LIVE STREAM: December 10 – 11, 2026 from 8:15am – 11:30am PST (Vancouver, BC) Please adjust your start time according to your specific time zone.
ON-DEMAND: Recorded footage & course content (certificate, videos, quiz) will be available until January 17, 2027. Please allow 1-3 business days for footage to be processed. Extensions cannot be granted under any circumstances.
Substance misuse rarely stays contained to one part of a person’s life. It shows up at work first, often, because work is one of the few places where attendance, performance, and behavior are being watched closely enough for a pattern to become visible, a missed deadline, an unexplained absence, a change nobody can quite name. From there it lands in two very different rooms: the manager’s office, where someone has to decide how to respond to a performance problem they may not fully understand, and the therapist’s office, where someone has to help a client navigate recovery while a job, and sometimes a livelihood, hangs in the balance.
This workshop speaks to both of those rooms. For managers and supervisors, it offers a clear, practical understanding of how substance misuse tends to present at work, what a workplace’s role is and isn’t in addressing it, and how Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and referral pathways typically function — knowledge that supports informed, appropriate action without requiring a clinical background. For psychotherapists, it goes further: concrete, clinical direction for assessing work-related substance use, treating clients who are mandated or pressured into care by an employer, and navigating the confidentiality and coordination issues that come with employer-linked treatment.
Whether you’re the one deciding how to respond to a concerning pattern at work, or the one helping a client make sense of it in session, you’ll leave with a shared understanding of how these two roles intersect, and a clearer sense of where your own responsibility begins and ends.
For All Participants — by the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe how substance misuse commonly presents through work-related indicators, such as performance decline, attendance issues, and behavioral change.
- Explain the basic function and structure of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and how mandated or employer-initiated referrals typically work.
- Identify the general legal and confidentiality considerations that shape how substance use concerns are handled in an employment context (e.g., disability accommodation, reasonable suspicion standards, and limits on disclosure).
- Recognize the distinct roles that managers, EAPs, and treating clinicians each play, and where the boundaries between those roles lie.
For Psychotherapists — by the end of this workshop, participants will additionally be able to:
- Conduct a clinical assessment of a client’s substance use that accounts for workplace context, consequences, and stressors.
- Apply motivational interviewing principles to work effectively with clients who are mandated or pressured into treatment by an employer.
- Navigate confidentiality and release-of-information considerations when a client’s treatment intersects with employer reporting or return-to-work requirements.
- Support clients in preparing for workplace conversations, such as disclosing a leave of absence or negotiating a return-to-work agreement.
- Recognize countertransference and role-boundary challenges that can arise when treatment is influenced by an employer’s expectations or deadlines.
- Develop a treatment approach that supports a client’s recovery while realistically accounting for their employment situation and job security concerns.
Clinical Professionals: All mental health professionals including, but not limited to Clinical Counsellors, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Social Workers, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Hospice and Palliative Care Workers, School Counsellors, Youth Workers, Mental Health Workers, Addiction Specialists, Marital & Family Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants and all professionals looking to enhance their therapeutic skills.
