Speaker and Session Information
Presenters:
Alejandro Castro MA LPC LAC ,
Barbara Sheehan-Zeidler, MA, LPC - I
Title:
It’s Not Magic - It’s Neuroscience! Soulful Healing with Sound and Expressive Arts
Bio’s
Barbara Sheehan-Zeidler, MA, is a seasoned licensed professional counselor from Colorado, and considers herself an integrative psychotherapist as she focuses her career on the impact of trauma and its healing through the mind-body-soul connection. Barbara is an approved trainer for EMDR Basic Trainings and an EMDRIA Approved Consultant. She is also Somatic IFS Certified, IFS Level 2 trained, and has advanced training in Polyvagal Theory, Sandplay, and Natural Processing.
Description:
The field of therapy is evolving toward integrative, experiential, and neuroscience-informed approaches that prioritize holistic, trauma-sensitive care. These methods foster deep healing by engaging the body, emotions, and nervous system, helping clients move beyond cognitive processing into embodied transformation.
This session explores the intersection of Polyvagal Theory, sound healing, and expressive arts—specifically movement and bilateral drawing—as powerful tools for trauma recovery. These approaches translate across the lifespan and honor the diversity of clients’ backgrounds, identities, and experiences, fostering more inclusive and effective care.
By mindfully integrating Polyvagal-informed expressive arts, including sound, movement, and bilateral drawing, therapists can help clients regulate their nervous systems, process trauma in a meaningful way, and build lasting resilience. This experiential session will provide practical, neuroscience-backed techniques to support healing that extends beyond talk therapy.
In this new era of therapy, personalized, creative, and science-supported modalities empower clients to move from surviving to thriving. As we blend innovation with tradition, science with creativity, the possibilities for profound transformation are truly limitless.
Objectives:
1. Describe Psychosensory Therapy.
2. Explain the three guiding principles of Polyvagal Theory and how they apply to effective therapy.
3. Demonstrate three creative therapeutic approaches that integrate science to facilitate safety and healing.
4. Design a personalized approach utilizing “science with creativity” to put into practice with your clients.
Target Audience:
Mid-Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Maggie Dickens, LPC-S
Title:
A Compass Within: Using Hypnosis for Therapist Self-Regulation and Reconnection Practical tools for grounding, clarity, and inner spaciousness in a field that never stops asking more of you
Bio:
Maggie is a licensed therapist, international hypnosis trainer, and the founder of Cathartic Counseling & Coaching. She supports deep-feeling, overthinking, people-pleasing women in untangling their patterns and stepping into clarity, confidence, and calm. Blending clinical hypnosis, ego state therapy, and feminist-informed practices, Maggie brings a grounded, human-first approach to healing—for clients and for the clinicians who care for them.
Description:
In a profession built around holding space for others, where do you go to feel clear, grounded, and supported?
This experiential workshop introduces self-hypnosis as a simple, powerful, and underutilized tool for therapist self-regulation. Rooted in neuroscience and client-centered practice, this session reframes hypnosis—not as a performance or quick fix—but as a form of internal leadership. Attendees will walk away with both an understanding of how self-hypnosis supports the nervous system and a practical framework to use between client sessions, at the end of long days, or when emotional bandwidth runs low.
You’ll participate in a guided self-hypnosis experience designed to help you locate your own internal compass—clarity, calm, and agency—no matter what chaos surrounds you. This isn’t about growing your practice. This is about sustaining yourself in a profession that often forgets you’re human too.
This space is a pause. A breath.
Objectives:
1. Describe the ethical risks of replicating harmful systemic dynamics (e.g., burnout, codependency, hierarchy) within clinical work and organizational leadership.
2. Explain how trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming frameworks can be applied beyond the therapy room to practice culture, leadership, and team systems.
3. Differentiate between client-centered care that supports autonomy and clinical practices that unconsciously reinforce dependency or therapist over-functioning.
4. Identify common signs of ethical drift in practice management, including patterns of self-sacrifice, boundary erosion, and over-responsibility.
5. Develop a plan to align personal values, professional ethics, and organizational practices to promote sustainability, equity, and systemic healing.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Dr. Hasti Raveau, PhD, LP
Title:
We Are the Cycle Breakers: Building a Practice that Heals Systems, Not Just Symptoms
Bio:
Dr. Hasti Raveau is a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder and CEO of the Mala Child and Family Institute—a purpose-driven organization committed to ending intergenerational cycles of trauma through trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming, and culturally responsive education, training, and care. With both heart and vision, Dr. Raveau leads efforts to reimagine mental health care as a collaborative, inclusive, and transformative force.
Description:
What if the most radical thing we could do as therapists was to stop replicating the very systems our clients are trying to escape? In this energizing and vulnerable session, Dr. Raveau, a clinical psychologist, trauma specialist, and founder of a thriving 50-person multidisciplinary practice, shares how her work with women and minorities ending generational cycles of harm, and families navigating neurodivergence, shaped the soul of her organization. You’ll explore what it means to truly be a cycle breaker, not just in your therapy room, but in how you build community, lead teams, and relate to your own story. This talk will challenge clinicians to examine the hidden ways we reinforce burnout, codependency, and perfectionism in our work, and offer a new, embodied model for practice that is trauma-informed, spiritually grounded, and sustainable. Whether you lead a group or practice solo, you’ll leave with inspiration and tools to build a business, and life, that doesn’t just treat trauma, but refuses to recreate it.
Objectives:
1. Describe the ethical risks of replicating harmful systemic dynamics (e.g., burnout, codependency, hierarchy) within clinical work and organizational leadership.
2. Explain how trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming frameworks can be applied beyond the therapy room to practice culture, leadership, and team systems.
3. Differentiate between client-centered care that supports autonomy and clinical practices that unconsciously reinforce dependency or therapist over-functioning.
4. Identify common signs of ethical drift in practice management, including patterns of self-sacrifice, boundary erosion, and over-responsibility.
5. Develop a plan to align personal values, professional ethics, and organizational practices to promote sustainability, equity, and systemic healing.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenters:
Colleen Clark, LCSW;
Karri Biehle, MSW, CPCC;
Katinka Boyd, LPC-MHSP
Title:
What is Affirming and Inclusive Psychotherapy: An interactive discussion about trauma-informed and culturally responsive service delivery meeting LGBTQIA2S+ and Neurodivergent people.
Bios:
Colleen Clark, LCSW (she/her) is a queer, neurodivergent, Japanese-American therapist and founder of Lotus Warrior Wellness Center, where she specializes in relationship healing and trauma recovery.
Karri Biehle, MSW, CPCC (they/them) is a queer, neurodivergent, professional certified coach supporting highly sensitive, queer, and neurodivergent adults in finding their voice and path in leadership and life.
Katinka Boyd, LPC-MHSP (she/her) is a licensed therapist and founder of Therapy Center for Balanced Living, PLLC who provides trauma-informed care rooted in affirmation, cultural humility, and deep respect for lived experience.
Description:
This interactive panel explores what it truly means to offer affirming and inclusive psychotherapy for LGBTQIA2S+ and neurodivergent individuals in today’s evolving clinical landscape. Together, Colleen Clark, LCSW; Karri Biehle, MSW, CPCC; and Katinka Boyd, LPC-MHSP will engage the audience in a dynamic, brave conversation around shifting traditional therapeutic norms, integrating trauma-informed care, and embodying culturally responsive practices that honor lived experience and identity.
Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of the real-world impact of microaggressions and cisheteronormative/neurotypical bias in therapy—and how to repair, reframe, and reconnect with clients using strategies that center safety, agency, and relational integrity. Grounded in anti-oppressive frameworks and liberatory healing, this session will challenge clinicians to grow beyond checkbox “inclusion” and embody a lifelong commitment to responsive, humble, and radically affirming care.
Objectives:
1. Define the core elements of affirming and inclusive psychotherapy for LGBTQIA2S+ and neurodivergent clients
2. Identify harm caused by structural bias and microaggressions in therapy.
3. Describe at least two affirming practices to integrate into client work.
4. Differentiate between performative and identity-responsive care.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Erin Amundson, MA, LPC
Title:
Dreamwork: Your Secret and Highly Accessible Therapist Superpower
Bio:
Erin Amundson is a dream therapist in Colorado who thrives on her work teaching others to embrace their inner spiritual genius through dream work. She successfully eliminates burnout, insecurity and emotional pain by showing people how to use their own brilliance to heal and transform
Description:
Did you know that your subconscious is hard at work every night delivering you every piece of information you need to thrive in life? We all have a unique genius within that knows how to heal, how to thrive, and how to best address our pain and obstacles. Most of us have an interest in dreams, but we lack the collective knowledge to apply ourselves to our greatest healer - our own inner world! Join Erin to learn how to track, associate, and amplify your dreams so that you too can restore your clarity of purpose, live with more joy, and create a way to work more efficiently in your life and the lives of your clients. Get out of your head, and into the landscape of your soul - your transformation awaits!
Objectives:
1. Name and describe 2 effective therapeutic approaches to dreamwork.
2. Differentiate between techniques and name the appropriate contexts for the use of each technique.
3. Identify therapeutic dreamwork techniques including which clients tend to have the most success with dreamwork interventions.
4. Select one therapeutic dreamwork technique to apply in a brief exercise.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Laura Merritt LCSW
Title:
From Sage to Psychedelics: Legal, Ethical, and Clinical Considerations for Supporting Client Safety
Bio:
Laura Merritt, LCSW, is a trauma-focused therapist with over 20 years of experience, specializing in anxiety, complex trauma, and nervous system regulation. As a clinical supervisor and program leader, she has mentored therapists and supported healing across diverse settings. After years in managed care and earning certifications, Laura spent a year in Mesoamerica learning from Indigenous healers about plant medicines and nature-based healing. She now integrates evidence-based therapy with holistic, culturally rooted approaches through her practice, Golden Path Journey. Her work is grounded, relational, and honors both scientific insight and ancient wisdom in the healing process
Description:
Interest in psychedelic and plant medicine therapies is growing rapidly, with the industry projected to surpass $8 billion by 2029. As this approach gains visibility in headlines and social circles, more clients are turning to their therapists with questions—before, during, or after these experiences. They’re seeking guidance on what to expect, where to go, how to process what comes up, and how to navigate a legal and ethical landscape that continues to evolve. Whether it's microdosing or macrodosing, clients are asking for informed, grounded support. Yet many clinicians feel unsure about how to engage in these conversations safely, ethically, and within their scope of practice.
Objectives:
1. Describe the legal and ethical considerations therapists must evaluate when discussing plant medicine or psychedelic use with clients.
2. Differentiate between therapeutic support, clinical endorsement, and referral when engaging in client conversations about psychedelics.
3. Explain the significance of dose, set, and setting in assessing client safety related to psychedelic experiences.
4. Describe the distinctions between microdosing, macrodosing, and ceremonial plant medicine use and how each may impact safety assessment in therapy.
5. Compare red flags and green flags when evaluating potential guides, sitters, or centers for referral.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Geraldine Pena, LPC, ACS
Title:
Healing Love Wounds for BIPOC Women
Bio:
My name is Geraldine. I am a bilingual Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the state of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, providing therapy to minorities via telehealth at my mental health group practice called Live Truthfully Counseling. My niche is working with women of color, supporting them in working through their trauma, cultural identity and leaning in on living their truth! I also am an adjunct professor, speaker and activist whose passion lies within mitigating any issues affecting black and brown communities. My hope is to expand my therapeutic and empowering skills to continue destigmatizing mental wellness.
Description:
Session will focus on helping therapists gain skills, techniques and interventions that help BIPOC women break generational trauma and heal their attachment wounds.
Objectives:
1. Discuss the attachment wounds of BIPOC women and how it affects them long term
2. Define concepts of Marianismo and evaluate the harm of this
3. Identify techniques to address the problem with BIPOC women
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist
Presenter:
Dr. Karin Hudson, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Title:
Nature as Your True North: The Healing Qualities of Ecopsychology
Bio:
Dr. Karin Hudson is a psychologist, educator, and ecotherapy consultant with over 40 years of experience integrating nature-based healing into trauma recovery and personal growth. As the founder of Consider Yourself Credentialed (Trademark Pending), she empowers individuals from all walks of life to reconnect with their authentic selves through coaching, retreats, and experiential learning. Blending psychology, ecopsychology, and hands-on transformation, she helps clients cultivate resilience, joy, and a deeply rooted sense of well-being.
Description:
Participants in this presentation will be introduced to the foundational concepts of ecopsychology and ecotherapy, exploring their profound impact on holistic healing and well-being. Through case examples applicable to both virtual and in-person settings, we will highlight how reconnecting with nature fosters emotional resilience, clarity, and balance. Participants will also learn about forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku), a practice originating in Japan that involves immersing oneself in a forest environment to promote relaxation and mindfulness. Studies have demonstrated that forest bathing can reduce stress hormones, lower blood pressure, and enhance mood . Additionally, the concept of value tagging, a science-based approach that reinforces meaningful connections with nature, will be introduced to help integrate ecopsychology into daily life and professional practice. We will also explore ecotuning—attuning oneself to the rhythms and wisdom of the natural world—as a pathway to deeper self-awareness and restoration.
The culminating event of this talk will be an experiential exercise titled Everything in Nature is a Womb, inspired by Abadio Green, a linguist and wise man of the Gunadule people of Colombia. This practice invites participants to realign with the Earth’s natural cycles, strengthening their attunement to nature and deepening their connection to the environment through mindful engagement and reflection.
Objectives:
1. List the key principles of ecotherapy
2. Describe how nature influences psychological and physiological well-being
3. Differentiate between passive nature exposure and intentional mindfulness practices, such as guided imagery within Everything in Nature is a Womb
4. Explain how sensory engagement in natural environments supports stress reduction
5. Summarize research on the benefits of mindfulness and forest bathing
6. Demonstrate a simple forest bathing technique including ways to integrate it into daily life for mental well-being
7. Compare the benefits of structured ecotherapy versus unstructured time in nature
8. Plan a personal approach for incorporating mindfulness and forest bathing practices
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Ellen Slater, LICSW, YT-200
Title:
The Art of Somatic Healing: Integrating The Body In Clinical Practice
Bio:
With a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master's from the University of Chicago, Ellen Slater is a Continuing Education instructor who integrates eco-psychology, somatic therapy, and neuroscience into her trauma informed treatment model. Her expertise comes from 20 years of field experience, a post-graduate Fellowship in Addiction & Trauma, and the completion of a year-long immersion program in Interpersonal Neurobiology under the guidance of international expert Dr. Bonnie Badenoch. As a certified yoga instructor and long-time student of indigenous wisdom, Ellen seamlessly integrates nervous system understanding and experiential body awareness into trainings, workshops, and therapy.
Description:
With a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master's from the University of Chicago, Ellen Slater is a Continuing Education instructor who integrates eco-psychology, somatic therapy, and neuroscience into her trauma informed treatment model. Her expertise comes from 20 years of field experience, a post-graduate Fellowship in Addiction & Trauma, and the completion of a year-long immersion program in Interpersonal Neurobiology under the guidance of international expert Dr. Bonnie Badenoch. As a certified yoga instructor and long-time student of indigenous wisdom, Ellen seamlessly integrates nervous system understanding and experiential body awareness into trainings, workshops, and therapy. Ellen brings a feminine lens to cutting edge science. She delivers important information about The Vagus Nerve and Heart Brain, helping clinicians understand and trust the lost wisdom of the body. Ellen’s trainings are enhanced by powerful experiential practices where clinicians can directly experience the body as a guide. Ellen’s approach of relating to your inner world as a prism offers a new paradigm of self-love.
The Art of Somatic Healing combines ancient wisdom with the latest research alongside direct experience, teaching an evidence-based path to building resilience through the body.
Objectives:
1. Explain & locate the Vagus Nerve and Heart Brain
2. Plan unique somatic-based compassion practices that build compassionate neuropathways
3. Describe "The Inner Prism", a body-based framework rooted in Relational Neuroscience
4. Define the language of the body
5. Apply somatic awareness techniques to identify and interpret bodily signals as part of therapeutic decision-making in clinical practice
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Dr. Tenise M. Wall, PhD, LCSW, CASACM
Title:
The Privilege of Rest: Why Self-Care Remains Challenging and Shifting the Mindset
Bio:
Dr. Tenise M. Wall is an ADHD, grief & trauma expert, licensed clinical social worker, author and professional speaker who has a passion for helping others in her role as CEO/Owner of Dr. Wall’s ADHD & Wellness. She was the Orange County, NY Woman of Achievement Award winner and has received certificates of acknowledgement from various politicians and organizations from her local Mayor and County Executive to State Senators for the impactful contribution she has made within her community.
Dr. Wall is a dynamic, personable, passion-filled speaker with a wealth of knowledge who leaves the audience captivated and wanting more, as she weaves years of research, practice and experience into presentations.
Description:
In a world that glorifies productivity, rest often feels like a privilege rather than a necessity. This workshop explores the barriers—systemic, cultural, and internal—that make self-care challenging and how shifting our mindset can help us reclaim rest as a right. Participants will examine how societal expectations and personal guilt create resistance to rest and develop strategies to redefine self-care beyond traditional notions.
Through guided discussions and reflective exercises, attendees will challenge the belief that rest must be earned, exploring how internalized narratives shape their relationship with self-care. The workshop will introduce practical and accessible strategies for integrating rest into daily life, even amid external pressures. Participants will leave with a personalized plan for prioritizing rest in a way that is sustainable and aligned with their unique circumstances.
This session is designed for anyone struggling with burnout, guilt around rest, or the feeling that self-care is out of reach. By shifting our perspective, we can move from seeing rest as a luxury to embracing it as a fundamental part of well-being. Join us for an engaging and transformative discussion on reclaiming rest in a world that often denies it.
Objectives:
1. List (3) systemic, cultural, and personal obstacles that make rest feel like a privilege rather than a necessity.
2. Explain how to move from a productivity-focused mindset to one that values rest as a vital part of well-being.
3. Explain societal conditioning that equates rest with laziness and develop strategies to reframe it as an act of self-preservation.
4. Plan individualized approaches to self-care that fit within real-life constraints, recognizing that rest looks different for everyone.
5. List 2-3 ideas for setting realistic and intentional practices for incorporating rest into their daily lives, even amidst external pressures.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Duewa " Kaya" Spicer, LCSW, LCSW-S , CST, P-AT, ABS
Title:
Pleasure as Compass: Reimagining Healing with Kink, ENM, and Spiritual Sexuality
Bio:
Kaya Spicer is a sex and couples therapist, educator, and speaker who helps people reclaim pleasure as a source of power, healing, and connection. With clinical expertise in kink, ethical non-monogamy, and decolonizing therapy practices, she invites therapists to move beyond shame and into curiosity. Kaya has spoken at universities, Planned Parenthood, podcast,national conferences, and community events, always with humor, heart, and a commitment to erotic liberation.
Description:
This session invites therapists to reimagine their relationship with pleasure—as individuals and as clinicians. Too often, sexuality, kink, and ethical non-monogamy (ENM) are pathologized in therapy, especially for gender ,relationally and erotically diverse clients of the global majority. “Pleasure as Compass” explores how affirming, sex-positive care can become a powerful tool for healing, regulation, and connection.
Through interactive reflection, clinical insight, and decolonizing frameworks, participants will examine their own discomfort, learn how to talk about sex and kink with clarity and confidence, and explore how spirituality and sexuality may intersect in clients’ lives. This is a brave space to be curious, imperfect, and human—because liberation in the therapy room starts with the therapist.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist
Objectives:
1. Differentiate between therapeutic bias and clinical concern when working with erotically diverse clients using evident based models.
2. Describe at least three ways kink, ethical non-monogamy (ENM), and spiritual sexuality can support client healing and self-integration.
3. Identify appropriate referral points to a sex therapist based on client needs, presenting issues, and therapist scope of practice.
4. Explain how to apply a decolonizing, pleasure-centered framework within existing therapeutic models.
5. Explain the clinical significance of erotic agency and pleasure as tools for trauma recovery and identity development.
Presenters:
Bianca Hughes, LPC and Jennifer Hama, MS, LPC, CPCS
Title:
Redefining the Blank Slate: Intentional Self-Disclosure
Bios:
Bianca Hughes is a compassionate therapist whose heart-work breaks down barriers in mental health, guiding ambitious individuals from the prison of perfectionism toward authentic self-discovery and profound inner peace. Through her powerful speaking, she touches lives by illuminating the path to freedom from perfectionism, creating transformative experiences that ripple through organizations, and individuals alike. With genuine care, she created a supportive community for fellow therapists seeking direction, helping them find their aligned path in the mental health field while honoring their unique gifts and purpose.
Description:
The age of blank slate therapists is coming to an end- intentional disclosure is deeply personal, sometimes tricky, and often a powerful part of the therapeutic relationship. This workshop invites you to explore how sharing parts of yourself can create real connection, deepen trust, and support healing, all while staying grounded in ethics and intentionality. Through honest conversation, case examples, and reflection, we’ll unpack how identity, culture, and context shape the way we show up with our clients—and how to do so with care, clarity, and confidence.
Objectives:
1. Explain the evolving role of therapist self-disclosure through ethical, clinical, and cultural lenses, including how cultural identity and context influence disclosure decisions.
2. Differentiate between therapeutic self-disclosure and personal oversharing by analyzing case studies across diverse client populations.
3. Develop a framework or intentional, culturally responsive self-disclosure that enhances the therapeutic alliance and supports client outcomes.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Krystal Smith, LICSW-S, PIP
Title:
When the System Hurts: Navigating Therapy in a Time of Structural Change
Bio:
Krystal Smith, LICSW, is a therapist, veteran, and founder of H.E.A.L. Counseling Services LLC, serving adults across Alabama and Florida. A psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery (PSR) fellow and former VA clinician, she brings deep experience in military mental health, trauma, and systems-informed care. When she’s not supporting others, you can find her hiking, traveling, catching a concert, or volunteering in her community.
Description:
Therapists are healers, but we are not immune to harm. As systems shift and societal pressure mounts, many therapists are quietly burning out, navigating moral injury, or feeling complicit in structures that don't align with their values. This workshop is an invitation to stop pretending everything’s fine and start healing the healers through a mix of real talk, experiential exercises, reflection, and collective wisdom.This is not a workshop about fixing broken systems overnight. It’s about finding your footing, so you can move forward with clarity, integrity, and resilience.
Objectives:
1. List the structural and systemic forces that impact work and wellbeing
2. Describe their emotional and somatic responses to systemic dissonance
3. Evaluate their personal compass for doing this work
4. Name ways of practicing that align with authenticity and justice
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Julia Nepini LICSW ACSW
Title:
Enneagram: The Basics and Beyond
Bio:
Julia Nepini is a clinical and forensic social worker who owns the group practice, Compassionate Counseling Company, and the consulting business, Compassionate Consulting Company, where she helps entrepreneurs start, expand, and diversify their businesses. She also hosts the Compassionate Climb podcast where she discusses being successful in business while maintaining integrity.
Description:
In this interactive session, participants will gain a foundational understanding of the Enneagram, a transformative model of the human psyche that illuminates core motivations and fears. They will learn how to apply the Enneagram to their clinical work to enhance self-awareness and promote client progress as well as practical strategies to incorporate within a team setting to foster collective growth and promote resilience.
Objectives:
1. Describe the basics of this model of the human psyche including an overview of the 9 types, wings, centers, and triads as well as security and stress numbers.
2. Identify ways to incorporate the Enneagram in their clinical work with clients to help them understand what motivates their behavior and facilitate personal growth and development.
3. Illustrate using Enneagram within a team to improve communication, enhance collaboration, manage conflict, and optimize roles within a practice.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Dr. Amanda Kern, DSW, LICSW, ICAADC, MAC, CDP, CST
Title:
It Was Never Just About the Substance: The Trauma Beneath Addiction
Bio:
Dr. Amanda Kern, DSW, LICSW, is a therapist, educator, and founder of Integrated Balance Psychotherapy. With over 20 years of clinical experience, she specializes in trauma, addiction recovery, and nervous system-informed care. Her forthcoming book, It Was Never Just About the Substance, offers a bold, trauma-informed reframe of addiction and recovery through both science and story.
Description:
Addiction isn’t about weakness, and it’s not just about substances. It’s about survival. In this courageous, clinically grounded session, Dr. Amanda Kern—therapist, educator, and author of the forthcoming book It Was Never Just About the Substance—invites attendees to reimagine addiction through the lens of trauma, nervous system dysregulation, and generational imprint.
Blending real-life clinical insight with cutting-edge research, Dr. Kern explores how early adversity, attachment wounds, and chronic emotional overwhelm create the conditions where substance use becomes adaptive. This session will also delve into the science of epigenetics—revealing how unhealed trauma gets passed down biologically and behaviorally, shaping lives before a substance ever enters the story.
Objectives:
1. Describe how trauma influences nervous system development and addiction behaviors across the lifespan.
2. Differentiate between substance-focused treatment models and trauma-integrated recovery frameworks.
3. Explain how epigenetics contributes to generational patterns of addiction and emotional regulation.
4. Identify three trauma-responsive strategies that support long-term recovery and integrated healing.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Jeanette Lira LPC-S
Title:
Break Free: Reclaiming the Human, the Healer, and the Unapologetic You
Bio:
Jeanette Lira is a therapist, supervisor, entrepreneur, and disruptor who empowers clinicians to reclaim their full, authentic selves. Drawing from her own journey of identity evolution and embodied healing, she guides others to integrate who they are with how they practice. With bold energy and deep heart, Jeanette creates transformative spaces where therapists can stop performing and start becoming.
Description:
This training invites therapists to move beyond the role of clinician and into awareness of the full human experience—both their own and their clients’. Participants will explore how psychophysiological responses (such as tension, activation, overwhelm, or shutdown) emerge in the counseling space, and how these internal cues can provide vital information rather than barriers. By learning to identify, regulate, and integrate these responses, therapists can reduce burnout, strengthen therapeutic presence, and support healthier outcomes for both client and clinician. This training will include interactive exercises, reflection, and embodied practices that participants can walk away with and use throughout their practice and work.
Objectives:
1. Participants will explore techniques to help clinicians regulate and decrease burnout and help clients regulate and engage more fully in the therapeutic process
2. Participants will be able to recognize and respond to their own nervous system cues to decrease burnout.
3. Participants will be able to describe the connection between burnout and unacknowledged physiological responses.
4. Participants will be able to demonstrate at least one embodiment or expressive technique (e.g., movement, voice, or ritual) that supports emotional regulation and self-connection for therapists.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Alejandro Castro MA LPC LAC ,
Barbara Sheehan-Zeidler, MA, LPC - I
Title:
It’s Not Magic - It’s Neuroscience! Soulful Healing with Sound and Expressive Arts
Bio’s
Barbara Sheehan-Zeidler, MA, is a seasoned licensed professional counselor from Colorado, and considers herself an integrative psychotherapist as she focuses her career on the impact of trauma and its healing through the mind-body-soul connection. Barbara is an approved trainer for EMDR Basic Trainings and an EMDRIA Approved Consultant. She is also Somatic IFS Certified, IFS Level 2 trained, and has advanced training in Polyvagal Theory, Sandplay, and Natural Processing.
Description:
The field of therapy is evolving toward integrative, experiential, and neuroscience-informed approaches that prioritize holistic, trauma-sensitive care. These methods foster deep healing by engaging the body, emotions, and nervous system, helping clients move beyond cognitive processing into embodied transformation.
This session explores the intersection of Polyvagal Theory, sound healing, and expressive arts—specifically movement and bilateral drawing—as powerful tools for trauma recovery. These approaches translate across the lifespan and honor the diversity of clients’ backgrounds, identities, and experiences, fostering more inclusive and effective care.
By mindfully integrating Polyvagal-informed expressive arts, including sound, movement, and bilateral drawing, therapists can help clients regulate their nervous systems, process trauma in a meaningful way, and build lasting resilience. This experiential session will provide practical, neuroscience-backed techniques to support healing that extends beyond talk therapy.
In this new era of therapy, personalized, creative, and science-supported modalities empower clients to move from surviving to thriving. As we blend innovation with tradition, science with creativity, the possibilities for profound transformation are truly limitless.
Objectives:
1. Describe Psychosensory Therapy.
2. Explain the three guiding principles of Polyvagal Theory and how they apply to effective therapy.
3. Demonstrate three creative therapeutic approaches that integrate science to facilitate safety and healing.
4. Design a personalized approach utilizing “science with creativity” to put into practice with your clients.
Target Audience:
Mid-Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Maggie Dickens, LPC-S
Title:
A Compass Within: Using Hypnosis for Therapist Self-Regulation and Reconnection Practical tools for grounding, clarity, and inner spaciousness in a field that never stops asking more of you
Bio:
Maggie is a licensed therapist, international hypnosis trainer, and the founder of Cathartic Counseling & Coaching. She supports deep-feeling, overthinking, people-pleasing women in untangling their patterns and stepping into clarity, confidence, and calm. Blending clinical hypnosis, ego state therapy, and feminist-informed practices, Maggie brings a grounded, human-first approach to healing—for clients and for the clinicians who care for them.
Description:
In a profession built around holding space for others, where do you go to feel clear, grounded, and supported?
This experiential workshop introduces self-hypnosis as a simple, powerful, and underutilized tool for therapist self-regulation. Rooted in neuroscience and client-centered practice, this session reframes hypnosis—not as a performance or quick fix—but as a form of internal leadership. Attendees will walk away with both an understanding of how self-hypnosis supports the nervous system and a practical framework to use between client sessions, at the end of long days, or when emotional bandwidth runs low.
You’ll participate in a guided self-hypnosis experience designed to help you locate your own internal compass—clarity, calm, and agency—no matter what chaos surrounds you. This isn’t about growing your practice. This is about sustaining yourself in a profession that often forgets you’re human too.
This space is a pause. A breath.
Objectives:
1. Describe the ethical risks of replicating harmful systemic dynamics (e.g., burnout, codependency, hierarchy) within clinical work and organizational leadership.
2. Explain how trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming frameworks can be applied beyond the therapy room to practice culture, leadership, and team systems.
3. Differentiate between client-centered care that supports autonomy and clinical practices that unconsciously reinforce dependency or therapist over-functioning.
4. Identify common signs of ethical drift in practice management, including patterns of self-sacrifice, boundary erosion, and over-responsibility.
5. Develop a plan to align personal values, professional ethics, and organizational practices to promote sustainability, equity, and systemic healing.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Dr. Hasti Raveau, PhD, LP
Title:
We Are the Cycle Breakers: Building a Practice that Heals Systems, Not Just Symptoms
Bio:
Dr. Hasti Raveau is a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder and CEO of the Mala Child and Family Institute—a purpose-driven organization committed to ending intergenerational cycles of trauma through trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming, and culturally responsive education, training, and care. With both heart and vision, Dr. Raveau leads efforts to reimagine mental health care as a collaborative, inclusive, and transformative force.
Description:
What if the most radical thing we could do as therapists was to stop replicating the very systems our clients are trying to escape? In this energizing and vulnerable session, Dr. Raveau, a clinical psychologist, trauma specialist, and founder of a thriving 50-person multidisciplinary practice, shares how her work with women and minorities ending generational cycles of harm, and families navigating neurodivergence, shaped the soul of her organization. You’ll explore what it means to truly be a cycle breaker, not just in your therapy room, but in how you build community, lead teams, and relate to your own story. This talk will challenge clinicians to examine the hidden ways we reinforce burnout, codependency, and perfectionism in our work, and offer a new, embodied model for practice that is trauma-informed, spiritually grounded, and sustainable. Whether you lead a group or practice solo, you’ll leave with inspiration and tools to build a business, and life, that doesn’t just treat trauma, but refuses to recreate it.
Objectives:
1. Describe the ethical risks of replicating harmful systemic dynamics (e.g., burnout, codependency, hierarchy) within clinical work and organizational leadership.
2. Explain how trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming frameworks can be applied beyond the therapy room to practice culture, leadership, and team systems.
3. Differentiate between client-centered care that supports autonomy and clinical practices that unconsciously reinforce dependency or therapist over-functioning.
4. Identify common signs of ethical drift in practice management, including patterns of self-sacrifice, boundary erosion, and over-responsibility.
5. Develop a plan to align personal values, professional ethics, and organizational practices to promote sustainability, equity, and systemic healing.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenters:
Colleen Clark, LCSW;
Karri Biehle, MSW, CPCC;
Katinka Boyd, LPC-MHSP
Title:
What is Affirming and Inclusive Psychotherapy: An interactive discussion about trauma-informed and culturally responsive service delivery meeting LGBTQIA2S+ and Neurodivergent people.
Bios:
Colleen Clark, LCSW (she/her) is a queer, neurodivergent, Japanese-American therapist and founder of Lotus Warrior Wellness Center, where she specializes in relationship healing and trauma recovery.
Karri Biehle, MSW, CPCC (they/them) is a queer, neurodivergent, professional certified coach supporting highly sensitive, queer, and neurodivergent adults in finding their voice and path in leadership and life.
Katinka Boyd, LPC-MHSP (she/her) is a licensed therapist and founder of Therapy Center for Balanced Living, PLLC who provides trauma-informed care rooted in affirmation, cultural humility, and deep respect for lived experience.
Description:
This interactive panel explores what it truly means to offer affirming and inclusive psychotherapy for LGBTQIA2S+ and neurodivergent individuals in today’s evolving clinical landscape. Together, Colleen Clark, LCSW; Karri Biehle, MSW, CPCC; and Katinka Boyd, LPC-MHSP will engage the audience in a dynamic, brave conversation around shifting traditional therapeutic norms, integrating trauma-informed care, and embodying culturally responsive practices that honor lived experience and identity.
Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of the real-world impact of microaggressions and cisheteronormative/neurotypical bias in therapy—and how to repair, reframe, and reconnect with clients using strategies that center safety, agency, and relational integrity. Grounded in anti-oppressive frameworks and liberatory healing, this session will challenge clinicians to grow beyond checkbox “inclusion” and embody a lifelong commitment to responsive, humble, and radically affirming care.
Objectives:
1. Define the core elements of affirming and inclusive psychotherapy for LGBTQIA2S+ and neurodivergent clients
2. Identify harm caused by structural bias and microaggressions in therapy.
3. Describe at least two affirming practices to integrate into client work.
4. Differentiate between performative and identity-responsive care.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Erin Amundson, MA, LPC
Title:
Dreamwork: Your Secret and Highly Accessible Therapist Superpower
Bio:
Erin Amundson is a dream therapist in Colorado who thrives on her work teaching others to embrace their inner spiritual genius through dream work. She successfully eliminates burnout, insecurity and emotional pain by showing people how to use their own brilliance to heal and transform
Description:
Did you know that your subconscious is hard at work every night delivering you every piece of information you need to thrive in life? We all have a unique genius within that knows how to heal, how to thrive, and how to best address our pain and obstacles. Most of us have an interest in dreams, but we lack the collective knowledge to apply ourselves to our greatest healer - our own inner world! Join Erin to learn how to track, associate, and amplify your dreams so that you too can restore your clarity of purpose, live with more joy, and create a way to work more efficiently in your life and the lives of your clients. Get out of your head, and into the landscape of your soul - your transformation awaits!
Objectives:
1. Name and describe 2 effective therapeutic approaches to dreamwork.
2. Differentiate between techniques and name the appropriate contexts for the use of each technique.
3. Identify therapeutic dreamwork techniques including which clients tend to have the most success with dreamwork interventions.
4. Select one therapeutic dreamwork technique to apply in a brief exercise.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Laura Merritt LCSW
Title:
From Sage to Psychedelics: Legal, Ethical, and Clinical Considerations for Supporting Client Safety
Bio:
Laura Merritt, LCSW, is a trauma-focused therapist with over 20 years of experience, specializing in anxiety, complex trauma, and nervous system regulation. As a clinical supervisor and program leader, she has mentored therapists and supported healing across diverse settings. After years in managed care and earning certifications, Laura spent a year in Mesoamerica learning from Indigenous healers about plant medicines and nature-based healing. She now integrates evidence-based therapy with holistic, culturally rooted approaches through her practice, Golden Path Journey. Her work is grounded, relational, and honors both scientific insight and ancient wisdom in the healing process
Description:
Interest in psychedelic and plant medicine therapies is growing rapidly, with the industry projected to surpass $8 billion by 2029. As this approach gains visibility in headlines and social circles, more clients are turning to their therapists with questions—before, during, or after these experiences. They’re seeking guidance on what to expect, where to go, how to process what comes up, and how to navigate a legal and ethical landscape that continues to evolve. Whether it's microdosing or macrodosing, clients are asking for informed, grounded support. Yet many clinicians feel unsure about how to engage in these conversations safely, ethically, and within their scope of practice.
Objectives:
1. Describe the legal and ethical considerations therapists must evaluate when discussing plant medicine or psychedelic use with clients.
2. Differentiate between therapeutic support, clinical endorsement, and referral when engaging in client conversations about psychedelics.
3. Explain the significance of dose, set, and setting in assessing client safety related to psychedelic experiences.
4. Describe the distinctions between microdosing, macrodosing, and ceremonial plant medicine use and how each may impact safety assessment in therapy.
5. Compare red flags and green flags when evaluating potential guides, sitters, or centers for referral.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Geraldine Pena, LPC, ACS
Title:
Healing Love Wounds for BIPOC Women
Bio:
My name is Geraldine. I am a bilingual Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the state of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, providing therapy to minorities via telehealth at my mental health group practice called Live Truthfully Counseling. My niche is working with women of color, supporting them in working through their trauma, cultural identity and leaning in on living their truth! I also am an adjunct professor, speaker and activist whose passion lies within mitigating any issues affecting black and brown communities. My hope is to expand my therapeutic and empowering skills to continue destigmatizing mental wellness.
Description:
Session will focus on helping therapists gain skills, techniques and interventions that help BIPOC women break generational trauma and heal their attachment wounds.
Objectives:
1. Discuss the attachment wounds of BIPOC women and how it affects them long term
2. Define concepts of Marianismo and evaluate the harm of this
3. Identify techniques to address the problem with BIPOC women
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist
Presenter:
Dr. Karin Hudson, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Title:
Nature as Your True North: The Healing Qualities of Ecopsychology
Bio:
Dr. Karin Hudson is a psychologist, educator, and ecotherapy consultant with over 40 years of experience integrating nature-based healing into trauma recovery and personal growth. As the founder of Consider Yourself Credentialed (Trademark Pending), she empowers individuals from all walks of life to reconnect with their authentic selves through coaching, retreats, and experiential learning. Blending psychology, ecopsychology, and hands-on transformation, she helps clients cultivate resilience, joy, and a deeply rooted sense of well-being.
Description:
Participants in this presentation will be introduced to the foundational concepts of ecopsychology and ecotherapy, exploring their profound impact on holistic healing and well-being. Through case examples applicable to both virtual and in-person settings, we will highlight how reconnecting with nature fosters emotional resilience, clarity, and balance. Participants will also learn about forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku), a practice originating in Japan that involves immersing oneself in a forest environment to promote relaxation and mindfulness. Studies have demonstrated that forest bathing can reduce stress hormones, lower blood pressure, and enhance mood . Additionally, the concept of value tagging, a science-based approach that reinforces meaningful connections with nature, will be introduced to help integrate ecopsychology into daily life and professional practice. We will also explore ecotuning—attuning oneself to the rhythms and wisdom of the natural world—as a pathway to deeper self-awareness and restoration.
The culminating event of this talk will be an experiential exercise titled Everything in Nature is a Womb, inspired by Abadio Green, a linguist and wise man of the Gunadule people of Colombia. This practice invites participants to realign with the Earth’s natural cycles, strengthening their attunement to nature and deepening their connection to the environment through mindful engagement and reflection.
Objectives:
1. List the key principles of ecotherapy
2. Describe how nature influences psychological and physiological well-being
3. Differentiate between passive nature exposure and intentional mindfulness practices, such as guided imagery within Everything in Nature is a Womb
4. Explain how sensory engagement in natural environments supports stress reduction
5. Summarize research on the benefits of mindfulness and forest bathing
6. Demonstrate a simple forest bathing technique including ways to integrate it into daily life for mental well-being
7. Compare the benefits of structured ecotherapy versus unstructured time in nature
8. Plan a personal approach for incorporating mindfulness and forest bathing practices
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Ellen Slater, LICSW, YT-200
Title:
The Art of Somatic Healing: Integrating The Body In Clinical Practice
Bio:
With a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master's from the University of Chicago, Ellen Slater is a Continuing Education instructor who integrates eco-psychology, somatic therapy, and neuroscience into her trauma informed treatment model. Her expertise comes from 20 years of field experience, a post-graduate Fellowship in Addiction & Trauma, and the completion of a year-long immersion program in Interpersonal Neurobiology under the guidance of international expert Dr. Bonnie Badenoch. As a certified yoga instructor and long-time student of indigenous wisdom, Ellen seamlessly integrates nervous system understanding and experiential body awareness into trainings, workshops, and therapy.
Description:
With a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master's from the University of Chicago, Ellen Slater is a Continuing Education instructor who integrates eco-psychology, somatic therapy, and neuroscience into her trauma informed treatment model. Her expertise comes from 20 years of field experience, a post-graduate Fellowship in Addiction & Trauma, and the completion of a year-long immersion program in Interpersonal Neurobiology under the guidance of international expert Dr. Bonnie Badenoch. As a certified yoga instructor and long-time student of indigenous wisdom, Ellen seamlessly integrates nervous system understanding and experiential body awareness into trainings, workshops, and therapy. Ellen brings a feminine lens to cutting edge science. She delivers important information about The Vagus Nerve and Heart Brain, helping clinicians understand and trust the lost wisdom of the body. Ellen’s trainings are enhanced by powerful experiential practices where clinicians can directly experience the body as a guide. Ellen’s approach of relating to your inner world as a prism offers a new paradigm of self-love.
The Art of Somatic Healing combines ancient wisdom with the latest research alongside direct experience, teaching an evidence-based path to building resilience through the body.
Objectives:
1. Explain & locate the Vagus Nerve and Heart Brain
2. Plan unique somatic-based compassion practices that build compassionate neuropathways
3. Describe "The Inner Prism", a body-based framework rooted in Relational Neuroscience
4. Define the language of the body
5. Apply somatic awareness techniques to identify and interpret bodily signals as part of therapeutic decision-making in clinical practice
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Dr. Tenise M. Wall, PhD, LCSW, CASACM
Title:
The Privilege of Rest: Why Self-Care Remains Challenging and Shifting the Mindset
Bio:
Dr. Tenise M. Wall is an ADHD, grief & trauma expert, licensed clinical social worker, author and professional speaker who has a passion for helping others in her role as CEO/Owner of Dr. Wall’s ADHD & Wellness. She was the Orange County, NY Woman of Achievement Award winner and has received certificates of acknowledgement from various politicians and organizations from her local Mayor and County Executive to State Senators for the impactful contribution she has made within her community.
Dr. Wall is a dynamic, personable, passion-filled speaker with a wealth of knowledge who leaves the audience captivated and wanting more, as she weaves years of research, practice and experience into presentations.
Description:
In a world that glorifies productivity, rest often feels like a privilege rather than a necessity. This workshop explores the barriers—systemic, cultural, and internal—that make self-care challenging and how shifting our mindset can help us reclaim rest as a right. Participants will examine how societal expectations and personal guilt create resistance to rest and develop strategies to redefine self-care beyond traditional notions.
Through guided discussions and reflective exercises, attendees will challenge the belief that rest must be earned, exploring how internalized narratives shape their relationship with self-care. The workshop will introduce practical and accessible strategies for integrating rest into daily life, even amid external pressures. Participants will leave with a personalized plan for prioritizing rest in a way that is sustainable and aligned with their unique circumstances.
This session is designed for anyone struggling with burnout, guilt around rest, or the feeling that self-care is out of reach. By shifting our perspective, we can move from seeing rest as a luxury to embracing it as a fundamental part of well-being. Join us for an engaging and transformative discussion on reclaiming rest in a world that often denies it.
Objectives:
1. List (3) systemic, cultural, and personal obstacles that make rest feel like a privilege rather than a necessity.
2. Explain how to move from a productivity-focused mindset to one that values rest as a vital part of well-being.
3. Explain societal conditioning that equates rest with laziness and develop strategies to reframe it as an act of self-preservation.
4. Plan individualized approaches to self-care that fit within real-life constraints, recognizing that rest looks different for everyone.
5. List 2-3 ideas for setting realistic and intentional practices for incorporating rest into their daily lives, even amidst external pressures.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Duewa " Kaya" Spicer, LCSW, LCSW-S , CST, P-AT, ABS
Title:
Pleasure as Compass: Reimagining Healing with Kink, ENM, and Spiritual Sexuality
Bio:
Kaya Spicer is a sex and couples therapist, educator, and speaker who helps people reclaim pleasure as a source of power, healing, and connection. With clinical expertise in kink, ethical non-monogamy, and decolonizing therapy practices, she invites therapists to move beyond shame and into curiosity. Kaya has spoken at universities, Planned Parenthood, podcast,national conferences, and community events, always with humor, heart, and a commitment to erotic liberation.
Description:
This session invites therapists to reimagine their relationship with pleasure—as individuals and as clinicians. Too often, sexuality, kink, and ethical non-monogamy (ENM) are pathologized in therapy, especially for gender ,relationally and erotically diverse clients of the global majority. “Pleasure as Compass” explores how affirming, sex-positive care can become a powerful tool for healing, regulation, and connection.
Through interactive reflection, clinical insight, and decolonizing frameworks, participants will examine their own discomfort, learn how to talk about sex and kink with clarity and confidence, and explore how spirituality and sexuality may intersect in clients’ lives. This is a brave space to be curious, imperfect, and human—because liberation in the therapy room starts with the therapist.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist
Objectives:
1. Differentiate between therapeutic bias and clinical concern when working with erotically diverse clients using evident based models.
2. Describe at least three ways kink, ethical non-monogamy (ENM), and spiritual sexuality can support client healing and self-integration.
3. Identify appropriate referral points to a sex therapist based on client needs, presenting issues, and therapist scope of practice.
4. Explain how to apply a decolonizing, pleasure-centered framework within existing therapeutic models.
5. Explain the clinical significance of erotic agency and pleasure as tools for trauma recovery and identity development.
Presenters:
Bianca Hughes, LPC and Jennifer Hama, MS, LPC, CPCS
Title:
Redefining the Blank Slate: Intentional Self-Disclosure
Bios:
Bianca Hughes is a compassionate therapist whose heart-work breaks down barriers in mental health, guiding ambitious individuals from the prison of perfectionism toward authentic self-discovery and profound inner peace. Through her powerful speaking, she touches lives by illuminating the path to freedom from perfectionism, creating transformative experiences that ripple through organizations, and individuals alike. With genuine care, she created a supportive community for fellow therapists seeking direction, helping them find their aligned path in the mental health field while honoring their unique gifts and purpose.
Description:
The age of blank slate therapists is coming to an end- intentional disclosure is deeply personal, sometimes tricky, and often a powerful part of the therapeutic relationship. This workshop invites you to explore how sharing parts of yourself can create real connection, deepen trust, and support healing, all while staying grounded in ethics and intentionality. Through honest conversation, case examples, and reflection, we’ll unpack how identity, culture, and context shape the way we show up with our clients—and how to do so with care, clarity, and confidence.
Objectives:
1. Explain the evolving role of therapist self-disclosure through ethical, clinical, and cultural lenses, including how cultural identity and context influence disclosure decisions.
2. Differentiate between therapeutic self-disclosure and personal oversharing by analyzing case studies across diverse client populations.
3. Develop a framework or intentional, culturally responsive self-disclosure that enhances the therapeutic alliance and supports client outcomes.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Krystal Smith, LICSW-S, PIP
Title:
When the System Hurts: Navigating Therapy in a Time of Structural Change
Bio:
Krystal Smith, LICSW, is a therapist, veteran, and founder of H.E.A.L. Counseling Services LLC, serving adults across Alabama and Florida. A psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery (PSR) fellow and former VA clinician, she brings deep experience in military mental health, trauma, and systems-informed care. When she’s not supporting others, you can find her hiking, traveling, catching a concert, or volunteering in her community.
Description:
Therapists are healers, but we are not immune to harm. As systems shift and societal pressure mounts, many therapists are quietly burning out, navigating moral injury, or feeling complicit in structures that don't align with their values. This workshop is an invitation to stop pretending everything’s fine and start healing the healers through a mix of real talk, experiential exercises, reflection, and collective wisdom.This is not a workshop about fixing broken systems overnight. It’s about finding your footing, so you can move forward with clarity, integrity, and resilience.
Objectives:
1. List the structural and systemic forces that impact work and wellbeing
2. Describe their emotional and somatic responses to systemic dissonance
3. Evaluate their personal compass for doing this work
4. Name ways of practicing that align with authenticity and justice
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Julia Nepini LICSW ACSW
Title:
Enneagram: The Basics and Beyond
Bio:
Julia Nepini is a clinical and forensic social worker who owns the group practice, Compassionate Counseling Company, and the consulting business, Compassionate Consulting Company, where she helps entrepreneurs start, expand, and diversify their businesses. She also hosts the Compassionate Climb podcast where she discusses being successful in business while maintaining integrity.
Description:
In this interactive session, participants will gain a foundational understanding of the Enneagram, a transformative model of the human psyche that illuminates core motivations and fears. They will learn how to apply the Enneagram to their clinical work to enhance self-awareness and promote client progress as well as practical strategies to incorporate within a team setting to foster collective growth and promote resilience.
Objectives:
1. Describe the basics of this model of the human psyche including an overview of the 9 types, wings, centers, and triads as well as security and stress numbers.
2. Identify ways to incorporate the Enneagram in their clinical work with clients to help them understand what motivates their behavior and facilitate personal growth and development.
3. Illustrate using Enneagram within a team to improve communication, enhance collaboration, manage conflict, and optimize roles within a practice.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Dr. Amanda Kern, DSW, LICSW, ICAADC, MAC, CDP, CST
Title:
It Was Never Just About the Substance: The Trauma Beneath Addiction
Bio:
Dr. Amanda Kern, DSW, LICSW, is a therapist, educator, and founder of Integrated Balance Psychotherapy. With over 20 years of clinical experience, she specializes in trauma, addiction recovery, and nervous system-informed care. Her forthcoming book, It Was Never Just About the Substance, offers a bold, trauma-informed reframe of addiction and recovery through both science and story.
Description:
Addiction isn’t about weakness, and it’s not just about substances. It’s about survival. In this courageous, clinically grounded session, Dr. Amanda Kern—therapist, educator, and author of the forthcoming book It Was Never Just About the Substance—invites attendees to reimagine addiction through the lens of trauma, nervous system dysregulation, and generational imprint.
Blending real-life clinical insight with cutting-edge research, Dr. Kern explores how early adversity, attachment wounds, and chronic emotional overwhelm create the conditions where substance use becomes adaptive. This session will also delve into the science of epigenetics—revealing how unhealed trauma gets passed down biologically and behaviorally, shaping lives before a substance ever enters the story.
Objectives:
1. Describe how trauma influences nervous system development and addiction behaviors across the lifespan.
2. Differentiate between substance-focused treatment models and trauma-integrated recovery frameworks.
3. Explain how epigenetics contributes to generational patterns of addiction and emotional regulation.
4. Identify three trauma-responsive strategies that support long-term recovery and integrated healing.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
Presenter:
Jeanette Lira LPC-S
Title:
Break Free: Reclaiming the Human, the Healer, and the Unapologetic You
Bio:
Jeanette Lira is a therapist, supervisor, entrepreneur, and disruptor who empowers clinicians to reclaim their full, authentic selves. Drawing from her own journey of identity evolution and embodied healing, she guides others to integrate who they are with how they practice. With bold energy and deep heart, Jeanette creates transformative spaces where therapists can stop performing and start becoming.
Description:
This training invites therapists to move beyond the role of clinician and into awareness of the full human experience—both their own and their clients’. Participants will explore how psychophysiological responses (such as tension, activation, overwhelm, or shutdown) emerge in the counseling space, and how these internal cues can provide vital information rather than barriers. By learning to identify, regulate, and integrate these responses, therapists can reduce burnout, strengthen therapeutic presence, and support healthier outcomes for both client and clinician. This training will include interactive exercises, reflection, and embodied practices that participants can walk away with and use throughout their practice and work.
Objectives:
1. Participants will explore techniques to help clinicians regulate and decrease burnout and help clients regulate and engage more fully in the therapeutic process
2. Participants will be able to recognize and respond to their own nervous system cues to decrease burnout.
3. Participants will be able to describe the connection between burnout and unacknowledged physiological responses.
4. Participants will be able to demonstrate at least one embodiment or expressive technique (e.g., movement, voice, or ritual) that supports emotional regulation and self-connection for therapists.
Target Audience:
Student / Pre-Licensed, Early Career Therapist, Mid Career Therapist, Late Career Therapist
