Thomas Hurster

I am a licensed clinical social worker who has been providing counseling and therapy services to youth and their families for over 45 years. While I do see adults in psychotherapy as part of my private practice, I primarily work with older children, adolescents, and young adults, and their families. I have extensive experience with the range of problems and issues that youth encounter, including anxiety, depression, impulsivity, excessive anger, self-esteem erosion, and relational difficulties, and have a particular expertise in working with youth who present with neuro-diversity and learning struggles.

I also have considerable expertise in working with adolescents in group therapy, and currently am conducting two ongoing, mixed gender, mixed problem presentation, therapy groups for high school aged clients. I am a Fellow in the American Group Psychotherapy Association, and international co-chair of the AGPA Child and Adolescent Special Interest Group.

Additionally I am a clinical supervisor at Benchmark School in Media, PA, and am part of the faculty at the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research; I teach courses on clinical work with children and adolescents, group treatment, and social work in school settings. Finally, I have been on the board of the Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society since 2010.

• Certified Group Psychotherapist
• Fellow, American Group Psychotherapy Association since 2014
• Co-chair, Child and Adolescent Special Interest Group of the American Group Psychotherapy Association since 2010
• Certified, SPACE Treatment Practitioner. Received certifying training through the Yale Child Study Center 11/21-02/22.
• Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, License # CW-002189-L

• American Group Psychotherapy Association
• Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society (on the board, 2008-present)
• Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Adjunct Faculty since 2002
• Pennsylvania Society for Clinical Social Work (on the board 1985-1990)
• Orton Dyslexia Society

• 03-04, 2024 Team taught a six sessions course entitled Core Principles in Group Psychotherapy, for the BMCGSSWSR Pro-Dev program.
• 03/01/2024 "Challenges and Successes in Adolescent Therapy Groups- A Consultation Opportunity". A 2 ½ hour workshop presented at AGPA CONNECT annual meeting in National Harbor, MD. This workshop was presented the previous year in NYC on 03/09/2023.
• 03/02/2024 "SPACE Treatment Groups for Parents- A Promising Approach to the Treatment of Anxiety in Children and Adolescents". A 90 minute open session presented at AGPA CONNECT annual meeting in National Harbor, MD. This open session was presented the previous year New York City, NY on 03/12/2023.
• 03/04/2022 "Conducting Adolescent Therapy Groups Online- Groups During the 05/01/2022 Pandemic". A 90 minute workshop presented remotely at the AGPA CONNECT annual meeting, and again, live, at the PAGPS/APNA group therapy conference in Chester, PA on 04/01/2022.
• 04/02/2022 "Introduction to Group Therapy- Core Principles, Theory, and Techniques", an interactive day long workshop for beginning group therapy clinicians presented at the PAGPS/APNA group therapy conference in Chester, PA.
• 03/06/2020 “Contemporary Adolescent Group Psychotherapy: The Method, Madness, and the Fun”, a day long course with two other clinicians, presented at the AGPA CONNECT annual meeting in New York City, and again remotely on 02/25/21 and 03/03/22 at the AGPA CONNECT annual meetings.
• 03/05/2020 “Working with Trans and Gender Nonconforming Youth and Young Adults: Clinical, Medical, and Life Support Needs”, a 2.5 hour panel discussion including four other clinicians, presented at the AGPA CONNECT annual meeting in New York City. I organized and moderated the panel, and presented on therapy groups with trans and gender non-conforming youth and gender conforming peers together.
• 03/02/2019 “Sex, Drugs, and Technology: Ethically Informed Group Therapy Practice with Adolescents”, a 2.5 hour ethics workshop given at the American Group Psychotherapy Association annual conference in Los Angeles; this workshop was also presented on 03/02/2018 in NYC.
• 01/25/2019 “Sex, Drugs and Technology: Ethical, Liability and Practice Issues in Psychotherapy with Adolescents”, a three hour ethics workshop presented for the BMCGSSWSR ProDev.
• 11/17/18 - 02/02/19 Therapy Groups with Youth: School-Based and Outpatient, a four session mini-course on conducting group therapy with youth presented for the BMCGSSWSR ProDev. Each session covered a different topic: fundamentals of group therapy; expressive-emotional groups with elementary and middle school students; curriculum based groups with youth; and personal growth process groups with high school students.
• 3/10/17 “Therapy Groups in Schools: Contemporary Process Groups with Youth”, a day long course that I organized and facilitated with five other clinicians, focusing on contemporary approaches to group work in schools, presented at the AGPA annual meeting in New York City.
• 03/09/17 “Contemporary Adolescent Group Psychotherapy: Method, Madness and the Fun”, a day long course with three other clinicians, presented at the AGPA annual meeting in San Francisco, and previously at AGPA in New York City, on 02/25/15, and again on 02/25/16 .
• 10/16-04/17 Advanced Clinical Practice with Children, nine three-hour workshops, each on a different topic related to clinical work with children, presented for Professional Development, BMCGSSWSR; I developed and organized the series, taught two of the workshops, and facilitated the other six which had other workshop leaders.
• 05/07/16 “Sex, Drugs, and Technology: Ethical, Liability, and Practice Issues in Adolescent Group Psychotherapy”, a 3 hour ethics workshop presented for the Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society.
• 10/14-04/15 Contemporary Approaches to Group Treatment, five workshops presented for Professional Development, BMCGSSWSR; I developed and organized the series, taught two of the workshops in each series, and facilitated the other three (the series was presented each school year, over five years starting in 10/2010, with the last series being 10/14-4/15
• 03/07/14 “Adolescent Group Psychotherapy in the Age of Social Media: Some Ethical Dilemmas” a three hour ethics workshop presented at the AGPA annual meeting in Boston.
• 10/25/13 “Psychotherapy with Adolescents in the Age of Social Media: Some Ethical Concerns” a three hour ethics workshop presented for BMCGSSWSR ProDev series.
• 3/23/13 “Group Work with Adolescents” a three hour clinical workshop presented for BMCGSSWSR ProDev continuing ed series.
• 3/9/13 “Group Work with Children” a three hour clinical workshop presented for BMCGSSWSR ProDev continuing ed series.
• 3/2/13 “Social Media and Adolescent Group Psychotherapy”, a three hour clinical workshop presented at the AGPA annual meeting in New Orleans.
• 3/8/12 “Social Media and Adolescent Group Psychotherapy”, a three hour clinical workshop presented at the AGPA annual meeting in New York City.
• 4/7/11 “Psychotherapy in the Age of Facebook: Some Ethical Dilemmas”, a Keefer and Keefer Lecture in Humanities presented to the Beloit College community, Beloit, Wisconsin.
• 3/3/11 “Privacy and the New Media: Ethical, Liability, and Clinical Issues in Contemporary Adolescent Group Psychotherapy”, a three hour ethics workshop presented at the AGPA annual meeting in New York City.
• 1/14/05-4/10 “Clinical Social Work with the Learning Disabled Client”, a day long workshop presented for the Continuing Education in Clinical Social Work, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, every other year (three times to date).
• 2/06-4/10 “Group Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents”, a day long workshop presented for the Continuing Education in Clinical Social Work, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, every other year (four times to date).
• 4/19/10 “Advanced Integrated Adolescent Psychotherapy Certificate Symposium”, a three hour workshop co-presented for the Continuing Education in Clinical Social Work, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research as a closing symposium for those who completed the certificate program.
• 3/19/10 “Sex, Drugs and Technology: Ethical Issues in Adolescent Psychotherapy”, a three hour workshop presented for the Continuing Education in Clinical Social Work, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
• 2/25/10 “Privacy and the New Media: Ethical, Liability, and Clinical Issues in Contemporary Adolescent Group Psychotherapy”, a three hour ethics workshop presented at the AGPA annual meeting in San Diego.
• 10/16/09 “Privacy and the New Media: Ethical and Liability Issues in Contemporary Group Psychotherapy”, a four hour ethics workshop
• presented for the Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society.
• 4/10/09 “Group Psychotherapy: Principles and Best Practices”, a day long continuing education workshop presented to clinicians from programs of the Public health management Corporation in Philadelphia.
• 2/19/09 “Sex, Drugs. And Technology: Ethical, Liability, and Practice Issues in Adolescent Group Psychotherapy”, a workshop presented for the AGPA annual meeting program in Chicago.
• 11/08-12/08 Group Psychotherapy certificate program (designed to meet the didactic training requirement for the Certified Group Psychotherapist designation), three consecutive day-long workshops presented for the Continuing Education in Clinical Social Work, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
• 2/22/08 “Bridging Two Worlds: A Panel of Senior Clinicians Consult For a Group of Muslim Adolescents”, an open session of the AGPA annual meeting program, in Washington D.C.
• 11/05- 11/07 “Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy: Diagnosis and General Treatment Issues”, parts one and two, of four day long workshops that comprised the core coursework towards the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Certificate offered by the Continuing Education Department in Clinical Social Work, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, taught annually.
• 4/20/07 “Adolescent Group Psychotherapy”, a 4 hour workshop presented for the Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society, as part of their continuing education series.
• 4/13/07 “Ombudsman? Case Worker? Tutor? Family Counselor? Psychotherapist? The Role of the Clinician with Learning Disabled Children”. A two hour presentation for the BMCGSSWSR Center for Child and Family Well-being Annual Conference.
• 3/8/07 “Group Work with Adolescents in Various Contexts”, an open session of a panel of senior clinicians discussing group psychotherapy in a range of settings, as part of the AGPA annual meeting program in Austin, TX.
• 3/05 – 5/05 Taught a 10 week seminar in group psychotherapy with children and adolescents to the clinical psychology interns for Devereux’s Institute of Clinical Training and Research.
• 10/91 – 8/03 Lecturer, Widener University, Graduate School of Social Work. Lectured on "Clinical Social Work with the Learning Disabled Client" and “Group Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents”, each, annually.
• 3/18/02 “Adolescent Group Psychotherapy”, a 3 hour workshop/presentation for the clinical staff and interns of Pennsylvania Hospital’s Outpatient
• Child and Adolescent Services.
• 12/10/99 “The Emotional Fallout of Learning Disabilities on Children
• and Adolescents”, a lecture given for the Pennsylvania Society
• of Clinical Social Workers Continuing Education program.
• 10/97 - 10/99 Lecturer, Widener University, Graduate School of Professional Psychology. Lectured annually to the yearly seminar on "Group Psychotherapy with Adolescents and Children".
• 6/24/98 "Integrated Group Psychotherapy in a School Setting- A Model for a Comprehensive Group Therapy Program", a half-day annual in-service workshop presented to the clinical staffs of four N.J. adolescent residential treatment centers.
• 4/12/97 "Insight-oriented Adolescent Group Psychotherapy in an Age of Managed Care", an afternoon workshop presented as a part of the Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society Annual Scientific Meeting.
• 4/23/95 "Behavioral Interventions for Children with Attention Difficulties", a presentation to the Delaware Valley Reading Association.
• 6/1/94 - 7/11/94 Adjunct Professor, Widener University, Graduate School of Social Work. Taught a section of "Differential Diagnosis and Assessment" to first and second year graduate clinical social work students.
• 10/16/93 "Treatment Approaches for A.D.D. Children and Adults", a panel presentation to the PA Chapter of the Orton Dyslexia Society's Annual Conference.
• 4/22/93 "Current Developmental Theory and Its Classroom Applications: A Social-Constructivist Approach", a presentation to the Delaware Valley Reading Association.
• 5/1/92 "Clinical Social Work with The Learning Disabled Client", a day-long seminar presented for the Continuing Education Series, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
• 4/19/90 "Family Issues That Impact on the Learning Process", a presentation to the Delaware Valley Reading Association.
• 12/6/89 "Psychotherapy with Learning Disabled Children and Adolescents", a presentation to Social Work Options.
• 4/13/89 "Improving Self-concept and Increasing Motivation Among Learning Different Students", a presentation to the Delaware Valley Reading Association.
• 4/14/88 "Integrating Psychological Testing into the Classroom", a presentation to the Delaware Valley Reading Association.
• 9/84 - 9/87 Faculty, Psychiatric Residency Training Program, Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Represented social work in an on- going, inter-disciplinary seminar for psychiatric residents, designed to explore the interface between cognitive- developmental psychology, social psychology, and philosophy with current practice issues in psychotherapy.
• 4/18/86 "Treating the Non-Psychotic Adolescent", a clinical case presentation to Joseph Palumbo, M.A., for the P.S.C.S.W. Spring Scientific Conference.
• 3/11/86 "Stress in the Family", Dimension Seven, ComCast Cable and Television, Lower Merion, Pennsylvania.
• 4/10/84 "Clinical Social Work in an In-patient Setting", a half-day presentation to the clinical social work students, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
• 11/19/82 "Countertransference Issues- a Self-Psychological Perspective", a clinical case presentation to Joseph Palumbo, M.A., for the P.S.C.S.W. Fall Scientific Conference.

Hurster, T. (2016) Ethically informed group practice. In Haen, C., and Aronson, S.  Handbook of Child and Adolescent Group Therapy: A Practitioner’s Reference. New York, NY: Routledge.