The 2025 ABCSW Conference: Ethical  Dilemmas in Clinical Social Work

A Virtual Conference Jointly Sponsored by The American Board of Clinical Social Work & WashU Brown School.

The American Board of Clinical Social Work and the WashU Brown School are excited to invite you to a new type of collaborative hybrid continuing education event.  A small audience of WashU’s Social Work Students and faculty, and all of our speakers will appear live on the campus of WashU, while the remainder of our attendees will be comfortably sitting at their own electronic devices in their offices or homes viewing the conference on a live stream.  There will be opportunities for everyone to participate in the stimulating discussions about ethical dilemmas that are the focus of the event.

ABCSW Member: $200.00
Non-Member: $225.00
Student: $50.00

Allan Barsky, JD, MSW, PhD, opens our conference with a workshop entitled, “Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Social Work: Managing Conflicting Obligations through Strategic Analysis and Conflict Resolution Techniques.” 

 Dr. Barsky will offer participants a comprehensive and pragmatic framework for identifying and managing complex practice situations when their ethical, legal, and organizational obligations are in conflict.  He will teach us how to apply four distinct approaches to ethical analysis: legalism, principle-based, consequentialist, and virtue ethics.  Practice-based discussions will focus on critical issues such as managing situations that involve serious but non-imminent harm, navigating the use of artificial intelligence in clinical practice, responding to dual relationships and potential professional boundary issues, and considering alternatives to substitute decision-making for clients whose mental capacity is in question.  Scenarios for discussion will present an array of clients, including children, older adults, military service members, and people with disabilities.  Participants who attend Dr. Barsky’s presentation will leave with enhanced confidence in their ability to manage challenging ethical dilemmas by collaborating with their clients, family members, and co-professionals in a compassionate, prudent, and professional manner. 

Dr. Barsky is a professor with Florida Atlantic University’s Sandler School of Social Work in Boca Raton.  His book credits include Ethics and Values in Social Work, Clinicians in Court, Essential Ethics for Social Work Practice, Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions, and Interprofessional Practice with Diverse Populations.  Dr. Barsky chaired the National Association of Social Workers (USA) National Ethics Committee, as well as its Code of Ethics Review Committee which updated the code to reflect growing use of technology in practice.  He was also awarded NASW’s “Excellence in Ethics Award.”

Cathleen M. Morey, PhD, LICSW, will speak on “Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Social Work Supervision.”

Clinical supervision plays a crucial role in developing and supporting social work practice, encompassing three primary functions:  administrative, supportive, and educational.  Dr. Morey will provide a conceptual framework and practical strategies for delivering ethically informed clinical social work supervision.  She will begin by highlighting four supraordinate concepts that are essential to consider when applying an anti-oppressive approach to ethical social work supervision:  aspirational ethics, the supremacy of Whiteness in social work ethics, intersectional ethics, and epistemic ethical (in)justice.  She will then discuss the core responsibilities and components of ethical clinical social work supervision, including fostering a culture of ethical dialogue, attending to the dynamics of the supervisory relationship itself, facilitating ethical discernment, and applying an ethical decision-making framework grounded in anti-oppressive principles.  Dr. Morey will also address what constitutes harmful supervision, helping participants recognize and avoid unethical supervisory behaviors.  Participants will learn about direct and vicarious liability, as well as strategies to manage ethical and legal risks in their supervisory practices.  Throughout the presentation, case vignettes illustrating problematic ethical issues will be used to highlight and apply the discussed concepts.

Dr. Morey is the Director of Clinical Social Work at the Austen Riggs, an open setting psychiatric hospital and residential treatment center specializing in the care of adult patients with complex psychiatric conditions.  In addition, she is an adjunct assistant professor at the Smith College School for Social Work, where she teaches in both the doctoral program and clinical supervision certificate program.  With 25 years of diverse clinical social work experience across mental health settings – including psychiatric hospitals, residential programs, community mental health agencies, and forensic settings – her scholarship, research, and teaching focus on ethics, system enactments, interprofessional collaboration, psychodynamic systems approaches, family therapy, intergenerational transmission of trauma, and international social work.  She is a peer reviewer for several social work journals and volunteers internationally with the non-profit organization International Social Work Solutions.  She maintains a private practice specializing in psychotherapy and consultation.

Samuel Ochinang, LCSW, BCD – Between Duty and Dignity:  Navigating Confidentiality Conflicts in Military Mental Health

Samuel will talk about a service member two weeks away from retirement who was referred to Samuel by his primary care physician for treatment of anxiety.  The ethical dilemma emerged when the client, reporting suicidal ideation with a plan, begged Samuel not to notify his command or pursue inpatient hospitalization.  He simply wanted to leave military service without further military involvement.  The conflict was between confidentiality and the military’s command notification requirements, as well as the client’s right to self-determination versus the risk to his safety.Samuel is a second-year doctoral student at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work.  He has 15 years of military experience as both a healthcare administrator and clinician.  A California native, Samuel received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and his master’s in social work from Fayetteville State University.  Following a clinical internship at Madigan Army Medical Center, Samuel gained independent licensure and served in various clinical settings and leadership positions.  In 2023, he was identified as an Army Medical Department Iron Major.

Lucia Anna Leo, LCSW-S, BCD – Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Supervision

Lucia will be sharing a supervisory challenge in which a medical social worker serving clients and their families in an outpatient clinic entered into a personal relationship with another employee for whom the social worker had completed psychosocial assessments.  An ethical dilemma emerged when a fellow social worker reported concerns regarding boundary violations and dual relationships to the administrative/clinical supervisor of the medical social worker.  The conflict was about the dual relationship with the employee, because he was initially seen as a patient by the medical social worker, and they had later become closely involved in a friendship or romantic relationship.

Lucia is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work and Board Approved Clinical Supervisor. She has 30+ years of experience in the medical and behavioral health services, including inpatient/outpatient settings, profit/non-profit, governmental agencies, and institutions of higher learning.  She was elected NASW Texas President from 2015-2017 after serving as a Board Director for several years, and she served as part of NASW President’s Council during the same period.  Most recently, Ms. Leo served as ABCSW President from 2020 to 2022 after serving as Treasurer and Vice President.  For the last 15 years, Lucia has been employed at the Department of Veterans Affairs Texas Valley Coastal Bend in various roles, including Social Work Supervisor.  For the last two years, she returned to her true passion as a Senior Clinical Social Worker providing individual/family/group therapy to Veterans and their families.  Since 2019, Lucia has also owned a private practice in McAllen, Texas, where she specializes in working with couples, LGBTQ+ and women.

Jana Edwards, LCSW, BCD – The Toxic Secret:  Dealing with the Exposure of an Affair in Marital Treatment

Jana will present a couple therapy case in which the husband, during a telephone conversation with Jana between couple therapy sessions, chose to reveal his history of affairs during his marriage.  Jana will outline the ethical dilemmas she felt at the point of having to make a quick decision about what to say, and she will share the rationale for the decision she made and the eventual outcome of the treatment. 

Jana has been in private practice in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area since the 1980’s.  She received her MSW from the University of Denver in 1978 and her license to practice independently in 1986.  She has specialized in couple treatment and now focuses her practice primarily on teaching and consulting with couples therapists.  Jana has served on numerous professional boards, including ABCSW, the Colorado Society for Clinical Social Work, and the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work Council of Advisors.  Her work has been published in the Clinical Social Work Journal; Psychoanalysis, Self and Context; Psychology Today; U.S. News and World Report; and others.  In addition, she is the author of the book Why Are You Driving Me Crazy? How the Dramas of Marriage Can Change You for Good (Langdon Street Press, 2016).