Skip to main content
Digital Seminar

Beyond Crisis Intervention

$69.99 Standard

Most suicide prevention training focuses on what happens when risk is already high - safety planning and crisis response. 

While essential, this downstream approach alone is not enough. Countless more lives can be saved when clinicians focus on upstream prevention.

In this session, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas shares with you the keys to reducing psychosocial hazards long before a crisis emerges – including prevention efforts for youth and special populations. You’ll learn:

  • Practical, concrete strategies to strengthen resilience, increase connectedness, and reduce risk 
  • How to help clients build hope, meaning, and a sense of purpose
  • Tools to help clients increase physiological safety, regulate mood, and manage stress

Here's What You'll Learn

The Waterfall Model of Suicide Prevention

  • Upstream, midstream, and downstream prevention 
  • Why downstream-only approaches are insufficient for population-level change 
  • Innovative upstream interventions with special populations: youth, culturally diverse communities, LGBTQ+
  • Micro-interventions with macro impact

Building Buffers to Reduce Suicide Risk

  • Increase body regulation and physiological safety to facilitate clarity of thinking and feeling
  • Help clients build internal narratives of worth, capability, and resilience
  • Gratitude and positive cognitive framing to regulate mood and buffer stress
  • Build meaning and sense of purpose
  • Hope-building interventions
  • Peer-led and community-based interventions to reduce thwarted belongingness 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Everything You're Getting

  • More than 1 hour of video content
  • Up to 1.0 CE credits
  • Certificate of completion
  • Handouts and resources

Meet Your Experts

Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD

Toggle speaker biography

Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD is a clinical psychologist, award-winning keynote speaker, and impact entrepreneur dedicated to transforming suicide prevention from risk management to meaningful healing. She is internationally recognized for integrating the stories, science, and strategy of suicide prevention to help clinicians, leaders, and organizations move beyond liability-driven care toward compassionate competence. 
 

Dr. Spencer-Thomas is Co-Founder and President of United Suicide Survivors International and co-founder of Man Therapy®, an innovative men’s mental health initiative. She served as the founding Executive Secretary of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and has held national leadership roles with the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), including Executive Board Member and Secretary, as well as leadership positions within the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). She has served on Lived Experience Advisory Committees for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (now 988), helping embed lived experience into national strategy. 
 

A TEDx speaker and White House invitee, Dr. Spencer-Thomas has consulted and presented across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her most important credential, however, is her lived experience as a suicide loss survivor—a calling that drives her work to help clinicians not only prevent suicide but sustain a passion for living in the people they serve. 


Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Sally Spencer Thomas maintains a private practice and receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Sally Spencer Thomas is the president of United Suicide Survivors International and is a member of the executive board for the American Association of Suicidology. She is co-chair of the Workplace Special Interest Group for the International Association of Suicide Prevention and is a member of the Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

More taught by Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD

100% Satisfaction Guarantee

Register for this intensive training course without risk. If you're not completely satisfied, give us a call at 800-844-8260.

We’re that confident you'll find this learning experience to be all that's promised and more than you expected.

PESI App

Access CE trainings on your phone or tablet through our free mobile app. Choose video or audio-only versions of online courses from the world's best instructors, and complete your CE requirements anywhere, anytime, at your own pace.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.

Questions?

Visit our FAQ page at www.pesi.com/faq or contact us at www.pesi.com/info

Want this training for your whole team?

Get a customized training package for your team at a discounted rate!

Learn More about team training packages

Claim your FREE listing

Need referrals? List your practice in the directory for FREE!

Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Product Code:
POS150892
Duration:
1 hour, 2 minutes
Copyright:
Aug 18, 2026
Closed Captions:
Available
Format:
Audio and Video

ADA Needs

We would be happy to accommodate your ADA needs; please call our Customer Service Department for more information at 1-800-844-8260.

Some text some message..
Back to Top