Welcome, professionals! Here, you will find all of the basic information you need about training events available through the LSCI Institute, including course descriptions, continuing education and graduate credit opportunities, online courses, and group training opportunities.
Who should take LSCI?
We have found that many adults who work with troubled and troubling children and youth are not aware of how to use crisis as an opportunity for teaching and learning. Often students will say things or do things that take us by surprise. As a result, we freeze up and don’t know how to respond. This is why LSCI is so powerful. LSCI training will give you a cognitive road map with clear outcome goals for your work with kids.
List of Courses
Title: LSCI Certification
About this course: The LSCI Certification course is a 5-day competency-based
training offering professional skills. Teachers, special educators, school administrators, social workers, counselors, youth care workers, administrators, psychologists, and any professionals in direct contact with troubled youth will gain from the advanced intervention skills offered in this course. It is particularly useful when team members are trained together. Certification in LSCI includes:
- A comprehensive Participant’s Manual covering the training and techniques
- The text Life Space Crisis Intervention: Talking with Students in Conflict (Long, Wood, & Fecser 2001)
- Instructor-led teaching and modeling of intervention skills
- Real-life video sequences
- Structured and small group activities
- Realistic role-play activities
Upon successful completion of the training, participants receive a Certificate of Competency in Life Space Crisis Intervention from the LSCI Institute.
How is the course structured?
The certification program consists of four or five days (depending on training location) of intensive training during which you will read a textbook and training manual, participate in a good deal of practice, and pass a practical exam to demonstrate knowledge and application of LSCI skills. Successful completion results in a Certificate of Competency in LSCI from the LSCI Institute. You will be guided carefully through the skills you need to successfully complete an LSCI Reclaiming Intervention.
On one level, we will provide intellectual learning. On the second level, you will see and hear crisis intervention on video tape, be involved in simulations and other small group tasks, and take part in modeling of the technique.
Course Objectives
At the conclusion of the course, participants will be able to:
- Articulate the dynamics of conflict cycles which lead to self-defeating behavior.
- Diagnose student thinking errors that interfere with communication and problem-solving.
- Identify and intervene effectively with the process of staff counter-aggression which precludes effective intervention
- Demonstrate effective de-escalation, decoding, and counseling strategies for youth in crisis.
- Differentially diagnose and practice interview techniques for these six common patterns of self-defeating behavior:
- Problems related to lack of prosocial values
- Problems originating elsewhere in a child’s ecology
- Problems rooted in a child’s reality distortions
- Problems resulting from social skill deficits
- Problems related to negative peer influence
- Problems of guilt and self-abusive behavior
- Match specific reclaiming interventions with each of the six patterns of self-defeating behavior
- Utilize a six-step sequence and specific communication skills for each reclaiming intervention
- Reflect on how certain problems of youth relate to the helper’s own personality and values
Title: The Angry Smile
The Angry Smile course is designed for anyone who lives, works, or interacts with a passive aggressive student and wants to better understand and manage the often- troubling dynamics.
The Angry Smile takes an in-depth look at the roots of passive aggressive behavior in children, exploring masked anger at five distinct and increasingly pathological levels. The course features the Passive Aggressive Conflict cycle as well as eight specific skills that professionals (and anyone interacting with a passive aggressive person) can use to respond effectively to the troubling behavior.
The Angry Smile course trains participants in a six-step process for confronting and changing passive aggressive behaviors in the long-term, using extensive discussion, video examples, and role play.
The Angry Smile is a one-day course.
Title: Turning Down the Heat: Preventing Counter-Aggression and Conflict in the Classroom
More than 80 % of classroom problems are caused by 10 % of students who challenge and undermine teacher authority. These students are skilled in frustrating adults and pushing the emotional buttons of even the most competent teachers.
Most teachers are irritated by the behavior of select, challenging students. This is to be expected. Few teachers are trained to understand and acknowledge these normal counter-aggressive feelings. Problems develop when competent teachers stay angry at a student. When a conflict develops, teachers are less likely to perceive accurately, think clearly, and reason coherently. Though competent teachers rarely initiate conflicts with students, they often keep them alive though their unintended, counter-productive reactions.
Turning Down the Heat documents four of the most common reasons that teachers become counter-aggressive with select students. This unique training programs also offers specific skills to manage conflict in the classroom.
Turning Down the Heat is a unique opportunity and the missing piece of most professional training programs. This course is about you and not your students. It leads to powerful insights which will change the way you think and behave when you are angry.
Title: From Conflict to Coping: Understanding the LSCI Conflict Cycle
The Conflict Cycle™ is LSCI’s major paradigm for understanding the dynamics of escalating power struggles between adults and children. On the surface, the Conflict Cycle appears simple. Yet, its underlying concepts are complex and each individual component is important to fully comprehend in order for adults to understand how to prevent and de-escalate conflicts with kids.
From Conflict to Coping: Understanding the LSCI Conflict Cycle curriculum is used to train professionals to:
- Understand and recognize the dynamics of conflict and escalating power struggles between students and adults.
- Develop effective strategies to control counter-aggression and de-escalate conflicts with kids.
In this curriculum, participants will learn and practice specific skills for understanding—and breaking—Conflict cycles with kids. The ultimate goal of The Conflict Cycle training is to help adults recognize their central role in making students feel safe and supported enough to choose to talk about their feelings rather than acting them out in self-defeating ways. For more information or to find training in your area, please contact Signe Whitson atsignewhitson@lsci.org or click here to find a National Training site in your area.
From Conflict to Coping: Understanding the LSCI Conflict Cycle curriculum is also available for purchase by schools and youth-serving organizations for use during in-service training.
Title: The LSCI Skills for Parents Training
This course is specially designed for parents and family members. Completion of this course…
- Provides parents with specific skills for building positive relationships with kids
- Encourages the use of preventative and non-physical crisis de-escalation strategies
- Provides a framework for verbal crisis intervention that is consistent from situation to situation
Part 1: Conflict Prevention & De-Escalation
The Conflict Prevention & De-Escalation course presents foundational LSCI concepts such as the Conflict cycle™, effective listening, crisis de-escalation, and “Timeline” skills through engaging activities and discussions that are relevant and accessible to parents and caregivers. Part 1 can be taught as a 1-day course or as a series of hour-long workshops.
Part 2: Managing Challenging Behaviors
The Managing Challenging Behaviors program identifies the six most common, chronic self-defeating patterns of behavior in kids and provides parents with a consistent 4-step process that helps families effectively address and modify each one. Part 2 of the curriculum is designed as an 8-session program, with one session dedicated to each of the six self-defeating patterns, along with an Introduction and Conclusion session.
To find an LSCI Skills for Parents Trainer in your area, please visit our Available Locations page or contact us to arrange to bring a Trainer to your area for groups of 10+.
Online Courses
Based on the thousands of course evaluations submitted each year by our course participants, we know that LSCI training is highly regarded as a valuable & enduring professional investment. We are also well aware, however, that making the commitment to spend 5+ days away from work and to spend funds on travel and lodging can be a daunting decision and one that keeps too many potential participants away from choosing LSCI training.
Cancellation and Refund
Participants can cancel up to 48 hours* prior to the beginning of a training course and receive a refund, less the cost of materials and shipping. Cancellations made after this time or during the class are not eligible for a monetary refund. However, participants will be permitted to re-enroll in a subsequent LSCI training course and apply the full amount of their paid fees.
*Some National Training Sites may require more than 48 hours notice for cancellations and refunds. Please contact your individual Trainer/Training Site for details.
Grievance Policy
Any grievances regarding LSCI Training should be communicated directly to the LSCI Trainer(s) leading the course. If a grievance can not be resolved directly with the Trainer, it should be submitted in writing, using the standard course evaluation or sent via email to signewhitson@lsci.org. Participants will receive a direct response to their grievance.
GET STARTED: Register for Training
Thanks so much for taking the time to learn more about the advanced reclaiming skills of Life Space Crisis Intervention. We invite you to select from the options listed below so that you can join thousands of your colleagues all over the world in becoming LSCI certified!
By location:
If you prefer to attend LSCI training in a specific geographic location and your schedule is flexible, please check out our list of Training Sites. Select the Training Site closest to your desired location and get in touch with the contact person listed, either by e-mail or telephone.
By schedule:
If you prefer a specific time frame to attend LSCI training and have the flexibility to travel, please check out our Calendar. Select the Training Site that best meets your availability for training and get in touch with the contact person listed, either by e-mail or telephone.
To your doorstep at your convenience:
LSCI Trainers often travel to provide training for groups at their location, at their convenience. If the locations or schedules posted on the site will not work for your group, please send an e-mail to signewhitson@lsci.org with the details of your needs. Be sure to include your location, the number of people you are interested in having certified in LSCI, the time frame in which your participants are available for training (e.g. only in the summer, Fall is preferred, December 10-14 is a MUST, etc), and any other information that will help us connect you with a Trainer that can bring LSCI to your doorstep!