NBCC Continuing Education Courses: Enhancing Skills and Serving Underserved Populations

The National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) and its foundation are dedicated to enhancing the skills of counselors and improving mental health services, particularly for underserved populations. This commitment is realized through various continuing education (CE) opportunities, including live webinars, the Bridging the Gap Symposium, and other resources designed to keep counselors informed and effective.

Ongoing Training Initiatives

The NBCC Foundation actively strives to improve care for underserved communities by providing ongoing training to National Certified Counselors (NCC), Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE) credential holders, and Foundation Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) Fellows and Scholars. These initiatives ensure that mental health professionals stay abreast of the latest developments and best practices in the field.

Live Webinars: Accessible and Convenient Learning

One of the primary ways the NBCC Foundation provides continuing education is through live webinars. These webinars offer a convenient and accessible way for counselors to earn CE credits without the need for travel.

Benefits of NBCC Webinars

Cost-Free Access for NCCs: One of the many benefits of being an NCC is the ability to attend the Foundation’s live, monthly webinars at no cost and earn continuing education credit.
Resource for MFP Fellows and Scholars: Webinars are also provided at no cost to the Foundation’s current MFP Fellows and Foundation Scholars as an additional resource and benefit to their professional development.
Convenience: Webinars are conducted online, requiring no travel.
Logistical Support: The NBCC Foundation handles all the logistics of managing the webinar platform, advertising, and promotion.
Opportunities for Presenters: Most webinar series also provide a small honorarium or in-kind option for webinar presenters.

Webinar Content and Focus

The webinars cover a wide array of topics relevant to the counseling profession:

Building Professional Excellence: This webinar series features presenters offering their highly specialized expertise in mental health care on a variety of topics addressing professional counselor identity, advocacy, and innovative counseling practices.
Innovations in Counseling: Working With Minority Populations: Provided through grant funds from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as a part of the MFP, this series features presenters offering expertise in mental health care with multicultural competence.

Accessing Archived Webinars

Many live webinars are recorded and made available via CCE Academy after the live session, and i-counseling. You can visit CCE Academy to view recordings for most archived webinars and have an opportunity to purchase the accompanying course to earn continuing education credit. You can also view the webinar series at nbccf.org/webinars.

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Bridging the Gap Symposium: Addressing Mental Health Disparities

Another significant continuing education opportunity is the Foundation’s annual event, the Bridging the Gap Symposium, which also offers a discounted rate to NCCs. This symposium focuses on addressing mental health disparities and promoting culturally competent counseling practices.

2020 Digital Experience

In 2020, the annual Symposium was replaced by the 2020 Bridging the Gap Digital Experience: Counseling Together, Apart, a virtual event held because of global health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This event featured sessions that explored topics such as:

Intimate partner violence
Infertility and reproductive loss
Serving immigrant, refugee, and undocumented families
Counseling South Asian families
Working with military families
Exploring historical issues impacting modern Black families

2021 Symposium

The Foundation is preparing for the 2021 Bridging the Gap Symposium: Eliminating Mental Health Disparities, to be held May 26-28, 2021, in the Washington, D.C., metro area. This event promises to continue the tradition of providing valuable insights and training on critical issues in the field.

Call for Presenters

For those who are interested, the Foundation is currently accepting proposals from presenters for both the upcoming Symposium and future webinars.

Quantum Units Education: An Approved Continuing Education Provider

Quantum Units Education has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6264. This accreditation ensures that the courses offered by Quantum Units Education meet the high standards set by NBCC for continuing education.

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Important Considerations

NBCC Credit: Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.
NAADAC Approval: Please note this course is not NAADAC-approved because it exceeds the 8-hour daily limit.
Nevada Approval: This course is approved by the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, Course Approval # DVP-2019-14, for DV Supervision 2 CEs. This approval will appear on your CE Certificate.**
Ohio Approval: Ohio CSWMFTB has approved this course for supervision for 2 CE hours for counselors and social workers only. Ohio Note: Ohio CSWMFTB has approved this course for supervision for their counselors and social workers only. MFTs may take it for General CE only.
Florida Approval: This course has been approved by the Florida Board of Social Work, Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapists for Supervision Continuing Education Credit. This course can only be viewed by clicking the Download PDF link. It is not available in the online reading format. This course is approved for 2 hours of Ethics credit by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling, as well as 2 hours of general credit by the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board.
DV Offender CE Hours: This course is approved by the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, Course Approval # DVP-2019-21 for DV 2 Offender CE Hours.

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