New Jersey Association of School Psychologists upcoming events

Consultation Under Pressure: Using the ACT and Prosocial Matrix to Support Educators (Friday, September 18, 2026)

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 14:30:00 GMT

Professional Development Workshop Series Presents:

Consultation Under Pressure: Using the ACT and

Prosocial Matric to Support Educators

Presented by Phil Tenaglia

Teachers, administrators, and school staff often seek consultation when situations have become difficult, stressful, or stuck. In those moments, consultation can offer more than strategies for responding to and supporting student behavior. It can create space for educators to notice what is happening, reconnect with what matters, and consider a wider range of workable responses.

In this experiential webinar, participants will learn how to use the ACT Matrix as a simple point of view for individual consultation and the Prosocial Matrix for consultation with teams and groups(child study, IEP, MTSS, parents), etc. Participants will also notice how their own reactions as consultants enter the process. Rather than adding another consultation model or set of techniques, the session demonstrates how psychological flexibility, shared purpose, and workability can help serve educators—and the professionals consulting with them—when things get hard.

Objectives:

You will leave with a simple, immediately useful process for your next consultation- and a confirmation that school mental health professionals already have substantial capacity to increase psychological flexibility in adults, systems, and the students they serve.

NASP Domain:

Domain 2-Consultation and Collaboration

Domain 4-Mental and Behavioral Health Services and Interventions

Domain 6-Services to Promote Safe and Supportive Schools

Beyond Stereotypes: Recognizing and Treating Pediatric OCD (Friday, October 02, 2026)

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:30:00 GMT

Professional Development Workshop Series Presents:

Beyond Stereotypes: Recognizing

and Treating Pediatric OCD

Presented by Dr. Muniya Khanna

Pediatric OCD is widely misunderstood through pop-culture stereotypes of handwashing and neatness, while real presentations, like intrusive harm thoughts, mental rituals, and reassurance-seeking, often go unrecognized. This workshop gives participants a clinically grounded framework for identifying OCD presentations across developmental stages, understanding the neurobiological and cognitive-behavioral underpinnings of obsessions and compulsions, and applying the gold-standard treatment approach of exposure and response prevention (ERP). Drawing on findings from the Pediatric OCD Treatment Study (POTS II and POTS Jr), participants will learn how family accommodation can inadvertently maintain OCD symptoms and how to guide families toward supporting exposure-based change rather than reinforcing avoidance. The session balances research evidence with practical, session-ready strategies for supporting children, families, and school teams.

Objectives:

1.Participants will be able to identify common presentations of pediatric OCD, including how obsessions and compulsions differ from typical developmental worries and rigidity.

2.Participants will be able to describe the core components of exposure and response prevention (ERP) and explain the research evidence supporting it as a first-line treatment for pediatric OCD.

3.Participants will be able to recognize patterns of family accommodation that maintain OCD symptoms and identify strategies to guide families toward supporting the child's useof ERP-based tools

NASP Domain:

Domain 4-Mental and Behavioral Health Services and Interventions

Domain 9-Research and Evidence-Based Practice

Domain 7-Family, School, and Community Collaboration

Growing Growth: How Teachers and School Culture Shape Student's Mindsets and Character Strengths (Friday, October 16, 2026)

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:30:00 GMT

Professional Development Workshop Series Presents:

Growing Growth: How Teachers and School Culture

Shape Student's Mindsets and Character Strengths

Presented by Dr. Lilya Jiang

How do students come to see themselves as capable of growth and develop the character strengths that help them navigate challenges, relationships, and opportunities? Research on growth mindsets and character strengths has increasingly shifted attention from individual characteristics to the interactions between individual characteristics and relational and ecological contexts that cultivate positive development. In this talk, Dr. Jiang will review research advancements on growth-related mindsets and character strengths in youth, with a focus on the roles of teachers, classroom culture, and broader school contexts in the development of these strengths. The talk will highlight emerging evidence suggesting that effective mindset and strengths-based practices are most meaningful when embedded within authentic, supportive relationships and broader classroom cultures rather than delivered as stand-alone lessons or curriculum. When educators intentionally create environments that communicate growth, recognize strengths, and foster supportive relationships, these practices may benefit not only students but also student-teacher relationships, teachers’ sense of purpose and well-being, and their capacity to have a lasting influence on young people. The talk will then translate research into action at multiple levels of the school system. Teachers will learn practical strategies they can incorporate into everyday instruction and interactions. School psychologists, counselors, and other support personnel will learn about how they can work alongside teachers to reinforce these practices through consultation, professional learning, student support, and collaborative problem-solving. At the systems level, administrators can examine how school policies, professional development, recognition practices, instructional expectations, and organizational culture communicate values of and structural support for growth and strengths.

Objectives:

1.Describe current research on growth-related mindsets and character strengths in youth, including the roles of teacher–student relationships, classroom culture, and broader school contexts in fostering positive youth development

2. Identify evidence-informed, relationship-centered strategies that teachers can

integrate into everyday instruction, mentoring, social-emotional learning, and daily interactions to cultivate students’ growth mindsets and character strengths.

3.Identify ways that school psychologists, counselors, support personnel, and

administrators can collaborate with teachers and strengthen school-level systems to support students’ growth and strengths development.

NASP Domain:

Domain 2-Consultation and Collaboration

Domain 4-Mental and Behavioral Health Services and Interventions

Domain 5-School-Wide Practices to Promote Learning

Domain 6-Services to Promote Safe and Supportive Schools

Domain 8-Equitable Practices for Diverse Student Populations

Supporting Positive Mental Health Through Positive Psychology Practices that Build Relationships, Hope, and Optimism (Friday, November 06, 2026)

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 15:30:00 GMT

Professional Development Workshop Series Presents:

Supporting Positive Mental Health Through Positive Psychology

Practices that Build Relationships, Hope, and Optimism

Presented by Dr. Shannon Suldo

Consistent with defining mental health using a dual-factor model of wellness and illness, comprehensive school mental health services include intentional promotion of positive indicators of mental health such as subjective well-being. This webinar will describe best practices in promoting student well-being through positive psychology programs and practices that evoke positive emotions and strengthen relationships. Attendees will learn evidence-based positive psychology interventions that improve interpersonal relationships between students, educators, and families, and elicit positive feelings about the present and future through activities targeting kindness, hope, and optimism.

Objectives:

1.Apply a dual-factor model of mental health that considers student wellness and illness

2.Describe the principles of positive psychology interventions used to support wellness

3.Identify practices that strengthen relationships and evoke positive feelings including hope

NASP Domain:

Domain 4-Mental and Behavioral Health Services and Interventions

Domain 9-Research and Evidence-Based Practice

Social Anxiety: Mechanisms of Learning & Memory as Novel Treatment Targets (Friday, February 19, 2027)

Fri, 19 Feb 2027 15:30:00 GMT

Professional Development Workshop Series Presents:

Social Anxiety: Mechanisms of Learning & Memory

as Novel Treatment Targets

Presented by Dr. Johanna Jarcho

Symptoms of social anxiety rise dramatically at the transition to adolescence, as peers increase in importance. Failure to remit in social anxiety by mid-adolescence predicts increased symptom severity, comorbid psychopathology, and diminished quality of life in adulthood. It is therefore critical to identify factors that contribute to remittance or persistence of social anxiety during the transition to adolescence, as such factors may serve as treatment targets. While much prior research on social anxiety persistence focuses on threat-based processes, gold standard treatments that target these processes rarely result in remission. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a novel framework of investigation to identify new pathways to persistence and corresponding intervention targets. This presentation will suggest social learning and memory as one such framework. In addition to reviewing key empirical findings, discussion will focus on how to translate these findings into clinical practice.

Objectives:

1. Understand factors that work against exposure-based treatment in adolescent social anxiety

2. Describe social anxiety-related biases in learning and memory

3. Identify challenges in translating basic research into clinical practice

NASP Domain:

Domain 2-Consultation and Collaboration

Domain 4-Mental and Behavioral Health Services and Interventions

Domain 9-Research and Evidence-Based Practice