Trainings FAQs

Who can participate in ILPPP trainings?

ILPPP trainings are open to anyone with professional interest in forensic evaluation or mental health law. Our trainees include psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, social workers, attorneys, judges, mitigation specialists, correctional staff, and students in related disciplines.

I don’t live in Virginia. Can I still participate in a training?

Yes. ILPPP trainings are available to clinicians and legal personnel within and beyond Virginia. Although some trainings are tailored to Virginia law, the vast majority of content is applicable to professionals practicing in any jurisdiction. Clinicians outside Virginia often attend online trainings or travel for in-person training.

Do you offer continuing education units (CEUs)?

Yes. Participants completing eligible trainings can earn up to the specified number of CEUs approved by the American Psychological Association (APA). Due to APA requirements, we can award CEUs only for live in-person or synchronous online trainings. Unfortunately, we cannot offer continuing education for psychiatrists, attorneys, or social workers at this time.

Are your trainings online or in person?

We offer our trainings in a variety of formats, including in-person trainings at UVA, synchronous online trainings, self-paced prerecorded online lectures, and hybrid formats that include both in-person and online components. Please see each individual program’s registration page for details.

My organization instructed me to complete the ILPPP’s “forensic literacy training.” What does that mean?

In collaboration with DBHDS, we wanted to develop a more flexible and convenient training program for professionals working within or alongside the forensic system, but who will not themselves be conducting clinical forensic evaluations. To meet this need, we developed self-paced, online-only programs in various areas of forensic practice that we have termed forensic literacy trainings. Forensic literacy trainings include pre-recorded lectures, brief quizzes, and recommended readings hosted on UVA Collab, the University of Virginia’s online learning platform.

These courses review laws, procedures, and services related to work in the forensic system. But the courses do not provide the additional, more specialized training necessary only for those who will be performing evaluations of competence, sanity, or other forensic questions.

How do I ask the ILPPP a question about trainings?

Please contact us with any questions about the training program at ILPPPtraining@virginia.edu.

I want to become approved to conduct court-ordered forensic evaluations in Virginia. What do I need to do?

Virginia statute requires that clinicians conducting court-ordered forensic evaluations complete training recognized by the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS). Over 95% of Virginia evaluators become eligible to conduct court-ordered evaluations by completing ILPPP’s trainings, which were developed in collaboration with DBHDS. Indeed, DBHDS subsidizes these trainings for DBHDS employees. Completion of our trainings qualifies eligible clinicians to be placed on the approved evaluators list maintained by DBHDS.

Although anyone can participate in the above trainings, only individuals with statutorily-defined professional degrees are eligible to be placed on DBHDS’s list of approved evaluators to conduct these court-ordered evaluations. Generally, Virginia law permits only psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to conduct court-ordered competence, sanity, and sexual offender evaluations of adult defendants. For juvenile defendants, Virginia law permits psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, licensed professional counselors, licensed clinical social workers, and licensed marriage and family therapists to conduct competence to stand trial evaluations.

How often to you offer your trainings?

We offer Principles and Practice of Forensic Evaluation: Adult Defendants, Principles and Practice of Forensic Evaluation: Juvenile Defendants, and Forensic Evaluation of People Charged with Sexual Offenses each three times per year: in the fall, spring, and summer. Other courses, such as Assessing Violence Risk in Clinical Practice and Assessing Violence Risk with Juveniles, are offered annually. In addition, each year we feature a number of trainings in special topic areas that may be offered only once.