-affirming, sex-positive, and harm-reduction lens. Participants will explore common clinical pitfalls, the relationship between queer identity and recovery identity, and practical strategies for helping clients develop relationships with substances and recovery that reflect their own goals and values. Through this training, queer therapists will: • Identify at least three factors that may influence substance use and recovery experiences within LGBTQIA+ communities. • Describe ways stigma and identity can affect substance-use assessment, treatment engagement, and recovery. • Unpack how social systems contribute to burn out • Differentiate abstinence-based and harm-reduction approaches and identify opportunities to incorporate harm-reduction principles into psychotherapy. • Apply queer-affirming strategies to substance-use assessment and treatment planning. This is not 101 training. We assume you're already doing LGBTQ+ affirming work. This is about deepening your practice, caring for yourself, and recognizing that every session where we name injustice, validate impact, and support action is an act of political resistance. Continuing Education For those interested in receiving Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for their participation in this training, this program is able to provide 2.0 CEUs granted via New Constellations Therapy & Consultation. New Constellations Therapy & Consultation is approved by the National Board of Certified Counselors as an Approved Continuing Education provider, ACEP No. 7575. New Constellations is solely responsible for all aspects of the program. Center on Halsted is licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to offer continuing education for social work and is able to provide CEs under their license. Charitable Contribution: When you register for this event you are helping to support organizations that impact the mental health and wellbeing of the LGBTQ+ Community: • 50% of funds collected will directly benefit the Queer Therapist Network About our Trainers: Carly Novoselsky, LCPC, CADC (she/her) is the Founder of Queer Sober Therapy, a Chicago-based group practice specializing in the intersections of queer identity, substance use, sex, relationships, and mental health. A Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor and sex therapist in training, Carly provides therapy, clinical supervision, consultation, and professional education. Her work throughout the Chicago mental health community has focused on LGBTQIA+ populations, addiction and recovery, and helping clinicians develop more nuanced approaches to substance use. Carly is particularly passionate about exploring the roles of identity, minority stress, sexuality, community, and belonging in queer people’s relationships with substances, while integrating harm reduction and multiple pathways to recovery into affirming clinical care. Patrick Hill (he/him) is an associate psychotherapist at Queer Sober Therapy in Chicago, where he works with individuals, couples, and adolescents navigating anxiety, substance use, family-of-origin concerns, relationship challenges, and queer identity. He holds a Master of Education in Community Counseling from Loyola University Chicago and brings a compassionate, humanistic perspective to his clinical work, informed by his previous background in arts education and administration. Patrick is particularly interested in the ways identity, relationships, community, and belonging shape mental health and substance use, and in creating space for clients to examine their relationships with substances through curiosity rather than shame.