NEW 4-PART LIVE WEBINAR SERIES FOR CLINICIANS · FALL 2026
Detecting Deception as a Healing Tool: A U-Model™ Approach for Foster Youth
With Dr. Rivka Edery, Psy.D., L.C.S.W.
In partnership with A Home Within
Stop chasing the leak. Start meeting the parts that lie to protect.
The flicker on a child's face when they lie is a leak. A protective part is behind it. This series reframes lying, concealment, and minimization in foster youth as adaptive protection rather than defiance or pathology, and shows you how to meet it with safety, not shame.
Part 1 of 4: The Neurobiology of the Protective Shield
Wednesday, October 21 · 2:45 PM PT / 5:45 PM ET · 2 CE credits
This foundational session reframes deception in foster youth (lying, concealment, minimization) as adaptive protection rather than defiance or pathology. Grounded in Paul Ekman's deception research and The U-Model™, it shows how protector parts activate in the body before conscious reflection. You'll learn to recognize the three recurring threats the protective shield guards in foster care (physical danger, emotional exposure, and loss of caregiver or placement) and to shift from pursuing honesty to increasing the felt safety from which honesty can emerge. Includes core concepts, teaching vignettes with Bella, Alex, and Sammy, five moves for Monday morning, and a closing guided meditation, "The Flicker in the Window."
Register for Part 1
Part 2 of 4: How Protective Strategies Evolve Across Development
Wednesday, November 4 · 2:45 PM PT / 5:45 PM ET · 2 CE credits
This session maps how protective strategies in foster youth evolve across development, from the transparent concealment of latency to the sophisticated relational management of adolescence, while their underlying protective function stays constant. It reframes the "testing" behavior so familiar in foster care (canceled sessions, provocations, withheld information) as a protector's attachment question: will this clinician stay? You'll learn to read a young person's developmental stage through their protective strategy and to match a Self-led, developmentally attuned response that lowers the protector's workload.
Register for Part 2
Part 3 of 4: From "What Really Happened" to Safety
Wednesday, November 18 · 2:45 PM PT / 5:45 PM ET · 2 CE credits
This session addresses the core clinical stance of the series. It contrasts a truth-seeking posture (pursuing "what really happened") with a safety-seeking one, showing why pursuit predictably intensifies a foster youth's protective behavior and how consistent, Self-led safety allows it to relax. You'll learn concrete, repeatable clinician moves that lower the stakes of disclosure and build the trust from which honest communication emerges over time, and you'll attend to your own reactive parts when deception activates them in high-stakes foster care work.
Register for Part 3
Part 4 of 4: Documenting Without Pathologizing
Wednesday, December 9 · 2:45 PM PT / 5:45 PM ET · 2 CE credits
This integrating session addresses the ethical terrain of applying a protection-informed stance with foster youth. You'll learn non-pathologizing clinical documentation (describing protective behavior as adaptive rather than "manipulative" or "poor insight," language that follows a child through placements, clinicians, and courts) and how to hold mandated-reporting and safety obligations transparently without turning the therapeutic relationship into an interrogation. The session equips you to balance a child's safety and honesty while practicing with ethical humility, since clinician confidence in detecting deception does not correlate with accuracy.
Register for Part 4
Good to know
These webinars are free and interactive. Each session has its own registration, so please register for every part you plan to attend. Registration is open until 24 hours before each session, and there is no penalty for canceling. Content is designed for working mental health professionals with advanced degrees.
To receive credit, attendees must stay for the full session and complete the evaluation afterward.
A Home Within provides CE credit, and each licensing board decides whether to accept credits toward renewal. Registration and CE details are on A Home Within's registration pages.
Training & Continuing Education (CE)
Institutional Teaching, Community Engagement & Clinical Impact
Welcome to a training space where clinical excellence meets systemic change. Dr. Rivka Edery offers advanced, trauma-responsive curricula that bridge Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) through the U-Model™ (ACT + IFS) framework.
Upcoming Live Trainings & Presentations (2026-2027)
Strategic clinical training and international research presentations
Wednesday, February 3, 2027 | 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM | Orlando Marriott Lake Mary, FL
Decoding the "Skitch" and the "Niggle": FMHCA 2027 Annual Conference - Preconference Track
CE credit available. Early Bird pricing through November 1, 2026.
Register here → https://fmhca.wildapricot.org/event-6692380
Every clinician has a client stuck in the same loop - reactive or relentlessly self-critical. Now there's language for it, and a lab to work with it.
Dr. Rivka Edery's 8-hour clinical lab brings IFS and Process-Based Therapy together to take clients from "talking about" pain to genuine physiological unburdening.
Professional Leadership
- 2025 Recognition of Excellence in Social Work | Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS): Awarded for clinical leadership and innovation in developing the U-Model™ framework.
- 2025 Outstanding Service Award | A Home Within: Recognized for developing trauma-responsive CE curricula for foster youth clinicians.
- IFS Level I Trained & Program Assistant: IFS Institute.
- Psy.D. & Licensed Clinical Social Worker (Doctor of Psychology and LCSW): 16+ years of expertise.
- TEAM-CBT Level 1 Certified: Feeling Good Institute.
Recurring Series & Community Engagement
Monthly Monday Fireside Group
A "living laboratory" where traditional hierarchies are softened for open dialogue on healing and parts work. 7:00 PM - 8:15 PM ET
Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8_08b8YgQc6Ei3Ib-K6c8Q
Join "Beyond Acceptance: Your Inner Parts Welcome to an ACT & IFS Community" on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/share/utKN6WT4Bgp6gAtW/
Teaching & Training
Lead CE Instructor, A Home Within
Advanced trauma-responsive curricula for clinicians serving the foster care community — reaching 450+ clinicians to date, with a specialized focus on unblending and Self-energy.
Recent Highlights & Archive
2026
Apr 27. U-Model™ Deep Dive: Techniques in Action ACBS Social Work SIG (free) - moving clients from fantasy-bonded protectors to values-driven Heroic Intent, scaled from Self to community to systemic action.
Apr 17–18. Incoherent Grief: Somatic Residue in Pre-Verbal Holocaust Survivors
| International Conference, Jagiellonian University, Kraków. An exploration of somatic echoes and missing narratives in pre-verbal Jewish child survivors of the Holocaust — offering clinicians and researchers rare insight into intergenerational grief, somatic residue, and pathways toward coherent healing.
Apr 10. The U-Model™: 7-Stage Roadmap Featured Webinar Series, FMHCA (2 CEUs).
A structured method for combining the compassionate depth of IFS with the behavioral vitality of ACT - ideal for clients with deep self-awareness who still struggle to enact lasting change.
Feb 5–7. The U-Model™ in Action: Integrating IFS and ACT. FMHCA Annual Conference, in-person (3 CEUs)
Feb 10. Healing through Self-Energy: Advanced Unblending & Retrieval. A Home Within (2 CEUs)
Jan 22. From Exiled Burdens to Bold Justice: The U-Model's ACT-IFS Revolution. ACBS Social Work SIG
Jan 13. Mapping Internal Systems for Trauma-Bonds. A Home Within - Part 3, Untangling Hidden Ties series
2025
Dec 16. Core Concepts of the IFS Model - A Home Within - Part 2 of 4 (8.0 CE credits total across series)
Oct 21. Foundations of Trauma-Bonding in Foster Care: A Home Within - Part 1
The U-Model™ in Action: Combining IFS and ACT. A Home Within - 4-part intensive series, 150+ clinicians reached (8.0 CE credits)
The U-Model™ in Action | NASW-NC Fall Conference - 430+ attendees
2024
From Pain to Possibility: Transforming Abandonment Wounds | A Home Within — 4-part ACT series, 200+ attendees (8.0 CE credits)
2013–2016
NAASCA Special Topic Series - weekly trauma discussions reaching 500+ listeners
Accreditation:
Dr. Rivka Edery is an Approved ASWB Provider, providing credits for social workers and mental health professionals nationwide.
Bring this training to your organization.
Inquire About Keynotes & Private Workshops: Email: redery@rivkaedery.com
The U-Model™ Practitioner Certification
The U-Model™ is a 30-hour clinical roadmap for treating complex trauma and systemic burdens.
This program provides intensive training in process-based integration, somatic release, and "Descent/Ascent" clinical stages.
Target Audience: Licensed mental health professionals (LCSWs, Psychologists, Counselors).Curriculum: 30 Live Interactive APA/CE Credits + Lifetime Access to Clinical Manuals.
Status: Early-enrollment waitlist now open (Maximum 40 clinicians per cohort).
Join the Certification Waitlist: https://forms.gle/vj1yvMZvNLogTWC4A
