Week-long Workshop Shines Light on At-Risk Youth

BUFFALO, NY – The Canisius University Department of Counseling and Human Services presents “Counseling At-Risk Youth,” a five-day workshop by nationally-known speaker and consultant David Capuzzi, PhD, LPC, NCC,Monday, June 25 - Friday, June 29 from 1:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. in the Grupp Fireside Lounge of the Richard E. Winter ’42 Student Center. 

This workshop will provide participants with an overview of information focused on counseling and teaching youth at-risk. It will emphasize identifying youth-at-risk for depression, suicide, eating disorders, pregnancy, AIDS, use and/or abuse of alcohol and drugs, homelessness, gang membership, difficulties related to sexual orientation, and several other at-risk behaviors. Ideas for primary, secondary and tertiary prevention from individual, family, school and community perspectives will also be presented. The workshop’s varied format will include lectures/discussions, audio-visual presentations, participant self-evaluation of at-risk behaviors, role plays and small group discussions. This week-long experience includes ideas for how to put prevention programs in place in school and community settings. Practicing counselors will find this workshop helpful and realistically applicable in their work settings. 

Capuzzi is a graduate of Florida State University and licensed as a counselor in Oregon. He is certified by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an NCC. Currently, Capuzzi is a core faculty member in the PhD degree program in counselor education and supervision at Walden University, as well as a senior faculty associate in the Department of Counseling and Human Services at Johns Hopkins University. He is professor emeritus at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. From 2007-2009, he served as an affiliate professor at Pennsylvania State University. Capuzzi is past president of the American Counseling Association (ACA) which spans 51 countries.

A frequent keynote and workshop presenter at professional conferences and institutes, Capuzzi has also consulted with a variety of school districts and community agencies interested in initiating prevention and intervention strategies for adolescents at risk for suicide. He facilitates the development of suicide prevention, crisis management, and postvention programs in communities throughout the United States; provides training on the topics of youth at risk, grief and loss, group work and other topics; and serves as an invited adjunct faculty member at other universities. 

Capuzzi is the first recipient of ACA’s Kitty Cole Human Rights Award and a recipient of Leona Tyler Award in Oregon. He was inducted as an ACA Fellow in 2008, and, in 2010, was the recipient of ACA’s Kathleen and Gilbert Wrenn Award for a Humanitarian and Caring Person. In 2011, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Education at Florida State University.

Canisius University is a NBCC-approved provider. Thirty-five hours of continuing education units (CEUs) are available for participates who attend the full workshop. The fee is $200 for professionals seeking credit, $150 for professionals not seeking credit, and $50 for students not seeking credit. For more information, contact Rosemary Evans in the Department of Counseling and Human Services at (716) 888-3298. 

Canisius is one of 28 Catholic, Jesuit colleges in the nation and the premier private college in Western New York. Canisius prepares leaders – intelligent, caring, faithful individuals – able to pursue and promote excellence in their professions, their communities and their service to humanity.