This training addresses key ethical concerns in the treatment of substance use and behavioral addictions, focusing on client-centered, evidence-informed, and harm reduction approaches. The training emphasizes ethical sensitivity, trauma-informed care, and clinician well-being as central to effective and ethical addiction treatment.

Topics include:

• Balancing evidence-based practices with individualized treatment for both substance use and behavioral addictions.

• Integrating harm reduction strategies to minimize negative consequences of use and enhance overall client well-being.

• Understanding addiction as a spectrum, including six core components that define addictive behavior.

• Ethical implications of cannabis use when employed as a harm reduction method.

• Applying a harm reduction lens to conceptualize and navigate ethical dilemmas in clinical practice.

• Using trauma-informed ethical decision-making, emphasizing collaboration, empowerment, transparency, and minimizing re-traumatization in treatment.

• Utilizing AI prompts to guide clinicians through common ethical challenges in addiction treatment.

• Promoting the well-being of helping professionals by identifying strategies to support resilience and prevent burnout in high-stress clinical environments.

Cortny Stark (she/her) PhD LPCC LADAC CRC is an assistant professor with the University of New Mexico Department of Individual, Family, and Community Education, and telehealth therapist for the Trauma Treatment Center and Research Facility in Rio Rancho, NM. Dr. Stark’s research foci include the public’s perception of professional counselors, community-based advocacy efforts for transgender and gender-expansive youth, and the integration of trauma treatment models in the treatment of diverse populations. As a counselor educator, she encourages her students to critically evaluate taken-for-granted beliefs about gender and sex, and advocate for social change for historically oppressed communities.