Embedded Files
Attendees will have nearly 60 sessions
to choose from!
Attendees will have nearly 60 sessions
to choose from!
Check out the schedule below and be sure to notice the different tracks available. The tracks are:
All
Licensed Counselors and Candidates
School Counselors
Students
We will have something for everyone!
Opening Ceremony - 8:30-9:45 a.m. Friday
Opening Ceremony - 8:30-9:45 a.m. Friday
Speaker: Keynote Speaker Tiara Delonia
Speaker: Keynote Speaker Tiara Delonia
Auditorium
Audience: All
Auditorium
Audience: All
Join us at the opening ceremony and hear from keynote speaker Tiara Delonia, LCSW-S and owner of Tiara's Training Institute.
Join us at the opening ceremony and hear from keynote speaker Tiara Delonia, LCSW-S and owner of Tiara's Training Institute.
Session 1 - 10:00-11:00 a.m. Friday
Session 1 - 10:00-11:00 a.m. Friday
Why Relationships Matter: A TBRI Overview
Speaker: Stevie Skaggs Wilson
Why Relationships Matter: A TBRI Overview
Speaker: Stevie Skaggs Wilson
CP 101
Audience: All
CP 101
Audience: All
Description: Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI) is an attachment- and trauma-informed framework designed to meet the complex needs of children who have experienced adversity. It emphasizes building felt safety through connection, empowerment, and appropriate structure, recognizing that healing and behavior change happen most effectively within safe, trusting relationships.
Description: Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI) is an attachment- and trauma-informed framework designed to meet the complex needs of children who have experienced adversity. It emphasizes building felt safety through connection, empowerment, and appropriate structure, recognizing that healing and behavior change happen most effectively within safe, trusting relationships.
Counseling Through Unprecedented Times*
Speaker: Leah Callahan
Counseling Through Unprecedented Times*
Speaker: Leah Callahan
CP 102
Audience: All
CP 102
Audience: All
Description: This workshop will help therapists work more effectively with clients who are impacted by sociopolitical and cultural issues going on around us. This presentation will also provide tools for helping therapists with self regulation, awareness, and countertransference.
Description: This workshop will help therapists work more effectively with clients who are impacted by sociopolitical and cultural issues going on around us. This presentation will also provide tools for helping therapists with self regulation, awareness, and countertransference.
What is the Secret Sauce of Dialectical Behavior Therapy?*
Speaker: Paul Williams
What is the Secret Sauce of Dialectical Behavior Therapy?*
Speaker: Paul Williams
Clements Dining Room
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Clements Dining Room
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: This seminar peels back the layers of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to reveal why it has become the gold standard for treating emotional regulation disorders. This session is designed to explore the core philosophies that transform lives.
Description: This seminar peels back the layers of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to reveal why it has become the gold standard for treating emotional regulation disorders. This session is designed to explore the core philosophies that transform lives.
Well-Being 101: Research Based Interventions for the Good Life*
Speaker: Dr. Bea Keller-Dupree
Well-Being 101: Research Based Interventions for the Good Life*
Speaker: Dr. Bea Keller-Dupree
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: This session will explore the research-backed interventions for well-being improvements. From Positive Psychology literature to clinically-relevant discussions, this presentation will leave attendees with concrete ways to help clients, students, AND SELF improve affect, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement, hope, and more!
Description: This session will explore the research-backed interventions for well-being improvements. From Positive Psychology literature to clinically-relevant discussions, this presentation will leave attendees with concrete ways to help clients, students, AND SELF improve affect, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement, hope, and more!
The Brain Architecture Game: Exploring How Early Experiences Shape the Developing Brain
The Brain Architecture Game: Exploring How Early Experiences Shape the Developing Brain
Speakers: Lori Hollingsworth & Terri Welborn
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: All
Speakers: Lori Hollingsworth & Terri Welborn
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: All
Description: In this interactive session, participants will learn how to play the Brain Architecture Game and explore how early experiences shape the developing brain. Through hands-on gameplay and guided discussion, attendees will build model brains, respond to life event cards, and see how relationships and stress influence lifelong outcomes. Leave with practical insights and tools you can use to spark meaningful conversations about child development in your own professional circle.
Description: In this interactive session, participants will learn how to play the Brain Architecture Game and explore how early experiences shape the developing brain. Through hands-on gameplay and guided discussion, attendees will build model brains, respond to life event cards, and see how relationships and stress influence lifelong outcomes. Leave with practical insights and tools you can use to spark meaningful conversations about child development in your own professional circle.
Bringing Hope to the Opiod Crisis
Bringing Hope to the Opiod Crisis
Speaker: Angela Kouplen
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: All
Speaker: Angela Kouplen
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: All
Description: A discussion focused on the solutions for the current opioid crisis. An informational presentation to assist providers, clinical and medical to understand the truth about Medication Assisted Treatment and provide hope to those in a vicious cycle of relapse.
Description: A discussion focused on the solutions for the current opioid crisis. An informational presentation to assist providers, clinical and medical to understand the truth about Medication Assisted Treatment and provide hope to those in a vicious cycle of relapse.
Practice What You Psychoeducate
Practice What You Psychoeducate
Speaker: Adam Daniel
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Speaker: Adam Daniel
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Description: As helping professionals, we are adeptly aware of what helps people feel regulated, collected, and present. Despite this, we face roadblocks in practicing these tools ourselves. Let’s reinforce skills we already know, possibly learn some new ones, and make concrete plans to use them!
Description: As helping professionals, we are adeptly aware of what helps people feel regulated, collected, and present. Despite this, we face roadblocks in practicing these tools ourselves. Let’s reinforce skills we already know, possibly learn some new ones, and make concrete plans to use them!
Grief as a Lifelong Passenger: Rebuilding a Life Without Leaving Loss Behind
Grief as a Lifelong Passenger: Rebuilding a Life Without Leaving Loss Behind
Speaker: Amy Young
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: All
Speaker: Amy Young
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: All
Description: Grief does not end — it becomes a lifelong passenger. In this session, participants will explore the concept that profound sorrow reflects profound love, and that healing does not require leaving grief behind but learning to live alongside it. Through personal narrative integrated with counseling principles, this presentation offers practical strategies for helping clients (and ourselves) welcome grief rather than resist it. Attendees will gain language, reframing tools, and rebuilding frameworks that support long-term resilience after significant loss. The session will blend story, reflection, and clinically relevant insight to equip professionals working with individuals navigating enduring grief.
Description: Grief does not end — it becomes a lifelong passenger. In this session, participants will explore the concept that profound sorrow reflects profound love, and that healing does not require leaving grief behind but learning to live alongside it. Through personal narrative integrated with counseling principles, this presentation offers practical strategies for helping clients (and ourselves) welcome grief rather than resist it. Attendees will gain language, reframing tools, and rebuilding frameworks that support long-term resilience after significant loss. The session will blend story, reflection, and clinically relevant insight to equip professionals working with individuals navigating enduring grief.
Healing the Hurt Loop: Moving from the Pain Cycle to the Peace Cycle in Restoration Therapy
Healing the Hurt Loop: Moving from the Pain Cycle to the Peace Cycle in Restoration Therapy
Speaker: Charly Moreau
Fozard Hall 106
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Speaker: Charly Moreau
Fozard Hall 106
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: This session will equip therapists to help clients identify attachment violations, map individual or couples’ pain cycles, integrate truth, and move toward the peace cycle
Description: This session will equip therapists to help clients identify attachment violations, map individual or couples’ pain cycles, integrate truth, and move toward the peace cycle
Session 2 - 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Friday
Session 2 - 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Friday
Roots, Resilience, and Repair: Understanding Immigrant Trauma Through an ACEs Lens
Speaker: Doris Baccala
Speaker: Doris Baccala
CP 101
Audience: All
CP 101
Audience: All
Description: Migration is not just a geographic journey. It is often a profound disruption of safety, belonging, and identity. For many immigrants, the experience of displacement compounds Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that were already shaping the nervous system long before arrival. This session offers a trauma-informed, strengths-based exploration of how ACEs and immigrant-specific stressors interact across the lifespan. We will look at how family separation, documentation anxiety, cultural loss, and systemic marginalization layer onto early adversity, and what that means for the brain, for attachment, and for long-term health. Drawing on accessible neuroscience, attendees will deepen their understanding of how early stress shapes development, emotional regulation, and relationships, and how those patterns show up in the clients and communities we serve. Clinicians, educators, and community practitioners will leave with: A framework for understanding ACEs in the context of immigrant experience; Tools to recognize trauma presentations without pathologizing clients; Practical, culturally responsive strategies that center healing, protective factors, and resilience; and Approaches for supporting immigrant clients in uncertain political and social climates. This session is for practitioners ready to meet immigrant clients with the cultural humility and clinical depth they deserve.
Description: Migration is not just a geographic journey. It is often a profound disruption of safety, belonging, and identity. For many immigrants, the experience of displacement compounds Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that were already shaping the nervous system long before arrival. This session offers a trauma-informed, strengths-based exploration of how ACEs and immigrant-specific stressors interact across the lifespan. We will look at how family separation, documentation anxiety, cultural loss, and systemic marginalization layer onto early adversity, and what that means for the brain, for attachment, and for long-term health. Drawing on accessible neuroscience, attendees will deepen their understanding of how early stress shapes development, emotional regulation, and relationships, and how those patterns show up in the clients and communities we serve. Clinicians, educators, and community practitioners will leave with: A framework for understanding ACEs in the context of immigrant experience; Tools to recognize trauma presentations without pathologizing clients; Practical, culturally responsive strategies that center healing, protective factors, and resilience; and Approaches for supporting immigrant clients in uncertain political and social climates. This session is for practitioners ready to meet immigrant clients with the cultural humility and clinical depth they deserve.
What They Don't Teach You in Grad School
What They Don't Teach You in Grad School
Speaker: Ricky Clark
Speaker: Ricky Clark
Clements Dining Room
Audience: Students
Clements Dining Room
Audience: Students
Description: This is a training designed to help students and candidates learn how to navigate the world of mental health. It will look at how to find success in building of networks and avoiding missteps.
Description: This is a training designed to help students and candidates learn how to navigate the world of mental health. It will look at how to find success in building of networks and avoiding missteps.
Heavy Hearts: Shame After Sexual Violence
Heavy Hearts: Shame After Sexual Violence
Speaker: Erica Menchaca
Speaker: Erica Menchaca
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: Attendees can expect an intro to psychoeducation on how the body responds to sexual violence, what can cause shame in those impacted, and how to begin the process of healing shame in clinical settings.
Description: Attendees can expect an intro to psychoeducation on how the body responds to sexual violence, what can cause shame in those impacted, and how to begin the process of healing shame in clinical settings.
When Support Becomes a Crutch: Rethinking Student Accommodations
When Support Becomes a Crutch: Rethinking Student Accommodations
Speakers: Megan Koger & Jackie Spomer
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: School Counselors, Students
Speakers: Megan Koger & Jackie Spomer
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: School Counselors, Students
Description: In our effort to protect students’ mental health, we may unintentionally over-accommodate in ways that reduce resilience, increase avoidance, and reinforce anxiety-driven behaviors. While accommodations are essential when clinically appropriate, mental health counselors play a critical role in distinguishing between supportive intervention and enabling patterns. This session highlights the counselor’s role in promoting coping skills, emotional regulation, and gradual exposure to challenge—so students build confidence rather than dependence. Participants will gain practical, therapeutic strategies to support students’ well-being while strengthening their capacity to navigate discomfort and grow.
Description: In our effort to protect students’ mental health, we may unintentionally over-accommodate in ways that reduce resilience, increase avoidance, and reinforce anxiety-driven behaviors. While accommodations are essential when clinically appropriate, mental health counselors play a critical role in distinguishing between supportive intervention and enabling patterns. This session highlights the counselor’s role in promoting coping skills, emotional regulation, and gradual exposure to challenge—so students build confidence rather than dependence. Participants will gain practical, therapeutic strategies to support students’ well-being while strengthening their capacity to navigate discomfort and grow.
Neurodivergence: Differences That Matter
Neurodivergence: Differences That Matter
Speaker: Brien Sims & Beth Whittle
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: All
Speaker: Brien Sims & Beth Whittle
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: All
Description: This session explores neurodivergence as a meaningful and valuable form of human diversity, with practical implications for school and clinical counseling settings. Participants will deepen their understanding of how differences in attention, processing, communication, and regulation shape student and client experiences across environments. Attendees will leave with person-centered strategies to create affirming spaces that support mental health, belonging, and positive outcomes for neurodivergent individuals.
Description: This session explores neurodivergence as a meaningful and valuable form of human diversity, with practical implications for school and clinical counseling settings. Participants will deepen their understanding of how differences in attention, processing, communication, and regulation shape student and client experiences across environments. Attendees will leave with person-centered strategies to create affirming spaces that support mental health, belonging, and positive outcomes for neurodivergent individuals.
Clinical Philosophy: The Evolution of Modern Therapy Through its Philosophical Roots
Clinical Philosophy: The Evolution of Modern Therapy Through its Philosophical Roots
Speaker: David Schroyer
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Speaker: David Schroyer
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: This presentation traces the evolution of modern therapy through its philosophical roots, demonstrating how ancient and modern thinkers laid the groundwork for contemporary clinical practice. Highlighting the direct relationship between Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Stoicism, the session illustrates how enduring philosophical principles—particularly the idea that our interpretations shape our emotional experience—continue to inform evidence-based treatment. Participants will explore how these foundations can be applied intentionally across the arc of recovery: establishing psychological safety in early recovery, building cognitive and emotional stability in mid-recovery, and cultivating meaning and purpose in later stages. By reconnecting therapy to its philosophical heritage, clinicians will gain a deeper framework for guiding clients toward resilience, clarity, and lasting transformation.
Description: This presentation traces the evolution of modern therapy through its philosophical roots, demonstrating how ancient and modern thinkers laid the groundwork for contemporary clinical practice. Highlighting the direct relationship between Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Stoicism, the session illustrates how enduring philosophical principles—particularly the idea that our interpretations shape our emotional experience—continue to inform evidence-based treatment. Participants will explore how these foundations can be applied intentionally across the arc of recovery: establishing psychological safety in early recovery, building cognitive and emotional stability in mid-recovery, and cultivating meaning and purpose in later stages. By reconnecting therapy to its philosophical heritage, clinicians will gain a deeper framework for guiding clients toward resilience, clarity, and lasting transformation.
Eternal Embrace: The Sacred Sorrows & Rituals of Grief
Eternal Embrace: The Sacred Sorrows & Rituals of Grief
Speaker: Sarah Whitewater
Fozard Hall 106
Audience: All
Speaker: Sarah Whitewater
Fozard Hall 106
Audience: All
Description: Grief is a universal human experience that extends beyond bereavement into losses of identity, health, relationships, and community. In this presentation, I will share both professional insights and my personal experience with loss. Drawing from Francis Weller's works, together we will explore the wisdom and sorrows of grief, the power of rituals and communal grieving, and the healing potential found in elemental rituals that honor Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. A list of grief resources will be provided.
Description: Grief is a universal human experience that extends beyond bereavement into losses of identity, health, relationships, and community. In this presentation, I will share both professional insights and my personal experience with loss. Drawing from Francis Weller's works, together we will explore the wisdom and sorrows of grief, the power of rituals and communal grieving, and the healing potential found in elemental rituals that honor Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. A list of grief resources will be provided.
Session 3 - 1:45-2:45 p.m. Friday
Session 3 - 1:45-2:45 p.m. Friday
Super Heroes are Super (As in Extremely): Utilizing Pop Culture in Mental Health
Super Heroes are Super (As in Extremely): Utilizing Pop Culture in Mental Health
Speaker: NanDee Walker & Melissa Winterscheid
Speaker: NanDee Walker & Melissa Winterscheid
CP 101
Audience: All
CP 101
Audience: All
Description: This training will explore clinical applications and outcomes related to Pop Culture, Geek Therapy informed interventions, and Fandoms. The collective narratives and character archetypes within fandoms can imbue therapeutic relationships with powerful identification from normalization, hope, and universalization. Utilizing interactive and experiential techniques, participants will explore theory and techniques to build enhanced therapeutic relationships, adaptability within sessions, and a new level of accessibility for challenging clients.
Description: This training will explore clinical applications and outcomes related to Pop Culture, Geek Therapy informed interventions, and Fandoms. The collective narratives and character archetypes within fandoms can imbue therapeutic relationships with powerful identification from normalization, hope, and universalization. Utilizing interactive and experiential techniques, participants will explore theory and techniques to build enhanced therapeutic relationships, adaptability within sessions, and a new level of accessibility for challenging clients.
How to Enter Candidacy
How to Enter Candidacy
Speaker: Christina Kyles
Speaker: Christina Kyles
CP 102
Audience: Students
CP 102
Audience: Students
Description: Christiana Kyles is an LPC Candidate who is currently 2/3rds of the way done with hours towards licensure. This session aims to share what is needed to become eligible for candidacy, things to expect financially as a candidate and other things to expect while working under supervision. This is meant to be an open dialog and conversation.
Description: Christiana Kyles is an LPC Candidate who is currently 2/3rds of the way done with hours towards licensure. This session aims to share what is needed to become eligible for candidacy, things to expect financially as a candidate and other things to expect while working under supervision. This is meant to be an open dialog and conversation.
Bibliotherapy with the Bible
Bibliotherapy with the Bible
Speaker: Dr. Jessica Colls
Speaker: Dr. Jessica Colls
Clements Dining Room
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Clements Dining Room
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: This session will detail how to use the Bible as part of therapy through the process of Bibliotherapy. It will also include ethical practice with faith based integration and understanding Biblical context and principles. Finally, practical applications and resources will be shared.
Description: This session will detail how to use the Bible as part of therapy through the process of Bibliotherapy. It will also include ethical practice with faith based integration and understanding Biblical context and principles. Finally, practical applications and resources will be shared.
Living on Both Sides: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey Through Borderline Personality Disorder (Part 1)
Speaker: Kelly Lashar
Speaker: Kelly Lashar
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Part One: Borderline Personality Organization. This session introduces BPO as a framework for understanding personality structure beyond a diagnosis of BPD/NPD. Through clinical teaching and the shared perspective of a therapist mother and her daughter diagnosed with BPD—who offers a uniquely insightful and self-reflective perspective—participants will explore how disruptions in the integration of self and others contribute to identity disturbance, emotional instability, and interpersonal challenges.
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Part One: Borderline Personality Organization. This session introduces BPO as a framework for understanding personality structure beyond a diagnosis of BPD/NPD. Through clinical teaching and the shared perspective of a therapist mother and her daughter diagnosed with BPD—who offers a uniquely insightful and self-reflective perspective—participants will explore how disruptions in the integration of self and others contribute to identity disturbance, emotional instability, and interpersonal challenges.
Autism in the General Education Setting: Tips, Tricks, and Understanding
Autism in the General Education Setting: Tips, Tricks, and Understanding
Speakers: Kathryn Morris-Scott
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: All
Speakers: Kathryn Morris-Scott
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: All
Description: Perfectionism, the dynamics of winning and losing, and even how a student perceives the size of a problem can all shape their experience in the classroom. For professionals working with neurodiverse students in general education settings, it can be puzzling when what appears to be a small setback leads to a significant misunderstanding or response. In this presentation, we will explore the experiences of students with autism in the general education classroom and discuss how professionals across disciplines can collaborate with a focus on prevention and support. Kathryn, an LCSW with professional experience in neurodiversity, is also special education certified and the parent of a 22-year-old with autism. She brings these perspectives together to offer a holistic, engaging conversation filled with practical strategies, insights, and tools for families, educators and professionals alike.
Description: Perfectionism, the dynamics of winning and losing, and even how a student perceives the size of a problem can all shape their experience in the classroom. For professionals working with neurodiverse students in general education settings, it can be puzzling when what appears to be a small setback leads to a significant misunderstanding or response. In this presentation, we will explore the experiences of students with autism in the general education classroom and discuss how professionals across disciplines can collaborate with a focus on prevention and support. Kathryn, an LCSW with professional experience in neurodiversity, is also special education certified and the parent of a 22-year-old with autism. She brings these perspectives together to offer a holistic, engaging conversation filled with practical strategies, insights, and tools for families, educators and professionals alike.
Understanding the Inpatient Patient
Understanding the Inpatient Patient
Speaker: Lea Campbell
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Speaker: Lea Campbell
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: Participants will receive an overview of patients and their needs that are discharging from a inpatient psychiatric facility. In addition, there will be discussion in patients that frequently readmit and ways to help decrease this at the OP level.
Description: Participants will receive an overview of patients and their needs that are discharging from a inpatient psychiatric facility. In addition, there will be discussion in patients that frequently readmit and ways to help decrease this at the OP level.
Creativity: A Proven Pathway to Positive Change
Creativity: A Proven Pathway to Positive Change
Speaker: Kris Newlin
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Speaker: Kris Newlin
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Description: Attendees will learn about cinematherapy, bibliotherapy, art therapy, movement therapy, and nature based therapy approaches to helping clients of all ages and promoting proven modalities that they can adapt and utilize in their everyday life and path to improved health.
Description: Attendees will learn about cinematherapy, bibliotherapy, art therapy, movement therapy, and nature based therapy approaches to helping clients of all ages and promoting proven modalities that they can adapt and utilize in their everyday life and path to improved health.
From Chaos to Connection: Counseling Skills Every Parent Needs
From Chaos to Connection: Counseling Skills Every Parent Needs
Speaker: Britanie Ramirez
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: All
Speaker: Britanie Ramirez
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: All
Description: Attendees will learn how to use a family-systems-informed approach to support parents who are overwhelmed, disconnected, or struggling with behavioral challenges at home. We'll explore the therapist's role in helping parents understand their triggers, build emotional regulation skills, and foster healthier patterns of communication. Participants will leave with strategies that improve relationships and enhance overall family functioning.
Description: Attendees will learn how to use a family-systems-informed approach to support parents who are overwhelmed, disconnected, or struggling with behavioral challenges at home. We'll explore the therapist's role in helping parents understand their triggers, build emotional regulation skills, and foster healthier patterns of communication. Participants will leave with strategies that improve relationships and enhance overall family functioning.
Gremlins & Goats: An Archetypal Framework for Naming Shame and Building Self Compassion in Mental Health Professionals
Gremlins & Goats: An Archetypal Framework for Naming Shame and Building Self Compassion in Mental Health Professionals
Speaker: Lexie Loman
Fozard Hall 106
Audience: All
Speaker: Lexie Loman
Fozard Hall 106
Audience: All
Description: This 60-minute session shares an original archetypal framework from clinical practice and the presenter's published book for identifying and addressing shame-based inner critics ("Gremlins") common among counselors and therapists—such as people-pleasing, perfectionism, caretaking, and never-enough patterns that contribute to burnout and reduced self-care. Participants will explore brain science concepts (neural plasticity for change, unconscious belief systems shaping patterns, amygdala responses in stress) and walk through a practical 5-step process: naming the pattern, exposing impossible expectations ("because" and "worthy when" rounds), understanding origins/feeders, and creating simple perspective shifts, actions, and affirming mantras to nurture the compassionate self ("Goats"). Rooted in hope and resilience, the session provides inspirational strategies and interactive elements to support sustainable professional practice and personal well-being.
Description: This 60-minute session shares an original archetypal framework from clinical practice and the presenter's published book for identifying and addressing shame-based inner critics ("Gremlins") common among counselors and therapists—such as people-pleasing, perfectionism, caretaking, and never-enough patterns that contribute to burnout and reduced self-care. Participants will explore brain science concepts (neural plasticity for change, unconscious belief systems shaping patterns, amygdala responses in stress) and walk through a practical 5-step process: naming the pattern, exposing impossible expectations ("because" and "worthy when" rounds), understanding origins/feeders, and creating simple perspective shifts, actions, and affirming mantras to nurture the compassionate self ("Goats"). Rooted in hope and resilience, the session provides inspirational strategies and interactive elements to support sustainable professional practice and personal well-being.
Session 4 - 3:00-4:00 p.m. Friday
Session 4 - 3:00-4:00 p.m. Friday
Beyond Performance: The Urgent Need for Mental Health Support in Student-Athletes
Beyond Performance: The Urgent Need for Mental Health Support in Student-Athletes
Speakers: Edoardo Salmaso & Whitney Outon
Speakers: Edoardo Salmaso & Whitney Outon
CP 101
Audience: All
CP 101
Audience: All
Description: This presentation examines the mental health demands placed on college athletes and the critical gaps in current support systems that impact both performance and well-being. Attendees will gain clear, evidence-based strategies to better identify, support, and optimize the mental health of college athletes in high-performance environments.
Description: This presentation examines the mental health demands placed on college athletes and the critical gaps in current support systems that impact both performance and well-being. Attendees will gain clear, evidence-based strategies to better identify, support, and optimize the mental health of college athletes in high-performance environments.
Introduction to Motivational Interviewing
Introduction to Motivational Interviewing
Speaker: Missy Smith
Speaker: Missy Smith
CP 102
Audience: All
CP 102
Audience: All
Description: Attendees will learn about the spirit of Motivational Interviewing and some of the core skills associated with this approach. This session will also explore Motivational Interviewing techniques that can be included in both a clinical and school counseling context.
Description: Attendees will learn about the spirit of Motivational Interviewing and some of the core skills associated with this approach. This session will also explore Motivational Interviewing techniques that can be included in both a clinical and school counseling context.
Don't Get Stuck, Get Creative: Interventions to Address Resistance*
Don't Get Stuck, Get Creative: Interventions to Address Resistance*
Speaker: Kayley Saunders
Speaker: Kayley Saunders
Clements Dining Room
Audience: All
Clements Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: This session will explore how clinicians can compassionately and effectively respond to treatment-interfering behaviors often labeled as “resistance.” Grounded in research and clinical experience, the presentation reframes resistance as a signal of misattunement rather than defiance, offering practical strategies to restore connection and momentum in therapy. Participants will learn to identify different forms of resistance and apply radical compassion alongside evidence-based, paradoxical interventions to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, improve engagement, and support meaningful change.
Description: This session will explore how clinicians can compassionately and effectively respond to treatment-interfering behaviors often labeled as “resistance.” Grounded in research and clinical experience, the presentation reframes resistance as a signal of misattunement rather than defiance, offering practical strategies to restore connection and momentum in therapy. Participants will learn to identify different forms of resistance and apply radical compassion alongside evidence-based, paradoxical interventions to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, improve engagement, and support meaningful change.
Living on Both Sides: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey Through Borderline Personality Disorder (Part 2)
Living on Both Sides: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey Through Borderline Personality Disorder (Part 2)
Speaker: Kelly Lashar
Speaker: Kelly Lashar
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: Building on Part One, this session offers an honest look at the relational strain that develops over time within families impacted by personality disorders. Participants will explore the lived experience of disconnection, unmet needs, and the courage required for repair. This workshop provides a compassionate, clinically grounded framework for boundaries, validation, and rebuilding connection while maintaining a sense of self.
Description: Building on Part One, this session offers an honest look at the relational strain that develops over time within families impacted by personality disorders. Participants will explore the lived experience of disconnection, unmet needs, and the courage required for repair. This workshop provides a compassionate, clinically grounded framework for boundaries, validation, and rebuilding connection while maintaining a sense of self.
Purpose by Design: How School Counselor Role Clarity Builds Hope for Students
Purpose by Design: How School Counselor Role Clarity Builds Hope for Students
Speakers: Christi Sturgeon
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: School Counselors, Students
Description: As school counseling roles shift under new state rules, counselors have an opportunity to move beyond compliance and toward deeper impact. This session connects updated expectations to the heart of comprehensive school counseling—building systems that foster student hope, direction, and purpose. Participants will explore how clarified roles, 80/20 practices, and program alignment create conditions where students thrive academically, socially, and in future planning. Leave with a renewed vision and practical strategies for leading with purpose in a changing landscape.
Speakers: Christi Sturgeon
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: School Counselors, Students
Description: As school counseling roles shift under new state rules, counselors have an opportunity to move beyond compliance and toward deeper impact. This session connects updated expectations to the heart of comprehensive school counseling—building systems that foster student hope, direction, and purpose. Participants will explore how clarified roles, 80/20 practices, and program alignment create conditions where students thrive academically, socially, and in future planning. Leave with a renewed vision and practical strategies for leading with purpose in a changing landscape.
Healing Inside and Out: Forgiveness Therapy
Healing Inside and Out: Forgiveness Therapy
Speaker: Christy Barlow
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: All
Speaker: Christy Barlow
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: All
Description: When we learn what forgiveness is and isn't, it begins to break down the barriers that hinder us from healing from our past and present emotional, psychological, and relational wounds. Attendees can expect to learn how to help clients process faulty thoughts and emotions that are often associated with unforgiveness. This approach to therapy teaches clients to process forgiveness in phases and helps them understand that the decision to forgive what we cannot forget will never erase the offense but it can create a pathway for peace, restoration, and healing.
Description: When we learn what forgiveness is and isn't, it begins to break down the barriers that hinder us from healing from our past and present emotional, psychological, and relational wounds. Attendees can expect to learn how to help clients process faulty thoughts and emotions that are often associated with unforgiveness. This approach to therapy teaches clients to process forgiveness in phases and helps them understand that the decision to forgive what we cannot forget will never erase the offense but it can create a pathway for peace, restoration, and healing.
Talking Religion: Acceptance and Commitment Techniques for Spiritual Distress
Talking Religion: Acceptance and Commitment Techniques for Spiritual Distress
Speaker: Luke Small
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Speaker: Luke Small
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Description: Religious and spiritual challenges can often be uncomfortable for psychotherapists to discuss with clients, especially when it is not the central presenting problem. This training seeks to provide basic Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) techniques to help clients with distress within their faith life. The training addresses religious challenges within a variety of different traditions. Special consideration will be given to ethical concerns when addressing spiritual needs with clients. Learn how to talk with clients of different faiths without feeling overwhelmed or inadequate.
Description: Religious and spiritual challenges can often be uncomfortable for psychotherapists to discuss with clients, especially when it is not the central presenting problem. This training seeks to provide basic Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) techniques to help clients with distress within their faith life. The training addresses religious challenges within a variety of different traditions. Special consideration will be given to ethical concerns when addressing spiritual needs with clients. Learn how to talk with clients of different faiths without feeling overwhelmed or inadequate.
It's a Twin Thing: Considerations for working with Twin Loss Survivors
It's a Twin Thing: Considerations for working with Twin Loss Survivors
Speaker: Alyssa Pratt
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Speaker: Alyssa Pratt
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: Grief and loss are always unique, but twins and multiples that survive the death of their womb mate face additional challenges that are often overlooked by clinicians. This workshop is designed to educate clinicians on the uniqueness of the twin/multiple relationship, factors that contribute to complicated grief, effective therapeutic interventions, and available support resources.
Description: Grief and loss are always unique, but twins and multiples that survive the death of their womb mate face additional challenges that are often overlooked by clinicians. This workshop is designed to educate clinicians on the uniqueness of the twin/multiple relationship, factors that contribute to complicated grief, effective therapeutic interventions, and available support resources.
Well Being 101: Research-Based Interventions for the Good Life*
Well Being 101: Research-Based Interventions for the Good Life*
Speaker: Dr. Bea Keller-Dupree
Fozard Hall 106
Audience: All
Speaker: Dr. Bea Keller-Dupree
Fozard Hall 106
Audience: All
Description: This session will explore the research-backed interventions for well-being improvements. From Positive Psychology literature to clinically-relevant discussions, this presentation will leave attendees with concrete ways to help clients, students, AND SELF improve affect, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement, hope, and more!
Description: This session will explore the research-backed interventions for well-being improvements. From Positive Psychology literature to clinically-relevant discussions, this presentation will leave attendees with concrete ways to help clients, students, AND SELF improve affect, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement, hope, and more!
Session 5 - 8:30-9:30 a.m. Saturday
Session 5 - 8:30-9:30 a.m. Saturday
Balance, Not Calm: Regulation and Co-Regulation with Children*
Balance, Not Calm: Regulation and Co-Regulation with Children*
Speaker: Lisa Dawson
Speaker: Lisa Dawson
CP 101
Audience: All
CP 101
Audience: All
Description: Calm Down! A message often said, but rarely effective. Regulation is a term used frequently in the field of play therapy and child therapy. What does it mean? How do we achieve it? Whose responsibility is it? Join us to identify terms, developmentally appropriate expectations, develop a self-regulation plan for yourself and a co-regulation plan for a client, and help caregivers/teachers regulate themselves in order to help children regulate. This is an interactive training with play therapy activities and group work. Develop your own balance!
Description: Calm Down! A message often said, but rarely effective. Regulation is a term used frequently in the field of play therapy and child therapy. What does it mean? How do we achieve it? Whose responsibility is it? Join us to identify terms, developmentally appropriate expectations, develop a self-regulation plan for yourself and a co-regulation plan for a client, and help caregivers/teachers regulate themselves in order to help children regulate. This is an interactive training with play therapy activities and group work. Develop your own balance!
The Mirror of Resilience: Using Your Own Story of Grief and Trauma to Strengthen the Therapeutic Alliance
The Mirror of Resilience: Using Your Own Story of Grief and Trauma to Strengthen the Therapeutic Alliance
Speaker: Caleb Scoville
Speaker: Caleb Scoville
CP 102
Audience: All
CP 102
Audience: All
Description: This discussion explores a clinician’s personal narrative of grief and trauma, examining the strategic use of self-disclosure within the therapeutic process. By analyzing how shared experiences can assist both clients and therapists in navigating their own healing journeys, we will highlight best practices for fostering client resilience and creating shared meaning.
Description: This discussion explores a clinician’s personal narrative of grief and trauma, examining the strategic use of self-disclosure within the therapeutic process. By analyzing how shared experiences can assist both clients and therapists in navigating their own healing journeys, we will highlight best practices for fostering client resilience and creating shared meaning.
The Power of Groups
The Power of Groups
Speaker: Clay Mattox
Speaker: Clay Mattox
Clements Dining Room
Audience: All
Clements Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: Working with groups is empowering for the clients who attend and the clinician. There are many research supported benefits to group interventions and still many are hesitant to start a group. This discussion will address the benefits and our hesitations, making a path to more groups and less fear.
Description: Working with groups is empowering for the clients who attend and the clinician. There are many research supported benefits to group interventions and still many are hesitant to start a group. This discussion will address the benefits and our hesitations, making a path to more groups and less fear.
Working with Neurodivergent Clients
Working with Neurodivergent Clients
Speaker: Leah Callahan
Speaker: Leah Callahan
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: This presentation introduces a neurodiversity-affirming framework for working with neurodivergent clients, including autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, and otherwise neurodivergent individuals. Rather than viewing neurodivergence as pathology to be corrected, the approach emphasizes difference, dignity, and contextual support.
Description: This presentation introduces a neurodiversity-affirming framework for working with neurodivergent clients, including autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, and otherwise neurodivergent individuals. Rather than viewing neurodivergence as pathology to be corrected, the approach emphasizes difference, dignity, and contextual support.
Utilizing Supervision to Make You the Best School Counselor Possible
Utilizing Supervision to Make You the Best School Counselor Possible
Speakers: Missy Smith
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: School Counselors, Students
Speakers: Missy Smith
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: School Counselors, Students
Description: Attendees will learn about the critical benefits of supervision. Supervision methods and procedures to structure the process will be explored so that both supervisors and supervisees can develop a sustainable solution to the ongoing need of supervision throughout every phrase of the counseling profession.
Description: Attendees will learn about the critical benefits of supervision. Supervision methods and procedures to structure the process will be explored so that both supervisors and supervisees can develop a sustainable solution to the ongoing need of supervision throughout every phrase of the counseling profession.
Animal Assisted Therapy: Clinical Application, Ethics, and Integration into Mental Health Practice
Animal Assisted Therapy: Clinical Application, Ethics, and Integration into Mental Health Practice
Speaker: Megan Cross
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Speaker: Megan Cross
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Description: Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) is an evidence-informed, goal-directed intervention that incorporates trained animals into therapeutic treatment to enhance emotional regulation, trauma recovery, attachment repair, and client engagement. This presentation provides clinicians and helping professionals with a foundational understanding of AAT, current research, ethical considerations, and practical implementation strategies. Participants will leave with clinical insight, risk-management awareness, and practical tools to evaluate whether AAT is appropriate for their practice setting.
Description: Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) is an evidence-informed, goal-directed intervention that incorporates trained animals into therapeutic treatment to enhance emotional regulation, trauma recovery, attachment repair, and client engagement. This presentation provides clinicians and helping professionals with a foundational understanding of AAT, current research, ethical considerations, and practical implementation strategies. Participants will leave with clinical insight, risk-management awareness, and practical tools to evaluate whether AAT is appropriate for their practice setting.
What is the Secret Sauce of Dialectical Behavior Therapy?*
Speaker: Paul Williams
What is the Secret Sauce of Dialectical Behavior Therapy?*
Speaker: Paul Williams
Fozard Hall 105
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: This seminar peels back the layers of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to reveal why it has become the gold standard for treating emotional regulation disorders. This session is designed to explore the core philosophies that transform lives.
Description: This seminar peels back the layers of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to reveal why it has become the gold standard for treating emotional regulation disorders. This session is designed to explore the core philosophies that transform lives.
Session 6 - 9:45-10:45 a.m. Saturday
Session 6 - 9:45-10:45 a.m. Saturday
Stripped of Dignity: Understanding Humiliation and Mental Health
Stripped of Dignity: Understanding Humiliation and Mental Health
Speaker: Tiara Delonia
Speaker: Tiara Delonia
CP 101
Audience: All
CP 101
Audience: All
Description: Humiliation is one of the most powerful and overlooked human experiences affecting mental health, behavior, relationships, and professional interactions. Participants will examine how humiliation differs from shame, why it can leave lasting psychological wounds, and how experiences of degradation, exposure, powerlessness, and loss of dignity influence trauma responses, aggression, withdrawal, self-harm, and resistance to care. Through reflective discussion, interactive case studies, and real-world application, professionals will gain practical strategies for recognizing and reducing humiliation in their own practice while fostering dignity-centered, trauma-informed interactions. This training is designed to challenge assumptions, deepen empathy, and strengthen professional awareness of how everyday interactions can either harm or protect human dignity.
Description: Humiliation is one of the most powerful and overlooked human experiences affecting mental health, behavior, relationships, and professional interactions. Participants will examine how humiliation differs from shame, why it can leave lasting psychological wounds, and how experiences of degradation, exposure, powerlessness, and loss of dignity influence trauma responses, aggression, withdrawal, self-harm, and resistance to care. Through reflective discussion, interactive case studies, and real-world application, professionals will gain practical strategies for recognizing and reducing humiliation in their own practice while fostering dignity-centered, trauma-informed interactions. This training is designed to challenge assumptions, deepen empathy, and strengthen professional awareness of how everyday interactions can either harm or protect human dignity.
Using a Multi-Tiered System of Supports in Your Counseling Practice
Using a Multi-Tiered System of Supports in Your Counseling Practice
Speaker: Michelle Strain
Speaker: Michelle Strain
Clements Dining Room
Audience: All
Clements Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: Using a system of supports for your clients, groups, and supervisees will boost their healing and their learning. Hear about real tools and ideas from a counseling clinic on a college campus. Whether you are a school counselor, working at a community agency, or in private practice, these could work for you. Discover the Scraper Counseling Center's ways of reaching out to its community through groups, seminars, awareness weeks, and its Better Brain Book Club. Attendees will get an understanding of why some initiatives work, and others don't, and how to tailor psychoeducation initiatives to your audience.
Description: Using a system of supports for your clients, groups, and supervisees will boost their healing and their learning. Hear about real tools and ideas from a counseling clinic on a college campus. Whether you are a school counselor, working at a community agency, or in private practice, these could work for you. Discover the Scraper Counseling Center's ways of reaching out to its community through groups, seminars, awareness weeks, and its Better Brain Book Club. Attendees will get an understanding of why some initiatives work, and others don't, and how to tailor psychoeducation initiatives to your audience.
Sacred Wounds: Religious Trauma in the Bible Belt
Sacred Wounds: Religious Trauma in the Bible Belt
Speaker: Brooke Larimore
Speaker: Brooke Larimore
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: My hope for this presentation would be to provide current & future clinicians with insights and skills needed to compassionately support those recovering from the emotional and spiritual wounds of religious trauma. This presentation will provide an overview of what religious trauma is and what it can look like practically, along with modalities that can be utilized to help clients find healing. I operate from a trauma-informed, evidence-based perspective, and I have years of experience working with survivors here in the Bible Belt in both individual and group settings.
Description: My hope for this presentation would be to provide current & future clinicians with insights and skills needed to compassionately support those recovering from the emotional and spiritual wounds of religious trauma. This presentation will provide an overview of what religious trauma is and what it can look like practically, along with modalities that can be utilized to help clients find healing. I operate from a trauma-informed, evidence-based perspective, and I have years of experience working with survivors here in the Bible Belt in both individual and group settings.
Supervision Matters
Supervision Matters
Speakers: Felecia Jenkins & Kendra Lauderdale
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: All
Speakers: Felecia Jenkins & Kendra Lauderdale
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: All
Description: Attendees should expect to gain a clearer understanding of the role of a supervisor as established by the American Counseling Association (ACA). Attendees will leave the presentation with an enhanced understanding of key functional areas, including but not limited to individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, clinical assessment (including interpretive summaries), crisis intervention, consultation (tapes/videos), and major counseling theories and theorists.
Description: Attendees should expect to gain a clearer understanding of the role of a supervisor as established by the American Counseling Association (ACA). Attendees will leave the presentation with an enhanced understanding of key functional areas, including but not limited to individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, clinical assessment (including interpretive summaries), crisis intervention, consultation (tapes/videos), and major counseling theories and theorists.
Self Leadership in High Stakes Moments: An Internal Family Systems Approach to De-Escalation and Humanization
Self Leadership in High Stakes Moments: An Internal Family Systems Approach to De-Escalation and Humanization
Speaker: Brandt Ratcliff
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Speaker: Brandt Ratcliff
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Description: In a world of system overload and frayed nerves, people across every sector - behavioral health, law enforcement, judiciary, and community services - are asked to offer calm in moments that rarely feel calm. This session introduces Internal Family Systems (IFS) as a practical, accessible framework for understanding human behavior under stress and responding with clarity rather than reactivity. Participants will learn how to recognize the internal dynamics that drive escalation - both in themselves and in those they serve - and how to foster Self-Leadership, the inner steady ground from which better decisions, safer interactions, and collaborative relationships emerge.
Description: In a world of system overload and frayed nerves, people across every sector - behavioral health, law enforcement, judiciary, and community services - are asked to offer calm in moments that rarely feel calm. This session introduces Internal Family Systems (IFS) as a practical, accessible framework for understanding human behavior under stress and responding with clarity rather than reactivity. Participants will learn how to recognize the internal dynamics that drive escalation - both in themselves and in those they serve - and how to foster Self-Leadership, the inner steady ground from which better decisions, safer interactions, and collaborative relationships emerge.
If Everyone was Super, Then No One Would Be: Inspiring and Motivating MHPs in Patient Care
If Everyone was Super, Then No One Would Be: Inspiring and Motivating MHPs in Patient Care
Speaker: Mongo Allen
Speaker: Mongo Allen
Fozard Hall 105
Fozard Hall 105
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: This session is designed to inspire, and motivate mental health professionals (MHP) in patient care. There will be an emphasis on practices, exercises and life skills that will help make mental health professionals powerful! The title is a reminder to the MHP, that they're more than therapist, counselors and social workers but life saving resources to students, clients and patients in crisis.
Description: This session is designed to inspire, and motivate mental health professionals (MHP) in patient care. There will be an emphasis on practices, exercises and life skills that will help make mental health professionals powerful! The title is a reminder to the MHP, that they're more than therapist, counselors and social workers but life saving resources to students, clients and patients in crisis.
Session 7 - 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Saturday
Session 7 - 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Saturday
Counseling Through Unprecedented Times*
Counseling Through Unprecedented Times*
Speaker: Leah Callahan
Speaker: Leah Callahan
CP 101
Audience: All
CP 101
Audience: All
Description: This workshop will help therapists work more effectively with clients who are impacted by sociopolitical and cultural issues going on around us. This presentation will also provide tools for helping therapists with self regulation, awareness, and countertransference.
Description: This workshop will help therapists work more effectively with clients who are impacted by sociopolitical and cultural issues going on around us. This presentation will also provide tools for helping therapists with self regulation, awareness, and countertransference.
Roots, Resilience, and Repair: Understanding Immigrant Trauma Through an ACEs Lens
Speaker: Doris Baccala
Speaker: Doris Baccala
CP 102
Audience: All
CP 102
Audience: All
Description: Migration is not just a geographic journey. It is often a profound disruption of safety, belonging, and identity. For many immigrants, the experience of displacement compounds Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that were already shaping the nervous system long before arrival. This session offers a trauma-informed, strengths-based exploration of how ACEs and immigrant-specific stressors interact across the lifespan. We will look at how family separation, documentation anxiety, cultural loss, and systemic marginalization layer onto early adversity, and what that means for the brain, for attachment, and for long-term health. Drawing on accessible neuroscience, attendees will deepen their understanding of how early stress shapes development, emotional regulation, and relationships, and how those patterns show up in the clients and communities we serve. Clinicians, educators, and community practitioners will leave with: A framework for understanding ACEs in the context of immigrant experience; Tools to recognize trauma presentations without pathologizing clients; Practical, culturally responsive strategies that center healing, protective factors, and resilience; and Approaches for supporting immigrant clients in uncertain political and social climates. This session is for practitioners ready to meet immigrant clients with the cultural humility and clinical depth they deserve.
Description: Migration is not just a geographic journey. It is often a profound disruption of safety, belonging, and identity. For many immigrants, the experience of displacement compounds Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that were already shaping the nervous system long before arrival. This session offers a trauma-informed, strengths-based exploration of how ACEs and immigrant-specific stressors interact across the lifespan. We will look at how family separation, documentation anxiety, cultural loss, and systemic marginalization layer onto early adversity, and what that means for the brain, for attachment, and for long-term health. Drawing on accessible neuroscience, attendees will deepen their understanding of how early stress shapes development, emotional regulation, and relationships, and how those patterns show up in the clients and communities we serve. Clinicians, educators, and community practitioners will leave with: A framework for understanding ACEs in the context of immigrant experience; Tools to recognize trauma presentations without pathologizing clients; Practical, culturally responsive strategies that center healing, protective factors, and resilience; and Approaches for supporting immigrant clients in uncertain political and social climates. This session is for practitioners ready to meet immigrant clients with the cultural humility and clinical depth they deserve.
Embodied Ethics: An Experiential Training for Therapists
Embodied Ethics: An Experiential Training for Therapists
Speaker: Ben Thompson
Speaker: Ben Thompson
Clements Dining Room
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Clements Dining Room
Audience: LMHPs, Students
Description: Attendees can expect to be actively engaged in understanding how ethical situations actually arise. Through acted-out scenes and audience participation, participants will see and experience the small shifts in a therapist that can lead to larger ethical problems. Rather than focusing only on rules, the workshop highlights the moment-to-moment decisions that move boundaries over time. Attendees will leave not only entertained, but with a more embodied sense of when something in the room needs their attention before it becomes an issue.
Description: Attendees can expect to be actively engaged in understanding how ethical situations actually arise. Through acted-out scenes and audience participation, participants will see and experience the small shifts in a therapist that can lead to larger ethical problems. Rather than focusing only on rules, the workshop highlights the moment-to-moment decisions that move boundaries over time. Attendees will leave not only entertained, but with a more embodied sense of when something in the room needs their attention before it becomes an issue.
Seeing the Unseen: Daily Living Barriers for Women of Color and the Need for Therapeutic Services
Seeing the Unseen: Daily Living Barriers for Women of Color and the Need for Therapeutic Services
Speaker: Krystle James
Speaker: Krystle James
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Odom Dining Room
Audience: All
Description: Attendees can expect to experience a presentation that highlights the daily living barriers that women of color experience and how this may contribute to the need for regular therapeutic services. In addition, different techniques will be provided to assist clinicians with best ways to provide superior services to this population. Clinicians will also walk away with meaningful stats and facts that will hopefully assist with providing effective services.
Description: Attendees can expect to experience a presentation that highlights the daily living barriers that women of color experience and how this may contribute to the need for regular therapeutic services. In addition, different techniques will be provided to assist clinicians with best ways to provide superior services to this population. Clinicians will also walk away with meaningful stats and facts that will hopefully assist with providing effective services.
Balance, Not Calm: Regulation and Co-Regulation With Children*
Balance, Not Calm: Regulation and Co-Regulation With Children*
Speaker: Lisa Dawson
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: All
Speaker: Lisa Dawson
Kennedy Hall 117
Audience: All
Description: Calm Down! A message often said, but rarely effective. Regulation is a term used frequently in the field of play therapy and child therapy. What does it mean? How do we achieve it? Whose responsibility is it? Join us to identify terms, developmentally appropriate expectations, develop a self-regulation plan for yourself and a co-regulation plan for a client, and help caregivers/teachers regulate themselves in order to help children regulate. This is an interactive training with play therapy activities and group work. Develop your own balance!
Description: Calm Down! A message often said, but rarely effective. Regulation is a term used frequently in the field of play therapy and child therapy. What does it mean? How do we achieve it? Whose responsibility is it? Join us to identify terms, developmentally appropriate expectations, develop a self-regulation plan for yourself and a co-regulation plan for a client, and help caregivers/teachers regulate themselves in order to help children regulate. This is an interactive training with play therapy activities and group work. Develop your own balance!
Whose Story is This? Culture and Meaning-Making in the Playroom
Whose Story is This? Culture and Meaning-Making in the Playroom
Speaker: Emily Linsky
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: All
Speaker: Emily Linsky
Kennedy Hall 118
Audience: All
Description: Play is never culturally neutral. This session explores how culture shapes children’s play themes, family systems, emotional expression, and help-seeking behaviors. Participants will reflect on how their own cultural identities and assumptions influence assessment, interpretation, and intervention in the playroom. Through discussion and clinical examples, we will identify practical strategies for creating culturally responsive, affirming therapeutic environments that honor each child’s story and context.
Description: Play is never culturally neutral. This session explores how culture shapes children’s play themes, family systems, emotional expression, and help-seeking behaviors. Participants will reflect on how their own cultural identities and assumptions influence assessment, interpretation, and intervention in the playroom. Through discussion and clinical examples, we will identify practical strategies for creating culturally responsive, affirming therapeutic environments that honor each child’s story and context.
Don't Get Stuck, Get Creative: Interventions to Address Resistance*
Don't Get Stuck, Get Creative: Interventions to Address Resistance*
Speaker: Kayley Saunders
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Speaker: Kayley Saunders
Kennedy Hall 119
Audience: All
Description: This session will explore how clinicians can compassionately and effectively respond to treatment-interfering behaviors often labeled as “resistance.” Grounded in research and clinical experience, the presentation reframes resistance as a signal of misattunement rather than defiance, offering practical strategies to restore connection and momentum in therapy. Participants will learn to identify different forms of resistance and apply radical compassion alongside evidence-based, paradoxical interventions to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, improve engagement, and support meaningful change.
Description: This session will explore how clinicians can compassionately and effectively respond to treatment-interfering behaviors often labeled as “resistance.” Grounded in research and clinical experience, the presentation reframes resistance as a signal of misattunement rather than defiance, offering practical strategies to restore connection and momentum in therapy. Participants will learn to identify different forms of resistance and apply radical compassion alongside evidence-based, paradoxical interventions to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, improve engagement, and support meaningful change.
* - Repeated Session
Closing Ceremony - 12:00-12:30 p.m. Saturday
Closing Ceremony - 12:00-12:30 p.m. Saturday
Closing
Auditorium
Audience: All
Closing
Auditorium
Audience: All
Description
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