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Live Webinar

Embracing the Unknown: Leading and Healing in the Midst of Uncertainty

Michael Groat, PhD
Ross Ellenhorn, MSW, PhD
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Information

Date & Time

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Describe how tolerating uncertainty in clinical and leadership roles creates the conditions for trust, discovery, and innovation.

  • Identify at least two strategies for balancing openness and flexibility with the structure and containment necessary for safety and predictability.

  • Recognize the risks of over-directing, over-interpreting, or over-structuring in ways that can undermine patient, client, or team growth.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this workshop is to strengthen clinicians’ and clinical leaders’ ability to engage with uncertainty as a vital element of therapeutic and organizational practice, cultivating safety, trust, creativity, and meaningful change through structured openness and a relationally informed approach.

Description

In clinical work and leadership, uncertainty is not a problem to solve—it is a space to inhabit. Whether in the therapy room or in guiding teams, our impulse to seek quick answers can limit the deeper truths that only emerge over time. This session explores how clinicians and clinical leaders can embrace uncertainty as fertile ground for discovery, innovation, and growth—while still providing the structure and containment necessary for safety and trust. Drawing on principles from Bion, Winnicott, and contemporary relational theory, we will examine the discipline of holding space without rushing to fix, the dangers of “therapeutic zeal,” and the paradox of how structured openness fosters both creativity and meaningful change.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Michael Groat, PhD
Michael Groat, PhD, has over 16 years of leadership experience in nationally recognized mental health and addiction treatment programs for adolescents and adults. He is the former CEO of CooperRiis, a 95-bed residential program in Asheville, NC, and has served as Chief Clinical Officer at Silver Hill Hospital and Director of Adult Services at the Menninger Clinic. Dr. Groat has launched successful programs, while driving improved patient satisfaction, staff morale, and outcomes measurement. Dr. Groat completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychodynamic psychotherapy at the Austen Riggs Center and is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He has previously held academic positions at Yale School of Medicine and Baylor College of Medicine and has presented internationally on topics related to psychotherapeutic treatment of the complex patient, suicide prevention, loneliness, and mental health recovery.
Ross Ellenhorn, MSW, PhD
Dr. Ellenhorn is trained as a sociologist, psychotherapist and social worker. He has spent the last two decades helping individuals suffering psychiatric symptoms find the psychological and social means for remaining outside institutional settings. He created the first fully-operating intensive hospital diversion and wrap-around program in Massachusetts, later creating and leading, one of the first Programs for Assertive Community Treatment teams in the Commonwealth. His book, which addresses psychiatric hospital recidivism and techniques for diverting hospital use, was published by Springer Publishing in 2007. Dr. Ellenhorn has given talks and seminars throughout the country, and has provided consultation to numerous mental health agencies and psychiatric hospitals on the subjects of hospital diversion, psychosocial rehabilitation, patient careerism and the PACT model. Dr. Ellenhorn is trained in Open Dialogue, a method for helping individuals experiencing extreme psychiatric states, and which has documented success in minimizing the need for psychotropic medications. A graduate of the UCLA School of Social Welfare, Dr. Ellenhorn is the first person to receive a joint Ph.D. from the prestigious Florence Heller School for Social Welfare Policy and Management and the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Lindner Center of Hope
  • Ellenhorn