Forensic Practice: Assessment and Intervention Strategies
In-person and Virtual
The Three-Workshop Series will be held at the Bryant Conference Center, located on The University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa.
Workshop Overview
This is a hybrid workshop. You can register to attend in-person or virtually!
Course Description
Ms. Terrell has developed a series of workshops designed for social workers, mental health practitioners, and criminal justice professionals. Each workshop will have a diverse panel of members, including lawyers and judges, sharing their first-hand knowledge and experiences with the criminal justice system.
| Available Dates | November 3, 2025 March 2, 2026 May 11, 2026 |
| Location | Bryant Conference Center 240 Paul W. Bryant Drive Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 |
| Workshop Fee | $149 per workshop |
Courses
November 3, 2025
Register to attend in-person or online!
Forensic Practice and the Civil and Criminal Justice System
6.0 contact hours (including 1.0 ethics and 1.0 supervision)
This workshop will provide a general overview of forensic practice and roles in both the criminal and civil justice systems. Integration of trauma and ethical dilemmas within community corrections programs, specialty courts, expert witness testimony, and elder law will be presented. Participants will have the opportunity to analyze several cases and discuss with an expert panel that includes lawyers and judges.
March 2, 2026
Register to attend in-person or online!
Forensic Practice and Death Penalty Mitigation
6.0 contact hours (including 1.0 ethics and 5.0 clinical)
This forensic practice workshop will provide a detailed discussion of death penalty mitigation, including the analysis of general mitigation initiatives and the development of a capital mitigation defense.
Objectives:
- Learn what constitutes a mitigation defense.
- Identify the components of a mitigation assessment.
- Apply the concepts of a mitigation defense to adolescents appropriate for “Miller Ruling” cases.
- Discuss ethical Issues and challenges in death penalty cases.
Understand how to present a mitigation defense in a sentencing
May 11, 2026
Register to attend in-person or online!
Forensic Practice and the Family Court System
6.0 contact hours (including 2.0 ethics and 4.0 clinical )
This forensic practice workshop will describe therapeutic divorce mediation, including issues such as parental alienation, emotional abuse, and more. In addition, juvenile sex offender risk assessment models and therapeutic interventions will be described.
Objectives:
- Discuss ethical dilemmas in high conflict divorce mediation.
- Learn the concepts and techniques of therapeutic divorce mediation.
- Learn the relationship between developmental dynamics and therapeutic divorce mediation.
- Identify two juvenile sex offender risk assessments.
Continuing Education
Each individual workshop is worth 6.0 contact hours. Completion of all three workshops will result in a certificate of completion for the Forensic Practice Workshop Series.
Keynote Speaker
Joanne Terrell, MSW, LICSW-S, PIP
Terrell earned her Bachelors of Psychology degree from the State University of New York and her MSW from The University of Alabama. She has been a faculty member in the School of Social Work at The University of Alabama for 20 years. She retired from full time teaching in June 2015. She has taught in the BSW and MSW programs. Her areas of specialization include psychiatric and forensic social work in in-patient and outpatient settings as well as community organization and advocacy. She was the Clinical Supervisor for the Youth Services Institute’s Continuum of Care Program at the School of Social Work. In that role she supervised the provision of outpatient treatment to juvenile sex offenders throughout the state of Alabama. Terrell has maintained a private practice in clinical social work for 30 years. She provides individual, marital and family therapy to adolescents and adults.
Terrell has conducted Ethics Workshops around the state to various agencies and organizations for the last 5 years. She has provided clinical supervision to social workers working towards their LICSW for the past 15 years. She currently conducts 2 clinical supervision groups.
For the past 20 years, Terrell has provided consulting services to the criminal and family court systems throughout the state of Alabama in the areas of death penalty mitigation, community corrections options and therapeutic divorce mediation. She provides expert witness testimony in a variety of state and federal cases in many jurisdictions throughout the state of Alabama
Workshop Location
The Forensic Practice Workshop Series will be held at the Bryant Conference Center, a premier learning facility located at 240 Paul W. Bryant Drive on the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa.
The Forensic Practice Workshop Series will also be held online. The Zoom link will be emailed one week before the event, along with any other necessary handouts or materials.
Registration
The registration fee for an individual session of the Forensic Practice series is $149 per workshop. The fees include all handout materials, continental breakfast, lunch, and refreshment breaks.
Forensic Practice and the Civil Criminal Justice System
November 3, 2025Forensic Practice and Death Penalty Mitigation
March 2, 2026Forensic Practice and the Family Court System
May 11, 2026You will be taken to our online registration area. The screen will look different from this part of our website. You will need an email address to use our secure online registration system. Please note, if you are registering more than one person, each must have an individual email address.
Register by Phone
Our Registration Services Office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. To register by phone, please call 205-348-3000.
Special Accommodation Requests
The University of Alabama is committed to complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Requests for accommodation of physical and/or dietary needs should be made at least 30 calendar days in advance of the program date. Please email your request to professionaldevelopment@ua.edu.
Need our STAARS Vendor Number? Please use VC000118827 for UA Office of Teaching Innovation and Digital Education.
A portion of the invoice amount for this program will go to the Capstone Lifelong Learning Foundation to support activities of The University of Alabama and the Office of Teaching Innovation and Digital Education.
Cancellation Policy
A cancellation charge of 100% of the registration fee will be assessed on cancellations occurring within seven (7) days of the start of this session. Refunds will not be granted after the program has begun. The University of Alabama reserves the right to cancel, postpone, or combine class sections, to limit registration, or to change instructors. Contact the Registration Services department at 205-348-3000 or registration_services@ua.edu to cancel your registration. View the OTIDE Cancellation Policy.
Questions about the workshop series?
Contact Doreena Mink for more information.
Our Mailing Address:
The University of Alabama
Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning
Box 870388
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0398
