This extensive online program will prepare you to communicate about mental health, share your voice, reach agreements in mental health conflicts, and develop specific agreements for your situation. You will get online on-demand lessons, take-away tools, and four opportunities to get personal feedback from Dan on your exercises in addition to regular question-and-answer access.
This program is closed but it will open again soon.
Be The First to Hear When It Opens:
- Program Overview
- Module 1: Communicating About Mental Health
- Module 2: Sharing Your Voice
- Module 3: Reaching Agreements
- Module 4: Preparing for Specific Agreements
- About Dan Berstein, Trainer
- What People Are Saying
- Bonus
- Register
Become a Mental Health Communicator
Become a Mental Health Communicator is a 12-week program is launching in January 2017 at a discounted price. It includes 12 lessons, 12 take-away tools, and 4 opportunities to share your work with Dan for extensive feedback in addition to the ability to ask questions at any time over the course of the program.
Module 1:
Communicating About Mental Health
MH Mediate’s Mental Health Communication trainings have been delivered to conflict resolution professionals, government agencies, mental health service providers, attorneys, and peers living with mental illnesses. Your first step in this program will be to develop three key mental health communication skills:
Lesson 1
Be Sensitive to People with Mental Health Experiences
Lesson 2
Be Empowering to Parties with Mental Health Needs
Lesson 3
Be Ready for Challenging Conversations
You will receive take-away tools including a Sensitvitiy Checklist, Tipsheet for Empowered Practices, and Challenging Conversations template.
Feedback Exercise: Your Personal Mental Health Communication Philosophy
Everyone needs to make these skills their own. At the end of this module, you will create your own personalized statement describing your mental health communication goals and beliefs and share this draft of your philosophy with Dan for feedback. This personal document serves as a reminder of your goals and can function as a checklist when you are in future mental health communication situations.
Your Questions Answered
Ask Dan all the questions you’d like and he’ll answer them for you directly. You’ll also get access to the anonymized questions others in the program share.
Module 2:
Sharing Your Voice
Now that you’ve learned the basics, it is time for you to find your voice and be ready to share it. There are so many perspectives, beliefs, and choices when it comes to mental health. These next lessons teach you to articulate yours.
Lesson 4
Appreciate Your Options in Mental Health
Lesson 5
Define Your Roles and Boundaries
Lesson 6
Make Your Position Statements
You will receive take-away tools including a Guide to Your Options, a Checklist for Determining Your Roles and Boundaries, and a Template for Your Position Statement
Feedback Exercise:
Your Position Statement for a Mental Health Conflict
At the end of this module, you will create your own position statement designed to help you share your beliefs, values, and choices when working through a specific mental health conflict. You will introduce your perspective on the conflict, distinguish between what you see as facts versus opinions and beliefs, and share your desires from the conflict. You will share a draft with Dan for feedback.
Your Questions Answered
Ask Dan all the questions you’d like and he’ll answer them for you directly. You’ll also get access to the anonymized questions others in the program share.
Module 3:
Reaching Agreements
You’ve learned the skills to talk about mental health and you’ve learned how to share your voice. Now it’s time to work on an agreement. These next lessons work you through the process.
Lesson 7
Appreciate the Other Person’s Perspective
Lesson 8
Explore Positions to Understand Needs
Lesson 9
The Four Steps to a Good Agreement
You will receive take-away tools including a Reflective Listening Tipsheet, a Positions and Needs Worksheet, and a 4 Steps to Building Good Agreements Tipsheet
Feedback Exercise:
Map the Positions and Needs of People in a Conflict From Your Life or Work
At the end of this module, you will develop your own map of the positions and needs present in a conflict you are dealing with. After articulating everyone’s needs, you will also brainstorm solutions that might meet all of the needs involved. You will share this document with Dan for feedback. This is the first step toward developing a draft agreement, which you will do in the next training.
Your Questions Answered
Ask Dan all the questions you’d like and he’ll answer them for you directly. You’ll also get access to the anonymized questions others in the program share.
Module 4:
Preparing for Specific Agreements
You’re ready to work on an actual agreement! This training teaches you three common agreements and invites you to share a draft of one of your own for feedback.
Lesson 10
Communication Plan
Lesson 11
Living Agreement
Lesson 12
Sensitivity Plan
You will receive take-away tools including a Communication Plan Template, a Living Agreement Template, and a Sensitivity Plan template
Feedback Exercise:
A Draft of Your Agreement
At the end of this module, you will develop your own draft agreement. You will share this document with Dan for feedback. It will either be based on the three templates we went over, or it can be your own subject area.
Your Questions Answered
Ask Dan all the questions you’d like and he’ll answer them for you directly. You’ll also get access to the anonymized questions others in the program share.
About Dan Berstein, Trainer
Dan Berstein is a mediator living with bipolar disorder and the founder of MH Mediate, an innovative company at the forefront of mental health communication and conflict resolution. Dan has been an awareness speaker for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a support group facilitator for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, a Mental Health First Aid instructor for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and a mediator for the New York Peace Institute. He holds a master’s degree in Mental Health and certificate in Health Communication from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he launched a Mental Health Conflict Resolution Training Project as part of the university’s Social Innovation Lab.
Dan convened the first independently-organized National Dialogue on Mental Health event in response to Barack Obama’s call for community conversations on mental health. It was the first to be inclusive toward diverse stakeholder groups and became a model for future organizers throughout the nation. Through MH Mediate, Dan has provided mental health communication trainings in over a dozen states to clients including mental health service providers, legal agencies, universities, conflict resolution centers, and mental health peer organizations. He has keynoted or presented workshops at many conflict resolution and mental health conferences.
Dan is considered a leading expert in communication and conflict resolution in mental health. He brings the subject matter alive with a combination of his personal experience living with bipolar disorder, his academic expertise in mental health, and his extensive professional background in conflict resolution.
Hear what people are saying about their participation in past MH Mental Health Communication programs:
High Quality Program
- “Far exceeded my expectations!”
- “Couldn’t ask for more! Dan Berstein was organized, clear, and thorough”
- “Your notes are absolutely the best written materials which could have been provided. I have always wished all presenters would provide their notes so I could sit back and listen. “
- “The written materials provided will be invaluable in keeping the information in mind, and implementing the tools provided. Thank you for a great program!”
Taught Me Useful Skills
- “I have had some clients who have been so fixed on their view, that no matter what I was doing to progress their position, they were not happy. I’ve always wondered if there were better ways to work with those clients.”
- “I am so grateful, and believe my clients will be, too.”
- “You provided tools which I believe will make it possible for me to connect with clients in a more respectful and effective way.“
- “This training included a lot of great information about approaches to dealing with mental illness”
A Powerful Presenter and Teacher
- “I appreciated listening to a speaker who has lived experienced on the issues discussed as it provides a different and invaluable perspective from which to view the consumers I serve.”
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“Dan has a great presentation presence – it was animated and moved at the right pace so it keeps my attention and never gets boring or dull”
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“Dan does an incredible job taking people’s specific questions and linking them back to the higher level lesson, making it applicable for everyone taking the course”
Bonus
Act now and you’ll receive the following bonus:
Mental Health Stigma: Interactive Keynote Remarks Replay
Hear Dan’s interactive keynote remarks from the Columbia University Teachers College Mental Health Stigma Conference. These remarks demonstrate examples of mental health communication, and include examples from Dan’s personal experiences to highlight the blatant and subtle stigmas and mental health. Dan also discusses using conflict resolution practices to combat stigma.
Register
This program is closed but it will open again soon.