(This is a LIVE VIRTUAL event. Access to a recording will not be available.)

Presented by

Leah Jacobs, LMHC

"Integrating Digital Wellness into Clinical Practice" is a practice-focused training designed to help clinicians thoughtfully and ethically address clients' digital lives within therapeutic settings. This training is grounded in three core digital wellness foundations: reflection, intention, and critical thinking. Reflection emphasizes helping clinicians and clients become more aware of how digital environments influence emotions, behaviors, relationships, and identity. Participants will learn how to guide clients in examining their technology use patterns, digital coping strategies, and online experiences in a nonjudgmental way, using reflective inquiry to deepen insight rather than impose prescriptive rules.

Intention focuses on aligning digital behaviors with clients' therapeutic goals and values. Clinicians will explore how to collaboratively support clients in making purposeful choices around technology use, including social media engagement, boundaries with devices, and use of digital mental health tools. Emphasis is placed on agency, consent, and alignment with clients' lived realities rather than blanket recommendations or abstinence-based approaches. Critical thinking equips clinicians to evaluate how digital misinformation and disinformation impacts clientele throughout their treatment process.

The training explicitly connects digital wellness principles to established evidence-based approaches. Participants will explore how digital wellness integrates naturally with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) through examining thought patterns related to online interactions, comparison, and digital stressors. Connections to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) will highlight how mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation skills can be applied to clients' digital lives.

Throughout the training, participants will engage in applied examples, case scenarios, and practical strategies for integrating digital wellness into sessions in ways that preserve ethical practice and honor client autonomy. By the end of this training, clinicians will be equipped to address digital wellness as an essential and evolving component of contemporary mental health care.

Learning Objectives
As a result of attending this course, learners will be able to:

1. Analyze the risks and rewards associated with various forms of digital media, including artificial intelligence tools, social media, video games, pornography, online discussion forums, and streaming platforms.
2. Define digital wellness as a clinical construct by examining its core principles of reflection, intention, and critical thinking.
3. Apply digital wellness principles within a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) framework by identifying digital media–related cognitive and behavioral patterns and implementing structured strategies, session interventions, and treatment-planning approaches.
4. Integrate digital wellness concepts into Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) by utilizing mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness skills to address clients' digital behaviors, boundaries, and emotional responses.

About Leah Jacobs

Leah Jacobs, MS, LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor and the Founder and Director of the Digital Wellness Project, where she leads curriculum design, program development, and educational initiatives at the intersection of mental health, technology, and ethics. She brings a multidisciplinary lens to her work, designing digital wellness curricula and trainings for healthcare providers, educational institutions, and community-based agencies.

Prior to founding the Digital Wellness Project, Leah spent several years working clinically with youth and families. Through this work, she observed a consistent and growing pattern: many of the challenges clients presented with—such as anxiety, mood dysregulation, identity stress, and relational conflict—were increasingly shaped by digital media environments. These frontline experiences prompted a broader inquiry into how technology influences mental health, development, and well-being at a systems level.

Motivated by the need for upstream solutions, Leah shifted her focus from individual clinical practice to macro-level impact, centering her work on digital health and wellness through curriculum design, policy-informed education, and program development. Her work emphasizes helping professionals and institutions move beyond fear-based or reactive approaches to technology, instead fostering reflection, intention, and critical thinking in digital contexts.

Leah is a member of Women and AI Ethics and the University at Buffalo's Center for Information Integrity, and holds multiple certifications in Youth Mental Health, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), and Technology Addiction and Digital Health in Children and Adolescents. Leah is deeply committed to ongoing professional development and regularly engages in continued learning to ensure her work remains informed, ethical, and relevant.