SOMERS — Adventures in Lifelong Learning (ALL), an organization of mostly retired people ages 55 and older, offers free lectures on various topics.
Based in the Midwest, Shelley Frost has been writing parenting and education articles since 2007. Her experience comes from teaching, tutoring and managing educational after school programs. Frost worked in insurance and software testing before becoming a writer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education with a reading endorsement.
Special syllabus in ABFT Seminar Series
Quarterly 90-min live webinar series
Co-sponsored by the Center for Family Intervention Science, ABFT Belgium Training Center at KU Leuven University, Counseling and Family Therapy Program at Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions and Drexel University College of Medicine Behavioral Health Education.
We are pleased to introduce a new opportunity for those both within and outside of our Attachment Based Family Therapy (ABFT) community to continue to expand their knowledge of ABFT as well as other attachment informed therapies. Registration is open to attend upcoming live webinars and to view recordings of previous webinars in the series.
Webinar 8:
How to Utilize ABFT When Family Therapy for Eating Disorder (FT/ED) Is Stuck
Date: Tues, January 31, 2023
Time: 2pm-3:30pm (Eastern Standard Time); 8pm-9:30pm (GMT+1)
Speaker: Julian Baudinet and Stamatoula Voulgari
Eating disorder focused family therapy (FT-ED) is typically the first-line recommended treatment for child and adolescent eating disorders internationally (Hilbert, et al., 2017). The treatment is phased and involves large amounts of parental support with eating in the first phases of treatment. While outcomes are good for most, FT-ED is not effective for all young people, with 10-40% (le Grange, 2014; Lock, 2015) having a mixed or poor outcome.
Research focused on identifying mediators and moderators of FT-ED outcome has consistently shown that family factors, such as criticism and parental emotional dysregulation and mentalizing capacities, may have an impact on FT-ED outcomes (Hamadi & Holliday, 2020; Jewell, et al., 2021). While most of the families we see generally present with positive relationships, some may be affected by the development of the eating disorder and/or some come to treatment with pre-existing disrupted attachment relationships.
One major assumption of the FT-ED model is that parental attempts to support their child to eat regularly are interpreted as care, rather than control and punishment. This, of course, is not the case for all young people who receive FT-ED, and there may be a sub-set for whom FT-ED needs to be adapted. For families with the circular dynamics of criticism, emotional dysregulation, sense of rejection and mistrust, ABFT principles and techniques may be particularly relevant, as they may help family members begin to connect in new ways and build trust.
This webinar will focus on our current work at the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders (MCCCAED) in applying ABFT principles and techniques to standard FT-ED treatments for anorexia and bulimia nervosa in the outpatient and day-patient settings.
Program Objectives:
Counselors, Couple and Family Therapists, Mental Health Professionals, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Social Workers.
More dates and syllabus to be announced soon!
Registration is open to attend upcoming live webinars and to view recordings of previous webinars in the series.
If you have questions or concerns contact: Rebecca Saionz at rss94@drexel.edu or 215-571-3410
Please let us know if you have any disability or other special needs so that we can ensure that your needs will be fully met.
Registration fee for one webinar: $30 USD (roughly equivalent to €25)
For participants who register for multiple webinars at a time, we offer the following discounted rates:
Registration for two webinars: $50 USD (approx. €43)
Registration for three webinars: $70 USD (approx. €60)
Registration for four webinars: $95 USD (approx. €81)
CE Certificate Fees:
***We offer CEUs for clinicians with a United States therapeutic license.
CEs available for Webinar 1. CEs on future talks still pending.
If participants sign up for multiple workshops at a time, they can pay a one time certificate fee, but will not receive their certificate until they complete all workshops.
PA State Board LMFT/LCSW/LSW/LPC - $25 per certificate
Psychologist CE - $35 per certificate
***Many states accept Psychologist CEs for Social Workers, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, and Licensed Professional Counselors. Some states also accept other state board's CEs. Please check with your local licensing board to verify CEs you can use.***
NOTE: Full payment required prior to the start of the webinar.
A $25.00 administration fee will be charged for all refunds. Telephone requests will be honored up to four business days before the start of the course begins and must be confirmed in writing. If cancellation occurs within three business days prior to the course, a refund will not be available. However, the full amount of tuition may be applied to a future course (Note: certain restrictions apply.) Allow minimum of six weeks from date of course completion for processing refunds.
PLEASE NOTE: A $50.00 administrative fee will be charged for any returned checks due to insufficient funds.
You will be emailed the link for the webinar and relevant handouts the day before the webinar will occur.
The link to view the webcast will be a Zoom link, which is an internet based program. If you are able to view and listen to videos via your computer you should be fine. An internet connection - broadband or wireless (3G or 4G/LTE) is suggested. We recommend that you allow yourself additional time to connect in the event of technical difficulties.
If you have any questions in reference to connecting to the webcast, please do not hesitate to contact us at abft@drexel.edu
Stamatoula Voulgari (BSPsych, PostGradDip, MSc, PostGradDip Supervision)
Stamatoula is a Principal Systemic Psychotherapist, and supervisor, who works for the outpatient clinic at the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders for over a decade. Stamatoula has extensive experience in individual, family, and group therapy, and is a trainer and training manager for the team, delivering training nationally and internationally.
Dr. Julian Baudinet (BA(hons.), MSc, DCP)
Julian is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, who works across the outpatient and day care services at the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating disorders. He is actively involved in providing clinical services, research, consultation, teaching, and training. He focuses mostly on developing treatments for young people when they are feeling stuck or not progressing in treatment. This has included adapting and applying ABFT principles and techniques to child and adolescent eating disorder treatments.
Dumayi Gutierrez, PhD, LMFT, LMHP
Dr. Dumayi Gutierrez, LMFT, LMHP, has a Ph.D. in Couple and Family Therapy, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and mental health practitioner. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Couple and Family Therapy Program at Alliant International University in San Diego and Online campuses. She also is an adjunct professor for the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies at The University of Nebraska at Omaha campus.
Dr. Gutierrez has a passion for working with multiple marginalized communities and has worked with individuals, couples, and families around the nation. She has published and presented nationally on minority stress, intersectionality of self and family systems, couple support systems, resiliencies of sexually diverse and gender expansive Latinx populations, intersectional culturally competent care, and Women of Color in higher education. Her current projects include examining ambiguous loss and safe spaces of BIPOC LGBTQ+ communities during the Covid-19 pandemic, Latinx lesbian experiences of distress and resiliencies, and re-authoring celebratory stories of women in academia. Clinically, she uses a narrative, experiential, and feminist approach, utilizing techniques of advocacy and empowerment. Additionally, Dr. Gutierrez has served as clinical coordinator and family therapist for the LGBTQ Counseling Clinic in Iowa, and The Gender & Family Project at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York. In her spare time, Dr. Gutierrez enjoys being at the beach and experiencing San Diego's plethora of food with her wife and daughter.
Alba Niño, PhD
Dr. Alba Niño is a licensed marriage and family therapist, an AAMFT-approved supervisor, and an Associate Professor in the Couple and Family Therapy Programs at Alliant International University. After obtaining undergraduate degrees in psychology and anthropology from Universidad de Los Andes, in Bogotá (Colombia), where she was born and raised, Dr. Niño pursued her higher education in couple and family therapy in the United States. She earned her master’s degree at University of Maryland, and her Ph.D. from Drexel University. Dr. Niño’s clinical, teaching, and research interests center on syllabus such as the person of the therapist training model (POTT), cross-cultural therapeutic relationships, post-traumatic growth, and trauma-informed care. Dr. Niño is a certified ABFT therapist, and an EMDR trained therapist. Among other clinical appointments, Dr. Niño is a voluntary bilingual (English/Spanish) psychotherapist at the University of California San Diego Student-Run Free Clinics.
Stephanie Manasse, PhD
Stephanie Manasse, Ph.D. is an Assistant Research Professor and Director of the Child and Adolescent Program at the Center for Weight, Eating and Lifestyle Sciences. Her research focuses on developing novel psychological treatments for adolescents and adults with eating disorders. In particular, she is interested on improving self-regulation (e.g., emotion regulation, impulsivity) in teens. Her work has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Meredith Dellorco, LCSW
Meredith Dellorco, LCSW, is currently fulfilling the role of Newport Academy’s National Family Specialist. Meredith is a trained ABFT Therapist with significant experience applying ABFT successfully at Newport Academy's residential treatment center. She graduated from Columbia University with a master's in social work, including an advanced clinical practice with children, youth and families. Prior to her position at Newport Academy, Meredith had extensive trauma treatment experience with children, adolescents and families. This includes her experience as a primary trauma therapist for at risk youth and families in the foster care system in New York City. Following this Meredith worked for six years as an outpatient therapist providing a range of trauma treatment to children, adolescents and families in SandyHook, CT, following a community tragedy. She is also trained in a range of treatment modalities including CBT, DBT, EMDR, motivational interview and TF-CBT.
Gary M. Diamond, PhD
Gary M. Diamond, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel, and Director and Chief Psychologist of the department’s community clinic. He is a licensed and supervising clinical psychologist and family therapist. He received his doctorate from Temple University in Counseling Psychology from Temple University in 1997, and completed a post-doctorate in clinical psychology at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, in 1998. His is one of the primary developers of attachment-based family therapy for depressed and suicidal adolescents, and has adapted the model for working with sexual and gender minority adolescents and young adults. His research interests include developing and testing the efficacy of ABFT, as well as examining change mechanisms such as alliance-building, emotional processing, parental reflectivity and parental responsiveness.
Jody Russon, PhD
Dr. Russon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science. She is a translational scientist contributing to the fields of family therapy and suicidology. Community-engaged research (CEnR) is a fundamental value of her approach to science, practice and education. Her line of research specifically focuses on the adaptation, dissemination and implementation of suicide interventions and prevention strategies. Dr. Russon has three, overlapping areas of research. Her primary research area is centered on adapting, testing and disseminating family-based suicide treatment models for underserved youth populations, particularly LGBTQ+ adolescents and young adults. She has focused her efforts on adapting a family-centered suicide treatment, Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT; Diamond, Diamond, & Levy, 2014), for transgender and gender diverse youth. Second, in an effort to better engage with the systems interfacing with those with suicidal thoughts and behavior, she is establishing another line of research to implement screening and triage approaches in these systems. Finally, Dr. Russon’s third area of research contributes to the others by examining factors associated with help seeking and service utilization. To support these efforts, Dr. Russon operates a transdisciplinary research initiative, called the Alliance for the Study of Suicide Prevention and Intervention through Relationship Enrichment. Dr. Russon’s teaching and supervisory experience is focused on applied skills for family therapy researchers and practitioners. She has a particular interest in mixed methods research (MMR) and has developed a doctoral-level course to train students to conduct MMR. Dr. Russon is an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Approved Supervisor and a Person-of-the-Therapist instructor. She is also a certified trainer and supervisor in ABFT and has received advanced clinical training in emotionally focused therapy for couples.
Ilse Devacht
Ilse Devacht is an experienced registered clinical psychologist (KU Leuven, 1998). She is an accredited CBT therapist (KU Leuven, 2001), trainer and supervisor. She has attained a level II in Narrative Therapy (London, 2014). She was trained and accredited as ABFT therapist by the developers of ABFT at Drexel University (Philadelphia, 2016) and as ABFT trainer and supervisor (2019). As part of the start up team of a KU Leuven spin-off, promoting professional mental health in a range of businesses and organisations, she was specialised in handling team conflicts and system change.
For 6 years, she has worked as a clinical psychologist and researcher at Asster Hospital, with a young adult population (18 to 23 years of age) in an inpatient treatment program. Her clinical work focuses on providing ABFT family therapy for admitted young adults along with their families and on team coaching to promote the provision of attachment based care in an intensive inpatient setting.
In collaboration with her team, Dr. Suzanne Levy, Dr. Guy Diamond and prof Guy Bosmans (KU Leuven, Belgium), she has adopted the ABFT principles into a guidance framework for interdisciplinary teams in the development of the Attachment Based Care program for teams Program (ABC for Teams). This milieu program is based on attachment and learning theory and evidence based practice.
Her research efforts currently focus on the effectiveness of the ABC for Teams program and of the ABFT family therapy for young adults with multiple problems and diagnoses.
***We offer CEUs for clinicians with a United States therapeutic license.
CEs available for Webinar 1. CEs on future talks still pending.
If participants sign up for multiple workshops at a time, they can pay a one time certificate fee, but will not receive their certificate until they complete all workshops.
***Many states accept Psychologist CEs for Social Workers, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, and Licensed Professional Counselors. Some states also accept other state board's CEs. Please check with your local licensing board to verify CEs you can use.***
This program is being offered for 1.5 hours of continuing education.
Drexel University College of Medicine, Behavioral Healthcare Education is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Drexel University College of Medicine, Behavioral Healthcare Education maintains responsibility for the program and its content.
Drexel University's Counseling and Family Therapy Department is a Pre-approved Provider by the Pennsylvania State Board of Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Professional Counselors of Continuing Education Credits. For LMFT, LCSW, LSW, and LPCs: The workshop qualifies for 1.5 CEs. A Certificate of Participation will be awarded after the presentation to all who attend and follow protocol for registration and evaluation forms.
Drexel University Counseling and Family Therapy Department maintains responsibility for the program and content. Accreditation does not imply that Drexel College of Nursing and Health Professions approves or endorses any product included in the educational activity.
PA State Board LMFT/LCSW/LSW/LPC - $25 per certificate
Psychologist CE - $35 per certificate
All planners and presenters at nursing continuing education activities are required to disclose to the audience any significant financial relationships with the manufacturer(s) of any commercial products, goods or services. Such disclosures will be made in writing in the course presentation materials.
Recordings of previous webinars in the Special syllabus Series are available for purchase for 14-day access.
Webinar 1:
Attachment Based Care for Teams program
Date: Wed, December 2, 2020
Time: 7:30pm-9pm (GMT+1); 1:30pm-3pm (Eastern Standard Time)
Speaker: Ilse Devacht
ABC for Teams is a multi-tier program which teaches organizations to use attachment theory as a unifying clinical framework for all members of the treatment team. It was developed by Ilse Devacht at Asster Hospital in Belgium in collaboration with the ABFT Training Program and Professor Guy Bosmans at KU Leuven University in Belgium. The program can be implemented in in- and outpatient settings with the aim of supporting family work in restoring attachment ruptures between caregivers and kids. The ABC for Teams program consists of training, team supervision and guiding system change in order to create a secure learning environment for vulnerable youth to restore trust in help and care.
The program is characterised by its trans-diagnostic insights in dealing with emotional and behavioural problems. Firstly, emotional issues and problematic behaviour, often diagnosed as ‘pathology’, are viewed as ways of coping in human development when facing (extreme) distress. Secondly, team members are trained to analyse and guide behaviour based on the principles of learning theory, such as assessing behaviour’s function and meaning for clients. A third characteristic of the program is the emphasis on emotion focused conversation skills. A fourth and last aspect of the program is that it not only provides training for a team, but also engages a team and its leadership to rethink and reorganise their existing care program in alignment with the proposed attachment and learning theory insights.
For more info about ABC for teams:
English: https://drexel.edu/familyintervention/abft-training-program/attachment-based-care-milieu-program/
Dutch: https://ppw.kuleuven.be/ogop/abft/opleiding
Counselors, Couple and Family Therapists, Mental Health Professionals, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Social Workers. This first webinar is also appropriate for administrators and any frontline staff working with adolescents with mental health issues.
Program Objectives:
Webinar 2:
Middle Childhood Attachment Therapy
Date: Tues, March 2, 2021
Time: 7:30pm-9pm (GMT+1); 1:30pm-3pm (Eastern Standard Time)
Speaker: Leen Van Vlierberghe & Guy Bosmans
In spite of a clear need in clinical practice, there is a worldwide lack of well-designed and critically evaluated attachment-focused interventions for middle childhood. To solve this gap, we developed Middle Childhood Attachment Therapy (MCAT) as a novel transdiagnostic treatment for children between 8 and 12 years of age suffering from emotion and behavior problems. MCAT is a 16 session parent-child intervention that shares its basic principles with the Attachment Based Family Therapy model.
In this webinar, we will outline and illustrate the child-friendly therapeutic strategies we developed to create ‘live’ (in session) learning events in which children’s support seeking behavior is reinforced by both a sensitive parental response and the experience of reduced distress in the child. This way, MCAT aims to increase children’s support seeking behavior by stimulating the development of trust in parental support as a buffer to further mental health decline. Lecture, Q & A, and case description examples are used throughout the presentation.
Counselors, Couple and Family Therapists, Mental Health Professionals, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Social Workers.
Program Objectives:
Webinar 3:
Two Talks related to ABFT for LGBTQ+ Youth
Date: Tues, June 29, 2021
Time: 3pm-5pm (GMT+2); 9am-11am (Eastern Standard Time)
Speaker: Gary Diamond & Jody Russon
ABFT for Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults and their Non-Accepting Parents
Gary Diamond will present the principles and intervention strategies for using ABFT to work with sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults and their non-accepting parents. The first part of the talk will briefly review the variety of parental responses to their adult child’s SGM and the negative impact of ongoing parental rejection and non-acceptance on the young adult-parent relationship. Then, each of the five tasks of ABFT will presented, using descriptive and videotaped examples from work with this population. Differences between working with young adults, as opposed to adolescents, will be noted.
Program Objectives:
ABFT for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth presenting in LGBTQ+ Community Settings
Jody Russon will discuss clinical research findings from utilizing ABFT with transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth presenting in LGBTQ+ Community Settings. Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth have been overwhelming absent from suicide research; yet, they are at even greater risk for suicidal behavior than sexual minority youth (Grossman & D’Augelli, 2007; Peterson et al., 2016). TGD youth often receive the bulk of their care in LGBTQ+ community centers and/or gender-affirming medical settings, where some may be exploring physical and social transition. In a exact study aimed to implement ABFT into LGBTQ+ centers, a small trial of TGD youth (N=8) received ABFT in community settings, including locations where they were receiving gender-affirming services. This presentation will describe the foundational principles of providing ABFT TGD youth in LGBTQ+ community settings and discuss how the delivery of ABFT was modified to be sensitive to the needs of TGD youth and their caregivers in these settings. ABFT delivery modifications will be illustrated through use of video and case examples.
Program Objectives:
Webinar 4:
Let's talk. With your parents?!
ABFT for Young Adults
Date: Wed, November 17, 2021
Time: 7:30pm-9pm (GMT+1); 1:30pm-3pm (Eastern Standard Time)
Speaker: Ilse Devacht & Laura Deckers
Young adulthood, comprising the age range of 18-25, is a challenging developmental stage in the transition to adulthood. Engaging young adults into relational repair work with their parents can be difficult given laws about confidentiality, shifts in the role of parents for young adults, and caregiver fatigue when the young adult has suffered from mental health issues for a long time.
In the first part of this webinar, treatment experts, Ilse Devacht & Laura Deckers, will share some insights on young adult development and parenting for this age group. We will discuss issues to consider when engaging young adults and their parents in ABFT and share our clinical experiences in implementing ABFT with young adult in more than a hundred families. We will also share data on young adult acceptance of ABFT.
Our ABFT therapist community is growing and we want to hear your experiences as well. Have you come across young adults for whom you think ABFT could help? Are you thinking of trying ABFT with young adults or perhaps have already tried?
In the second half of this webinar, a panel of ABFT therapists working with young adults will lead an open conversation with the webinar attendees about experiences working with young adults and ABFT. We look forward to sharing and discussing our exciting work with emerging adults and cherish this opportunity to think together as an ABFT community.
Program Objectives:
Webinar 5:
ABFT with Adolescents in Residential and Inpatient Treatment
Date: Thurs, March 17, 2022
Time: 2:30pm-4pm (Eastern Daylight Time); 7:30pm-9pm (GMT+1)
Speakers: Meredith Dellorco & Jasmijn Creten
Residential treatment centers in the US and inpatient treatment facilities abroad provide a comprehensive treatment approach for adolescents whose health and safety are at risk in their homes and communities. These adolescents are struggling with a range of mental health diagnoses, potential substance abuse and family conflict. Relational repair work between these adolescents and their caregivers is essential to their success post discharge. We have observed that repairing the adolescent's attachment to their caregivers and shifting their environment at home significantly reduces the risk of relapse post discharge from residential treatment.
In the first part of this webinar, the treatment experts, Meredith Dellorco & Jasmijn Creten, will share some insights on implementing ABFT in the residential/inpatient setting. We will discuss issues to consider when utilizing ABFT as the treatment approach in residential/inpatient settings where Clients are provided treatment for at least 30 days. This will include specific challenges and barriers that you may experience while utilizing ABFT in these settings and proactive ways to approach these challenges. In addition, we will share our own clinical experiences utilizing ABFT effectively while adolescents are in residential or inpatient treatment.
In the second half of this webinar, a panel of ABFT Therapists working with adolescents in residential or inpatient treatment worldwide will lead an open conversation with the webinar attendees about experiences implementing ABFT in this context. We look forward to discussing our exciting work utilizing ABFT with adolescents in this unique setting and using this as an opportunity to grow together as an ABFT community!
Program Objectives:
Webinar 6:
ABFT with Binge Spectrum Eating Disorders
Date: Tues, June 21, 2022
Time: 1pm-2:30pm (Eastern Daylight Time); 7pm-8:30pm (GMT+2)
Speaker: Stephanie Manasse, PhD
Outcomes from treatment for adolescent binge-spectrum eating disorders is suboptimal, and few resources have been dedicated to novel treatment development. One reason for lack of suboptimal outcomes of standard treatments (cognitive behavioral therapy, family-based therapy) is the lack of focus of these treatments on family functioning (e.g., family conflict and cohesion). Poor family functioning may 1) lead to the child to binge eat to cope with negative affect 2) interfere with the family’s ability to help the child make changes to disordered eating.
Attachment-Based Family Therapy holds high promise for improving family functioning and enhancing outcomes for adolescent bulimia nervosa and binge eating. This presentation will focus on (1) application of the ABFT model to binge-type eating disorders; (2) integrating evidence-based behavioral techniques for eating disorders with ABFT; and (3) describe how to apply the 5 tasks of ABFT to eating disorders. Case examples will be discussed.
Program Objectives:
Webinar 7:
Exploring Clinical Implications with Racial Trauma: Utilizing Cultural Humility, Self of Therapist, and Attachment-Based Family Therapy Through an Intersectionality Lens
Date: Wed, November 2, 2022
Time: 2pm-3:30pm (Eastern Standard Time); 7pm-8:30pm (GMT+1)
Speaker: Dumayi Gutierrez, PhD, Alba Niño, PhD & Syreeta Mason, PhD
Vast literature has highlighted the impact of racial trauma (such as racial discrimination, prejudice, and racially motivated violence) on mental health and wellbeing. Experiences of racial trauma have exacerbated adverse mental health outcomes such as post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression, anxiety, and suicidality. Evidence has shown success with therapies such as Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Attachment Based Family Therapy (ABFT) to ameliorate these symptoms. However, having an evidence-based model is only part of what is necessary to provide competent services to address the consequence or racial trauma. Exploring the impact of cultural humility, intersectionality, and self of the therapist factors with racial trauma is significant in cross-cultural clinical work. ABFT takes these issues into consideration in implementation of the therapy.
This presentation will discuss, 1) cultural humility and therapist role working with racial trauma, 2) integration of intersectionality framework and self of the therapist factors work with racial trauma, and 3) how ABFT utilizes cultural humility, intersectionality and self of the therapist factors with racial trauma in implementation of the therapy.
Program Objectives:
Virtual Classroom Training (V)
Instructor-led format covering the same material as the classroom course, but in a virtual setting so you can attend remotely.
Instructor-Guided Online Training (E)
So much more than just an online course! Learn at your own pace when it’s convenient for you to complete the assignments by the milestone deadline.
Self-Paced Modular Training (M)
Learn at your own pace at a time that is convenient for you.
The format of the workshop includes a combination of short instructional videos, special guest lectures, real-data analyses practices and live demonstration sessions. The workshop aims to facilitate the learning of practical bioinformatics skills and build familiarity and basic competency. Using established tools and publicly available resources, we will focus on the analyses and interpretation of genomic and genetic data, making it more suitable for researchers with limited big data analytical skills.
This session of the course will cover bulk and single-cell RNA-seq analyses. It will cover experimental design, quality control, read mapping, differential expression analyses, as well as pathway and enrichment analyses. The single-cell RNA-seq part will also cover methods for unsupervised clustering and detection of subpopulations of cells.
This session of the course will cover ChIP-seq analyses, which is commonly used for epigenomic analysis. It will cover experimental design, quality control, read mapping, identification of peaks, differential binding assays, and motif identification. Lectures will additionally cover theoretical aspects of peak identification as well as survey a number of commonly employed programs.
This session will focus on the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) based genome wide association analysis. syllabus include trial and SNP quality control, association tests, logistic regression for case-control studies, linear regression for continuous traits, gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. Lectures will also cover how to visualize the data and analysis results using popular packages.
In this session, we will introduce the basic concepts and general ideas in constructing gene regulatory networks (GRNs), and focus on genomics studies for integrative analysis of transcriptomic and genomic data. With a case study in cancer research, we will go through cis-eQTL analysis and a state-of-the-art parallel algorithm 2SPLS to construct genome-wide GRNs. In addition, lectures will cover exploring the results by popular bioinformatics tools including STRING and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis.
Our annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies highlights the technological advances that we think will have the biggest impact on the world in the years to come.
The 35 Innovators Under 35 is our yearly opportunity to take a look at not just where technology is now, but where it’s going and who’s taking it there.
What is AI? It’s the quest to build machines that can reason, learn, and act intelligently, and it has barely begun. We cover the latest advances in machine learning, neural networks, and robots.
Face recognition | Machine learning | Robots | Voice assistants
The Big Story is a home for MIT Technology Review’s most important, ambitious reporting—stories that take a deep look at the technologies that are coming next and what they will mean for us and the world we live in.
Biotechnology is the industry that uses the molecules of life (DNA, RNA, and proteins mostly) to treat and diagnose disease. We report on the latest biomedical science and technological research.
CRISPR | DNA testing | Genetic engineering | Genomic medicine
What is a blockchain? Distributed ledger technology underlies cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and could be the future of money, security, and online privacy. But there’s also a ton of hype.
Bitcoin | Cryptocurrency | Ethereum | ICOs | Smart contracts
Climate change is making the Earth a warmer and weirder place, forcing researchers, companies and governments to understand, confront and adapt to rising dangers.
Battery technology | Carbon sequestration | Clean energy | Electric cars | Geoengineering
Computer technology news and in-depth analysis of computer tech, looking at the latest advances in computing being driven by innovations in everything from microchips to quantum computing.Cloud computing
Cybersecurity | Edge computing | Microchips | Quantum computing | Supercomputing
You can read our most essential coverage of the coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak for free, and also sign up for our coronavirus newsletter. But please consider subscribing to support our nonprofit journalism.
A look at how technologies from AR/VR, brain-computer interfaces, and chip implants to health trackers, biometrics and social media are changing the most basic aspects of human life—work, friendship, love, aging, sickness, parenting, learning, and building community.
AR | Biohacking | Brain-computer interface | VR
Covid-19 has altered our lives in countless ways. We’re tracking technology that’s responding to the pandemic, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation.
Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and other Silicon Valley Big Tech companies are built on innovation. But how are these corporate behemoths dealing with the ramifications of their power?
Amazon | Apple | Facebook | Google |
Governments around the world are trying to Improve urban life by adopting digital technologies and creating Smart Cities filled with sensors. Who are these projects benefiting and how smart are they?
5G | IoT | Self-driving cars
Humanity is pushing further outside of our atmosphere. We take a look at the space tech coming out of places like NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin that is powering the space exploration of tomorrow.
Astronomy | NASA news | Space exploration | SpaceX news | The Moon
Who’s responsible when technology causes harm? We look at how the world is dealing with problems like fake news and misinformation, AI bias, Big Tech’s power, genetic discrimination, privacy intrusions, mass surveillance, and more.
SOMERS — Adventures in Lifelong Learning (ALL), an organization of mostly retired people ages 55 and older, offers free lectures on various topics.
"An Introduction to Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training" by Nick Greco, an expert in traumatic stress with several degrees and certifications, will be the subject at 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, via Zoom. Greco will discuss how law enforcement officers across Kenosha County are being trained to Improve the outcomes of police interactions with people living with mental illness.
For the Zoo link or more information, call 262-595-2793 or go to uwp.edu/all.
It’s common for marketers to target individual keywords when creating and optimizing content. Still, subject clusters are an even more powerful way to do keyword research.
With subject clustering, you can get results from the individual terms you target plus build a robust collection of relevant, associated keywords to drive more traffic to your website.
On January 25, I moderated a webinar with Dave Snyder, CEO and Founder at CopyPress, and Sabrina Hipps, VP of Partner Development. They demonstrated how to build a better keyword universe for your marketing efforts.
Here’s a summary of the webinar. To access the entire presentation, complete the form.
Search-focused content production is still primarily focused on “traditional keyword research,” or “linear keyword research,” which includes:
As you can see, traditional or linear keyword research typically focuses on singular keywords. It doesn’t focus on things holistically, and it doesn’t focus on user intent.
Taking a clustered approach towards related words could lead to something worth the expense of adding to your content.
Topic clustering:
[Find out how clustering differs from linear keyword research] Instantly access the webinar →
There are advanced machine learning programs out there that can speed up your workflow, as well as manual methods you can try.
This approach will be somewhat labor intensive, but if you’re doing 10 or 20 blog posts a month, it’s an effortless way to cluster your concepts and get better forecasting.
[Get the steps] Instantly access the webinar →
Avoid the scaling issues of SEO and subject clustering by using machine learning.
The model we use in our on-demand webinar uses a learning model similar to what Netflix uses to help people find new movies and shows comparable to what they’ve previously watched.
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The high-tech approach to subject clustering saves time and frees up internal resources, especially in the long term.
Here’s the presentation:
Join this webinar as Ryan Maloney, Manager of SEO Success at Conductor, and Alice Tonks, Paid Search Customer Success Manager at Adthena, walk you through five ways you can effectively leverage both paid and organic search to grow your business.
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Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
This post was sponsored by iQuanti. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
What transforms a website from just a catalog of blog posts to a highly-organized hub of authoritative content?
How can you make sure your website becomes the top-visited resource for your industry?
Today, we’re going to travel down the content rabbit hole, and peer through the SEO looking glass, if you will.
You’ll discover how to easily merge content creation and SEO to help your website successfully rank at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) using subject clusters.
Your goal: Create content that is able to answer your target audience’s questions by providing everything they need to know about their search queries.
The classic Alice in Wonderland series posed a quasi-metaphorical question to its protagonist: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
The question posited has nothing to do with the plot, leaves nothing to inform the characters’ growth or intentions, and may very well be construed as pure nonsense, a symptom of fantasy.
At the end of the story, Alice asks The Hatter, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
Though no answer was provided – and many answers have been theorized since – readers not only embrace this fantastical reality but champion it as part of the inherent logic of the narrative.
We’ve come to Wonderland to believe in the absurd possibilities of this reality, however nonsensical they may appear.
When it comes to your SEO strategy, you won’t be delving into fictional worlds or constructing outlandish characters and situations. You will, however, be in command of your narrative and its inherent logic.
You will need to:
Your audience’s search history and webpage behavior can speak volumes about their search intent and needs, even if it’s impossible to actually know what’s going on in a person’s mind.
SEO’s analytical aspects can uncover search intent based on keyword queries.
If you pair SEO analytics with subject-matter experts (SMEs), you can also supercharge your strategy by plotting topical interests and predicting a person’s position within your marketing funnel.
You and your SMEs can easily develop one or more themed keyword landscapes, or “topic clusters”, by simply researching the root of a regular person’s keyword queries:
Your master keyword list will help you and your team clearly understand how your points of entry can be better positioned or supported on a user’s journey through your sales funnel.
You’ll want to walk away from step one with a master keyword list that will help you discover the content gaps that can be used to bridge your past content efforts with your present or future ones.
This helps you quickly see if your target audience’s search intent matches your website’s page intent.
Master keyword lists work because they help make sure you’re covering every need of your target audience.
Once you’ve completed your master keyword list, look at how complete and logical your list of targeted keywords truly is.
Ask yourself if a reader finds your website after a query:
Either of these paths can quickly become disjointed without a logical flow of information.
That’s where the last high-level takeaway from your master keyword list can be beneficial: spinning a web of core, supporting, and related themes to ensnare and enthrall your user.
This is what creates the foundation of subject clusters.
As you’ve seen, search intent needs to translate to page intent.
So, careful consideration during the keyword selection phase is key for content creation because of the many themes and subthemes that your brand, products, and services may cover.
These subthemes are the pillars of your topic cluster strategy. Implementing content clusters is an effective means of covering full syllabus in organized, digestible bites.
Once your audience stumbles upon your landing page, the content must be compelling enough to draw their attention further.
Engage perceptions with stats and diagrams, provide visuals and lists, condense information, and challenge inquisitive minds to learn more on the next page.
Here’s how:
As readers spin through your website, they become familiar with your brand, style, and voice, and might even develop some level of trust from their visit – if you’ve provided the information they’re looking for.
Tracking where your readers explore your site more thoroughly will only further the plot – keeping in mind general consumer demand and some KPIs.
Whether it’s the value added by a narrative or a more consistent website flow, pages can be identified for their:
After identifying successes, you can mimic these pages, which then can be integrated into your audience’s journey.
If metrics stagnate for some pages, they might need a refresh. Exploring different keyword landscapes and bridging cluster gaps can help Improve your site’s authority and user experience (UX) overall.
In the worst-case scenario – after you’ve decided it’s no longer relevant to your site visitors or from a keyword volume standpoint – you can decommission and 301 redirect any content that no longer performs in a way that fulfills your brand’s purposes.
Ensuring your site structure ranks well compared to competitors or industry aggregators can be challenging without sophisticated technological support – and there’s only so much that can be done unless you want to overhaul your website.
However, catching and nesting a customer to a purchase decision should involve an intuitive flow that won’t require the customer to encounter navigational mishaps, such as having to back out of pages.
At the beginning of her journey, freshly lost and before the conversation about a raven and a writing desk, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
The Cat replies, “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
Though we’ve all been Alice before – on a website, in a crowd, within a metaphor – you should be fostering the journey with the same absurd seriousness the Cheshire Cat proposes.
In the story, Alice must find herself before knowing what she wants to do.
Your customers may stumble upon you with questions, curiosities, and intent – are you positioning your content in a relatable way?
iQuanti uses the combination of their proprietary tech and trained UX strategists to:
If you believe you could use some help identifying content gaps or want to help drive the needle forward for your business, iQuanti’s SEO services could be just what you need.
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Get your Cullen squad ready, this new Twilight collection includes the coveted baseball jersey.
Hot subject gave io9 a first look at the line dropping this Friday, February 3 in stores and online at hottopic.com and heruniverse.com. The six-piece collection celebrates the late-2000s book and film franchise, the latter of which starred The Batman’s Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart as a vampire-human couple who fall into forbidden, angsty love. The collection includes a cosplay-inspired version of Bella’s prom dress—perfect for a Valentine’s Day date. If you’re celebrating Galentine’s Day instead by marathoning the movies, there’s nostalgic Team Edward and Team Jacob gear that’s perfect for the occasion.
Prices for the collection will range from $26.90 to $54.90 and it’s offered in plus sizes too! Check out the fandom fashion preview below.
If you’re more on the werewolves’ side, here’s the Jacob Wolf Pack Muscle Tank Top ($24.90).
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Look at the details of this screen-accurate Bella Swan prom cosplay dress ($49.90).
And of course, here’s the jersey. The Cullen Baseball woven button-up ($44.90) comes in enough sizes to get a group together and play a game. There’s also a Vampire Baseball raglan tee ($26.90).
Find the perfect fit at Hot Topic—and if you recreate the baseball scene set to Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole,” leave us some photos in the comments
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.