This workshop is presented by the Nebraska Psychological Association plus a coalition of State, Provincial and Territorial Psychological Associations, Including NHPA! We benefit from you registering for this collaborative workshop.
Friday, April 17| 1:00-3:00 PM
Virtual on Zoom | 2 CEs
Course Description:
High-profile acts of violence are often followed by stories that attempt to explain what happened and why. While these narratives can be compelling, they rarely offer clear guidance for how clinicians, educators, and communities can prevent harm before it occurs. This training builds on existing research and explanatory frameworks to shift the focus from retrospective understanding to forward-looking prevention.
Using a developmental, contextual, and ethically grounded approach, this workshop explores how risk emerges through the interaction of individual vulnerabilities, social environments, and systemic factors. Participants will learn to recognize behavior-based warning signs without relying on stigmatizing assumptions, apply multi-tiered prevention strategies, and navigate the ethical tensions inherent in this work.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:
1. Explain how descriptive and explanatory models of violent behavior can be extended into practical, prevention-focused approaches for use in clinical, educational, and community settings.
2. Describe how risk for serious harm develops over time through the interaction of individual, social, and environmental factors, rather than being determined by diagnosis, identity, or personality alone.
3. Recognize behavior-based warning signs that may indicate increased vulnerability or need for support, while avoiding assumptions that stigmatize neurodivergent individuals or those with mental health challenges.
4. Apply developmentally informed, tiered prevention strategies (universal, targeted, and intensive) to real-world scenarios involving youth and young adults.
5. Use ethical decision-making principles to balance safety, autonomy, dignity, and inclusion when responding to concerning behaviors or situations.
About the Speakers:
Melissa Hunter, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Munroe-Meyer Institute and a licensed psychologist in MMI's Department of Psychology. Hunter received her doctorate in school psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi, completed her internship at the Munroe-Meyer Institute and her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Child Study Center.
Hunter practiced as a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania for 15 years, providing outpatient child psychological and behavioral health services and school-based consultation for children and adults with a wide range of presenting needs. She also served as adjunct or teaching faculty at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and taught at Pennsylvania State University for nine years, where she was an associate teaching professor of psychology. Currently, Hunter provides behavioral school-based consultation to the Madonna School, a private school for children and adults with developmental disabilities. In addition, she engages in clinical activities at the Munroe-Meyer Institute. In both settings, Hunter supervises pre-doctoral psychology interns, post-doctoral fellows and undergraduate psychology students.
Samuel Hunter, PhD, Regents-Foundation Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, is an expert in leadership and innovation, exploring their positive and negative applications, and an expert in counterterrorism and prevention with an emphasis industrial and organizational psychology. He is Director of Academic Research at the National Counterterrorism, Innovation, Education and Technology (NCITE) Center at the University of Nebraska - Omaha.
His research, funded by entities like the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been featured in Fortune, Fast Company, and The Washington Post.
He has published over 120 peer-reviewed works and consulted organizations like the Johnson & Johnson, Epic Games, and Lockheed Martin. He is a fellow at the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI).
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NHPA prices workshops by CE credit hour:
$25.00 per CE for members; $35.00 per CE for non-members
Group Rates Available:
3 - 5 people = $15 off individual rate (member/non-member)
6 - 8 people = $20 off individual rate (member/non-member)
8 + people = $25 off individual rate (member/non-member)
Please contact ce@nhpsychology.org for more information. Please include first name, last name and email address for each participant in the group, along with a contact person for the invoice.
Paying with a check:
Checks must be received within one week of the event. If payment has not been received, registrant will still have option to pay online with a credit card up until the day before the program. If an invoice remains open on the day of the event, the registrant will not be allowed to attend.
Cancellation policy:
Refunds, minus a 10% cancellation fee, will be issued for all cancellations received two weeks prior to the start of the course. No refunds or vouchers will be made thereafter. No-shows are not refunded.
Attendance policy:
Full attendance is required to obtain CEs per NHPA policy. No partial credit will be given. Those who attend the workshop and complete the evaluation form will receive 2 continuing education credits. Please note that APA CE rules require that we only give credit to those who attend the entire workshop. Those arriving after the scheduled start time or leaving before the workshop is completed will not receive CE credits.
Registrations are Transferable:
Registrants can transfer an event confirmation to another individual. The NHPA office must be notified of the transfer at least 24 hours prior to the event.
This program is sponsored by the New Hampshire Psychological Association. NHPA is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. NHPA maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
