Full Course Description

101: Creative Approaches to Parts Work

Parts work offers an intuitive way of understanding our complexity and developing self-compassion. Although many clinicians incorporate it into their work, they may be missing the opportunity to do it using creative processes that can effectively and experientially lead to greater internal safety, insight, inner peace, and self-compassion. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to help clients access dominant and non-dominant parts that “show up” to provide them with strength, abilities, and protection. And you’ll have opportunities to experience mapping and voicing parts. You’ll discover:

A four-step process designed to help clients increase collaboration between different parts, even when they have competing or polarized agendas
How to help clients give voice to their parts using contextual, situational, and interpersonal cues
How to use an art modality in sessions for “mapping” and understanding parts
How to use journal prompts and two-handed writing to strengthen communication and understanding between parts

This event is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Objectives

Explain the value of introducing “parts” work into the treatment process.
Identify at least three “protective” functions of parts.
Implement a four-step process to help clients connect situations, context, and inter-personal experiences to the emergence of functional or protective parts.
Implement an art modality that allow clients to “map” their parts.
Identify at least four questions that can be used as journal prompts to help give a voice to parts, and increase insight and self-compassion.
Utilize the two-handed writing prompt designed to strengthen communication and understanding between parts.

Outline

Understanding the concept of “parts”

letting go of categorizations of “good” and “bad”
redefining our relationship to parts

Exploring the protective function of parts

how to validate parts
working with self-destructive parts

Introducing the concept of “mapping”

creative approaches to illustrating parts

A 4 step process for working with parts

exploring a context or situation
identifying the parts that show up in those circumstances
creating a visual map to show dominance, alliances, and polarizations
“voicing” parts through journaling
Experientials: map parts/processing the experience

Processing the benefits of journaling

accessing internal thoughts and feelings
re-evaluating the origin of messages
discovering internal conflicts with parts

Journal prompts to work with a part

processing questions that enhance empathy
increasing internal communication
offering parts alternative jobs

Incorporating the non-dominant hand

what we elicit when we use our non-dominant hand
the auto-hypnotic experience
Experiential: journaling with the non-dominant hand

Incorporating two-handed writing

increasing communication between two parts
Experiential: two-handed journaling/processing

Risks and limitations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

102: Becoming a Racially Sensitive Clinician

Becoming a racially and culturally sensitive therapist isn’t simply a matter of “learning the material.” It’s an ongoing process that requires actively and deliberately engaging in a dialogue with yourself and being continuously open to an expanding version of that self. In this didactic, interactive, and experiential workshop, we’ll go beyond the usual content-focused approaches to developing cultural sensitivity. Instead, using a Self of the Therapist framework, you’ll learn by doing as we explore processes of relational engagement, racial risk-taking, and critical self-reflection. You’ll walk away with concrete tools for promoting racial and cultural sensitivity that you can use with clients and trainees. And you’ll discover:

How to address microaggressions in therapy
De-escalation techniques to address highly charged race-related interactions in therapy
How to use storytelling as a potent therapeutic tool
How to assess your own development through an evolving racial lens

Program Information

Objectives

Describe two strategies for identifying and managing therapist’s reactivity.
Employ two strategies for effectively managing the racial reactivity of clients in ways that facilitate connection instead of escalation.
Demonstrate how to foster constructive engagement during divisive, polarizing, and escalating cross-racial interactions.
Implement a technique for uncovering therapist-related hidden implicit biases that could undermine the therapeutic process.
Utilize strategies for enhancing racially based relational risk-taking in clinical practice.

Outline

Developing a Racial Lens

The self as a racial being
The hidden dimensions of race and racial identity
Race in a relational (cross-racial) context

Addressing Race in Therapy and Beyond

The PAST (Privilege and Subjugated Tasks) Model as an instrument of relational engagement.
The Principles of Constructive Engagement as a pathway to effective cross-racial relational engagement
The Validate-Challenge-Request (VCR) Model as an effective strategy for navigating difficult and toxic interactions

Self of the Therapist Exploration

The Racial Awareness And Sensitivity Experiential Exercise tool as a mechanism for uncovering Therapist implicit bias and enhancing racial awareness and sensitivity.
A framework for promoting Racial and Cultural Storytelling as a Self of the Therapist tool, as well as a clinical strategy.
How to use Petite Lectures as an effective clinical technique, as well as a Self of the Therapist tool.

Risks and Limitations of the Research

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

103: Advanced Ethics for Private Practice

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to the little-known ethical and legal pitfalls that befall clinicians in private practice. What we don’t know can—and does—hurt many private practice therapists. Unfortunately, pre-licensure clinicians are rarely prepared for dilemmas they’re likely to encounter. As a result, they sometimes have a hard time spotting risks before they become full-blown legal problems. In this workshop, you’ll learn to:

Identify the most common ethical, legal, and practice hazards
Clearly understand the potential consequences of ignoring these hazards
Take steps to prepare for these frequently overlooked hazards
Recognize and avoid some of the less common risks and hazards

Program Information

Objectives

Identify commonly overlooked ethical and legal hazards in private practice
Discuss the potential consequences associated with ethical and legal hazards in private practice
Select appropriate risk-mitigation strategies that reduce the likelihood of ethical and legal problems in private practice.
Describe a practical process for ethical and legal decision-making
Apply an ethical and legal decision-making process to address risks and challenges in case vignettes of private practice clients

Outline

Codes of ethics – Overlooked issues that deserve your awareness

What codes of ethics really are (and are not)
Preambles & principles – Ignored but important
Standards – What you don’t know will hurt you!
Definitions & terms – Are you speaking the same language?

Laws, rules, & more – Vulnerabilities you didn’t know you had and how to protect yourself
Federal laws – Vulnerabilities and what to do

What are business associates and BAAs?
Psychotherapy notes – A misunderstood (but valuable) tool
The HIPAA Notice – Required but commonly ignored.

State laws, rules, & more: Hazards to recognize and avoid

Different states, different laws
Hazards of terminology and their unrealized definitions
Subpoenas: The misunderstanding of many therapists
Board policies: But I didn’t know these even existed
Standard of care: The big misunderstanding

Practice issues
Working with minors: Heads up!

Minors’ & parents’ rights: Many moving parts
The common erroneous assumption about records

Technology, teletherapy, & cross state practice: Misconceptions & remedies

Popular misconceptions about teletherapy and jurisdiction
The reality of originating and destination jurisdictions

How to keep informed: Practical strategies
Myths, misunderstandings, and misconceptions

Why we are sometimes vulnerable
Why some myths are so pernicious
Know yourself: How biases and assumptions can lead us astray

Online counseling companies – Privacy violations -- Fined by FTC
Life coaching practice records – no privacy laws

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

104: Trauma & Nutrition in Therapy

When is a snack not just a snack? Most therapists know that when it comes to trauma treatment, the body can be an invaluable resource. But rarely do we consider our clients’ relationship with food as part of the work. In this workshop, you’ll learn a revolutionary approach that shows what your clients’ eating habits and food choices reveal about their nervous system, activation patterns, and unmet emotional and biological needs. Together, we’ll zero in on how chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol drive eating behaviors, and through interactive exercises, somatic practices, and live demonstrations, you’ll learn practical tools that will help you better address your clients’ trauma symptoms and their relationship with food—even if you’re not a nutritionist! You’ll also learn:

•   How to recognize when clients use their “internal pharmacy” to manage freeze    and hyperarousal
•   How to integrate parts work into conversations about nutrition
•   The science of adrenaline and its role in cravings and addiction
•   Practical somatic exercises to help clients metabolize stress

Program Information

Objectives

Identify appropriate methods for assessing the markers of adrenaline
response in a clinical setting.
Categorize common foods and food behaviors as stimulants, depressants,
and balancers, demonstrating awareness of their impact on the nervous
system.
Implement a step-by-step approach for guiding a client out of a functional free response during session.
Apply titrating and pacing techniques to help clients safely engage with
emotionally charged sensations without inducing retraumatization.
Demonstrate how to use internal “parts” language to facilitate nutritional
decision-making in clinical practice

Outline

The Biology of Cravings: Understanding Your Client's Internal Pharmacy

Adrenaline vs. cortisol: Why we've been focusing on the wrong stress hormone
The window of activation: Mapping when food becomes self-medication
Live demonstration: Reading cravings as nervous system communication
Case examples: Coffee, sugar, and carbs as functional freeze breakers

Somatic Nutrition in Practice: Tools for Non-Nutritionist Therapists

The Sociometry of cravings: Interactive group mapping exercise
Three-category framework: Stimulants, depressants, and balancers in trauma work
Glucose-stress tracking: Simple observation techniques for therapists
Parts work adaptation: "Meeting the part that binges" demonstration

Clinical Integration: From Theory to Transformation

Recognizing the "therapy day latte": What clients' pre-session foods reveal
Histamine-trauma connection: Why some clients can't stop snacking
Breaking the functional freeze-food cycle without dietary advice
Creating safety without shame: Trauma-informed language for food behaviors

Considerations and Conscious Application

Limitations of current trauma-nutrition research
Scope of practice: Knowing when to refer to medical/nutrition professionals
Cultural considerations in food and somatic interventions
Potential risks: Avoiding re-traumatization through body-based practices

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

105: Where the Enneagram Meets IFS

What if your client’s Enneagram type wasn’t just a fixed identity, but a living system of protective parts shaped by fear, longing, and deeply held beliefs? This experiential Enneagram-forward workshop introduces therapists to a fresh, experimental perspective on pairing the wisdom of the Enneagram with the compassionate precision of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy to support personality typing in clinical practice. Using the Enneagram as the primary lens through which we view client issues and IFS as the method of inner engagement, you’ll learn an experimental approach to recognizing and working with the inner architecture of personality—not to fix it, but to befriend it. You’ll explore:

How each of the nine Enneagram types expresses a constellation of internal protections often mistaken for a client’s whole personality
How to identify type-based defenses such as perfectionism, people-pleasing, and hyper-independence
How to compassionately talk to clients about their defenses using the metaphor of parts
Recognize how your own type patterns show up in session and using specific

This event is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the nine core Enneagram types and their corresponding emotional drives and protective strategies.
Conceptualize Enneagram types as internal systems of parts using IFS therapy language.
Identify common clinical challenges associated with each type.
Differentiate between Enneagram type strategies and the IFS concept of Self.
Utilize the parts metaphor to explore type-specific fears, desires, and reactivity patterns.

Outline

Mapping the Landscape: The Enneagram as a Therapeutic Framework

Adaptive strategies and emotional drives
How each type reflects a dynamic constellation of protectors
How type structures influence therapeutic resistance, transference, and alliance

Parts Within Patterns: AN IFS Perspective for Deeper Insight

How Enneagram dynamics translate into IFS-informed parts language
Using the concept of parts of Self to help clients access Self-energy
Therapist-facilitated internal dialogues with type-based internal defenses

Therapist as Mirror: Cultivating Self-Leadership and Awareness

Therapist countertransference through the lens of their Enneagram type
Self-reflection and check-ins using parts language for grounding in session
Ethical use of typology in therapy and potential over-identification with type

Experimental Methods: Language, Tools, and Practice

Bringing parts language into Enneagram exploration
Common Type-based clinical challenges
Collaboration, consent, and flexibility in typological exploration

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks of this Experimental Approach
Cultural and developmental considerations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

106: The High-Conflict Couple

Working with highly escalated couples and families can be scary and exhausting. Often, our best attempts at creating positive change fall flat. Sometimes, just trying to guide sessions into a safe zone leads to more entrenched silence or further criticism. When negative cycles take over, and we find ourselves faced with shut-down withdrawers and hostile pursuers, how do we shift them out of reactivity and into responsiveness? This workshop draws on proven interventions from Emotionally Focused Therapy and the neuroscience of human attachment to help you navigate the recurring blocks and common triggers therapists encounter in couples and family work. You’ll walk away with new tools that will empower you to shift the reactivity and mis-attunement that so often derails work with highly escalated partners and families. You’ll discover how to:

Help clients shift from blaming their partner to sharing their vulnerability
Transform negative cycles of interaction into positive cycles of responsiveness
Help partners to recognize and put words to their inner experiences
Immediately incorporate powerful techniques to reduce client reactivity and begin the process of healing

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the development and maintenance of couples’ conflict through the lens of
attachment theory.
Describe an EFT intervention for reducing reactivity in session
Analyze common therapeutic impasses that occur in couple's therapy
Assess couple’s progress in overcoming negative interaction cycles.
Describe the function of protective strategies that create negative cycles.
Identify the positive cycle of responsiveness to replace the escalated, negative cycle

Outline

What causes high distress in couples?
Attachment theory and an overview of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Helping couples de-escalate
Going deeper with emotions
Limitations of the research and potential risks
Overview of the process of change – Tying it all together
Risks and limitations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

107: Disentangling Codependency

How does it make you feel when you notice clients sinking into the quicksand of codependent relationships? Do you pull back from codependency with confusion or irritation? This researched-informed workshop brings codependency treatment out of the arena of the self-help world and into your clinical work. You’ll discover how to help clients move from codependency into self-recovery by learning to attune and respond to self with treatment strategies that include visual tools, self-reflection exercises, and skill-building to foster self-connection and a healthy self/other balance. You’ll learn:

Why codependency is about having a dominant external focus, how enmeshment and overfunctioning are different forms of this external focus

Practical techniques to help clients increase self-awareness, self-attunement, and self-connection

How to help clients develop assertiveness, improve their boundary setting skills, and manage guilt

Strategies for exploring four sources of codependency, including trauma

Program Information

Objectives

Identify the core characteristics of codependency, demonstrating an understanding of how it can manifest as enmeshment or overfunctioning in relationships.
Recognize four sources of codependency, including trauma, in client relationship dynamics.
Apply six strategies to support clients in increasing self-awareness.
Implement three skill sets for assertiveness, boundary setting, and guilt management to increase client self-competence.
Utilize three experiential exercises designed to increase client self-attunement and emotional insight

Outline

Key Characteristics of codependency

Current research, including limitations and potential risks
Recognizing codependency in our clients: a continuum of behaviors:

The consequences of over-functioning for others

Loss of Self in the Other: The impact of enmeshment on Self
Common fears driving enmeshment: The role of others

Conceptualizing codependency

Attachment, family roles, trauma and more

The importance of the therapeutic relationship
Developing treatment goals
Self-Recovery

Increasing self-awareness, self-competence and self-attunement
Assertiveness and boundary setting
Individuation and separating self from other
Managing guilt
Healthy autonomy, intimacy and connection

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

108: EFT for Emotional Regulation & Trauma Processing

What if you could give clients immobilized by trauma fast relief, without having to worry about retraumatizing them by rehashing what happened to them? Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) are some of the preeminent bottom-up energy psychology approaches for rapidly calming the body and restoring balance after traumainduced stress and anxiety. These techniques are easy to learn, backed by over 200 research studies, and have been used to treat everything from test anxiety to PTSD in veterans to survivors of genocide in Rwanda, plus they can be used with virtually any clinical population. In this workshop, we’ll explore how and why EFT works, as well as its many applications. We’ll also cover the two phases of EFT: using it to aid in emotional regulation and then using it to treat traumatic memories. You’ll learn:

The basic tapping protocol of EFT with clients
How to use energy psychology to reduce negative affect and process painful or traumatic events
How to integrate EFT’s different techniques into phase 1 and 2 of trauma treatment, as well as how to use it for treating anxiety and depression
How EFT stacks aspects of multiple approaches from Acceptance and Commitment therapy to Ericksonian Hypnosis

Program Information

Objectives

Demonstrate the basic tapping protocol of EFT
Outline the specific steps to using EFT to increase self-regulation, reduce negative affect and aversive symptoms
Summarize key research findings on EFT’s effectiveness in treating anxiety depression and trauma
Describe the steps of the Personal Peace Procedure, demonstrating awareness of how it can be used for treatment planning
Explain how EFT mechanisms of action involve“stacking” multiple integrative clinical skills in addition to body-activation via “Tapping”
Summarize current theories on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying EFT’s therapeutic effects

Outline

Energy Psychology as a Mind-Body Approach to Trauma Healing

Definition and characteristics of EFT
Comparisons to other models
The “two modes” of EFT
Risks and limitations

The Theory and Research on EFT and Energy Psychology

Summarizing key findings
The clinical and neuroscience mechanisms of EFT

Diving Deeper into the Self Regulation Mode

Integrating EFT into Phase 1 of trauma treatment
Types of symptoms that can be treated via self regulation

Learning the basic EFT Protocol

The tapping points
The set up statement
The stance of the therapist
Experiential practice of the self-regulation mode

Diving Deeper into the Root Cause Mode – Working with Specific Traumatic Events

Video demonstration of the “tell the story technique”
How to manage emotional intensity while working with trauma
Clinical Acumen, presence and the fine print
How to go beyond technique and be present with clients
Ethical and clinical issues with timing, attitude, possibilities and
limitations.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

109: Hope as Medicine

Whether your clients are stuck in trauma, mired in depression, or grappling with chronic pain, chances are they’re feeling hopeless about their predicament. But how do you actually cultivate hope as a clinical goal in therapy? Hope isn’t just wishful thinking. It’s a biologically rooted, spiritually grounded, and culturally relevant force that leads to measurable healing. In this experiential workshop, we’ll explore the science and soul of hope. You’ll learn practical ways to cultivate hope in sessions, using personalized exercises, reviewing case examples, and testing out storytelling, writing, and integrative healing tools that use hope as not only a clinical strategy, but a radical act of love. You’ll also learn how to:

Explain hope from cultural, neurobiological, and spiritual perspectives

Apply hope-building practices with families and communities

Help clients explore their conceptualization of hope through writing and peer dialogues

Help clients begin to write new self-narratives imbued with hope from the very first session

Program Information

Objectives

Identify key clinical, cultural, neurobiological, and spiritual definitions of hope, distinguishing among their application in therapeutic contexts
Analyze how the presence or absence of hope impacts the therapeutic relationship and client outcomes.
Apply at least three tools or practices to foster hope in individuals, families, and communities.
Identify common clinician attitudes, beliefs and emotional responses related to hope, evaluating how they may influence therapeutic presence and decision making.
Apply the concept of “hope as medicine” by selecting appropriate interventions or language in response to specific clinical case scenarios.

Outline

Understanding the Science and Spirit of Hope

Define hope through neurobiological, cultural, and spiritual lenses
Examine the role of hope in recovery from trauma, depression, and chronic pain
Discuss hope as a measurable, evidence-informed therapeutic construct
Explore cross-cultural understandings of hope and resilience

Clinical Applications of Hope in Practice

Introduce hope-centered interventions for individuals, families, and groups
Integrate guided writing, narrative reframing, and therapeutic storytelling
Use hope as an anchoring tool in the first session and throughout the therapeutic journey
Practice peer dialogue techniques to foster shared hope in group settings

Experiential Tools for Healing with Hope

Engage in structured journaling and reflective writing exercises
Utilize mindfulness and guided imagery practices to evoke a felt sense of hope
Explore therapist self-reflection practices to stay hopeful in difficult cases
Participate in small group exercises to try on hope-centered interventions

Ethical Considerations and Clinical Limitations

Discuss limitations of the research on hope and integrative approaches
Identify populations or clinical situations where hope-based strategies may be insufficient or misapplied
Explore potential risks, including bypassing grief or minimizing systemic trauma
Reflect on how to use hope responsibly and ethically in diverse clinical settings

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

110: Writing to Heal

Writing is one of the most powerful tools for healing the aftereffects of a traumatic past. When clients put language to their experiences, they reclaim their story. In this workshop, you’ll explore the therapeutic potential of narrative writing, poetic expression, and creative reflection both as a tool for clients who’ve experienced shame and trauma and for preventing your own burn out as a clinician. Drawing from somatic psychotherapy, attachment theory, and expressive arts therapy, we’ll unpack the power of writing as both a clinical intervention and a personal path to post-traumatic growth. Through structured writing exercises, you’ll learn how to help clients:

Use writing prompts to release toxic shame and create narratives of resilience

Experience the neurobiological and psychological impact of writing as a trauma recovery tool

Re-author identity after trauma and prevent burnout

Apply techniques to transform past stories into creative acts of agency and art

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the neurobiological and psychological impact of writing as a trauma recovery tool.
Utilize therapeutic writing prompts that help clients identify and process shame-based narratives.
Utilize narrative practices to support re-authoring identity after trauma and preventing burnout
Incorporate expressive writing into clinical sessions to support integration and healing.
Apply writing-based techniques to help clients transform their past stories into creative acts of agency and art.

Outline

The Science and Structure of Narrative Healing

The Psychology of Storytelling
How narrative therapy intersects with trauma recovery.
The difference between trauma narrative and trauma reenactment.
Research on expressive writing
“The story I learned to hide” – uncovering early messages of shame.
The safe container for vulnerability in writing.

Shame and the Broken Mirror

Shame as a somatic and relational response to early invalidation.
How shame narratives distort identity and perpetuate isolation.
Setting therapeutic goals: witnessing, empathy, integration.
The “inner child letter” technique for reparenting the wounded self.

From Story to Symbol—Transforming Pain into Art

Re-Authoring the Self Through Creative Narrative
Techniques for narrative disruption and self-authorship.
Supporting clients in rewriting the ending of a trauma-based story.
Emphasize ownership, not erasure.
Being author of your own life
Burn out and its poetic distillation

Integration and Closure

Narrative expression as completion and appreciation, celebration of life.The importance of embodiment in narrative healing. Techniques for closure, boundaries, grieving and containment.

Risks and Limitations of the Research

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

111: The Creative Self in Therapy

In therapy, as in art, people often get blocked, stuck in repetitive patterns, and cut off from their natural source of creativity. Getting unstuck is a matter of improvising. Improvisation is a creative leap of faith that often leads to fresh discoveries and insights. In this experiential workshop, you’ll learn how to use visual art, embodied expression, and courageous experimentation to tap into your intuition. Along the way, you’ll discover how this process parallels tapping into your innate creativity as a therapist, and how you can help clients leave judgment behind to access the hidden strengths of the creative self. No prior art-making experience is required! You’ll explore:

Nonjudgmental and playful approaches to creating art that jump-starts curiosity and experimentation
How to engage with imagery with an attuned, therapeutic presence
How to select art materials that support therapeutic goals
Nonthreatening ways of connecting with verbally shut-down trauma survivors

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Justify expressive therapies and their role in clinical treatment.
Explain how art can bypass verbalization and access implicit, traumatic memory.
Utilize nonverbal approaches to respond to and contain emotional activation.
Summarize the ways the creative process can build resilience and strengths in clients.
Utilize art materials with purpose and intention to support therapeutic goals.

Outline

An experiential introduction to expressive therapies

Understand ethical considerations for introducing art materials into therapeutic work

How to stay embodied and attuned within the creative process

Strategies for responding non-judgmentally and therapeutically to
the personal imagery produced by self and others

Strategies for building emotion regulation, grounding, and resiliency through art

Understand art materials you can bring into therapy to strengthen your therapeutic work

Limitations of the research and potential risks

Copyright : 03/19/2026

112: Embodiment Tools for Therapists

Embodied therapists mindfully connect to present-moment experiences and gain valuable insight by focusing on the wisdom of the body—their own and their clients’. In this workshop, you’ll explore somatic attunement through a range of expressive dance, movement, and integrative art activities. Through various movement experiences, you’ll develop your innate ability to attend empathically to clients, respond authentically, and translate nonverbal experiences into cognitive insights. Whatever your clinical approach, you’ll learn body-mind exercises that can be integrated into any practice. Discover:

Movement techniques to be more fully present and self-aware when working with trauma, anxiety, depression, and other clinical issues
How to use kinesthetic empathy to better understand and gather information about what your client might be feeling in that moment, or the intensity of emotions held in your client’s body
New methods to stay grounded and centered in sessions

Program Information

Objectives

Explain three movement techniques to be more fully present and self-aware when working with clients.
Describe how kinesthetic empathy can be used to increase understanding and gathering information about clients.
Explore specific movement and dance-based methods to stay grounded and centered in a session to enhance clinical outcomes.
Describe the role of witnessing as taught through the authentic movement model and how it might enhance the client’s experience of ‘being seen’.
Demonstrate at least two new movement and body-oriented exercises designed to expand your ability to attune with clients.

Outline

Movement and body-oriented techniques to facilitate presence and selfawareness

Walking meditation
Body scan guided imagery
Guided breathing exercises
Guided movement warm-up

Kinesthetic empathy to improve understanding and gathering information about clients

Observe and attune
Feeling Garden – Observe/Embody

Movement and dance-based methods to stay grounded and centered in a session

Grounding movements

The role of witnessing

Dyad and large group authentic movement experience

Movement and body-oriented exercises designed to expand your ability to attune with clients.

Authentic Movement and witnessing skills
Feeling Garden-Observe/Embody
Flocking
Mirroring exercises
Partner and Group Sculptures
Dyad work: sharing weight, push/pull exercises

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2026

Special Afternoon Keynote: The Future of Forever

Historically, marriage—a forever commitment—has played a central role in our individual lives and societal structures. But these days, the very concept seems to be under revision. What does “forever” look like in an age that prizes personal happiness? How do we help clients discern whether marriage is right for them? And perhaps the biggest question of all: what’s the purpose of marriage in today’s world anyway?

In this groundbreaking panel, three of today’s most influential voices on love, boundaries, and self-growth bring fresh perspectives to the evolving landscape of marriage. Alexandra Solomon, a clinical psychologist, has pioneered the field of relational self-awareness. Diego Perez, known to millions as yung pueblo, is a New York Times bestselling author and poet whose writing on self-discovery and emotional growth has made him one of the most resonant voices of the “healing generation.” And bestselling author Nedra Glover Tawwab is a leading authority on boundaries and healthy relationships.

Together, they’ll chart a new vision for what marriage can mean today—not as a rigid tradition, but as a conscious, flexible, and deeply human commitment.

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate at least three prevailing cultural shifts that are transforming the meaning of marriage and intimate commitment.
Explain how the constructs of relational self-awareness, boundary integrity, and self-healing/autonomy contribute to modern healthy partnerships and how therapists can integrate these frameworks into marriage-related clinical work.
Apply two practical decision-points or interventions when working with clients (couples or individuals) to help them clarify whether, how, and why marriage might be a purposeful choice in their unique relational context.

Outline

Cultural shifts: Rise of individualism, autonomy, self-growth, flexible relational forms.
What does “forever” mean now, is marriage still the default and why might it matter (or not) in this age?
Relational Self-Awareness (Alexandra Solomon): How individuals enter relationships as systems, grow awareness of self-in-relation
How individual emotional growth, healing, and independence inform how one shows up in commitment.
How clear boundary-work supports mature intimacy, respect, autonomy within relational commitment.
Helping clients navigate marriage in the age of individualism
How to help clients reflect on values, relational expectations, commitment meaning.
Using relational self-awareness questions, boundary mapping exercises, self-healing readiness checks.
Learning to ask the right questions of those prospective couples
Visioning the future of marriage – and helping clients choose (or not) with clarity, dignity and relational integrity.
Risks and limitations of the research

Copyright : 03/19/2026

Keynote Address: Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Consulting Room

Few people have done more to promote awareness and advance public understanding of the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) than Nadine Burke Harris, California’s first Surgeon General and the founder of San Francisco’s Center for Youth Wellness, which uses groundbreaking, evidence-based strategies to treat ACEs and toxic stress. According to Burke Harris, any trauma treatment is incomplete without understanding how ACEs can affect brain development, the immune system, hormonal systems, and even the way our DNA is read and transcribed. They cause lifelong harm to our mental and physical health, manifesting in poverty, abuse, depression, and much more, a point she’s brought to life in interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Ezra Klein, and Dax Shepard.

In this eye-opening keynote, Burke Harris will break down what science can teach us about mitigating the effects of ACEs as well as what we can do to change the future of integrative care.

Program Information

Objectives

Summarize the prevalence of ACEs.
Determine what characterizes the toxic stress response and how ACEs can lead to toxic stress.
Identify factors that are associated with reduced risk of medical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes.

Outline

What constitutes ACEs
Summary of ACES research and limitations of research
Long-term effects of toxic stress
Ensure all care is trauma-informed

Copyright : 03/20/2026

201: Interpersonal Neurobiology in Action

How can you bring a transformative combination of hope, healing, and personal reinvention to your therapy practice? These are cornerstones of the revolutionary, multidisciplinary approach known as interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB), and in this workshop, you’ll learn how to bring these qualities to your own work, guided by psychotherapist and author Sally Maslansky and her former therapist, IPNB developer Dan Siegel. Through moving stories of survival and recovery, they’ll share the different sides of a therapeutic journey from a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder to healing and a fuller sense of self. They'll explore how dynamic IPNB approaches can treat trauma and dissociated self-states not from the perspective of symptom management, but from a place of flexibility and hope.

You’ll learn:

How to assess and treat disorganized attachment
How to work with implicit memory and facilitate neuroplasticity
How healing manifests as “integration” and how to spot it
Techniques to support clients in their independent, lifelong practice of healing

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Describe how disorganized attachment (fear without solution) contributes to dissociation and the development of DID
Differentiate between implicit and explicit memory systems, demonstrating awareness of the role of the “making sense” process in helping clients integrate traumatic experiences into coherent narratives.
Utilize the Wheel of Awareness to support neuroplasticity, emotion regulation, and earned secure attachment in session.

Outline

Opening Dialogue: Setting the Stage

Common assumptions of DID and dissociation
Reframing DID

How DID Emerges: Attachment, Memory & Survival

Defining disorganized attachment in terms of fear
Lived experience of DID as a survival adaptation
Introduction of implicit memory
The making sense process: creating coherence from fragmentation
Interactive Q&A: reframing dissociation as survival

The Science of Integration

IPNB definition of integration: honoring and linking differentiated elements
Sally’s personal examples of integration in healing
Clinical dialogue: integration vs. “parts work”

Memory, Neuroplasticity & Mindful Awareness

Implicit vs. explicit memory in recovery
Harnessing neuroplasticity: “neurons that fire together wire together”
Sally’s use of mindfulness & the Wheel of Awareness
Guided experiential practice

Attachment & Security

Four S’s of secure attachment
Earned or learned secure attachment across the lifespan
Sally’s journey from disorganized to earned/learned secure attachment

Clinical Caveats & Risks

Risks and Limitations
Importance of pacing
Recognizing clients’ windows of tolerance
Group dialogue: navigating

Copyright : 03/20/2026

202: Polyvagal Interventions for Trauma

Many of our clients who enter therapy feel overwhelmed, shut down, or emotionally dysregulated. From the very first moment we begin our work with them, embodied, attuned interventions can mean the difference between healing and retraumatization. This workshop integrates Polyvagal-informed interventions through a phase-based trauma recovery model, offering a neuro-informed roadmap to help our clients heal from trauma. You’ll learn to translate the science of safety into interventions that help clients foster stabilization, deepen their capacity for resourcing, and support memory reprocessing and integration. Whether you’re in the early stages of developing a therapeutic relationship or further along, these tools provide a grounded clinical compass for working with clients recovering from complex trauma. You’ll discover how to:

Support clients in dysregulated states using polyvagal strategies through a phase-based mode of trauma care
Apply these interventions from the get-go, even when the therapeutic relationship is still forming
Use tracking, titration, and pendulation to gently build your clients’ capacity for emotional regulation and integrate traumatic material
Blend nervous system regulation strategies into your existing clinical framework to enhance client safety and improve therapeutic outcomes

Program Information

Objectives

Explain the principles of Polyvagal Theory and describe how they inform a phase-based approach to trauma recovery.
Analyze the research on non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS), and implications for therapeutic intervention.
Demonstrate an understanding of dyadic synchrony by identifying key therapist behaviors that foster autonomic co-regulation and vagal tone in client interactions.
Identify signs of autonomic dysregulation in clients and select appropriate polyvagal-informed interventions to promote stabilization and safety.

Outline

Foundations of Polyvagal Theory and Phase-Based Trauma Care

Overview of core Polyvagal Theory concepts and the science of safety
How to track the autonomic nervous system and interpret client cues
Structuring trauma recovery using a phase-based approach

Embodied, Attuned Clinical Interventions

Practical resourcing and stabilization techniques grounded in Polyvagal Theory
Using tracking, titration, and pendulation to support memory integration
Therapist behaviors that build dyadic synchrony and co-regulation

Integrating Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Nervous System Practices

Research overview on non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS)
Clinical applications: breathwork, yoga, movement, and somatic tools

Considerations for Practice

Recognizing signs of autonomic dysregulation and tailoring interventions
Limitations of the research and potential risks
Guidance for ethical and culturally responsive application in diverse client contexts

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/20/2026

203: Embracing Goodness in Relationships

We often focus on helping couples navigate conflict, pain, and disconnection in relationships—but what about moments of tenderness, joy, and goodness? For many clients, intimacy, kindness, and vulnerability feel deeply threatening and unfamiliar—even more uncomfortable than “negative” feelings and experiences. This workshop explores the protective function behind many clients’ tendency to reject or sabotage goodness in relationships, whether they’re giving or receiving it. You’ll learn how to help clients build the capacity to receive and give goodness in romantic relationships (as well as other relationships). You’ll discover how to help clients:

Explore early attachment/origin stories that contribute to goodness feeling threatening
Shift the nervous system coding that perceives goodness as a threat
Identify their habitual protective strategies that sabotage or push away closeness
Expand their window of receptivity and tolerance for goodness through interventions that cocreate relational safety

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the psychological mechanisms underlying clients’ tendency to break contact with experiences of “relational goodness”
Identify protective behaviors/strategies the clients may use to avoid receiving or offering goodness and what function it serves.
Apply at least two somatic or attachment-based interventions to support clients in expanding their capacity for relational goodness.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

Why “goodness” (tenderness, kindness, joy) can feel threatening
The paradox: why conflict may feel safer than intimacy
Identifying client strategies that push away closeness (withdrawal, criticism, over-functioning, humor, shutdown)
Understanding the protective function vs. pathology
Case examples of “goodness avoidance” in session
Using micro-moments of relational attunement to build tolerance
“Cocreating safety” as a prerequisite for receptivity
How to help couples reframe and interrupt cycles of sabotaging goodness
Shifting from defensive reflexes to vulnerability and repair
Risks and limitations

Copyright : 03/20/2026

204: The Grief We Don’t Name

As we grow older, change often arrives as a slow accumulation of losses: empty nests, ending careers, changing roles, health shifts, and fading friendships. Grief lives here, in the daily aches and pains, in the moments we feel left behind, and in the first time we say, “I can’t do this anymore.” And yet, this grief often goes unspoken, dismissed as a natural process of living and aging. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to name, recognize, and guide your clients through the often-unacknowledged grief that comes with growing older. Along the way, you’ll learn how to bring presence, permission, awareness, and concrete tools to your work with transitions that don’t often receive rituals, recognition, or repair. With strategies and spaciousness, you’ll learn how to name what’s hard and honor the quiet grief of aging. You’ll also explore:

Somatic practices to help clients express what words cannot always reach
How to help clients manage grief in the body, including physical limitations, sensory changes, and medical diagnoses
How aging often stirs up grief from earlier in life, and how to meet it with care
How to make space in sessions for meaning and identity

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

Naming the Grief We Don’t Name

Common unspoken losses in aging: role shifts, functional changes, social contraction, identity transitions
Intake prompts to surface hidden grief without pathologizing
Validating language that normalizes disenfranchised grief

Meaning, Identity, and Mortality

Values and meaning prompts for life transitions
Legacy and role-continuity exercises (e.g., brief letter, “meaning map”)
Non-impositional stance toward existential and spiritual themes

Accessible Somatic Practices

Gentle seated movement and breath work to support regulation
Titration, pacing, and “stop/slow/safe” cues to prevent overwhelm
Adapting for pain, balance issues, dizziness, and medical limitations

Session Integration and Ethics

Simple session arc: acknowledge loss → regulate body → explore meaning → small action
Micro-rituals and at-home practices clients can repeat
Documentation language that honors unspoken grief

Limitations of the research and potential risks

Objectives

Identify at least three indicators of unspoken grief related to aging (e.g., role loss,functional decline, identity shifts)
Apply two evidence-supported interventions to reduce distress and enhance meaning in clients navigating age-related change.
Demonstrate three brief somatic/mind-body micro-interventions adapted for limited mobility to down-regulate arousal within five minutes.

Copyright : 03/20/2026

205: Understanding Detachment Styles

What does a healthy breakup, separation, or divorce look like? While attachment theory has revolutionized our understanding of how clients form relationships, we've overlooked a crucial piece: how they end them. Research shows that the way people detach whether through dramatic exits, peaceful transitions, or emotional ghosting profoundly impacts their selfconcept, resilience, and future relationship patterns. In this workshop, you’ll discover why some clients repeatedly find themselves in chaotic breakups while others vanish from relationships without explanation. You’ll also explore your own detachment patterns as you gain the clinical clarity needed to guide clients through one of life's most challenging yet growth-promoting experiences: transitions and letting go. Whether clients frame this process as detachment, transitioning, ending, pruning, or re-bucketing, each carries different emotional weight and therapeutic implications. You’ll learn to help clients:

Recognize which of the seven distinct "detachment styles" they engage in
Approach endings in ways that are healthy and promote growth through interventions targeted to their particular “detachment style”
Create personalized transition and ending plans in low-stakes relationships before applying these skills to major life transitions
Match your clients’ unique ending style with precise clinical language

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Differentiate among seven detachment styles based on behavioral and narrative patterns in clients,
Develop personalized ending plans for clients navigating relationship transitions, using structured assessment tools and treatment planning techniques
Analyze how a therapist’s personal detachment style may contribute to countertransference, demonstrating awareness of its potential impact on therapeutic boundaries and decision making

Outline

I. Rethinking Endings in Clinical Practice

II. The Seven Detachment Styles: Patterns, Origins, and Impact

III. From Insight to Intervention: Tools for Therapeutic Application

IV. Clinical Considerations and Limitations

Copyright : 03/20/2026

206: Integrating Sex Therapy into Clinical Practice

Talking about sex isn’t easy. On the therapist’s end, it may trigger countertransference, bias, and projection. Couples who try—and fail—to talk about it effectively can face frustration as negative patterns repeat themselves, leading to destructive behaviors. Therapists need training and tools to intervene when their clients are struggling with sexual dilemmas. This workshop will offer you a range of powerful interventions for addressing client’s sexual concerns, frustrations, and desires, helping both individuals and couples improve their relationships. We’ll review the basics of the integrative sex therapy model and cover interventions and techniques that foster effective, ethical therapeutic relationships with clients struggling with sexual issues. We’ll also explore creative ways of integrating this work into clinical practice. You’ll learn to help clients:

Improve their social, emotional, sexual and intimacy skills
Discuss intimacy conflicts in ways that promote understanding
Identify whether desire issues are showing up as pleasure denial, pleasure avoidance, or pleasure rejection.
Move through the three levels of desire treatment, and the stages of recovery

Program Information

Objectives

Identify evidence-based intervention approaches for addressing sex and intimacy conflicts within couples.
Analyze the role of social, emotional, sexual and intimacy skills in interpersonal relationships and how they affect couple dynamics.
Select appropriate clinical interventions for addressing desire discrepances, sexual trauma and monogamy challenges.
Describe three levels of desire treatment and the corresponding stages of recovery in therapy.

Outline

Clinical Strategies for Addressing Sex and Intimacy Conflicts

Assessment tools for identifying sexual dissatisfaction and intimacy avoidance
The Sexually Satisfying Experience )SSE) model
Interventions for couples in conflict around mismatched sexual desire or sexual avoidance
Case examples t

Enhancing Relational Intelligence Through Social, Emotional, and Sexual Skills

Core skills of emotional attunement/sexual empathy in couples therapy
Body-based awareness and somatic tracking to reconnect partners
Dialogue exercises to support trust around erotic needs and vulnerabilities

Addressing Desire Discrepancy, Sexual Trauma, and Monogamy Conflicts

The impact of trauma on arousal and desire
How to provide trauma-informed care
The spectrum of monogamy agreements and how to repair erotic betrayal
Supporting diverse sexual identities and values

Desire Frameworks and Recovery Stages in Therapy

Three Levels of Desire: Physical, Emotional, and Erotic/Imaginative
Recovering desire in long-term relationships
The stages of sexual healing and relational repair

Acknowledgement of Limitations

Limitations of the research and potential risks
Cultural and individual variability in sexual values and trauma responses

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/20/2026

207: Clinical Perspectives on Antisemitism

In recent years, Jewish therapists and clients have reported a marked increase in encountering antisemitic bias—both subtle and overt—within their professional and personal spheres. This panel brings together Jewish clinicians to share their lived experiences and those of their clients, offering a candid look at how antisemitism can shape the therapeutic space. Through personal narratives and clinical reflections, we’ll explore how Jewish identity, safety, and belonging intersect with therapeutic work. The discussion will focus on the clinical and relational dimensions of the experience of antisemitism and provide practical insights for navigating these issues with compassion and competence. You’ll discover:

Strategies to create a supportive, informed space for Jewish clients navigating discrimination or bias
How to address clinical themes that arise for Jewish clients when addressing identity, safety, and belonging in therapy
How experiences of antisemitism may affect Jewish therapists’ professional roles and emotional well-being
How to support Jewish clients while managing personal emotional responses

Program Information

Objectives

Describe how experiences of antisemitism may affect Jewish therapists’ professional roles and emotional well-being.
Identify clinical themes that arise for Jewish clients when addressing identity, safety, and belonging in therapy.
Apply strategies to create a supportive, informed space for Jewish clients navigating discrimination or bias.

Outline

Scope of the panel and professional context
Antisemitism inside and outside the therapy space
Impact on professional identity and therapeutic presence
Common clinical themes: safety, trust, belonging, identity
How antisemitism manifests in client narratives
Navigating disclosures of bias or discrimination
Supporting Jewish clients while managing personal emotional responses
Integrating cultural humility and awareness into practice
Risks and Limitations
Resources for ongoing learning and support

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/20/2026

208: A Tool for Navigating Ethical & Legal Challenges

Have you ever faced an ethical or legal dilemma that left you scared or confused? As therapists, we strive to abide by ethical codes, laws, and licensing rules, but it’s hard to prepare for every possible ethical dilemma we may face. In this workshop, you’ll be introduced to a process that will help you work through any ethical or legal dilemma you may find yourself in with confidence and clarity. The interactive format involves small-group discussions and role plays to work through challenging professional situations using he multiple perspective decision making process. You’ll learn to:

Evaluate challenges and identify choice points in ethical and legal situations
Apply a practical, user-friendly process to your decision-making style
Gain clarity and confidence in how to handle legal and ethical challenges in your practice
Foresee ethical and legal problems and avoid potential consequences

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the five primary perspectives for practical ethical decision-making.
Discuss how to navigate professional codes of ethics, federal and state laws, and licensing regulations.
Determine ethical and legal courses of action for vignettes through use of a decision-making model.

Outline

Navigating any ethical-legal situation – The essential perspectives

Ethical – The role of professional associations
Legal – You don’t have to be a lawyer, just an informed navigator
Clinical/therapeutic – What you (should) know about your client
Policies – Informing clients and tying it all together
Therapist issues – What’s going on with the clinician?

The relationships of codes of ethics, laws, and licensing rules

Sorting out codes of ethics – What you need to know (but may not)
Surveying the legal landscape – Knowing a little can save you a lot
Federal privacy laws – Common unrealized vulnerabilities
Different states, different laws!
Think like a licensing board
Civil suits and the standard of care – One size does not fit all

Clinical vignettes – small groups

How to approach the vignettes
Apply the Model -- small group discussions
Putting it all together
Tips and recommendations

Risks and Limitations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/20/2026

209: IFS as Daily Practice

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a transformative, evidence-based approach that empowers and supports clients to explore their inner worlds and resolve internal conflicts. This workshop is designed to help clinicians deepen their understanding of IFS and make it a practical, daily tool for clients outside of therapy sessions.

What You’ll Learn:

Daily IFS Practices: Discover concrete, easily shareable exercises clients can use independently to manage stress, navigate emotional triggers, and strengthen their Self-energy.
Compassionate Inner Relationships: Gain strategies to help clients identify and build supportive relationships with their protective and vulnerable inner parts, influencing daily emotions and behaviors.
Habit Science Integration: Learn to apply habit science by designing micro-practices, habit loops, and environmental cues that foster compassionate inner dialogues and support nervous system regulation.
Clinician Self-Leadership: Explore methods for managing your own internal parts that arise in clinical work, modeling Self-leadership for clients.

The workshop features engaging demonstrations, experiential exercises, and focused discussions, providing IFS interventions you can immediately incorporate into your practice.

This event is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Objectives

Teach clients at least three concrete daily practices to independently manage stress, navigate triggers, and cultivate Self-energy.
Demonstrate strategies that help clients identify and build compassionate relationships with their protective and vulnerable inner parts.
Apply habit science principles to help clients design micro-practices, habit loops, and environmental cues for compassionate inner dialogues and nervous system regulation.
Manage their own parts that arise in clinical work and model Self-leadership effectively.

Outline

Integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy into Daily Practice

Overview of IFS principles relevant to ongoing client growth
Importance of sustaining therapeutic gains between sessions
Role of the clinician in supporting independent client practice

Practical Tools and Techniques for Clients

Introduction to simple, actionable daily practices for stress management and Self-energy cultivation
Guidance on using micro-practices and habit loops to reinforce new behaviors
Suggestions for environmental cues that promote compassionate inner dialogue

Deepening Client Self-Awareness and Inner Relationships

Approaches for helping clients recognize and understand their protective and vulnerable parts
Methods for fostering compassionate relationships with different aspects of the self
Strategies to encourage ongoing self-reflection and emotional regulation

Clinician Self-Work and Modeling

Techniques for clinicians to manage their own internal parts during sessions
Ways to model Self-leadership and emotional resilience for clients
Reflection on the impact of clinician self-awareness on therapeutic outcomes

Risks and Limitations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/20/2026

210: The New Science of Interoception

How often do you bring a client’s sensation into their awareness beyond a basic body scan or when they’re experiencing a strong emotion? It turns out, there are many more applications than you might think—particularly when it comes to treating trauma and attachment wounds. In this workshop, you’ll learn about the power of interoception—the conscious awareness of bodily sensation—and the latest neuroscience research that backs it up. Using video of real sessions and short dyad practices, you’ll learn not only how to engage your clients’ interoceptive process, but when and how to apply these transformative techniques in a range of clinical scenarios. You’ll discover:

How sensory-based techniques can help clients manage emotional flooding
Specific questions that give clients access to interoception
Interoception exercises to help clients connect to their authentic Self
Interoception exercises to help clients enhance attachment-based communication

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Evaluate the clinical relevance of interoception in the context of emotion regulation, trauma processing and mental health treatment
Apply at least five interoceptive-based inquiry questions in clinical scenarios to enhance client emotional awareness and integration
Select appropriate attachment-informed and regulation-focused clinical exercises to support affect regulation

Outline

Speaker Introduction

Limits of the research and potential risks / COI information

Define Interoception: Early research and new neuroscience

Interoception Interventions in Practice

Interoceptive awareness qualities
Interoception lists
Interoceptive clinical questions

When and How to Add Interoception into any therapy practice

Emotions
Attachment
Regulation

Copyright : 03/20/2026

211: EMDR for Racial Trauma

We know that intergenerational trauma impacts the nervous system and our emotional well-being. But when it comes to clients of color, how do we address complex layers of grief, joy, and racial trauma in a culturally sensitive manner? In this workshop, we’ll answer this question through an EMDR lens that incorporates the principles of healing justice. Using EMDR’s structured protocol, we’ll explore how practical, evidence-based techniques can be used in combination with cultural and ancestral healing practices to support resilience and transformation for clients of color. This hands-on walkthrough of “EMDR for the Ancestors” will not only provide you with an in-depth understanding of how systemic racism affects mental health, but give you practical healing techniques that will help your clients create a holistic healing narrative. You’ll learn:

How to incorporate this form of EMDR into your existing therapeutic framework

Somatic practices that engage the body’s wisdom and promote emotional regulation

How to work with a client’s internalized oppressive beliefs and help them tap into empowering ancestral strength

How to adapt your approach based on diverse client needs and measure a client’s progress

This course is not affiliated with EMDRIA and does not qualify toward EMDRIA credits or training.

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify at least three psychological and somatic manifestations of racism-based traumatic stress on mental health.
Apply EMDR principles in combination with ancestral healing practices to address internalized oppressive beliefs and strengthen cultural identity.
Demonstrate at least two somatic practices that promote emotional regulation and engage the body’s wisdom.
Incorporate EMDR for the Ancestors into diverse clinical contexts, tailoring interventions to individual needs.
Evaluate client progress using culturally responsive outcome measures to assess the effectiveness of EMDR for the Ancestors.

Outline

Understanding Racism-Based and Intergenerational Trauma

Neurobiological and somatic impacts
Grief, joy, and the collective experience of racism-based trauma

EMDR and Ancestral Healing

Adapting EMDR’s structured protocol with cultural sensitivity
Integrating ancestral narratives and belief systems

Somatic Practices for Regulation

Breathwork, grounding, and body-based interventions
Connecting somatic wisdom with EMDR phases

Clinical Application and Evaluation

Practical demonstrations and hands-on practice
Strategies for adapting to diverse client needs
Culturally responsive outcome measures

Limitations and Risks

Gaps in empirical research on ancestral adaptations
Risks of cultural appropriation
Need for informed consent and therapist self-awareness

Copyright : 03/20/2026

212: Therapy Beyond Binaries

If you’re in practice today, you’ll likely have clients with identities, experiences, and neurotypes that may have only been addressed in your clinical training from a pathological or defective lens, if mentioned at all. Especially if our clients’ identities and experiences differ from our own, a lack of updated knowledge about affirming practices can easily affect the therapeutic alliance, which we know is the most important factor for effective therapy. In this workshop, we’ll explore a relational framework to nurture the therapeutic alliance with a range of clients, especially if they’re trans, queer, and/or neurocomplex—as it’s these clients who have too often been harmed by more traditional therapeutic approaches. Join us and discover how to:

Identify and use culturally attuned language and practices when working with trans, queer &/or neurocomplex clients
Apply systemic, trauma-informed, intersectional, and decolonial lenses to your work to improve clinical outcomes for all your clients
Support clients in addressing issues of gender, sexuality, and neurocomplexity in their day-to-day lives
Strengthen the therapeutic relationship and nourish yourself in new and surprising ways

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify culturally attuned language and practices around gender, sexuality, and neurocomplexity;
Apply systemic, trauma-informed, intersectional, and decolonial lenses to analyze case examples
Assess how to best support clients in addressing issues of gender, sexuality, and neurocomplexity;
Identify strategies to strengthen the therapeutic alliance with trans, queer, &/or neurocomplex clients.

Outline

Setting the container

Acknowledgements
Somatic grounding
Guidelines for engagement
Limitations of research, framework presented, and potential risks

Shifting the frame

From pathology to ecology: challenging traditional models of mental health
Shifting language but also mindset, including ontological and epistemological paradigms
Why applying systemic, trauma-informed, intersectional and decolonial lenses can improve your clinical outcomes: the role of the therapeutic alliance revisited

Reframing in clinical practice

How to apply this reframe and understanding in clinical practice
Potentials and pitfalls inherent in this approach

Evaluating our own practices

Copyright : 03/20/2026

213: Stopping the Pathway from Anxiety to Depression in Teens

The likelihood of an anxious child becoming a depressed teen/young adult is high. In fact, comorbidity is the rule rather than the exception, and the combination of anxiety and depression increases the risk of many bad outcomes, including symptom severity, family conflict, substance use, and suicide risk. While some researchers look at anxiety and depression as separate disorders, a preventative and transdiagnostic approach helps us go after early risk factors and commonalities, like passivity, avoidance, and social isolation. In this workshop, we dive deep into the pathways of how anxiety and depression team up to shut down our young people, so we can actively help our clients interrupt their predictable and overlapping patterns. We’ll focus on how to:

Craft engaging take-home assignments for teens and young adults
Spot negative patterns instead of resorting to reductive diagnostic labels
Quickly boost teenage clients’ mood using communication and relationship-based strategies
Counter the powerful and harmful mental health paradigms of permanence and identity

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify overlapping patterns of anxiety and depression that predict greatest adverse outcomes.

Create active assignments for teen/young adult clients to address avoidant behaviors.

Include family, social connection and support when setting treatment goals and designing homework.

Outline

Overlapping Patterns and Processes: Seeing the Forest of Comorbidity

The pathway of avoidance
The quest for certainty
Prevention means knowing the risk factors
When therapy mirrors the disorder we’re treating

Therapy as Active and Social

Leveraging the desire for connection
When too much thinking becomes the problem
Creating assignments from the first session
How to include family, friends and other supports

Current Trends that Make Functioning Worse

Beware the language of permanence
Concrete ways to develop mood management
The risk of elimination strategies and lists of “techniques”
Teens need accurate information (and where to find it)

Copyright : 03/20/2026

214: Coercive Control & Post-Separation Abuse

Coercive control—the foundation of domestic abuse—is characterized by one person systematically exerting power and control over another through psychological manipulation, financial and legal abuse, physical and sexual violence, and the weaponization of children against a parent. When victims of a coercively controlling relationship try to leave the relationship, perpetrators intensify their tactics, making separation one of the most dangerous times for survivors—a phenomenon known as Post-Separation Abuse (PSA). Tragically, institutional systems meant to protect victims—such as family courts, child protective services, and law enforcement—can become yet another tool in the abuser’s toolkit for further abuse. In this workshop, you’ll get a comprehensive understanding of coercive control dynamics and common therapist blind spots. You’ll explore the most effective interventions in coercively controlling relationships, and discover:

Common tactics abusers use to harm protective parents and their children, including how they leverage the judicial system to exert control
The impact on children of living in a family where one parent is an abuser and how you can help them
How to work through trauma resulting from coercive-controlling dynamics so that you can interrupt the intergenerational transmission of trauma

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify the defining characteristics of coercive control and post-separation abuse (PSA), including the specific tactics used to harm protective parents and their children
Recognize how abusers leverage the judicial system to exert control and harm protective parents and their chidlren
Assess for indicators of emotional, cognitive and developmental harm experienced by children exposed to coercive-controlling family dynamics.
Describe how working through trauma resulting from coercive-control dynamics can lead to interruption of intergenerational transmission of trauma

Outline

I. Understanding Coercive Control: Definition and Dynamics

A. Core Definition and Characteristics

Pattern of behavior to maintain power and control over another person
Intentional diminishing of an individual's personhood
Physical violence not required as defining characteristic
Historical context: legal evolution from "family matter" to criminal justice issue

B. The Abuser's Playbook: Tactics Across Three Phases

Gaining Control: Love bombing, isolation, claiming victim status
Maintaining Control: Psychological abuse, gaslighting, financial control, monitoring
Regaining Control: Vexatious litigation, custody battles, DARVO tactics, parental alienation claims

C. Spectrum of Abusive Behaviors

Psychological abuse and manipulation
Control of time and space
Isolation from support systems
Financial abuse
Legal system abuse
Weaponization of children

II. Impact on Victims and Children

A. Adult Victim Experiences

Trauma bonding and cognitive dissonance
Betrayal blindness as survival mechanism
Common victim behaviors: over-explaining, defensive responses, emotional overwhelm
Distinguished from perpetrator characteristics

B. Children as Co-Victims

Domestic abuse as greatest precursor to child maltreatment
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) impact
Malicious fracturing of attachment
Trauma bonding with abusive parent as survival strategy

C. Post-Separation Abuse (PSA)

Continued control after relationship ends
90% of cases experience PSA
Highest risk period for injury or death
Four main categories: endangering children, harassment/intimidation, undermining parenting, financial withholding

III. Judicial System Challenges and Misinterpretation

A. "High Conflict" vs. Coercive Control Cases

These are NOT high conflict cases
One party drawn toward, not away from, conflict
75-90% of contested custody cases involve domestic abuse
Distinction between mutual conflict and power/control dynamics

B. System Failures and Court Responses

Joan Meier Study findings: Courts credit mothers' abuse reports less than 50% of time
Child abuse reports believed only 27% (physical) and 15% (sexual) of time
73% custody loss rate when parental alienation claims are credited
Institutional betrayal through system responses

C. Pathology of Coercive Controllers

Dark Tetrad traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism
Gendered oppression and patriarchal power structures
Revenge motivation: "If I cannot control you, I will control your children"

IV. Evidence-Based Assessment and Protective Responses

A. Risk Assessment Tools and Indicators

DASH Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment
Homicide Timeline and Mosaic Threat Assessment
Trauma assessments (ACEs, trauma history)
Personality trait evaluations

B. Key Judicial Inquiry Framework

Who has been the primary protective parent?
History of substantiated domestic/child abuse?
Financial power imbalances and litigation abuse?
Third-party observations and authentic relationship history
Assessment of each party's core identity and coping mechanisms

C. Protective Legal Responses

Legislative progress: Coercive control criminalization in multiple states
VAWA with Kayden's Law and state-specific protective legislation
Trauma-informed judicial decision-making
Belief in victim accounts and protection of children

D. Statistics Highlighting Urgency

3 women die daily from domestic violence
72% of murder-suicides involve intimate partners (94% female victims)
92-94% of homicides involve prior controlling behaviors
Children going between protective parent and controller are abuse victims

Copyright : 03/20/2026

Friday Luncheon Address: Trauma & The Soul of a Nation

In this timely and provocative keynote, renowned psychiatrist and trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk will explore the deep psychological wounds that are currently eating away at the heart of American and global societies—and the implications for psychotherapists today. Drawing from decades of clinical work, neuroscience, and cross-cultural research, he will make the case that healing personal trauma is inseparable from addressing the current erosion of our social systems that make a great society. Through a blend of clinical insight and cultural reflection, this keynote will offer a powerful reminder of the social role of therapy—and the impactful role we can all play in a country and a world that has disconnected from the heart of what makes life great.

Copyright : 03/20/2026

301: Frontiers of Trauma Treatment

For many trauma survivors, traditional talk therapy only goes so far. To facilitate lasting healing, clinicians must understand how trauma reshapes the brain and nervous system—and how to work directly with these changes. In this transformative workshop, we’ll draw on cutting-edge research to explore three emerging approaches that target the physiological roots of trauma: sensory integration, neurofeedback, and psychedelic-assisted therapy. Using real-world clinical examples, video case illustrations, and interactive discussion, you’ll gain practical tools to help clients access regulation, rewire trauma patterns, and reclaim a sense of agency. Plus, you'll learn how to assess which clients are best suited for these interventions and how to integrate them into your existing clinical framework.

Discover:

The neurobiological and sensory effects of trauma that underlie symptoms of PTSD
How neurofeedback supports self-regulation and emotional integration
The mechanisms by which psychedelic-assisted therapy disrupts trauma loops and enhances neural flexibility
How to apply body-first interventions that can augment and accelerate traditional therapy

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify three key neurobiological changes caused by trauma, demonstrating awareness of how these changes impact clients’ emotional regulation and relational functioning.
Explain the core principles of neurofeedback, demonstrating awareness of how they relate may benefit self-regulation in individuals with trauma histories.
Describe the current evidence base for psychedelic-assisted therapy, including at least two potential therapeutic benefits for clients with treatment-resistant trauma.
Demonstrate two practical, body-focused techniques that can be integrated into existing therapeutic approaches to support trauma processing and nervous system regulation.

Outline

How trauma alters brain structures (amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex)

Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system

Sensory fragmentation and its impact on self-regulation & relationships

Principles of neurofeedback (monitoring brain waves, reinforcing regulation)

Evidence base from developmental trauma and PTSD studies

Clinical applications: emotional integration, reducing hyperarousal, enhancing stability

How psychedelics disrupt trauma loops and promote neural flexibility

Key research findings on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD

Clinical considerations: safety, therapeutic setting, and client suitability

Sensory integration strategies to restore regulation

Risks and limitations

Copyright : 03/20/2026

302: Unmasking Narcissism

Many clinicians struggle to treat narcissism because it’s so often misunderstood—and in the case of covert narcissism, frequently overlooked. More troubling still, this lack of understanding often leaves therapists unprepared for the deeper work: helping narcissists of all stripes take responsibility for the damage they do in both love and life. But if you know what to look for, there are inflection points: moments that can make or break the treatment. Once you learn to spot them, working with even the most defensive or combative clients becomes far easier—and far less daunting. Drawing on recent research and new insights into covert narcissism, this workshop offers practical strategies for growth and transformation in narcissistic clients. You’ll discover:

A four-stage model for reducing defensiveness and reaching narcissistic clients, whether they're aggressively bombastic or quietly withdrawn.
Powerful tools to help narcissistic clients express emotion and form secure attachments.
How to avoid common therapeutic pitfalls and foster genuine connection—even with the most challenging presentations

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify the core psychological mechanism underlying all forms of narcissism, demonstrating awareness of its implications in therapy.
Distinguish among various forms of narcissism based on key behavioral, emotional and relational patterns.
Select appropriate interventions to activate blocked or latent emotional capacity in narcissistic clients.

Outline

Understanding the Inner World of Someone with Covert Narcissism

Introduce covert narcissism as a defense against shame, not a lack of emotion.
Highlight how emotional invisibility, longing, and fear contribute to an overreliance on self-enhancement as a survival strategy.
Clarify how fear of rejection and unmet attachment needs shape defensive patterns in clients.

Reducing Anxiety to Soften Defenses

Teach how to help clients track anxiety in their bodies to lower defensive rigidity.
Use of “What would you feel if you weren’t anxious?” to promote deeper emotional access.
Link physiological regulation (e.g., reduced tightness in chest) to increased openness and trust.
Emphasize that somatic anxiety tracking is a prerequisite to accessing more vulnerable states.

From Content to Process: Deepening the Therapeutic Relationship

Redirect focus from external complaints to the emotional experience in the room..
Model attuned responses (e.g., “Your eyes look sad—I can see how much it hurt to hear that.”) to build attachment security.
Use evocative prompts to invite clients to reflect on their experience of the therapist (e.g., “What do you feel from me as you tell me about this?”).
Demonstrate how presence, attunement, and empathic witnessing help reduce grandiosity and underlying fear.

Creating Corrective Attachment Experiences

Invite memory-based imagery to separate client identity from narcissistic defenses.
Use imagined reparenting (e.g., “Can you see that six-year-old?”) to access disowned sadness, fear, or longing.
Provide opportunities for clients to receive care and validation in real-time with the therapist.
Help clients shift from proving worth through performance to allowing authentic connection.

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks

Lack of longitudinal data on covert narcissism treatment outcomes.
Difficulty in engaging clients with extreme defenses or comorbid disorders.
Risk of retraumatization if interventions (e.g., memory recall) are not carefully paced and attuned.
Importance of therapist training in attachment-based and emotion-focused work to reduce countertransference enactments.

Copyright : 03/20/2026

303: Polyvagal-Informed EMDR

EMDR and Polyvagal Theory have been game-changers in trauma treatment—and when combined, they create a neuro-informed framework for case conceptualization, treatment planning, and client transformation that should be in every therapist’s toolkit. Even when a client is resourced and ready for EMDR, the work can stall because their nervous system is distressed. In this workshop, you’ll learn an evidence-based, polyvagal approach to working with the autonomic nervous system during EMDR, moving beyond theory and into the real, messy, embodied experience of trauma reprocessing. We’ll explore how to spot blocked processing, pace bilateral stimulation according to the client’s bodily cues, and use your own regulated presence as a clinical tool.

You’ll also learn how to:

Track subtle nervous system shifts during the different phases of EMDR
Use somatic pacing strategies to help clients who are stuck, shut down, or flooded
Help clients feel safe and connected to you during memory reprocessing
Identify how your own nervous system affects clinical attunement and the rhythm of therapy

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/20/2026

304: Helping Your Clients Achieve Emotional Maturity

Because adult children of emotionally immature, self-absorbed parents tend to cope by over-compensating, and over-functioning, they may seem like they can handle anything. They tend to be self-reflective and self-aware, but their development has suffered from the premature expectation that they put other people’s needs first. In therapy, it’s easy to focus on their strengths, missing the profound loneliness and the low self-confidence lurking under the surface of their high-functioning presentation. In this workshop, you’ll learn to help adult children of emotionally immature parents process their dysregulated emotions and connect with a stronger sense of self, thereby restoring stress tolerance, capacity for deeper relationships, and feelings of entitlement to a meaningful life. You’ll also learn to help these clients:

Recognize the negative impacts of emotionally immature parents on their self-development, emotional awareness, and capacity for authentic emotional intimacy
Resolve sources of anxiety that undercut their ability to be honestly authentic and assertive with others
Feel healthily entitled to having their emotional needs met, as well as to their right to make decisions that may be unpopular with others

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Discuss the negative impacts of emotionally immature parents on their adult children’s self-development, emotional awareness, and capacity for authentic emotional intimacy with others
Identify the five areas of optimal emotional maturity where ACEIPs typically have trouble
Describe the process of helping clients build their capacity to be honestly authentic and assertive with others
Utilize methods to help ACEIP clients feel healthily entitled to having their emotional needs met, as well as to their right to make decisions that may be unpopular with others

Outline

Emotional Immaturity

Emotionally immature (EI) Characteristics, types of EI parents, types of Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents (ACEIP)

What is Emotional Maturity?
Effects on Adult Children who become therapy clients

Impact of emotional maturity on children and adult children
Self-development, emotional awareness, emotional intimacy affected
Problems with boundaries, stating preferences
Lowered ability to know own mind, excessive anxiety and self-doubt
Shame around needs for connection and support
Freezing, fawning, people pleasing
Interpersonal inauthenticity, imposter syndrome, self-consciousness
Inhibited self-expression and assertion
Excessive self-sacrifice, guilt, and moral obligation

Roadmap to rebuild the self (Psychoeducation, IFS, AEDP, Coherence therapy)

Emotional maturity goals
Knowing the self, feeling the feelings
Keeping the self-connection
Challenging self-subjugating and self-effacing beliefs
Clarifying emotionally mature relationship values and goals

Special considerations

How to handle questions of estrangement
Healthy entitlement without guilt; inner reparenting and empathy

Risks and limitations of the research

Copyright : 03/20/2026

305: Updating Your Autism Lens

Autistic adults, many of whom have slipped through the cracks of outdated diagnostic models, are seeking therapy in record numbers. And given that traditional therapy interventions often fail—and can even harm—these high-masking clients, it’s critical that we update our thinking on how to best support them. This workshop will challenge what you think you know about Autism and introduce a modern, affirming framework rooted in identity, not pathology. We’ll replace ineffective generalist therapy techniques with strategies designed specifically for Autistic clients to help you build a more responsive and inclusive clinical practice. With clinical tools you can use immediately, you'll walk away with sharper insight, better language, and a new lens that serves your clients. You’ll discover:

How to update your language, lens, and diagnostic tools to better serve misdiagnosed and marginalized clients.
How to identify previously unrecognized markers of neurodivergence and how to address unique, internalized traits that present in assessment and therapy.
How to unlock therapeutic pathways to identity-based acceptance, including how to recognize and navigate diagnostic grief
How to help clients soothe a nervous system “on fire” and support sensory sensitivities, complex presentations of anxiety, and comorbidities, such as eating and substance use disorders
How to tell the difference between Autism burnout and misdiagnosed conditions like depression, generalized anxiety, trauma, or personality disorders, and and why it matters.

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Examine updated language, diagnostic criteria, and therapeutic frameworks to better serve misdiagnosed and multiply marginalized Autistic clients.
Identify overlooked internalized markers of neurodivergence in high masking adults, and address their implications for assessments and therapy.
Integrate sensory-based and trauma-informed strategies for nervous system regulation snf co-occuring conditions, including eating disorders and substance use disorders.
Facilitate identity-based therapy by supporting newly identified clients through discovery, grief, and the process of unmasking.
Challenge outdated generalist therapy models, by exploring Neuro-affirming, individualized approaches based on the Neurodivergent experience.

Outline

“Me First Thinking.” Modern Clinical Presentations of Autism

Review the evolution of Autism care and language and its implications for providers using outdated frameworks (medical model vs. social model).
Identify the limitations of available research and potential risks. Outline limited progress in awareness regarding clinical differences between the genders, as well as marginalized groups of Autistic adults.
Highlight the gaps in research and awareness, examining how stigma is impeding progress.
Define Autistic masking and delineate the differences between camouflaging and compensating
Explore the clinical challenges presented in “high masking” clients as well as “atypical presentations of Autism”
Examine how negative and stereotypical portrayals of Autism in the media contribute to hindering progress.
Analyzing the importance of labels while highlighting that pathologizing is not the solution.
Explore the intersections of marginalization and its impact.
Review clinical examples/case studies of Autistic clients, focusing on commonly encountered clinical presentations/differential diagnoses:
(ADHD, codependence, anxiety, depression, Borderline, OCD, Bipolar and ODD.)
Identifying mental health markers that are misunderstood in the context of generalized therapy.
Dissect the rise of self-diagnosis, and social media inspired assessments and their clinical implications
Identification and treatment of diagnostic grief, and the implications of late diagnosis on relationships, career, mental and physical health.
Limitations of research and potential risks of operating without evidenced-based practices designed for Neurodivergent adults.
Outline comorbid mental health conditions that may mimic and stem from Autistic burnout.

“The Power of One Person” Therapeutic Techniques

Define Neurodiversity-affirming therapy as a way to support Neurodivergent clients with a focus on acceptance and accommodation.
Explore the dangers of applying generalist techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Identify “green flags” of Autism as well as clinical patterns that may emerge, specifically those traits that are camouflaged other diagnostic presentations.
Explore Autistic communication patterns focusing on the uniqueness of social-emotional reciprocity
“Feature, Not a Bug”: Explore common Autistic traits that are not problematic, but can assist with identification and treatment planning ie: hyper-empathy, alexithymia, stimming, special interests, unique friendship patterns etc.
Examine the role of practiced-based evidence in the absence of evidence-based strategies.
Review the role of sensory-based therapeutic techniques to manage Nervous system regulation and trauma responses
Define the role of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria in the therapeutic relationship

“Believe them.” Trusting the client to dictate their Neurodivergent experience.

Explore the role of perspective between client and the world, provider and the individual, and how masking can prevent Autistic people from getting help.
Define and explore the role of accommodations in long-term management of social settings, educational settings, the workplace, home, and relationships
Review the differentiation between treating depression and burnout
Explore the unique interventions to assist clients in recovery from burnout, and how they differ from recovery from depression.
Explore the shortcomings of the DSM-V and how pathologizing Autism prevents us from creating a strengths-based therapeutic relationship
Nervous system involvement in the daily Autistic experience. Exploring the role of fight, flight, fawn and freeze.
The trauma of being Autistic: an overview of the 6 types of Autistic trauma.

“Give them Hope” Collaborative Care

Therapeutic Techniques for Neuro-affirming therapy
Identify common challenges with Neurotypical-based therapy practices.
Examine ways to be flexible in approach as needed for Neurodivergent traits
Introduce “grelief,” the grief/relief combo following diagnosis.
The identification and necessity of accommodations: community, sensory, educational, and occupational.
Review of double and triple empathy. Explore the implications of both as a barrier to communication.
Define collaborative care and identify the common barriers that impact identification, treatment, and collaboration
Explore the importance of supportive community networks, both in person and virtually
Identify resources that can empower clients to seek specialized care
Explore your role in assisting with advocacy and healthcare navigation

Copyright : 03/20/2026

306: What Babies Can Teach Us About Treating Trauma

Of all the mechanisms of human change and development, none is more formative than the process that unfolds between a parent and an infant child. Yes, your clients may be older, and you may not be their parent, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something valuable from these pivotal relationships—especially when it comes to treating trauma. In this workshop, you’ll learn a unique approach to trauma treatment that draws upon decades of research into parent-infant interactions. We’ll break down video segments from the groundbreaking “Still Face” experiment, exploring the relational dynamics that shape development. You’ll learn how to apply these findings in your own relationships with your clients.

You’ll also learn:

Why misattunement and repair are a central part of client growth
How micro-moments of connection can lead to transformative, healing shifts
How to work with trauma using real-time relational awareness
How to facilitate client growth by exploring mutual regulation and meaning-making

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Describe the concept of developmental change and its relevance to trauma-informed clinical practice.
Explain how adopting a developmental perspective influences clinical understanding of trauma’s origins, presentation and progression
Identify key ways a developmental perspective informs treatment planning and intervention strategies from trauma recovery.

Outline

1.Developmental change processes

2. Micro and macro ways to generate change

3. The impact of environmental experience on change processes

4 Social forms of trauma that make individuals vulnerable to an extreme putative traumatic event

5. Treatment strategies and sequencing

6. Risks and limitations

Copyright : 03/20/2026

307: Transforming Shame into Secure Connection

We know shame inhibits growth and connection. We can see and feel it happen in our therapy spaces every day. So how do we heal it? In this workshop, featuring videos of individual and couple sessions, you’ll learn how to harness the power of emotion and the wisdom of attachment science to contain and manage clients’ shame— and then dissolve it—freeing up space for healing growth. You’ll leave with a tried-and-true set of interventions and a clear roadmap to move your clients out of shame’s inhibitory grip and into resilience and the exponential expansion that follows safe connection! You’ll explore how to:

Help clients normalize and destigmatize shame by viewing it through an attachment lens

Bring the power of self-regulation and co-regulation into shame experiences
Follow a step-by-step EFT program for addressing, dissolving, and ultimately transforming shame into connection
Help clients create shame-free cognitive narratives that are foundational for secure relationships
Learn how to foster shame resilience

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Summarize the role of attachment in Emotionally Focused Therapy

Discuss the relationship between attachment and shame
Describe the process of resolving shame in EFT
Recognize somatic markers to measure progress in shame resilience

Outline

Introduction to Shame, Attachment Theory, Process of EFT
Understanding the Adaptive Function of Shame
Seeing the opportunity in working with Shame blocks
Key interventions to process Shame
Going Deeper- Stage Two Change Events
Overview of the Process of Change – Tying it all together
Risks and Limitations

Copyright : 03/20/2026

308: Demystifying & Working with Dissociation

Dissociation is one of the most common somatic and behavioral responses to trauma. Yet many clinicians understandably feel uncomfortable working with clients who go into a freeze response during session. With the right framework and tools, however, clients can get the support they need to move from a hypo-aroused state to one where they’re grounded and connected. In this workshop, you’ll explore strategies that give clients a greater sense of “choice” about their dissociation without leaving them feeling vulnerable or forced to give up a well-established coping response. You’ll discover:

Specific strategies designed to proactively help clients re-ground when they disconnect or go into a flashback, such as Milton Ericson’s protocol for moving away from reflexive dissociation
How to reduce shame about dissociative responses by learning how dissociation evolved as a coping response to trauma
The 5 core symptoms of dissociation and how to help clients relate them to their own experiences
How to work with countertransference when clients go into dissociative states, or when administering questionnaires like the Dissociative Experiences Scale

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Explain the evolution and ongoing need for dissociation in traumatized clients.
Explain why dissociation and freeze often evoke a subsequent shame response in trauma survivors.
Identify the 5 core symptoms of dissociation.
Implement the concept of “choice” that moves clients away from reflexive dissociation.
Describe the best way to implement the Dissociative Experiences Scale
Describe and implement specific strategies to address dissociation, including Milton Ericson’s flashback halting protocol for re-grounding.

Outline

Exploring our ability to dissociate

-dissociation and secure attachment

-fight/flight/fawn and freeze responses

-processing clients’ artwork

Trauma and the freeze response

-exploring the connection between freeze and shame

-dissociation as a “superpower”

The five core symptoms of dissociation

-understanding amnesia, de-personalization, de-realization and identity alteration

The “harbingers” of dissociation

-processing the somatic manifestations

-issues of co-morbidity and additional symptoms

Administering dissociation questionnaires

-tracking verbal and non-verbal responses

-processing the Dissociative Experiences Scale

Strategies for working with dissociation

-accessing the pre-frontal cortex

-introducing the concept of “choice”

Re-grounding with anchors

-resources for comfort and soothing

Additional strategies for re-grounding
Processing the Ericksonian Flashback halting protocol
Addressing dissociation during a therapy session

Copyright : 03/20/2026

309: Healing Trauma & Attachment Wounding with IFS

All parts are welcome in Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, even our exiles, the parts of ourselves that have endured the most significant trauma and that other parts of us often reject. Often, these young, vulnerable parts carry the painful belief that they’re unlovable, and heavy burdens of shame and worthlessness. Therapists and clients alike can feel hesitant, even fearful, to approach the memories exiles hold—yet doing just that is how transformative healing can occur. In this workshop, we’ll explore the IFS approach to witnessing, healing, and unburdening wounded and traumatized parts of the system.

You’ll learn to:

Help clients compassionately connect with exiles
Facilitate healing with preverbal and nonverbal parts
Help clients safely reprocess traumatic memories using IFS therapy techniques
Help exiles release painful, negative beliefs acquired through trauma

This product is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Objectives

Facilitate the formation of compassionate internal relationships between clients and their vulnerable, traumatized parts.
Utilize IFS therapy techniques to help clients safely reprocess traumatic memories.
Identify ways to assist clients in connecting with and healing preverbal and nonverbal parts.
Implement IFS therapy procedures for helping clients release deeply-held negative beliefs and emotions resulting from traumatic wounding.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy

Comprehensive, compassionate, non-pathologizing treatment approach

Paradigm-shifting perspective on “psychopathology”

Teach clients to access inner wisdom and self-compassion to heal traumatic wounds

Exiles

Wounded, vulnerable parts of the psyche

Burdens: Extreme negative beliefs, energies, emotions

IFS Therapy: Working with Vulnerable and Traumatized Parts

Limitations of the research and potential risks

Access a state of compassion and curiosity essential for healing

Establish a trusting relationship with wounded parts

Guide clients to safely witness traumatic wounding

Connect with and witness preverbal and nonverbal parts

Effectively reprocess traumatic memories

Unburden negative beliefs and emotions

Integrate of healed parts into the system

Post-healing follow-up

Copyright : 03/20/2026

310: AEDP Trauma Therapy in Action

Here’s a rare opportunity to witness a full trauma treatment case with both the clinician and the client in the room. Featuring real video footage of AEDP therapy sessions alongside live commentary, you’ll see the clinical process of trauma healing unfold from start to finish. You’ll hear directly from the client about what the work was like from the inside and Diana Fosha, founder of AEDP, will guide you through the techniques and markers of trauma processing and then transformation and then the consolidation of the transformation as they appear moment by moment. You’ll experience:

An unprecedented window into how trauma treatment is both practiced and experienced.
A dual-perspective format that will expand your clinical intuition and deepen your understanding of transformational affects
A step-by-step understanding of how AEDP treats trauma with a real life client
A rare opportunity to access the client's internal experience of the process of trauma treatment

Program Information

Objectives

Identify and describe at least three transformational affects that signal trauma healing in session.
Explain how portrayals can be used to access and repair traumatic experiences in the here-and-now.
Utilize metatherapeutic processing to consolidate and amplify moments of positive change in treatment.
Evaluate the therapeutic impact of interventions by understanding how they are experienced from the client’s perspective.
Apply key principles from the clinician–client dialogue to enhance therapeutic presence, timing, and effectiveness in trauma work.

Outline

AEDP and the trauma healing journey 
What are transformational affects? 
How affects provide clear markers for recognizing when patients are moving from trauma states into healing states. 
Video demonstrations to see transformational affects in real time 
Two specific AEDP approaches that you can begin using in practice 
Risks and limitations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/20/2026

311: Bridging the Divide in Couples Therapy

How do we move our couples from a problem-focused approach to one that honors dreams, connection, and the inherent mystery of being alive together? In this practical, interactive workshop, you’ll learn to leverage guided visualization and storytelling to shift your initial sessions with clients away from a litany of problems and struggles and into their highest vision for their relationship. You’ll be introduced to Hedy Schleifer’s Crossing the Bridge model – a pathway to Story Medicine, a powerful narrative healing tool, a framework that transforms the context of couples work from one of scarcity to one grounded in the principles of presence and genuine encounter. A facilitator’s guide (including scripts for exercises), three core pillars handouts (Facilitating the Wildest Dreams, The Anatomy of the Survival Dance, Guide to Bridge Crossing), and practical case examples will support you beyond this workshop.

You’ll emerge with tools that help clients:

Shift from a problem-saturated lens to a strength- and dreams-oriented approach to relationship
Recognize and understand archetypal conflict patterns in their “survival dance”
Shift out of blame and into curiosity about their shared dynamic
Drop into the “I-Thou” way of being and practice truly meeting with presence and awe

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Differentiate between problem-focused approaches and strengths- and dreams-oriented approaches in couples therapy based on core theoretical principles.
Select appropriate interventions to resolve relational conflicts using the “survival dance” framework.
Identify experiential techniques that promote presence, curiosity, and emotional attunement in couples during times of conflict

Outline

Shifting from Problem-Focus to Dream-Driven Work

Leveraging guided visualization to elicit clients’ highest relational aspirations

Introducing archetypal storytelling as a tool for reframing couples' narratives

Clinical strategies for moving initial sessions away from problem-saturated dialogues

The Crossing the Bridge Model & The Three Invisible Connectors

Overview of Schleifer’s connectors: the space, the bridge, and the encounter

Practical demonstration: setting up “crossing the bridge” rituals in session

Facilitator roles and scripts for narrative healing exercises

Tools and Techniques for Cultivating Presence and Connection

Using the “Wildest Dreams” exercise to foster generative listening and mutual vision

Techniques for making the relational space sacred and reducing emotional reactivity

Handouts and guides for ongoing use: “Facilitating the Wildest Dreams,” “Anatomy of the Survival Dance,” “Bridge Crossing”

Integrating, Limitations, and Ethical Considerations

Case examples: applying the framework across diverse couples and presentations

Limitations of the research and potential risks

Recommendations for integrating with evidence-based practices and respecting client autonomy

Copyright : 03/20/2026

312: Breaking the Cycle

The phrase intergenerational trauma has become a bit of a buzzword these days. But often, it feels more like a theory than a clinical issue to be addressed. In this interactive workshop, learn actionable clinical practices to help interrupt cycles of trauma and build a path toward healing. You'll walk away empowered to engage adolescents and families with deeper awareness, greater skill, and renewed compassion—in a way that recognizes the historic and systemic forces involved. Using real-world case examples and walking through practical, evidence-based interventions you can use immediately, you’ll explore the mechanisms of trauma passed through generations and how to respond intentionally, empathetically, and skillfully in a way that builds trust. Whether you work in a private practice, school, or community mental health setting, you’ll benefit from learning:

How trauma echoes across generations, and how it presents in adolescents and caregivers
How to respond to trauma-related behaviors—such as aggression, withdrawal, or emotional dysregulation—with compassionate, effective, nonpathologizing interventions
Practical, trauma-sensitive strategies to create emotional safety during sessions and avoid re-traumatization
The ethical considerations of treating multigenrational trauma in marginalized communities

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Recognize the impact of generational trauma on individuals and families
Articulate how trauma is passed down within families and communities
Identify common behavioral manifestations of trauma
Examine the clinical implications of trauma-impacted caregiving on child development
Utilize strategies for preventing re-traumatization

Outline

1. Understanding Intergenerational Trauma

Trauma can be passed down from one generation to the next, impacting family behaviors and responses.
Using real-life examples to help participants understand how past trauma shapes adolescent and family behaviors, especially in the criminal justice system.

2. Recognizing the Impact of Intergenerational Trauma on Adolescents and Families

Trauma affects not only the individual but also their family and how they interact with the criminal justice system.
Discussion on common signs of trauma to inform participants how to identify trauma responses like fear, distrust, and hypervigilance in adolescents and families.

3. Identifying Behavioral Manifestations of Trauma in Adolescents

Trauma shows up in behaviors such as aggression, withdrawal, or emotional dysregulation.
Provide examples of behaviors that help participants distinguish between behaviors stemming from trauma and other causes.

4. Exploring the Role of Family Dynamics in Trauma and Behavior

Family relationships influenced by trauma can affect how adolescents behave.
Discuss how family systems (e.g., intergenerational patterns of conflict) influence adolescent behavior and encourage the attendees to look beyond individual behavior and consider the broader family context.

5. Understanding Potential Mental Health Diagnoses Linked to Trauma

Trauma often leads to mental health diagnoses such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and more.
Explain common diagnoses and how trauma can lead to these conditions and equip attendees with the knowledge to recognize and empathize with mental health concerns related to trauma.

6. Applying Trauma-Informed Approaches to Interactions

Trauma-informed care focuses on creating safe spaces and responding with understanding.
If time permits, demonstrate trauma-informed techniques through role-play or video demonstrations and teach strategies like active listening and managing triggers to interact with adolescents and families effectively.

7. Building Empathy and Compassion for Trauma Responses

Trauma responses (fight, flight, freeze) can impact behavior and interactions.
Share personal stories and foster empathy and compassion to help the attendees approach behaviors without judgment or punishment.

8. Enhancing Team Collaboration for Holistic Support

A multi-disciplinary approach is essential for addressing the complex needs of families affected by trauma.
Illustrate how teamwork can promote collaboration among various professionals (e.g., probation officers, therapists) to provide comprehensive support.

9. Understanding Legal and Ethical Considerations in Trauma Work

Legal and ethical considerations, like confidentiality and cultural respect, are critical in trauma-sensitive work.
Discuss the importance of maintaining confidentiality and respecting cultural differences and ensure attendees are aware of boundaries and ethical responsibilities when working with vulnerable populations.

10. Developing Strategies for Preventing Re-Traumatization

Re-traumatization can occur if sensitive topics are mishandled; it’s crucial to minimize this risk.
Equip the attendees with strategies to avoid re-traumatizing adolescents and families during visits or interventions. Provide tips on managing difficult conversations.

Copyright : 03/20/2026

313: Porn in the Therapy Room

Pornography is one of the most common yet often unspoken elements shaping modern sexual narratives. Whether as a private behavior, a shared experience, or a source of conflict, porn use appears regularly in the lives of clients, yet many therapists feel uncertain about how to address it with clinical depth, nuance, and cultural sensitivity. In this workshop, we’ll explore the evolving role of pornography in clients’ lives, from healthy sexual exploration to problematic use that undermines connection, intimacy, and self-regulation. You’ll learn how porn consumption habits offer a window into clients’ sexual scripts, attachment styles, arousal templates, and relational expectations, as well as tools to assess, explore, and address porn-related concerns in both individual and couples therapy settings. Discover:

How to discuss porn without evoking shame or reactivity
How to navigate issues of betrayal, desire discrepancies, and mutual exploration around porn
How to work with couples around disclosure, boundaries, and healing ruptures
What to understand about ethical porn, feminist porn, and other subcategories that may inform client education and values-based decision-making

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Differentiate between normative and problematic pornography use using a biopsychosocial and developmental framework.
Identify how cultural narratives, shame, and therapist countertransference may impact therapeutic work with clients around pornography.
Apply at least two clinical strategies for working with individuals or couples experiencing conflict or distress related to pornography use.

Outline

The Landscape of Porn Use Today
Shame, Stigma, and the Therapeutic Frame
Working with therapist biases and discomfort
How porn influences masculine identity and sexual performance expectations
The relational dynamics and cultural impacts of porn for all genders
Differentiating Between Use and Problematic Use
Therapeutic Interventions and Clinical Approaches
Supporting clients without pathologizing desire or exploration
Working with couples around disclosure, boundaries, and healing ruptures
Learn how to use assessment tools such as The Pornography Use in Romantic Relationships Scale (PURRS)

Copyright : 03/20/2026

314: Healing Parent-Child Estrangement

Parent-child estrangement is a deeply painful and complex issue, with latest reports indicating that as many as 1 in 4 families are affected. Understanding and addressing these relational wounds can significantly enhance not just our clients’ mental health but the health of entire family systems and communities. This workshop equips clinicians to intervene at three leverage points: mapping the negative interaction cycle that drives disconnection, healing the underlying shame and fear that fuel it, and guiding families toward conversations grounded in curiosity, accountability, and calm power instead of worry. Participants will leave able to spot the subtle moves that widen the gap, teach clients how to own their part without self‑condemnation, and scaffold concrete next steps that honor safety while reopening doors to relationship.

You will discover:

A clear, research‑based explanation of why perceptions of “abuse” diverge so sharply between generations.
Effective communication strategies for addressing and resolving conflicts between adult parents and children
How to confidently assess when repair is possible and what boundaries are necessary for both a client’s and a parent's mental health
How to help clients express deep feelings in a way the other party can hear and understand.
How to guide families through the emotional healing process, turning negative emotions into opportunities for growth and reconnection

Program Information

Objectives

Assess for the impact of parent-child estrangement on client functioning
Utilize practical communication strategies to facilitate conflict resolution in parent-child relationships
Identify factors that help or hinder a client’s ability to express their emotions in a way the other party can hear and understand
Describe the process of emotional healing as it relates to parent-child estrangement

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

The Impact of Parent-Child Estrangement

Assessing the impact of estrangement

Determining the possibility of repair

Current research on parent-child relationships

Explanatory frames

The three leverage points

Risks and Limitations

Facilitating Conflict Resolution

Effective communication strategies

Mapping the “Negative Cycles”

Diagraming protective moves, hidden emotions, and turning points

Taking ownership

Tools for Emotional Healing in Estranged Relationships

Shifting worry into curiosity, validation, and permission

Turning resistance into productive discussions

Fostering reconnection

Supporting Clients in Navigating Complex Emotions

Skills for identifying and articulating underlying emotions

Guiding families through the emotional healing process

How to turn negative emotions into opportunities for growth and reconnection

Copyright : 03/20/2026

Evening Event: An Evening of Comedy

Copyright : 03/20/2026

Welcome & Keynote Address: The Power of the Therapeutic Moment

For decades now, Bruce Perry has illuminated how early relational experiences literally shape the architecture of the brain—building resilience or creating vulnerabilities that can echo across a lifetime. But the good news, Perry argues, is that the brain remains malleable, and carefully attuned therapeutic moments can spark deep and lasting change. 

Perry—child psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and coauthor with Oprah Winfrey of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Happened to You?—is internationally recognized for transforming how we understand trauma and healing. His groundbreaking Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics has reshaped clinical practice, education, child welfare, and even sports programs worldwide. With decades of research, bestselling books (The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Born for Love), and clinical innovation behind him, Perry brings unparalleled insight into how therapists can integrate neuroscience and relational wisdom to create conditions for recovery and growth. 

In this keynote, he’ll show how therapy works not just in theory, but in the living moment—where neuroscience meets empathy, and where even clients suffering the deepest trauma can rediscover their capacity to heal. 

Program Information

Objectives

Describe how early relational experiences shape brain architecture and influence resilience or vulnerability across the lifespan.
Explain the principles of neuroplasticity that make therapeutic moments powerful in facilitating healing for trauma survivors.
Identify at least two ways therapists can apply the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics to tailor interventions to a client’s developmental needs and neural state.

Copyright : 03/21/2026

401: New Advances in Internal Family Systems

Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy continues to evolve as a leading approach for trauma treatment, supported by growing neuroscience and clinical evidence. It’s among the most effective, targeted approaches to help clients find safe ways to connect to early childhood emotions, tapping into their innate wisdom and transforming negative beliefs to help them achieve lasting change. In this dynamic workshop, you’ll learn how to integrate IFS with neurobiological and trauma-informed care to deepen your understanding of parts work—whether you’re a seasoned IFS practitioner or just getting started. Blending didactic teaching and clinical demonstrations, we’ll walk through emerging techniques for working with extreme protectors, dissociation, and complex trauma, examining the latest research on memory reconsolidation and polyvagal integration in the process. You’ll learn how to:

Take a neuroscientific and polyvagal-informed approach to parts work
Use memory reconsolidation techniques to update traumatic imprints
Apply IFS with diverse client populations, including children, parents, couples, groups, and LGBTQ+ clients
Help clients access states of compassion and curiosity that are essential for healing

This event is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify two recent neuroscientific findings that support IFS therapy as a trauma treatment model.
Explain how memory reconsolidation processes can be integrated into the IFS model to facilitate trauma healing.
Apply at least one culturally responsive adaptation of IFS therapy for working with diverse client populations.

Outline

Neuroscience Meets IFS: Advances in Trauma-Informed Integration
1. Updates on brain-based research supporting IFS
2. Polyvagal-informed approaches to parts work
Working with Extreme Protectors and Dissociation
1. Identifying and unburdening highly polarized internal systems
2. Approaches for navigating dissociative barriers in trauma survivors
Memory Reconsolidation and IFS
1. Leveraging reconsolidation techniques to update traumatic imprints
2. Integrating somatic memory in parts-based healing
Clinical Demonstration and Case Discussion
1. Live or recorded example of advanced IFS trauma work
2. Audience Q&A and clinical integration strategies
Risks and Limitations

Copyright : 03/21/2026

402: Secure Love in Practice

Grounded in attachment theory and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), this workshop offers a clear, practical roadmap for helping couples build lasting, secure bonds. Therapists will learn to identify insecure attachment patterns, guide partners toward emotional responsiveness, and interrupt destructive cycles with language and interventions that foster connection rather than conflict. You’ll walk away with scripts, session structures, and therapeutic mindsets to help couples move from disconnection to attunement. This session emphasizes therapist attunement, co-regulation, and emotionally corrective experiences as essential to transforming relational distress into secure functioning partnerships. You’ll discover:

What a secure relationship really looks and feels like
The most common reasons couples get stuck
The deeper emotions and fears that “fuel” negative cycles
Help partners heal these blocks and move from insecure to secure
Tools to guide couples toward secure love

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Recognize common insecure attachment cycles as they present in couple therapy sessions.
Apply language and interventions that disrupt reactive patterns and facilitate emotional safety.
Identify clinical interventions to overcome three common therapist roadblocks.
Describe a step-by-step model for increasing security, attunement, and mutual responsiveness in couples.

Outline

Characteristics of secure functioning relationships
Identifying and Interrupting Reactive Cycles
Common escalations in couples
Modeling secure responses and creating a safe emotional container in session
Helping partners speak the language of attachment
Translating criticisms and shutdowns into attachment longings
Using “bottom-up” interventions to foster connection
Building Lasting Secure Bonds
Practicing emotional responsiveness and repair
Rewiring relational expectations through repeated safe experiences

Copyright : 03/21/2026

403: When Success Is a Symptom

Not all clients come to us in crisis; some come to us in control. These clients are composed, competent, and high achieving, yet beneath the surface, they’re over-functioning in every area of their lives: fixing, managing, caretaking, and producing at an exhausting, relentless pace. This over-functioning pattern is rarely flagged as codependent because it presents as hyper-responsibility or “just being helpful.” But it often comes at a high cost: burnout, resentment, anxiety, and emotional disconnection. In this workshop, you’ll explore a clinically informed approach to help clients break this pattern of high-functioning codependency by building healthy boundaries, shifting from compulsive doing to conscious being, and engaging in sustainable self-care. You’ll discover practical interventions to reframe what healthy “helping” looks like by helping clients:

Recognize “the competence mask” they present to the world and identify body cues that reveal relational stress
Rewrite the internal narrative that conflates value with output
Explore how chronic over-functioning erodes relational clarity and practice clinically grounded strategies for setting healthy, enforceable boundaries
Engage in personalized self-care that guides them back into their bodies and helps prevent burnout

Program Information

Objectives

Identify high-functioning codependent behaviors and the 'competence mask' in therapy clients.
Recognize early childhood patterns and relationship dynamics that drive codependent behaviors in adult clients.
Apply emotional awareness techniques to help clients identify triggers and secondary emotions that fuel codependent reactions.
Implement boundary interventions to help clients distinguish between healthy helping and codependent over-functioning.

Outline

Identifying & Understanding High-Functioning Codependency

Define HFC: Why your capable clients don't relate to traditional codependency
Recognize the "competence mask" - when doing everything looks like having it together
Identify HFC traits: feeling responsible for fixing everyone's problems, giving 'til it hurts
Spot the behaviors: auto-advice giving, auto-accommodating, anticipatory planning
Distinguish caring from codependent - when "being helpful" becomes compulsive

Root Causes and Relationship Patterns

Recognize family system dynamics that create HFC tendencies
Identify the narcissist-codependent attraction and why it's so compelling
Assess relationship patterns: over-functioning/under-functioning dynamics
Help clients connect the dots between past experiences and current behaviors

The Real Costs and Wake-Up Calls

Recognize when clients are living "life lite" - not fully present because they're managing everyone
Assess the cost to clients: burnout, health issues, resentment, missing their own lives
Understand the cost to others: turning people into projects, robbing them of autonomy
Identify the "glass ceiling" HFCs create for themselves through compulsive behaviors
Recognize crisis moments that can become breakthrough opportunities

Recovery Tools and New Ways of Relating

Build emotional resilience: help clients recognize triggers and regulate responses
Stop the "Auto-Fix" and practice empathetic listening instead of problem-solving
Teach boundary skills: saying "that's not mine to solve" without guilt
Practice surrender and allowing - letting others have their own experiences
Create sustainable self-care that prevents relapse into HFC patterns

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/21/2026

404: Ethics in Suicide Prevention & Loss Support

Supporting clients who’ve been impacted by suicide -- whether they’ve lost a loved one, survived an attempt, or live with chronic suicidal thoughts -- requires more than good intentions; it demands deep ethical reflection and culturally attuned practices. But the intense isolating and traumatizing experience that accompanies suicide can leave clinicians feeling overwhelmed, and liability fears and unconscious bias can silently compromise the therapeutic alliance. In this workshop, we’ll explore the evolving ethical landscape of suicide-informed care, drawing from contemporary ethics frameworks, cultural humility practices, and lived experience perspectives. By the end, you’ll walk away with tools that will help you safely, respectfully, and competently give support. You’ll also learn:

How unexamined cultural, religious, and personal biases can create ethical blind spots
How to apply foundational ethical principles like autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice in the context of suicide crises and recovery
How to navigate confidentiality, informed consent, and duty-to-warn issues
Best practices for accurate record-keeping
Ethical considerations when safety-planning

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Apply foundational bioethical principles to clinical dilemmas in suicide prevention, grief support, and end-of-life care.
Recognize and navigate ethical blind spots and biases that may compromise therapeutic alliances and perpetuate inequity in suicide-informed care.
Differentiate boundary crossings from boundary violations in suicide-related practice, including transference and countertransference, dual relationships, and clinician self-disclosure.

Outline

Ethical Foundations & Blind Spots

Objectives Covered:
- Identify unexamined biases
- Apply ethical principles (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice)
- Limitations of the research and potential risks
Examples of how religion, culture, and education shape blind spots
Small group activity: Spot the blind spot – real-life scenarios

Legal & Ethical Clarity in Crisis Response

Objectives Covered:
- Navigate confidentiality, informed consent, and collateral interviews
- Learn best practices in documentation
Case vignette: Ethical dilemma of workplace suicide disclosure

Transference, Countertransference & Lived Experience

Objectives Covered:
- Recognize emotional dynamics in suicide-exposed clinicians
Self-check tools for recognizing over-identification or avoidance
Strategies for supervision and self-disclosure

The Ethics of Rational & Physician-Assisted Suicide

Objectives Covered:
- Engage with the ethics of end-of-life autonomy
Define and differentiate: suicide, MAiD, rational suicide
Cultural, legal, and spiritual implications
Brief dialogue: Holding space vs. imposing values

Forced Treatment and Postvention

Objectives Covered:
- Integrate ethics crisis response
Cultural responsiveness and personal boundaries in care after a suicide
Ethical use of safety plans (collaborative, not coercive)
Worksheet: "What’s in your ethical compass?"

Wrap-Up & Commitments to Ethical Growth

Share one insight or change that clinicians will take forward
Optional anonymous reflection: "What ethical tension still lingers for you?"

Copyright : 03/21/2026

405: Discovering the Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary

“Did I sound stupid?” “Should I have sent that email?” “How do I look?” Why do we, and our clients, spend so much time feeling self-conscious and comparing ourselves to others? Why do we struggle to live up to inner ideals or outer standards, only to regularly feel not good enough and either ashamed of our shortcomings or stressed-out trying to keep our self-esteem afloat? The assumption that we can find lasting happiness by being more successful, likable, attractive, intelligent, or morally above reproach is so woven into our biology and culture that few of us notice it’s not actually true. Sure, having success or otherwise getting to think highly of ourselves feels good—but it's not a permanent feeling. In this workshop, we’ll zero in on how we and our clients can begin to step off the self-evaluation roller coaster. We’ll explore:

Techniques to help clients navigate the experience of failure, rejection, and shame, and shift toward an experiential rather than narrative self
Practical tools to help free clients from addiction to self-esteem boosts
Mindfulness and compassion strategies to help clients develop deeper relationships and greater comfort with vulnerability
How to help clients understand the evolutionary roots of preoccupation with status, social comparison, and self-evaluation

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Describe the evolutionary roots of preoccupation with status, social comparison, and self-evaluation.
Demonstrate techniques to shift toward an experiential rather than narrative self.
Identify practical tools to help free ourselves from self-evaluative concerns.
Describe strategies to help clients be less addicted to self-esteem boosts.

Outline

Identifying the universality of social comparison and its evolutionary roots

What Realms Define Me: Exercise for identifying criteria we use for self-evaluation and social comparison
Observing the problem with narcissistic recalibration
Becoming aware of how social media amplifies social comparison and self-esteem preoccupation

Mindfulness as a tool to shift perspective

Ways to identify the difference between the experience of narrative vs. experiential self
Understanding the neurobiology of different types of self-experience

Identifying the difference between self-compassion and self-esteem

How to cultivate self-compassion and diminish self-esteem concerns
Tools to interrupt self-esteem addiction

Cultivating the benefits of transpersonal awareness as an antidote to self-preoccupation

Increasing affect tolerance
Developing acceptance of parts
Gaining freedom from self-esteem concerns
Increasing safe social connection

Limitations of research and potential risks

While the interventions presented are based on empirical research, only some have been tested in randomized control trials
All suggested interventions are low risk and can be presented in trauma and culturally sensitive ways to minimize risk

Copyright : 03/21/2026

406: Partnering with Your Client’s Nervous System

Polyvagal Theory gives us a map of the autonomic nervous system, helping us understand how safety, connection, and defense shape a client's inner world and therapeutic possibilities. But how do we translate that map into moment-by-moment clinical decisions and interventions tailored to the unique needs of clients? In this dynamic, experiential workshop, you'll discover live demonstrations of polyvagal principles in action that will empower clients by increasing their access to cutting-edge self-regulation tools and strategies. You’ll learn how to:

Recognize neuroception cues and track and work with autonomic patterns
Identify the "autonomic story" beneath client symptoms
Shift from viewing challenges through a cognitive/behavioral lens to a lens rooted in the need for physiological safety and co-regulation
Help clients shift out of survival states

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Analyze the therapeutic benefits of shifting focus from client narratives and content to autonomic responses.
Demonstrate the use of autonomic mapping processes to track client autonomic response patterns.
Utilize co-regulation techniques that support clients in safely exploring survival states.
Apply specific polyvagal-informed interventions designed to activate the ventral vagal system and build capacity for regulation.
Implement autonomically-informed interventions that partner with the client's nervous system.

Outline

Use a practical framework for conducting a Polyvagal-informed therapy session
Recognize cues of neuroception and respond with appropriate clinical pacing
Help clients shift out of survival states using ventral regulation and co-regulation
Move beyond cognitive content to track and work with autonomic patterns
Apply concrete strategies for restoring connection and safety in the therapy room

Copyright : 03/21/2026

407: Somatic Trauma Therapy in Action

Do you ever find yourself getting stuck and exhausted with clients who’ve experienced trauma? You’re not alone. Traditional trauma approaches only get us so far when unresolved conflicts inevitably keep sabotaging our clients’ efforts toward healing. The truth is that stubborn trauma often requires complex treatment, not just standalone therapy. In this workshop, you’ll learn the essentials of somatic interventions, parts work, and EMDR, and how combining them in an integrative approach is the key to treating particularly stubborn trauma. We’ll also break down video demonstrations of these mind-body approaches to highlight how to apply concrete tools to support your trauma work.

You’ll discover how to:

Access and work with preverbal memories in therapy
Build powerful somatic and imaginal resources to support trauma healing
Integrate somatic repatterning, parts work, and EMDR Therapy for deeper, more effective treatment

This course is not affiliated with EMDRIA and does not qualify toward EMDRIA credits or training.

Program Information

Objectives

Identify clinical approaches for accessing and working with preverbal memories in trauma treatment.
Demonstrate how to build somatic and imaginal resources to support trauma processing and regulation.
Integrate somatic repatterning, parts work interventions, and EMDR Therapy techniques into trauma treatment planning.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/21/2026

408: Love at the Crossroads

Should I stay or should I go? Relational Ambivalence can arise at any point, whether someone is newly dating or has been married for decades. In our eagerness to help, it can be tempting to cast a “vote” on what we think the client should do. But the opposite of relationship ambivalence isn’t certainty—it’s patience. In this workshop, you’ll help clients find their own answers through exploring the cultural, interpersonal, and intrapsychic layers of their relational ambivalence. You’ll also learn concrete practices that can help partners loosen feelings of stuckness, counter negative self-talk, evaluate relationship blindspots, and make decisions with more clarity and ease. You’ll learn to work effectively with couples whose ambivalence creates an “effort mismatch,” with one partner advocating for change while the other wishing for acceptance of the relationship as it is. Exploring your own personal experiences “at the crossroads” will increase your understanding of what you bring to case conceptualization and treatment planning with relationally ambivalent couples. You’ll learn to help clients:

Explore self-trust through journaling and specific Relational Self-Awareness questions
Recognize the impact of internalized cultural beliefs on their attitude toward love and commitment
Reframe an effort mismatch as an opportunity for relational growth
Understand and transform their relational ambivalence into concrete, generative next steps

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Apply an integrative framework to assess and transform relational ambivalence in clinical cases.
Implement strategies, including journaling and The Empty Chairs exercise, to support clients in developing self-trust.
Analyze common emotional responses and cultural beliefs related to relational ambivalence.
Evaluate the role of effort mismatch in relational dynamics.
Select interventions that encourage clients to engage with relational ambivalence with curiosity rather than shame to facilitate individual and relational growth.

Outline

Review of the workshop and accompanying materials

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks

Introduction to Relational Self-Awareness (RSA)

Defining RSA
Why RSA is essential for today’s intimate relationships
How to work relationally when you only have one partner in the room
Putting today’s workshop in the context of Discernment Counseling

Working Definition of Relational Ambivalence

Contextualizing Relational Ambivalence within Larger Cultural Narratives about Relationships

Intervention tool: Psychoeducation about how cultural socialization shapes relationship expectations
Self-of-the-therapist work: What are your beliefs about relationships that impact how you approach clients struggling with Relational Ambivalence?

Conceptualizing Relational Ambivalence as Dynamic and Systemic

Within the client
Between the partners
Within the therapeutic relationship

Q+A

Relational Ambivalence as a Source of Stagnation and Disconnection

Intervention tools
- Personal Epistemologies
- Devotion to small choices
- Empty Chair exercise
- Reflection Questions
Self-of-the-Therapist work
- Resisting the urge to cast a vote
- Creating inner capacity to hold tensions
Listening client into clarity
Unpacking your “pull” in the context of your story

Relational Ambivalence as a Source of Growth and Intimacy

Intervention tools
Self-of-the-Therapist

Effort mismatch

Change partner vs Acceptance Partner
- How each partner views or judges the other
- FOO Wounds
- Core Fears
- Relational Blindspots
- Gifts to the Relationship
- Path of Integration
Top Down Interventions
Bottom Up Interventions

Q+A

Copyright : 03/21/2026

409: Personality Disorders from a Trauma Perspective

Research has shown a relationship between a history of childhood abuse and a later diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Sadly, clients who’ve suffered greatly in early relationships struggle to experience others as safe. Their intense emotions and impulsive behaviors are often feared by therapists trying to help them. And yet these clients are caught up in a private, internal battle: Do I trust or not trust? Do I live or die? Do I love or hate? Do I win or lose? In this workshop, you’ll be introduced to a nonpathologizing perspective on personality disorders, one that frames them as trauma-related disorders reflecting traumatic attachment. You’ll learn to:

Identify the effects of traumatic attachment on clients considered “personality disordered”
Understand the impact of traumatic attachment on the therapeutic relationship
Reconceptualize personality-disordered clients through a trauma lens
Apply mindfulness strategies and interventions from polyvagal theory, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, IFS, and TIST to help clients increase affect tolerance and decrease impulsive behavior

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Describe the long-term effects of trauma-related experience (Perl et al, 2023).
Discriminate between a personality disorder and a trauma-related disorder (Porter et al, 2020; Clemens et al, 2022; Krause-Utz, 2022).
Apply mindfulness-based interventions to help clients increase affect tolerance and decrease impulsive behavior (Goldberg et al, 2022; Balban et al, 2023).

Outline

Childhood trauma and traumatic attachment

The impact of traumatic environments on early development
Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system
Defensive responses to threat as an adaptation
Longterm effects of implicit traumatic memory

Understanding personality disorders as trauma-related disorders

Overlap between symptoms of disorganized attachment and symptoms of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders
Triggering of survival responses
Treating the behavior versus treating trauma-related symptoms
Acknowledging the trauma without the necessity to explore it

Mindfulness-based interventions as a treatment

Limitations and risks of a mindfulness approach
Helping clients to notice their impulses rather than act on them
Mindfulness-based somatic interventions for regulating impulses drawn from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Mindfulness-based parts interventions for increasing self-compassion drawn from IFS

Copyright : 03/21/2026

410: Decolonized Practice Demystified

Healing circles go beyond traditional therapy models to create a liberatory, decolonial practice that's especially resonant for marginalized communities. As a powerful form of psychoeducation, it reduces the stigma associated with many mental health issues, including loneliness, and fosters therapeutic cohesion. Therapists passionate about expanding their reach and exploring ways to make an impact off the couch will benefit greatly from learning more about this way to facilitate healing. In this workshop, you’ll engage in reflective exercises about yourself as a healing-circle facilitator, learn ways to honor the cultural experiences of marginalized groups, and explore real-world examples of healing circles that incorporate mindfulness, oral history, movement, and spirituality. Although the examples focus on meeting the needs of Black women, you’ll be invited to imagine how you can incorporate healing circles in your work.

You’ll discover how to:

Unlock the power of oral history archives and collective listening to create thriving community spaces beyond talk therapy
Experience contemplative practices like guided imagery and body mapping to help process tough historical topics in ways that feel relevant and impactful today
Consider what it can mean to commit to out-of-the-box, decolonial therapeutic practices that challenge the status quo
Uncover the unique mental health challenges faced by Black women—like racial trauma, ancestral grief, and the exhaustion of code-switching—by integrating decolonial frameworks that honor identity and lived experience

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Define Healing Circles, demonstrating your awareness of their form and function.
Discuss the clinical significance of Healing Circles for Marginalized Communities.
Describe how to utilize Oral Histories in your clinical practice.
Demonstrate an embodied healing practice you can use in your clinical practice to facilitate healing.

Copyright : 03/21/2026

411: Depth-Oriented Schema Therapy

The schema approach draws from cognitive-behavioral therapy, attachment theory, psychodynamic concepts, and emotion-focused therapies. And it’s uniquely effective with entrenched, chronic psychological disorders, eating disorders, intractable relationship and emotional problems, and personality disorders—in other words, clients who often get labeled as “difficult” or “resistant.” In this workshop, you’ll learn to navigate clinical challenges using powerful schema therapy interventions such as imagery, mode dialogues, empathic confrontation, bypassing avoidance, setting limits, adaptive re-parenting, anger confrontation, and behavioral pattern breaking. You’ll also be invited to reflect on how your own schema impacts the therapy relationship. You’ll discover how to:

Identify activating conditions that shaped early maladaptive schemas and schema modes
Link current problems with their innate makeup, early unmet needs, schemas, and coping styles
Make sense of self-defeating life patterns and emotional distress—and explore strategies for maintaining a sturdy, genuine, and healthy adult mode
Use schema therapy interventions for relapse prevention with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify early life experiences and activating conditions that contribute to the development of early maladaptive schemas and schema modes.
Discuss the potential interplay between current clinical concerns and a client’s innate makeup, early unmet needs, schemas, and coping styles.
Analyze recurring self-defeating patterns of behavior and emotional distress through the lens of schema theory.
Apply evidence-based schema therapy interventions for relapse prevention for individuals with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.

Outline

Overview of Schema Theory and Concepts:

Understanding Schema Theory
Evolution from CBT and Integration of other Evidence-Based strategies
18 Early Maladaptive Schemas – Defined

Assessment:

Identifying Schema Clusters in the Assessment Phase
Case Conceptualization – vignettes
The Therapy Relationship – demonstration of sturdy realness with challenging cases

Strategies:

Implementing Limited Re-Parenting and Imagery Re-Scripting
An Introduction to Schema Modes, in the context of BPD/NPD/Cluster C
Bypassing Detached Protector Modes
Confronting Anger Modes
The Use of Empathic Confrontation

Copyright : 03/21/2026

412: Spirituality in Therapy

Say your client asked if they could explore something deeply meaningful and potentially transformative with you? Of course you’d say yes, right? Well, there’s a good chance your clients are saying this without saying it—and too many of us are missing it when it happens. Even if your clients aren’t religious, they’re probably grappling with existential questions about who they are, where they belong, and what they believe. And if we feel unequipped, conﬂicted, or concerned about wading into these spiritual conversations, we’re missing incredible opportunities for healing. In this workshop, you’ll explore spiritual competence from a deep, nuanced framework, and learn an integrative approach that takes into account current research, ethics, culture, and the real-life complexity of many modern-day spiritual issues. You’ll discover:

How to apply a spiritually integrative lens to treatment planning, regardless of a client’s particular faith
Evidence-based narrative and relational frameworks for spiritually informed therapy
How to identify your blind spots and manage countertransference around religion and spirituality
How to engage with real-world scenarios to build conﬁdence in spiritual conversations

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify core spiritual and religious competencies grounded in current clinical research.
Examine common therapist blind spots, ethical tensions, and countertransference issues.
Learn how to apply a spiritually integrative lens to case formulation and treatment planning.
Explore strategies for working across religious differences and interfaith tensions.
Engage with real-world scenarios to build conﬁdence in spiritual conversations.

Outline

Why Spiritual Conversations Matter in Therapy

Your clients probably do want to explore faith, meaning, and belonging—even if they don’t say it
Tapping into spiritual or existential struggles can open doors to healing they didn’t know existed
Ignoring these deeper questions can leave clients feeling seen—but not fully understood

Clinical Skills: What You’ll Learn & Do

Gentle ways to invite clients into sharing their spiritual stories or questions
How to weave meaning, values, and beliefs into your case formulation and treatment plan
Spotting when a spiritual crisis is not a symptom—and when it might be
Working with spiritual practices (prayer, ritual, meditation) in ways that respect client autonomy

Therapist Self-Awareness: Spotting Blind Spots & Managing Bias

The subtle things that trip us up: discomfort, assumptions, or trying to "fix" belief
Quick ways to get clearer about your own spiritual lens—and how it shows up in sessions
Handling ethical dilemmas when your values differ from your client’s
Staying grounded: reflection, peer support, supervision, self-care

Bringing It Into Practice & Staying Safe

Handling real-world challenges: different belief systems, interfaith tensions, spiritual trauma
Interactive case exercises to practice and build confidence
Being transparent about limits: when spirituality isn’t a clinical “fix”—and how it might backfire
Naming risks: spiritual bypass, boundary issues, and the importance of ongoing competence

What You’ll Take Home

Real, usable tools for opening spiritual conversation with care and confidence
A grounded perspective on ethics, self-reflection, and client-centered practice
Ways to bring together mind, body, and spirit in everyday therapy sessions
A toolkit for helping clients explore deep questions in a way that feels safe, respectful, and meaningful

413: The Hidden Trauma of High-Masking Autistic Adults

Traditional trauma-informed care often misses the mark for Autistic clients. After all, for high-masking and late-diagnosed adults, trauma isn’t always rooted in one event. It’s chronic, layered, and born from a lifetime of camouflaging to survive in a world that misunderstands them. This workshop brings visibility to the nuanced and often invisible trauma Autistic adults carry, including the sensory, relational, systemic, and developmental wounds that are frequently overlooked in therapy. It also highlights the sensory accommodations, flexible communication styles, and up-to-date neurodiversity-informed lens that allow therapists to finally offer the safety, dignity, and validation that these clients need. You’ll discover:

Six distinct trauma types that appear in Autistic clients and how to address them without causing further harm
How undiagnosed Autism within families contributes to complex, intergenerational trauma
How to apply affirming, practical strategies to adapt existing trauma frameworks to meet the needs of Autistic adults in a safe and effective way
How to implement clinical practices that foster a more attuned and inclusive therapeutic environment for late-diagnosed Autistic clients

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Describe six forms of trauma commonly experienced by high-masking Autistic clients.
Explain how undiagnosed Autism within families contributes to complex, intergenerational trauma.
Evaluate the limitations of traditional trauma-informed models when applied without a Neurodiversity-affirming lens.
Utilize affirming, practical strategies to adapt existing trauma frameworks to meet the needs of Autistic adults in a safe and effective way.
Implement clinical practices that foster a more attuned and inclusive therapeutic environment for late-diagnosed Autistic clients.

Outline

• Introduce and review the transformation of “Modern” Autism, and how Autistic clients present in your clinical office in 2025

• Brief review of terminology, diagnostic challenges, and misconceptions

• Explore gaps/limitations of available research and potential risks.

• Evaluate evidence-based practice and how it differs from “practiced based evidence.”

• What is masking and why does it develop?

• The toll of performing neurotypicality to survive

• Introduction to trauma profiles that “look fine” on the surface

414: Future Forward Therapy

The beauty of psychotherapy lies in its capacity to guide people to the root of maladaptive patterns embedded in past trauma. Yet for some, these patterns are deeply entrenched and highly resistant to change.

This workshop introduces a novel future forward framework that supports clients to not just understand their history, but to also envision and explore who they feel called to become as a context for development.

In this workshop, you’ll discover how releasing victimization and stepping into a sense of agency can help clients create the life they desire.

You’ll explore:

Why resolving past trauma alone isn’t always sufficient for personal transformation
The role that identity deficits play in maintaining persistent trauma patterns
How to support clients as they explore a “positive possible self"
How to help clients self-mentor their younger, developmentally impaired parts
How to facilitate clients’ exploration of new, future-focused identity narratives
A proposed framework for future forward therapy

Program Information

Objectives

Apply a forward-oriented developmental framework, including interventions that help clients identify a “positive possible self” in an area of habitual difficulty to become “future-referenced and past-informed”.
Instruct clients in self-mentoring their younger, developmentally impaired parts, guiding them towards letting go of a lens of false meaning-making that contributes to maladaptive responses.
Differentiate between characteristics of the “traumatized self” and the “true self” to strengthen clients' alignment with their adaptive self-concept.
Identify common identity-based developmental deficits that underlie persistent maladaptive patterns and interfere with self-growth.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Lunch Address (Simulcast): Narcissism Beyond the Label

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the concept of narcissism based on the most current clinical research.
Differentiate between common myths and clinically grounded understandings of narcissism and narcissistic abuse.
Describe evidence-based clinical interventions for working with narcissism and narcissistic abuse.

501: Forging a Healing Alliance with the Inner Critic

The inner critic gets a bad rap. Yes, we know negative self-talk is harmful and intrusive self-judgments can result in lifelong guilt, self-loathing, hopelessness, and shame. But the inner critic is also a useful adaptation in a dangerous world. Self-rejection and self-criticism are a way children maintain their attachment to abusive attachment figures. So how do we work effectively with it in therapy, acknowledging its original purpose while undoing its destructive power? In this workshop, you’ll learn to help clients cultivate mindful awareness of the inner critic so they can overcome its familiar, trauma-related thought patterns. You’ll discover powerful strategies for challenging it as a truth teller and understanding it as an anxious, protective, trauma-related part. You’ll learn to help clients:

Reframe the inner critic as a childhood protector using practical strategies from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, IFS, and TIST
Recognize the signs of trauma-related parts and their internal conflicts
Lessen the inner critic’s intimidating power while viewing it as a fellow victim of an abusive environment
Transform a client's relationship to their inner critic

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Describe the adaptive value of self-criticism and self-shame (Terizzi & Shook, 2020)
Identify behavioral effects of internal critical voices or thoughts (Volpato et al, 2022)
Implement mindfulness-based interventions for noticing critical thoughts (Goldberg et al, 2022)
Employ parts interventions for helping clients develop increased self-compassion (Neff, 2022; Lanius et al, 2020)

Outline

Adaptation to unsafe childhood environments

Importance of childhood compliance and submission
Shame as an adaptive response
Self-blame facilitates submission and increases safety

Putting words to traumatic experience

How cognitive schemas affect perception of self and other
Believing negative thoughts increases safety at the cost of self-esteem
Inner criticism’s effects on behavior and relationships

Challenging the inner critic

Relating to the inner critic as a protector part
Dis-identifying with self-blaming schemas
Appreciating how it aided in survival

From compassion for the inner critic to self-compassion

Noticing what worries the inner critic as a reflection of the traumatic past
Befriending the inner critic as a young part
Healing the inner critic with warmth and compassion
Risks and limitations of this approach

502: Antagonistic Clients & Antagonistic Relationships

The increased focus on working with clients who are navigating, being harmed by, or experiencing the fallout of relationships with individuals with antagonistic personality styles, such as narcissism, requires clinicians to be aware of the subtleties raised by these cases. After all, the client in the antagonistic relationship brings their own personality, schemas, self-reflective capacity, and regulation—and there’s tremendous heterogeneity in these clients’ presentations. In addition, narcissistic relationships typically entail relational trauma and betrayal, all of which can contribute to a complex clinical picture and magnify existing personality issues. In this workshop, we’ll focus on the importance of assessment and psychological safety. You’ll discover:

The dynamics and behaviors observed in narcissistic relationships
How to balance validation with self-reflection and accountability, ensuring you’re not enabling while doing this work
Ethical issues to consider when working with antagonistic personality styles
How to help clients navigate the fallout of narcissistic abuse/antagonistic relational stress in relationships

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

Antagonistic personality styles who are in antagonistic relationships: Case Examples
Brief overview of antagonism and narcissism
Brief overview of the dynamics and behaviors observed in narcissistic relationships
Overview of antagonistic behaviors and the contributors to these behaviors
Brief overview of the fallout of narcissistic abuse/antagonistic relational stress (NA/ARS) in relationships
Tenets of antagonism informed therapy
Brief overview of tenets of clinical practice with narcissistic clients
The issues raised by clients with antagonistic personality styles who are in antagonistic relationships
Assessment as a central issue in working with NA/ARS
Being trauma informed in working with clients with antagonistic personality styles who are in antagonistic relationships
Pitfalls and vulnerabilities when doing this work
Ethical and therapist self-care issues when doing this work
Risks and limitations

Objectives

Identify key behavioral and relational patterns that characterize antagonistic personality styles, including narcissism.
Demonstrate strategies for balancing validation with self-reflection and accountability when working with clients in antagonistic relationships who present with antagonistic personality styles.
Evaluate ethical considerations and clinical challenges involved in treating clients with antagonistic personality traits who are engaged in similarly antagonistic relational dynamics.

503: AI in the Therapy Room Today

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a distant promise—it’s already reshaping how therapy is documented, analyzed, and delivered. But for many clinicians, AI still feels mysterious or ethically fraught. This highly practical workshop demystifies the role of AI in therapy by showing you what’s available now—from automated session summaries and progress tracking to voice transcription, client insights, and clinical risk detection. You'll walk away with concrete ways to ethically integrate AI into your practice, reduce administrative load, and enhance client care—without replacing the human heart of therapy. In this workshop, you'll learn:

How therapists are currently using AI tools to streamline documentation and analysis
Where the ethical boundaries lie—and how to stay on the right side of them
What to watch out for when choosing or integrating AI into your workflow

Program Information

Objectives

Identify at least three practical ways AI is being used in clinical practice today.
Describe ethical considerations related to client privacy, consent, and clinical judgment when using AI tools.
Evaluate potential risks and benefits of integrating AI tools into documentation, assessment, or client communication.
Understand the role of AI-powered platforms in summarizing sessions, flagging risk, and tracking clinical outcomes.
Explore how AI can support—but not replace—therapeutic presence and decision-making.

Outline

What AI Can Do for You Today

Real-time tools for transcription, summarization, risk alerts, and clinical insights. Demo and case examples from real practices.

Ethics and Cautions

HIPAA compliance, client consent, avoiding over-reliance, and maintaining clinical intuition. Common pitfalls and how to stay safe.

Putting AI to Work

How to choose a tool, onboard clients ethically, and integrate AI into your workflow without disruption.

Risks and Limitations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

504: An Introduction to Somatic IFS

Looking for an interdisciplinary trauma treatment approach that blends the best of evidence-based practice with holistic perspectives? Internal Family Systems (IFS) is not only one of the leading trauma treatment approaches, but an ideal complement to somatic interventions like movement and breathing techniques. In this experiential workshop, we’ll explore how Somatic IFS bridges the gap between insight and felt-sense transformation by engaging the body in the therapeutic process. As we walk through the five Somatic IFS practices, you’ll discover how protector parts and exiles show up in the body, how to help protectors unblend, and how to support your client to be with their exiles to safely release trauma held in their bodies and heal from the inside out. You’ll also learn how to:

Work with protectors that fear embodiment and block body awareness
Facilitate unblending and unburdening through somatic interventions, including awareness, breath, movement, and touch
Restore flow in the nervous system to support lasting healing from trauma
Help clients struggling with anxiety, depression, disordered eating, body shame, and more.

This event is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Explain how to facilitate unblending using the five Somatic IFS practices (Hodgdon et al., 2022; Kuhfuß et al., 2021).
Describe at least two somatic interventions—such as somatic awareness, conscious breathing, mindful movement, or attuned touch—to support safe unburdening of trauma-related somatic patterns (van de Kamp et al., 2023).
Explain how restoring autonomic nervous system regulation and energy flow can enhance client resilience and support lasting trauma recovery (van de Kamp et al., 2023; Ahlmark et al., 2020).
Evaluate when somatic approaches may be an acceptable alternative to or complement for traditional interventions (Somatic Therapy Acceptability Study, 2025; Kuhfuß et al., 2021).

Outline

Why Bring the Body into IFS?

Recognize how parts manifest in the body
Understand trauma as both an embodied and relational experience
Explore how burdens (personal, cultural, intergenerational) disrupted embodiment
Discover the body as the source of healing Self energy
Define what “embodied healing” means in practice

About Somatic IFS

Learn the core principals and benefits of integrating Somatic IFS into trauma treatment
Bring the body into the IFS flow of unblending and unburdening
Experience the five Somatic IFS practices and how to weave them into parts work
Use these practices to help you and your clients access embodied Self energy

Working Relationally with Parts in the Body

Establish embodied Self-to-part relationships that reduce overwhelm
Approach parts that fear embodiment and block awareness of the body with confidence
Being with parts without pushing for change, allowing for unburdening to unfold organically

Considerations and Integration

Limitations of the research and potential risks
Incorporate Polyvagal Theory insights into Somatic IFS parts work
Therapist embodiment as a core intervention and co-regulatory presence
Closing reflections about trauma recovery and the body

505: Helping Time-Starved Couples Center Love

Many of the couples showing up in our offices are stressed, time-starved, and disconnected. This isn’t because they lack love, but because the demands of modern life leave them with little space for intimacy, rest, and safety within their relationship. How can therapy help couples with limited time, limited emotional bandwidth, and an overwhelming to-do list? In this workshop, we’ll explore the hidden dynamics driving modern couples’ struggles and how those dynamics escalate during major life transitions, like becoming new parents. From mismatched schedules and simmering resentment over who carries more of the mental load to the invisible wounds of postpartum depression, many modern couples face unique stressors that test even the strongest partnerships. You’ll learn to help them:

Understand how chronic stress impairs co-regulation and trust, and gain tools for helping couples repair ruptures related to early parenting injuries.
Surface and reframe invisible dynamics, such as boundary violations, and moments of abandonment/emotional withdrawal
Engage in productive, key pre-baby and post-baby conversations about parenting roles and how family-of-origin dynamics shape expectations and stress responses.
Divide invisible labor fairly and prevent the resentment that often begins in the early parenting years

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify the clinical challenges dual-income couples face, including time scarcity, role overload, and workplace stress, particularly during the transition to parenthood.
Apply brief-session and asynchronous therapy interventions that meet the needs of time-starved couples.
Facilitate structured conversations about parenting roles, stress, varying responsibilities, and mental load while helping clients understand how family-of-origin dynamics shape stress responses.
Support couples in identifying postpartum-related mental health concerns and provide tools to repair early parenting injuries and restore co-regulation.

Outline

Modern Love in a Time-Starved World

The clinical profile of dual-income couples
Internalized gender roles and contemporary stressors
Relationship impacts of role overload and time scarcity
Cultural myths of "doing it all"

Parenting Transition is a Relationship Flashpoint

The collision of identity shifts, sleep deprivation, and stress spillover
Birth trauma and postpartum depression/anxiety as relational injuries
Recognizing ruptures like feeling unprotected or emotionally abandoned
The relationship between supportive family structures and relationship wellbeing

Reworking Therapy for Busy Lives

Adapting therapy for irregular attendance
Providing psychoeducation to couples on stress and mental load.
Three step system for navigating stress

Emotional Safety, Invisible Labor, and Dyadic Coping

Surfacing invisible dynamics and family-of-origin wounds
Dividing labor fairly without reinforcing binary thinking
Dyadic Coping: Tools for co-regulation, stress recovery, and emotional attunement
Social media's impact on gender scripts, expectations, and comparison

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks

Findings may be limited by heteronormative and middle-class samples
Some strategies require adaptation for partners experiencing IPV or trauma

506: Safe Enough to Thrive

We can’t think our way to safety. We must feel our way there through the nervous system. While the ventral branch of the nervous system can help clients feel safe enough to be curious, connected, and creative, for those who’ve lived in survival mode, this state can feel unfamiliar or unattainable. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to cultivate ventral regulation in a way that creates the neurobiological conditions where thriving, rather than surviving, becomes possible. You’ll enhance your understanding of the science of embodied safety and learn practical tools to help clients expand their capacity for this state of aliveness. You’ll discover how to help clients:

Leverage a full range of ventral states on a regulation continuum
Develop a personalized map of their own regulated nervous system
Practice accessing and experiencing different expressions of ventral regulation
Track and appreciate the many expressions of regulation in daily life

Program Information

Objectives

Recognize the neurobiological necessity of ventral regulation for moving beyond survival to thriving.
Identify the signs of ventral vagal activation.
Develop skills to track and appreciate the many expressions of regulation in daily life.
Construct an individual map of the regulated nervous system.
Create a personalized regulation continuum that recognizes the full range of ventral states.

Outline

Recognize the physiological and psychological benefits of ventral regulation

Review research

Develop a regulated system map identifying the qualities of the autonomic nervous system under the influence of ventral

Use the regulated map template to create a personalized map
Compare the regulated map to the survival map

Identify the nuance of ventral activation

Learn the steps to creating continuums
Create an individual ventral continuum
Demonstration of walking a ventral continuum

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

507: Introduction to Attachment-Focused EMDR

EMDR alone isn’t always enough to heal entrenched traumas, particularly when clients struggle with early attachment issues. Attachment-Focused Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (AF-EMDR) combines multiple approaches to support attachment-wounded clients through their trauma healing process. In this introductory workshop, you’ll learn about resourcing and developmental repair, including how to modify the EMDR protocol can be so that it flows more easily. You’ll be introduced to new ways of combining powerful protocols—EMDR, Resource Tapping, and talk therapy—with principles of attachment theory to provide a more client-centered, reparative treatment that supports client safety, maintains the therapeutic connection, and enhances attunement.

You’ll explore:

The benefits and basic principals of AF-EMDR and Resource Tapping for specific client issues
How to manage emotions and reduce stress by tapping in the 4 foundational resources of peaceful places, nurturing figures, protector figures, and wise figures
How EMDR can be used to facilitate developmental repair

This course is not affiliated with EMDRIA and does not qualify toward EMDRIA credits or training.

Program Information

Objectives

Articulate the basic principles of Attachment-focused EMDR.
Describe the role of Resource Tapping from an Attachment-Focused EMDR lens.
Demonstrate the steps of Resource Tapping.
Describe the four foundational resources used in Attachment-Focused EMDR.
Discuss the concept of the ideal mother in the faciliattion of developmental repair.

508: Working with the Trauma of Childhood Neglect

A large clinical population remains unseen and un-helped: those who experience childhood neglect. Because theirs is a story of what did not happen—a collection of missing experiences—it appears to be “nothing.” And because few therapists are trained to recognize and treat neglect trauma, these clients often continue to feel invisible, ignored, alone, and responsible for their struggles, even in our consulting rooms. In this workshop, you’ll be introduced to the specific signs and symptoms of adult survivors of childhood neglect, common clinical challenges, and specific methods for helping neglect survivors heal. You’ll discover how to help clients:

Understand the neuroscience behind what they missed, and why it’s left deep scars
How to develop a strong therapeutic alliance, despite having struggled with injuries related to a needed caregiver’s unreliability
Empower themselves with a coherent autobiographical narrative focused on the aspects of their history that are true and available to them
Explore the behavioral and emotional signatures of childhood neglect, and tap into creative ways to heal from it

Program Information

Objectives

Identify the specific signs and symptoms of adult survivors of childhood neglect, including behavioral and emotional signatures.
Apply neuroscience principles to explain how the lack of early caregiving experiences impacts the brain and contributes to long-term emotional and psychological scars in neglect survivors.
Describe strategies for establishing a strong therapeutic alliance with neglect survivors, taking into account their experiences with unreliable caregivers and their need for a coherent autobiographical narrative.

Outline

•   This workshop will seek to bring awareness to a large and seriously ignored client population: survivors of the developmental trauma of childhood neglect. Due to lack of familiarity and training, as well as lack of understanding of the severity of its impacts on mental and physical health, personal and larger social life, and the insidiousness of intergenerational transmission, the many survivors of the “invisible trauma” continue to be neglected and go un-helped, as they have been all their lives.
•   The workshop will teach attendees how to recognize and identify neglect trauma, and what signature markers to look for. Being seen, heard, understood and validated are among neglect’s most potent missing experiences. Providing that is itself a powerful intervention with these clients.
•   We will review the underlying neuroscience dynamics that provide an evidence basis for both theory and practice; and the ability to reassure clients and others that what they had imagined was “nothing” is something indeed.
•   We will introduce key treatment and practice approaches, addressing the most significant difficulties of neglect survivors: interpersonal and relational challenges including the often-charged world of sexuality; agency; and constructing a coherent autobiographical narrative when they may have so little memory or “story.” Attendees, it is hoped will leave equipped straight away to begin clinical application of the information and also seek more training in this large and growing field.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

509: Bringing the Body into ACTion

We all know exercise does wonders for our mental and physical health. So why do so many of us still struggle to do it? There are many legitimate barriers to exercising, including limited time, stigma around body types, urban design limitations, chronic health conditions, and a shortage of safe spaces to feel accepted, but we can still find ways to be physically active. In this workshop, we’ll tackle these issues and other sticky psychological barriers to physical activity, using nonjudgmental, easy-to-learn, and evidence-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) approaches that will get your clients (and you!) up and moving. With practical demonstrations, experiential exercises, and real play, you'll leave feeling more informed, energized, and motivated to integrate “nutritious movement” into your therapy practice and daily life. You’ll also learn:

How to conceptualize client’s physical activity and exercise in a bio-psycho-social context
How to help clients overcome internal barriers to exercise, including fear, shame, unhelpful thoughts, low motivation, or difficulty managing competing priorities
Practices to help clients uncover their “movement values”
Strategies to increase nutritious, whole body, whole person, whole life movement

Program Information

Objectives

Understand the scientific and conceptual support for using ACT strategies to promote PA.
Describe 3 processes targeted by ACT for PA intervention strategies.
Know at least 3 practical strategies for promoting increased PA with clients.

Outline

Why It’s So Hard to Move (Especially at a Conference)?

A Process-Based view
Psychological, Physical, Social-Cultural and Contextual Barriers to Movement
Limitations of the research and potential risks

What Therapists Are Doing That Makes It Worse

Real Play of Reasons
Prescribing, Minimizing, Tunnel Vision, and Neglecting Context

What to do Instead: Motivation and Meaning

Values-Based Reasons to Move Your Body
Why smart goals are not enough
Writing exercise

Reason-Giving in the Wild:

”It’s monotonous”
"I work at a computer all day”
“I dont have enough time”
“I am embarrassed of my jiggle”

Skills from ACT and nutritious movement to increase behavioral flexibility in the moment

6 Core processes
Addressing context
Nutritious movement, movement snacks, designing a movement rich life
Let’s Practice: Nutritious Movement Meets Psychological Flexibility

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

510: Working with Divorce-Ambivalent Clients

When your client is struggling with chronic ambivalence about whether to stay or leave their marriage or long-term relationship, you might also be struggling with how to be helpful! Sessions can often be dominated by the ups and downs of the stuck relationship to the neglect of other important clinical issues. In fact, sometimes the therapeutic relationship becomes just as stuck as the client’s romantic relationship, and the therapist might lurch into pathologizing the relationship or unhelpful advice-giving. In this workshop, you'll learn concrete tools and strategies to help your individual clients who are unsure about whether to stay in their relationship, seek couples therapy, or divorce confidently make the decision that’s right for them. You’ll also learn how to:

Recognize chronic divorce ambivalence
Avoid common mistakes that lead to stuck therapy
Develop strategies to help your clients resolve their ambivalence or learn to live with it
Help clients access appropriate referrals for their relationship, including couples therapy and discernment counseling

Program Information

Objectives

Define divorce ambivalence in clients.
Identify the main challenges for working with divorce-ambivalent clients in individual therapy.
Discuss the principle clinical strategies and skills for treating divorce-ambivalent clients.
Describe skills for referring these clients for couples’ work.

Outline

Overview of divorce ambivalence and research on its prevalence

Limitations of individual therapy modalities in addressing divorce ambivalence

Strategies skills for working through divorce ambivalence

Referral options and skills

Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

511: Cultural Wounds in the Therapy Room

In an increasingly globalized world, more clients are navigating the complexity of bicultural identity and intercultural relationships, straddling value systems, languages, and expectations that often contradict one another. Yet many therapists feel unprepared to hold space for the emotional fallout of cultural in-betweenness, including identity confusion, role reversal, relational ruptures, and inherited family guilt. Too often, these complex experiences are misdiagnosed, minimized, or treated in isolation from the systemic forces that shape them. In this workshop, you’ll learn culturally responsive interventions grounded in narrative, somatic, and parts-based approaches. Whether you’re working with individuals or couples, you’ll leave with tools and knowledge that honors the full complexity of your clients’ lived experience. You'll discover how to:

Identify the impact of bicultural stress, assimilation, and code-switching on clients’ identity and relationships
Explore how family roles like the cultural broker, parentified child, and translator impact attachment patterns and emotional regulation
Integrate somatic, narrative, and parts-based interventions to foster clients’ self-trust, autonomy, and differentiation
Assess cultural countertransference and strengthen the therapeutic alliance with bicultural individuals and intercultural relationships

Program Information

Objectives

Identify the impact of bicultural stress, assimilation, and code-switching on clients’ identity and relationships
Explore how family roles like the cultural broker, parentified child, and translator impact attachment patterns and emotional regulation
Apply a culturally responsive framework that helps clients navigate intergenerational trauma, value clashes, and boundary confusion
Integrate somatic, narrative, and parts-based interventions to foster clients’ self-trust, autonomy, and differentiation
Assess cultural countertransference and strengthen the therapeutic alliance with bicultural individuals and intercultural relationships

Outline

Understanding Cultural In-Betweenness in the Therapy Room

Overview of bicultural identity, bicultural stress, acculturation, assimilation, and code-switching, and cultural frame switching as clinical considerations
Mapping the emotional and relational impact of cultural in-betweenness for individual clients and intercultural clients
Recognizing identity confusion, cultural burnout, and fragmentation
Family Roles, Attachment, and Emotional Regulation
Clinical exploration of family roles like cultural broker, parentified child, and translator and their impact on clients
Explore how role expectations and behaviors shape attachment patterns and coping strategies
Working with inherited guilt, loyalty conflicts, and intergenerational trauma
Exploring differences between independence-oriented families and interdependence-oriented families as it relates to romantic relationships

Integrating Culturally Responsive Interventions

Applying a culturally attuned framework to assessment and treatment planning for individuals and couples
Narrative techniques to help clients reauthor identity and relationship stories, together and individually
Somatic interventions to address stored cultural and relational stress
Parts-based work for navigating value clashes and boundary confusion
Attending to cultural countertransference to strengthen the therapeutic alliance
Understanding broaching as a clinical skill

Clinical Considerations and Limitations

Limitations of the research and potential risks of narrative, somatic, and parts-based approaches
Navigating scope of practice when addressing systemic oppression in therapy
Acknowledging the limited generalizability of research due to small sample sizes, lack of longitudinal studies, or underrepresentation of certain cultural groups
Balancing culturally responsive interventions with evidence-based practice requirements in settings with strict documentation or billing constraints
Recognizing potential for retraumatization when exploring identity loss, intergenerational trauma, or cultural betrayal without adequate pacing and safety
Being mindful of therapist cultural assumptions, biases, and blind spots that may inadvertently reinforce assimilation pressures or value hierarchies

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

512: Therapy Speak & TikTok Diagnosis Dilemmas

My husband is a narcissist. I have undiagnosed ADHD. Everyone in my life disrespects my boundaries. Have you heard something similar in your office? You’re not alone. More than ever, our clients are coming to therapy with firm diagnostic conclusions and an array of clinical language they’ve picked up on social media. As access to online mental health content has exploded, so too has armchair diagnosing and therapy -speak, leaving us in a challenging position: do we challenge or correct our clients when they incorrectly use clinical terms, or do we try go along with their conclusions in an attempt to preserve the therapeutic relationship? In this workshop, you’ll learn how to broach these the issue of “pop pathology” issues in a way that maintains trust and rapport while guiding clients toward deeper understanding and growth. You’ll discover how to:

Apply a three-step process for helping clients explore the feelings beneath the labels
Teach clients how to use clinical terms with more thoughtfulness and accuracy
Determine when to validate, reframe, or gently challenge clients’ use of clinical terms
Navigate ethical considerations when introducing or responding to clinical terminology

Program Information

Objectives

Summarize contributing factors to the increased “pop pathology” trend.
Recognize key indicators that a client’s use of clinical language is impacting their therapeutic progress.
Apply a three-step approach rooted in cognitive restructuring to address therapy language.
Describe ethical considerations for therapists when addressing or introducing therapy terms with clients.

Outline

Understanding The Rise of Therapy Language and Armchair Diagnosing

Define therapy speak, armchair diagnosis, and the new umbrella concept of “pop pathology”
Explore why clients are increasingly showing up with self-diagnoses, therapy jargon, and armchair diagnoses of others
Demonstrate how this presents a new and rapidly-growing clinical challenge for therapists
Look at how social media has contributed to the quick adoption and often inaccurate use of clinical terms like “narcissist,” “ADHD,” and “trauma”

Recognizing When Therapy-Speak Impacts Clinical Progress

Identify common indicators that a client’s use of therapy language is limiting emotional exploration or self-growth
Examine how misused clinical terms can serve as defenses or avoidant strategies within the therapeutic process
Develop criteria for determining when it is clinically appropriate to address pop pathology versus when to focus on other content

A Relational Approach to Responding

Apply a three-step method to address inaccurate or misapplied clinical language in a collaborative, non-shaming way
Include the client’s language as a gateway to deeper emotional material while preserving the therapeutic alliance
Administer cognitive restructuring techniques for reframing terms and offering gentle psychoeducation that supports insight and precision without alienating the client
Dealing with the “hard case” client who frequently relies on pop pathology and is resistant to intervention

Ethical and Clinical Considerations

Reflect on how therapists’ training and biases shape the way they contribute or respond to pop pathology
Acknowledge the limitations of research in this area and the risks of correcting clients too quickly or bluntly
Consider therapists’ ethical responsibilities when introducing terms to clients in session or addressing pop pathology with clients, colleagues, and laypeople

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

513: The Desire Dilemmas

Today's relationships face a unique array of challenges. People want to have more sex, better sex, spontaneous sex, but they’re carrying shame about both the sex they're having and the sex they're not having, wrestling with how their increasingly digital connections have altered their capacity for real-world intimacy. While traditional therapeutic approaches that focus on communication can be valuable, they often fail to fully address deeper sexual complexities. In this workshop, we’ll approach problems of desire not as dysfunction to be fixed, but as opportunities for deeper connection and embodiment. Examining real clinical examples, you’ll learn a practical framework to help clients tune into their bodies and rediscover pleasure, moving beyond the pressure of sexual performance and toward a more holistic understanding of eroticism and desire. You’ll also discover:

Contemporary trends in dating, especially for Gen Z, Millennial, and online daters
Strategies to help clients explore their desires and communicate them effectively
Interventions to address sexless relationships and desire discrepancies in therapy
How to help clients step into desire as a path to embodiment and connection

Program Information

Objectives

Facilitate open discussions about sex and desire in session, creating a safe and comfortable environment for clients to explore these sensitive topics.
Analyze common narratives about desire to identify the underlying attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs that may be impacting their experiences of pleasure and connection.
Apply innovative interventions to address desire issues in relationships, including ways to demystify low libido and helping partners navigate differing levels of desire while fostering mutual understanding and intimacy.
Implement somatic strategies to assist clients in reconnecting with their bodies and rediscovering pleasure.

Outline

Reframing Desire Issues

Data on state of desire and its impact on relationships and wellbeing
Introduction to pleasure-focused paradigms
Case studies illustrating successful reframing of desire issues
Techniques for normalizing conversations about desire and pleasure
Limitations of the research and potential risks of this approach

Fostering Embodiment and Connection

Addressing common barriers to embodiment and connection
Communication strategies for exploring and expressing desires
Interventions and activities for enhancing body awareness
Considerations for diverse relationship structures and orientations

Navigating Desire Discrepancies in Relationships

Assessment tools for identifying desire styles and discrepancies
Interventions for bridging libido gaps between partners
Techniques for cultivating intimacy beyond sex
Managing expectations and setting realistic goals in therapy
Ethical considerations and contraindications for specific techniques

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

514: Addictions Treatment for the Non-Specialist

Despite what you might’ve heard, you don’t need to be an addiction specialist to treat clients struggling with addictive behaviors. A growing body of research shows that addiction is not a disease—it’s a meaningful response to suffering, a dynamic interplay of function, habit, the body, relationships and the wider social and cultural context. In this experiential workshop, you'll explore an Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP) approach that you can apply immediately in your practice. You’ll learn how to assess and work with addictive behaviors in ways that meet clients where they are, honor their autonomy, and support positive change whether their goal is abstinence, safer use, or moderation.

You’ll gain practical tools to:

Collaboratively assess what’s problematic about addictive behaviors
Interrupt habitual addictive/compulsive patterns
Apply mindfulness techniques tailored for treating addictive behaviors
Help clients explore their urges and reconnect with split-off aspects of Self
Support clients in developing personalized strategies for change

Program Information

Objectives

Conduct a collaborative assessment of addictive behaviors including identifying personal, relational, and contextual contributing factors.
Demonstrate at least three strategies to interrupt habitual addictive or compulsive behavior.
Apply two mindfulness-based techniques specifically adapted for clients with addictive behaviors.
Formulate a personalized ideal behavioral plan that aligns with a client’s readiness, goals, and values.

Outline

Rethinking Addiction

A multidimensional understanding of addiction: meaning, function, habit, body, relationships and cultural context
Moving beyond the disease model to person centered, collaborative care
Core principles of Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP)

Core Clinical Skills and Strategies

Creating safety and alliance to facilitate corrective emotional experiences
Collaborative assessment of addictive behaviors
Personalizing ideal behavioral plans for abstinence, moderation or safer use

Interventions and Techniques

Mindfulness practices adapted for addictive/compulsive behaviors
Skills for managing urges and interrupting habits
Exploring and integrating split off aspects of the Self

Professional Considerations

Integrating IHRP into diverse clinical settings and with different client populations
Limitations of the research and potential risks
Ethical considerations and boundaries

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Saturday Evening: The Therapist's Cut

Keynote Address: The Relationship Uprising

Modern relationships are in crisis—not because we want too much, but because we’ve been trained to settle for too little. In today’s world, where people crave deep, soulful connection more than ever, we’re still saddled with a cultural legacy that glorifies individualism, patriarchy, and emotional repression. The result? We’re longing for intimacy in a world that teaches us to protect, not connect.

Terry Real, New York Times bestselling author of Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship and founder of Relational Life Therapy (RLT), has spent over 30 years challenging the cultural forces that erode our capacity for authentic love. Known for his fierce compassion and groundbreaking work in men’s issues, Real brings both clinical wisdom and raw humanity to the deepest questions of how we live and love.

In this talk, with honesty, humor, and a deep understanding of what brings us close (and what tears us apart), he’ll guide us into a radical vision of love as nothing less than an act of insurrection—a rebellion against the disconnection we’ve inherited, and a conscious choice to live relationally in a fractured world. This is not just a new map for intimacy—it’s a call to action for therapists, partners, and anyone yearning to love well in a culture that makes it hard.

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the key societal and cultural contributors to modern intimate relationship stress.
Assess the neurobiological underpinnings of trauma adaptation and recovery.
Describe how intimate relationships can function as crucibles for supporting client’s own transformation.

Outline

The Modern Relationship Crisis

Yearning for intimacy
Cultural conditioning for self-protection and independence
Emotional scarcity, individualism and patriarchy

The Cultural Roots of Disconnection

Societal norms that distort our understanding of love, vulnerability, and power
The impact of these forces on both men and women in relationships and therapy

The Relational Revolution: A Radical Vision of Love

Terry Real’s Relational Life Therapy approach as a path to reclaim authentic connection
Love as an act of rebellion—a conscious stand against cultural disconnection and emotional isolation
Risks and Limitations

A Call to Action for Therapists and Individuals

Living relationally as a daily practice and moral stance
Embodying “us” in a world built on “me.”

601: Delivering High-Impact Relational Therapy

Authentic connection is every client’s birthright—yet trauma, shame, and rigid relational stances so often block the path. This workshop will guide you through the transformative roadmap of Relational Life Therapy (RLT) to help clients find authentic connection. You’ll discover how the integration of loving confrontation, deep trauma work, and actionable skills creates the rapid, lasting breakthroughs RLT is known for. Through live teaching and demonstrations, you’ll learn how to help clients move out of destructive cycles and into profound, sustainable intimacy. You’ll learn:

How to engage with clients through loving confrontation to interrupt destructive relational patterns
Work with trauma through a developmental lens
Equip clients with real-life relational skills that can anchor in lasting intimacy

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the three core phases of Relational Life Therapy and how they interlock to create lasting change.
Apply the principles of loving confrontation to help clients recognize and shift destructive relational stances.
Demonstrate at least two relational skills that enable clients to sustain intimacy and connection over time.

Outline

Wake Clients Up with Loving Confrontation:
Interrupt toxic patterns and establish a foundation of accountability.
Guide clients into profound inner child repair in the presence of their partner.
Equip Clients with Relational Mastery
Teach practical skills that anchor lasting intimacy and whole-hearted connection.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

602: Healing Relationships in Individual Therapy

Roughly one in three clients comes to individual therapy seeking help with stress in their a romantic relationship. Often their partner never even sets foot in your office! So how do you work with these clients’ pain, depression, disillusionment, and convictions that their partner is the problem without that partner present to give you a fuller picture of their conflict? In this workshop, you’ll learn how to avoid one of the biggest risks when working with just one partner: hearing and validating only one side of the story. The answer lies in being incisive in uncovering what your client is doing that is undermining the love they want.

You’ll learn through a live clinical demonstration how to illuminate the invisible developmental forces shaping your clients’ struggles.You will receive tools designed to promote growth in your individual client and enable them to spark growth in their relationship as well...

You’ll also learn how to:

Identify where and why your client is truly stuck
Help clients take accountability without triggering shame
Create meaningful shifts that reduce hopelessness and blame
Use a structured assessment to uncover hidden relational dynamics
Describe the gift of differentiation and then guide clients to set goals that inspire growth and action

Program Information

Objectives

Describe common clinical dynamics that arise in individual therapy when clients focus primarily on their partner’s behavior rather than their own.
Define the developmental stages in couple relationships and the emotional capacities required for growth at each stage.
Identify therapeutic strategies that promote personal accountability and emotional development in clients struggling with their romantic relationship.

Outline

Describe the Problem-Individual clients can see what their partners do, but not what they themselves contribute. Individual therapists end up in support roles, not roles that challenge growth in their individual clients
Delineate Couples Developmental Stages and the Emotional Capacities needed in each stage
Case Presentation-Anna Locke with long-term individual client where she felt stuck helping with the relationship struggles
How to use the individual assessment questionnaire
Tools that promote growth with individuals who are depressed, angry or disillusioned with their partners

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

603: Breaking the Grip of Anxiety

Anxiety sends our brains into overdrive. But how often do our therapy approaches actually address what’s happening in our anxious clients’ brains? Whether your clients are struggling with anxiety stemming from OCD, PTSD, or GAD, this workshop will walk you through a clear, neuroscience-backed approach. You’ll learn to address symptoms like distress and avoidance, as well as promote neuroplasticity and change as you help clients set concrete goals and take steps toward building happier, less burdened lives. In addition, you’ll explore the different parts of the brain and their role in anxiety, and the hows of actual treatment as we walk through evidence-based techniques borrowing from CBT, mindfulness, and more. You’ll discover how to:

Help anxious clients make sense of their symptoms, feelings, interpretations, and beliefs
Explain neurological causes of anxiety in clear, easy-to-understand language
Build an anxiety-treatment plan when your client is also taking medication
Use cognitive restructuring interventions and reconsolidation approaches
Challenge distorted thoughts and unrealistic beliefs and images

Program Information

Objectives

Identify the role of the amygdala in the physical symptoms and avoidance behaviors associated with anxiety disorders.
Describe strategies for building a therapeutic alliance with anxious clients.
Explain how specific anxiety management interventions directly target amygdala-based reactivity.
Differentiate exposure therapy from other interventions in its ability to retrain how the amygdala.
Identify techniques to modify cortical activation patterns to reduce anxiety symptoms.

Outline

Teaching Clients Where Their Anxiety Comes From

Focus and Limitations
Explaining Neuroplasticity
Amygdala and cortex pathways to anxiety
Help clients recognize both pathways: Useful examples
Assessing when anxiety is initiated in the amygdala vs. cortex
Shifting from anxiety reduction to a goal-focused approach

Explaining the Amygdala in Anxiety Treatment

Explanation of Fight/Flight/Freeze Response and physical symptoms
Survey to assess F/F/F tendencies
The amygdala as protector and its limitations
Promoting mindfulness in responding to the amygdala
Helping clients see how the amygdala blocks their goals
Helping client develop personal goals
Importance of working alliance and confidence in therapist
Evidence-based strategies (relaxation, sleep, exercise) to reduce amygdala activation
Common issues and limitations

Exposure as Teaching the Amygdala

Worksheets for trigger selection and hierarchy development
Agreement on tasks is essential
General guidelines for exposure
Tips for exposure effectiveness
Use of imagery in exposure
Resisting compulsions with response prevention
Risks, limitations, and concerns
Case examples

Neurologically-Informed Interventions for Cortex Pathway

Relationship of cortex to amygdala
How the cortex activates the amygdala
Surveys to identify amygdala-activating cognitions
Explanations that motivate clients
Mindfulness to combat amygdala-activating cognitions
Distraction, including limitations
When cognitions interfere with Exposure
Limitations of cognitive approaches

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

604: Demystifying Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

In the world of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, ketamine elicits polarizing reactions despite its high safety profile, versatility, and accessibility. On the one hand, it’s seen as the unpredictable chameleon of the psychedelic world because it can have vastly different effects. And on the other hand, it’s mistakenly viewed as a silver-bullet to healing for the “treatment resistant.” In fact, under optimal conditions, ketamine can provide tremendous therapeutic opportunities for internal resourcing while also supporting exploration, connection, and healing. In this workshop, you’ll gain a clear understanding of how ketamine works, who it helps, and when it may not be an appropriate treatment choice. You’ll learn how to make informed decisions about integrating ketamine into your practice and collaborate with ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP) providers in a safe, intentional, and trauma-sensitive way. You'll also discover:

The pharmacology and mechanisms of action of ketamine relevant to trauma treatment, and what to know about common misconceptions
Evidence-based uses of ketamine as well as its potential risks and adverse effects in therapeutic contexts
A guide to preparation, dosing, and integration in a trauma-informed KAP model
Ethical and logistical considerations on effective implementation of ketamine across different care settings

Program Information

Objectives

Describe ketamine's pharmacology and its relevance to trauma by identifying key mechanisms of action and addressing common clinical misconceptions.
Differentiate appropriate from inappropriate applications of KAP by evaluating key patient factors, including history, goals, and contraindications for trauma reprocessing and integrated self-discovery.
Analyze the clinical components of a trauma-informed KAP model (preparation, dosing, integration) by evaluating the evidence-based rationale for each phase in supporting patient safety, autonomy, and choice.
Identify core clinical and ethical considerations in KAP, including how experiential methods inform treatment planning and client safety.

Outline

Foundational Understanding of Ketamine in Healing

Pharmacology and Mechanism of Action: Explore the neurobiological effects (e.g., NMDA receptor antagonism, neuroplasticity) relevant to trauma recovery.
Clinical Applications and Misconceptions: Review evidence-based uses of ketamine, distinguishing therapeutic utility from the "silver-bullet" myth.
Limitations of the research and potential risks: Acknowledging the current scope of evidence and associated adverse effects (e.g., dissociation, transient blood pressure changes).

Patient Selection and Relational Healing

Differentiating Treatment Goals: Learn to select patients based on goals: trauma reprocessing versus integrated self-discovery.
Key Patient Factors: Identify contraindications, history, and resourcing needs essential for safe and appropriate use.
Relational Techniques: Understand how ketamine can unlock relational healing through internal resourcing and enhanced connectivity.

Implementing a Trauma-Informed KAP Model

Preparation and Setting the Container: Mastering trauma-sensitive techniques for maximizing patient safety and therapeutic depth before dosing.
Dosing and Experiential Insights: Review appropriate dosing strategies and clinical monitoring during the acute experience.
Integration and Meaning Making: Techniques for processing ketamine experiences, turning insights into lasting change, and fostering connection.

Ethical Practice and Collaboration

Clinical and Ethical Considerations: Strategies for navigating boundaries, informed consent, and therapeutic scope in KAP.
Interprofessional Collaboration: Guidelines for working safely and effectively with medical providers and other KAP clinicians.
Practice Exercises: Experiential opportunities to understand the role of the therapist and the dynamics of the KAP session.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

605: A Systemic Approach to Exploring Identity Issues

Our political, gender, and racial and ethnic divides don’t just stop at the voting booth: they’re increasingly impacting our clients’ mental health, home life, work, and communities. Of course, these cultural shifts are also impacting our therapeutic relationships and treatment efficacy. Drawing from systemic, evidence-based approaches that help repair and strengthen struggling relationships, this workshop will provide you with practical and ethical strategies to not only help your clients navigate division outside the therapy room, but help you and your clients explore cultural differences that exist in your work together, deepening the therapeutic relationship in the process. Together, we’ll walk through concrete steps you can take to make your office a safe and inviting environment for clients of all cultural backgrounds and ways to reduce cultural countertransference. You’ll also learn how to:

Help clients navigate cultural differences and splits in their personal and professional relationships
Help clients explore internal identity struggles that may result in symptoms like anxiety and depression
Build trust with clients from backgrounds different from your own
Increase your cultural awareness and empathize with client behaviors driven by self-preservation instincts

Program Information

Objectives

Utilize strategies for overcoming cultural differences to create a culturally safe therapeutic environment.
Apply skills for repairing therapeutic rapport when negatively impacted by unintentional cultural offenses.
Describe the role of family and other systems in the development and maintenance of cultural competence.

Outline

Cultural Competencies in Mental Health

Broad Scope of Cultural Identity
Client-centered approach to cultural competence
Types of Bioecological Systems
A Systemic approach to cultural identity development
- Ethnocentrism
- Self-awareness & other awareness
- Accountability
- Advocacy
Limitations of the research and potential risks
Ethical Considerations in Cross-Cultural Interactions

Components of a Culturally Safe Therapeutic Environment

Proactive Strategies
Maintenance Strategies
Reparative Strategies

Assessments & Interventions

Cultural Genogram
Cultural Self-Assessment
- The Role of the Self-of-the-therapist
- Managing Cultural Countertransference

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

606: Trauma Processing with Brainspotting

There’s no question that trauma lives in the body and brain. But even the most acclaimed trauma treatment approaches can be overly procedural, hard for clients to tolerate, and difficult for clinicians to master. Brainspotting, a research-backed treatment method based on finding somatic cues through the use of eye gaze for the treatment of stress and trauma, solves these problems. It helps clients access emotional energy trapped deep in the nonverbal, noncognitive areas of the brain both safely and quickly. In this workshop from the developer of Brainspotting, you’ll watch live demonstrations to learn how the method works, and rethink how you view the human condition and human suffering from a more developmental and neurological point of view—the neuroexperiential model.

You’ll also discover:

How Brainspotting differs from other trauma processing therapies
How Brainspotting can be used to treat a multitude of symptoms, including anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, and substance abuse
How to integrate Brainspotting into ongoing treatment, especially with complex developmental trauma such as attachment issues and dissociation
How to be less directive in therapy and empower your clients in effective ways

Program Information

Objectives

Articulate how eye positions have relevance in potentially accessing and healing trauma in the brain.
Describe the role of therapist in a Brainspotting session, demonstrating an understanding of its significance to the “dual attunement” frame.
Discuss how the mutually held frame produces focused mindfulness processing that supports the innate human capacity for self-healing.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

607: Healing Attachment with Psychodrama

Pesso-Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP) is a transformative modality that leads participants through a small-group experience that allows them to reconstruct and re-experience the dynamics of their childhood family-of-origin in three-dimensional space. By creating new, deeply satisfying memories, facilitated in collaboration with the group, it allows clients to address complex trauma and grief—and it can yield profound results in a short time. PBSP is ideal for those dealing with the aftermath of childhood abuse, emotional neglect, or trauma.

In this workshop, get a unique opportunity to explore how to:

Recreate disrupted attachment patterns using a method that can heal deep-seated family issues

Help clients create new and satisfying early memories

Facilitate small groups that can hold space for reconstructing childhood dynamics

Program Information

Objectives

Describe how disrupted attachment patterns can be address and restructured using small group interventions grounded in psychodrama.
Identify key psychodrama techniques that support the creation of new and reparative early memories in trauma-informed therapy.
Summarize the core components of a psychodrama-based therapuetic approach and their application in therapy.

608: How to Ethically Navigate Dual Relationships

Therapists are advised to avoid dual relationships at all costs, since they present thorny ethical problems. And yet, they’re sometimes unavoidable. This is often the case in close-knit demographic groups, ethnic and faith communities, recovery networks, rural areas, and small towns. Online spaces have also added another layer of potential hazard (and benefit!) to the therapist-client relationship in these already challenging contexts. So how can practitioners navigate dual relationships with intention and self-awareness? How can they anticipate impacts and avoid conflicts of interest? When are dual relationships clinically beneficial, and when do they harm those we aim to help? In this scenario-based workshop, you’ll do a deep dive into the clinical ethics of dual relationships and think critically with colleagues about overlapping roles in specific contexts. You’ll discover how to:

Identify the pros and cons of dual relationships related to your agency setting, professional identity, and treatment model
Explore the hazards and benefits to your clients of interacting on social media
Understand the clinical reasons for prohibitions on sexual relationships with clients
Drafting a statement about the potential for dual relationships and how you handle public encounters, conflicts of interest, and social media

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the pros and cons of public encounters and dual relationships across various treatment models, and professional roles, distinguishing between high- and low-intensity interactions.
Evaluate the risks and potential benefits associated with therapist use of social media.
Apply a decision-making model to analyze context specific dilemmas involving client and therapist.
Develop a statement for your website or professional disclosure statement about how you handle public encounters, conflicts of interest, and social media.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

609: The Healing Power of Attachment-Based Family Therapy

Working with adolescents and young adults in family therapy can feel like navigating a maze—so many voices, so many needs, and often, so much resistance. How do we reignite the caregiving instincts in parents worn down by frustration and fatigue? How do we rekindle the buried longing for connection and security in adolescents? Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) offers a powerful, evidence-based framework for moving beyond surface-level conflicts to address deeper wounds—those rooted in broken trust, painful memories, and disrupted attachment. In this workshop, you’ll learn practical strategies to transform therapy into a safe space where adolescents can once again turn to parents for support and protection, and parents can become a secure base on their child’s journey toward emotional well-being and independence. Role plays will foster embodied, experiential learning of core ABFT skills. You’ll also learn:

How attachment ruptures interface with depression, suicidality, trauma, and eating disorders
A semi-structured approach for guiding clients through healing conversations
How to help families confront and repair relational ruptures
How to leverage emotions to facilitate deeper trauma work and relationship repair

Program Information

Objectives

Explain the theoretical foundation of ABFT that guides therapists in therapy implementation.
Describe how to put attachment ruptures at the center of the clinical conversation.
Communicate how to use emotions to facilitate deeper trauma work and relationship repair.
Identify how to use caregivers’ own intergenerational.

Outline

Attachment Theory as a framework for therapy

Review of what contributes to healthy functioning in adolescents
Review of what contributes to mental health distress
Attachment-based family therapy’s theory of depression and suicidality among adolescents.
Brief review of research including limitations of the research and potential risks.

Putting discussions of caregiver-child relationships at the center of therapy

Using attachment motivations within each intervention strategy
Shifting the focus of therapy from behavioral management to relationships repair
Uncovering attachment trauma that have damaged trust in relationships
Activating longing to care for (parent) and be cared for (adolescent) as the motivational leverage for therapy
Clinicians will see a video demonstrating these concepts and practice this skill during the workshop

Preparing the adolescent and the parent for conversations about attachment failures

Helping the adolescent have a more coherent attachment narrative and understand how it fuels depression/suicide
Helping parents increase their mentalization and empathy for their own attachment disappointments and those of their child.
Risk of not aligning with and holding space for all will be discussed.

Engineering family conversations that address failures in attachment security

Guiding in vivo parent-child conversations between attachment ruptures
Focusing on process and emotion in addition to content
Helping parents be a secure base for adolescents to navigate autonomy and competency
Clinicians will see a demonstration video of this process.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

610: DBT Techniques Every Clinician Should Use

Every clinician has experienced clients who regularly show up late, avoid hard topics, or keep cycling through the same crises. With these clients, standard interventions often stall, the work feels stuck, and frustration builds on both sides. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was created for these kinds of sessions, not just for clients typically considered “borderline.” In this workshop, you’ll learn how DBT’s most effective, transdiagnostic tools can transform sessions with any client. From laser-focused behavioral assessment to strategies that secure genuine commitment, DBT techniques break stalemates and create momentum. Whether you’re in private practice, community mental health, or a medical setting, you’ll walk away with a host of clear, ready-to-use methods you can integrate into your next session. You’ll discover how to:

Boost client engagement through commitment strategies like devil’s advocate, foot-in-the-door, and values-driven goal framing
Apply DBT’s treatment hierarchy to turn vague goals into concrete, measurable targets
Map behavior patterns and pinpoint the best interventions to use through chain analysis and missing-links assessment
Teach skills like the art of thinking dialectically and apply structured problem-solving tailored to clients’ unique barriers

Program Information

Objectives

Demonstrate how to apply commitment strategies to increase client engagement and follow-through in therapy.
Develop values-driven goals and prioritize treatment targets based on clinical needs.
Utilize behavioral assessment techniques to inform case conceptualization and guide clinical decision making.
Implement practical, skills-based psychoeducation designed to increase client capability.
Analyze clinical scenarios using dialectical thinking to resolve treatment impasses and support balanced change.

Outline

Building and Sustaining Engagement

Practical use of commitment strategies (e.g., devil’s advocate, foot-in-the-door)
Techniques for keeping clients motivated when treatment gets hard
Using client values to strengthen alliance and follow-through

Targeting What Matters Most

Structuring sessions around clear, shared priorities
Translating complex client presentations into achievable targets
Balancing competing demands when multiple crises emerge

Tools for Change

Using behavioral assessments to sharpen case conceptualization
Applying exposure, cognitive restructuring, and problem-solving in real cases
Teaching and practicing skills that clients can use outside the room

Navigating Complexities

Thinking dialectically to break through treatment impasses
Maintaining balance between acceptance and change strategies
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals