Most clinicians develop technical skills. Fewer develop a clear clinical stance.
Clinical training often emphasizes models, interventions, and outcomes. Training programs give less attention to how the clinician participates in the work - how sessions are structured, how decisions are made under pressure, and how the clinician’s presence shapes direction.
Over time, the limited examination of the clinician’s participation shows up in practice. Decisions rely on intervention selection rather than a defined position. Difficult moments -escalation, withdrawal, or loss of structure - are managed in the moment but not evaluated in a way that informs future clinical decisions. Interactional patterns often repeat without clear recognition of the clinician’s role in maintaining or interrupting them.
Across all groups offered here, the focus remains consistent. The work centers on developing a clinical stance that organizes observation, guides intervention, and holds under pressure.
A clinical stance shows in how the clinician structures sessions, tracks interactional sequences, and responds to escalation, avoidance, and uncertainty.
While the groups offered here differ in format and duration, the through-line remains consistent. Across all groups, the work examines how clinicians participate in relational systems.
This is structured, guided work with direct feedback on clinical reasoning and participation in the room.
These groups are best suited for clinicians who are already reflecting on their in-session decisions and who want a more precise way to evaluate and direct their clinical decisions.
The work described above is offered through multiple group formats. The focus remains consistent. The differences are structural. The descriptions below outline each format.
Group I. Character of the supervisor: esteem, courage, integrity, and reimagining the Profession
This professional development program is designed for experienced clinicians who serve as supervisors or are preparing for supervisory roles. The group emphasizes supervision as a formative process rooted in character, integrity, and courage. Participants will engage in structured consultation, reflective exercises, and peer dialogue to examine their supervisory presence and its influence on the professional growth of their supervisees.
By reimagining supervision as more than compliance or hour-counting, this program positions the supervisor as a steward of the profession. Through exploring themes of power, esteem, and professional vision, participants will refine their ability to hold supervisory authority responsibly and to foster the development of clinicians who are both competent and anchored in ethical character.
Group II. Beyond the clinician role: character of the clinician
Clinical work requires more than diagnosis, intervention, and risk management. Clinical work also tests the character, judgment, and presence the clinician brings to the room. Character of the Clinician is designed to address that reality.
Across 14 weeks, participants engage a structured reflective process focused on the character of the clinician. Guided discussion and sustained reflection examine qualities that shape professional presence, integrity, judgment, and relational responsibility. The purpose is to support insight, strengthen professional presence, and expand the clinician’s capacity to practice with greater clarity, responsibility, and ethical intention.
Group III. Professional esteem of the clinician
This group is designed for clinicians who want to strengthen their professional identity, clarify their role, and anchor themselves in a sense of value that sustains practice over time. This group focuses on strengthening the clinician’s professional esteem - confidence, clarity, and integrity in the role - by applying Nathaniel Branden’s Six Pillars of Self-Esteem to professional life. Each week, we take one pillar and explore how it shapes our presence, choices, and identity as clinicians.
Group IV. Advanced practice: the AGI framework for therapy
Early in therapy, clients often arrive with rich stories but little movement. Sessions risk circling, stalling, or becoming symptom management. The AGI framework offers a structured way forward: assessment → goal → intervention. Each step scaffolds the next, guiding clients from intake through purposeful goals into meaningful action.
This 6-week group is designed for LPCCs and MFTCs seeking group supervision hours toward licensure, and for licensed clinicians seeking continuing professional development credit under Colorado DORA standards.
Group V. Cultivating Courage and Clinical Acuity: A Professional Development Group for Clinicians
This professional development group provides a structured, practice-based space to strengthen two capacities that support sustainable clinical work: courage under uncertainty and clinical acuity in complex sessions. Meetings are experiential and reflective, with clear participation methods.
Over eight weeks, participants identify fear-driven clinical behaviors (over-explaining, rescuing, rupture avoidance, excessive caution, cultural over-correction) and examine how these patterns shape clinical judgment. The group builds acuity through disciplined attention and expands each participant’s “reality box” - what they treat as relevant, credible, or safe to consider in the room. Exercises emphasize tolerating ambiguity, listening across difference without premature interpretation, and practicing accurate empathy without agreement.
Participants build skills through repeated practice: naming fear patterns, taking small measurable risks, giving and receiving direct feedback with care, and developing a maintenance plan to counter clinical drift. This group is appropriate for licensed clinicians seeking ongoing development and post-graduate supervisees preparing for licensure.
Provider Information
Programs offered by H. Luis Vargas, PhD, LMFT, meet Colorado DORA requirements for professional development for LPCs, LMFTs, and Clinical Social Workers. Certificates of completion are provided. Pre-licensed clinicians (LPCCs, MFTCs) may apply hours toward required group supervision. Out-of-state participants should confirm professional development hours acceptance with their licensing board.
To register for a group, submit form:
