DAY 3: November 16, 2023
Workshop #21: Polyvagal Theory: Healing Through Compassionate Connection
PRESENTED BY Alexia Rothman, Ph.D.
MORNING SESSION | 8:30am - 11:45am
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This session is available for live stream.
Despite the diversity of content that brings clients to therapy, difficulty regulating their emotional experience is at the heart of their struggles. Clients can feel hijacked by extreme emotional states, uncomfortable in their own skin, or think or behave in ways they wish they wouldn’t. Polyvagal Theory (PVT) helps us understand what is happening on a biological level when our clients are emotionally dysregulated or stuck in adaptive survival states, such as fight, flight, freeze, or numb.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Identify the basic principles of Polyvagal Theory and how PVT can inform and enhance application of any psychotherapeutic modality.
Discuss how understanding Polyvagal Theory can help therapists implement IFS more safely and effectively, especially in the systems of clients with complex trauma.
Workshop #22: Neufeld's Traffic Circle of Frustration: A Revolutionary Approach to Aggression, Depression & Suicide
PRESENTED BY Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D.
MORNING SESSION | 8:30am - 11:45am
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This session is available for live stream.
We all get frustrated, as this primal emotion is automatically evoked when something – anything for that matter – doesn’t work. There are several indicators that the groundswell of frustration is rising. This powerful emotion can be experienced in many ways and have a myriad of outcomes. Included in the array of emotional outcomes are compulsions regarding change, attacking impulses, suicidal impulses, aggression, and even frustration-based depression. Frustration can also result in healthy change and inner transformation. Dr. Neufeld will help us walk through the traffic circle of frustration in a way that benefits all. Given the critical importance of developing a healthy relationship with frustration, we should all be ready to serve as traffic directors when needed.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Understanding the underlying roots of aggression and depression
Appreciating the key role that frustration is meant to play in our lives
Recognizing when pivotal feelings are missing that need restoring
Knowing the symptoms, signs and challenges when frustration gets stuck
Making sense of why some of our current behaviour management approaches backfire
Knowing how to direct traffic when frustration needs to find an outlet
Workshop #24: Navigating Addictions: Practical Interventions to Promote Healing & Recovery
PRESENTED BY Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych
MORNING SESSION | 8:30am - 11:45am
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This session is available for live stream.
The field of addictions is muddled with a myriad of theories and treatments, yet little progress has been made over time to improve relapse rates. Given the repetitive and persistent nature of addictions, mental health professions addressing such concerns are at increased risk for compassion fatigue and burnout. In order to reduce this risk on treatment providers, the workshop will focus on empowering workers by providing techniques to effectively address a variety of client presentations. Often default recommendations of attending inpatient care are provided to clients as professionals lack the tools to know how they can make positive impacts on a clients care at various stages of the recovery journey.
In this workshop, you will also be provided with tools to understand the complexity involved in the development of substance use disorder and thus be able to make effective treatment recommendations. Attendees will leave the workshop equipped with practical techniques for treating those struggling with addictions including basics of assessments, working with families, and providing post-treatment care. Additionally, various intervention methods will be overviewed including CBT and narrative therapy in order to provide the client with techniques to implement with a variety of client presentations.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Develop an understanding of the impact of historical perspectives of addictions and how they continue to influence treatment decisions and stigmatization.
Formulate treatment plans based on a robust understand of various components contributing to the development of the disorder.
Competently navigate the addiction field through a basic understanding of various perspectives and current areas of research.
Demonstrate an ability to generally assess addictions and provide treatment recommendations.
Workshop #25: Trauma-Focused DBT
PRESENTED BY Eboni Webb, Psy.D., HSP
MORNING SESSION | 8:30am - 11:45am
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This session is NOT available for live stream.
Working with emotionally dysregulated and traumatized clients/students in your practice can be overwhelming and exhausting. You probably feel the pull of being the “savior” for their constant state of dysregulation. Learn how to develop the skills needed to be more effective in treatment, avoid burnout and achieve positive outcomes through developing an integrative lens to treat trauma and attachment more effectively across the lifespan through integrating Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy techniques and interventions. Dr. Webb will give you the training you need through case stories, neuroscience research, and experiential activities. Learn to work together with clients/students and all relevant support systems to increase compassion through seeing the function of their behaviors through the lens of trauma, reestablish structure, and create a validating environment. Leave with the knowledge and skills to confidently teach clients/students and all critical care providers how to implement a safe structure that enables clients/students to learn and master these skills throughout all the pertinent areas of their lives.
Attend this workshop and you will discover how critical complex interventions are for the complexity of treating trauma and attachment disorders.
Join Dr. Eboni Webb, former advisor to the Dialectical Behavior Therapy National Certification and Accreditation Association, and Advanced Certified Practitioner of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and take home evidence-based strategies from both modalities to use with clients who come from hard places.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Defining trauma and attachment
Biosocial Model
Effects of inadequate validation in early emotional development
Symptoms of a pervasive emotional dysregulation disorder
Developmental vs. attachment trauma
Single-incident trauma
Common sources of trauma
Parenting Styles
Attachment Styles
Trauma and Brain Development
Biphasic arousal model
Core organizers of experience
Lunch Break 11:45am - 12:45pm
Option to add a lunch buffet. November 14 & 15, 2023: Lunch Buffet and Live Music Featuring: Platform 2 and 3/4
$30.75 per person, per day
Limited quantities available. Must pre-buy during registration, not available at the door. Individuals with strict dietary needs can pre-order lunch and pay directly through hotel restaurant.
Workshop #26: (CONTINUATION) Polyvagal Theory: Healing Through Compassionate Connection
PRESENTED BY Alexia Rothman, Ph.D.
AFTERNOON SESSION | 12:45pm - 4:00pm
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This session is available for live stream.
THIS IS A CONTINUATION OF THE MORNING SESSION
Despite the diversity of content that brings clients to therapy, difficulty regulating their emotional experience is at the heart of their struggles. Clients can feel hijacked by extreme emotional states, uncomfortable in their own skin, or think or behave in ways they wish they wouldn’t. Polyvagal Theory (PVT) helps us understand what is happening on a biological level when our clients are emotionally dysregulated or stuck in adaptive survival states, such as fight, flight, freeze, or numb.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Identify the basic principles of Polyvagal Theory and how PVT can inform and enhance application of any psychotherapeutic modality.
Discuss how understanding Polyvagal Theory can help therapists implement IFS more safely and effectively, especially in the systems of clients with complex trauma.
Workshop #27: Resilience & the Stress Response: Addressing Emotional Stuckness & Trauma
PRESENTED BY Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D.
AFTERNOON SESSION | 12:45pm - 4:00pm
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This session is available for live stream.
New understandings reveal that there is much wisdom to the stress response. Rather than focusing on dysfunction, we should begin by appreciating how our brains are brilliantly programmed to not only summon the strength required to deal with distressing situations, but to also serve as an emotional first-aid response. The problem is not with the stress response per se, but when the stress response is not followed in a timely fashion by its partner, the resilience response. We will be much more effective in our interaction with distressed children, youth and students if we first come alongside how their brains are trying to take care of them, and from this stance, proceed to help the stress response become unstuck.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Updating an understanding of the stress response through the lenses of attachment and emotion
The ability to differentiate between the two kinds of strength that is often associated with resilience
An appreciation of what has to bounce back for emotional health and well-being
An understanding of the wisdom of the stress response and how to come alongside it
Workshop #29: (CONTINUATION) Navigating Addictions: Practical Interventions to Promote Healing & Recovery
PRESENTED BY Carissa Muth, Psy.D., CCC, R.Psych
AFTERNOON SESSION | 12:45pm - 4:00pm
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This session is available for live stream.
THIS IS A CONTINUATION OF THE MORNING SESSION
The field of addictions is muddled with a myriad of theories and treatments, yet little progress has been made over time to improve relapse rates. Given the repetitive and persistent nature of addictions, mental health professions addressing such concerns are at increased risk for compassion fatigue and burnout. In order to reduce this risk on treatment providers, the workshop will focus on empowering workers by providing techniques to effectively address a variety of client presentations. Often default recommendations of attending inpatient care are provided to clients as professionals lack the tools to know how they can make positive impacts on a clients care at various stages of the recovery journey.
In this workshop, you will also be provided with tools to understand the complexity involved in the development of substance use disorder and thus be able to make effective treatment recommendations. Attendees will leave the workshop equipped with practical techniques for treating those struggling with addictions including basics of assessments, working with families, and providing post-treatment care. Additionally, various intervention methods will be overviewed including CBT and narrative therapy in order to provide the client with techniques to implement with a variety of client presentations.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Develop the ability to guide clients and their families through the recovery process.
Integrate a focus on the client’s relationship with substances into treatment.
Obtain a roadmap for recovery and tools to increase client success at various stages.
Gain an understanding of various treatment interventions for addictions.
Workshop #30: Healing the Healer
PRESENTED BY Eboni Webb, Psy.D., HSP
AFTERNOON SESSION | 12:45pm - 4:00pm
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This session is NOT available for live stream.
This is an experiential session, please wear comfortable clothing.
All professionals who work with traumatized clients and or students may experience one or several negative and harmful effects including: burnout, secondary traumatic stress, vicarious traumatization, compassion fatigue or caregiver stress. Oftentimes, self-care goes out the window for professionals as they take on greater workloads and put the needs of their clients/students ahead of their own. Ignoring the early warning signs often leads to a wide array of debilitating consequences including: distress, hopefulness, work/life dissatisfaction and serious physical and mental health problems.
In this experiential workshop, Dr. Webb will teach a vast array of tools to heal the traumatized self along with possible ways to integrate and apply the skills to help you and your clients/students improve their lives. Eboni will introduce the concept of resilience and self-care as an act of resilience. She will demonstrate how to restore and process stress and emotions through the body and effectively address traumatic cycles.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Identify the key emotional language of the stressed body.
Define stressors and the impact of stress on the traumatized body.
Describe three strategies to process stress and trauma through the body.
Incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or students.
