9:00-4:30

Contemplative Psychotherapy: A Buddhist Approach to Therapeutic Relationships Karen Kissel Wegela, PHD

Contemplative Psychotherapy draws on Buddhist psychological principles and is based on the view of “Brilliant Sanity.” This inherent nature of wakefulness, compassion, and openness is usually obscured by habitual patterns of confusion, leading to unnecessary suffering. As counselors and psychotherapists, we already know a great deal about psychological suffering and confusion. Contemplative Psychotherapy provides us with an approach that helps us to recognize and cultivate positive, wakeful qualities in ourselves and in our therapy clients, without sacrificing a healthy respect for psychological difficulties.

In this workshop the emphasis will be on the creation of genuine therapeutic relationships. You will learn how to recognize and support the qualities of brilliant sanity. The techniques of mindfulness-awareness meditation and practices that cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity (the traditional Buddhist “immeasurable's”) will be introduced. We will practice how to be fully present, work with interdependence, and cultivate accurate empathy. The workshop will include experiential exercises.

9:00-4:30

Don't Be Scared...Be Prepared: Legal and Ethical Updates in Psychology Pamela Harmell, PHD

This workshop will address various complex ethical dilemmas such as (1) protecting one’s online reputation (ie. Yelp, Linkedin, etc.), (2) specific areas of confidentiality such as professional coaching and working with addictions and recovery, (3) ethical issues related to AIDS/HIV and diversity (4) sexual and non-sexual multiple relationships, and (5) client termination and making a professional will. Literature updates, along with relevant Codes of Ethics and current expert opinion on standard of care will be included in all areas of discussion. This program overviews the current research findings and practice knowledge that informs the practice of ethical and legal clinical work. Emphasis will be place upon prevention of ethical violations.

8:30-10:15

The Addictive Family: The Legacy of Trauma Claudia Black, PHD, MSW

When people think of trauma they often think of acute dramatic situations such as a natural disaster or car accident. Yet the majority of people who experience trauma experience a more subtle and chronic form that exists within their own family. Beginning with a genogram, Claudia will give a portrait of addiction in the family, offering an overlay of how adverse child experiences, emotional abandonment and blatant violence are all aspects of the trauma within the addictive family. She will offer an understanding of how trauma in one’s history is clearly connected to multi-addictive and co-occurring disorders.

10:45-12:15

The Link Between Trauma, Depression and Borderline Personality Colin Ross, MD

10:45-12:15

The Hidden Life of Shame Claudia Black, PHD, MSW

To grow up with the dynamics of loss, be it from living with addiction, violence or simply unavailable parents, creates a legacy of internalized shame. Denial is the central feature in addictive/compulsive processes and shame is the core issue from which people need to heal. Claudia will describe the underpinnings and consequences to shame-based beliefs that fuel the compulsive processes. She will identify and explain shame screens such as victimization, depression, rage, procrastination and control.

10:45-12:15

Of Meth and Men: Neurobiology of Impulse Control David Sack, MD

12:15-1:45

Psychology, Spirituality, and True Happiness Cardwell Nuckols, PhD

Luncheon Keynote Presentation
This personal and professional enhancement training utilizes integrated multiple pathways leading one toward true happiness. This powerful approach incorporates current understandings of developmental psychology, neurobiology and contemplative spiritual approaches to permanently dissolve aspects of the false-self (ego). This dissolution or emptying of self (through the elimination of “unconscious programs for happiness” and the secondary gain of the ego-resentments) opens one up to spiritual healing. This realization is the key to serenity and selfless service-sources of true happiness and peace.

1:45-3:15

Freud Meets Buddha: East Meets West in Psychotherapy Dennis Ortman, PHD

Dr. Ortman has a unique background as a priest turned psychologist. His experience reaches beyond the principles of religion bridging to spirituality and the human condition. In this powerful, eye opening talk, he teaches that conventional talk-therapy can be greatly enhanced by the inclusion of concepts of Mindfulness. Through using both research summaries and experiential exercises, Dr. Ortman demonstrates techniques such as meditation, present-moment awareness, and acceptance and shows how this will improve therapy; with both short and long-term treatment outcomes.

1:45-3:15

Motivational Interviewing Utilizing a Stages of Change Model Cardwell Nuckols, PhD

Workshop

3:45-5:15

Trauma Model Therapy in Treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Colin Ross, MD

Workshop

3:45-5:15

The Science of Recovery: Applying Neuropsychology and Neuroscience to your Practice Cardwell Nuckols, PhD

This skills training event will give the participant an understanding of the neuroscience and neuropsychology of recovery from addictive disorders. From this profound understanding, psychotherapeutic and pharmacological techniques will be described that can assist the participant while working with clients in early recovery. This assistance is in the areas of cognitive enhancement, increased motivation and management of craving. Emphasis will be placed on the cognitive-behavioral treatment of craving.

3:45-5:15

Intimacy, Intensity, Intrigue: process Addictions in the Eating Disordered Population Roseann Rook, CADC

A process addiction is an addiction to an activity or process, such as eating, spending money, or gambling. In this 90-minute presentation, Dr. Marcia Nickow and Roseann Rook will discuss process addictions that may either co-occur with eating disorders or emerge during the eating disorder recovery process. Additionally, the presentation will address underlying trauma often associated with process addictions as well as the benefit of group psychotherapy and 12-step fellowships. The session will end with an experiential group during which clinicians in the audience will be invited to participate.

8:30-10:00

"Harnessing Mindfulness: Tailoring the Practice to the Person" Ronald Siegel, Psy.D

Mindfulness-based psychotherapy is the most popular new treatment approach in the last decade—and for good reason. Mental health professionals are enthusiastically discovering that mindfulness practices hold great promise not only for their own personal development, but also as remarkably powerful tools to augment virtually every form of psychotherapy. Mindfulness is not, however a one-size-fits-all remedy. Techniques need to be tailored to fit the needs of particular individuals. This presentation will explore the core components of mindfulness practices, how they work to alleviate psychological distress, and how they can be creatively adapted to meet the needs of diverse people and conditions.

10:30-12;00

A New Look at Addiction, Through the Eyes of Freud and Buddha Dennis Ortman, PHD

There are many different ways to view addiction. Freud and Buddha suggest seeing it as a disease of the mind arising from the experience of suffering and a flight from the reality of the present moment. From this broader perspective, the addictive process includes chemical dependencies, compulsive behaviors, and obsessive thinking and mood states. Addictions also shape the personality in predictable ways. Recovery involves a mindful embrace of the full experience of life, its joys and its sorrows. The twelve steps embody a perennial wisdom and guidance in accepting reality and growing into a mature sense of personal responsibility.

10:30-12:00

Mindfulness & Intimacy Ronald Siegel, Psy.D

We know that mindfulness practice can help us get along with ourselves better, but with other people? Modern psychotherapists are finding that ancient Eastern meditative techniques, originally solitary practices refined by hermits, monks, and nuns, are proving to be remarkably useful for facing interpersonal challenges. This workshop will explore how mindfulness meditation can help our clients and us develop the affect tolerance and capacity to be with and understand others that are critical for successful intimate relationships. You’ll leave this workshop knowing the three core elements of mindfulness practice, how to use mindfulness to react less personally to the inevitable ups and downs of interpersonal life, and how interpersonal mindfulness techniques can enhance therapeutic, romantic, and parent-child interactions.

10:30-12:00

The Trauma Spectrum, from Child to Adult Robert Scaer, MD

The potential causes of life trauma as presented in the DSM-IV address only the extremes of negative life experiences. In reality, from infancy to adulthood, many “minor” negative life events may assume the physiological state of trauma if experienced in a state of relative helplessness, and therefore have profound implications for complex societal trauma. This concept has important implications in consideration of causes for, and the treatment of, addiction, disease and mental illness.

1:15-2:45

Trauma, the Freeze Response and it's Clinical Syndromes Robert Scaer, MD

Life trauma is based on exposure to a life threat in a state of helplessness. This leads to the freeze, or immobility response, and basic instinct in mammals. Many diseases have their basis in the physiology of an aborted, truncated or incomplete discharge of the freeze response in the face of a life threat. The resulting disorder of regulatory functions in the brain and body results in a spectrum of symptoms that include emotional, cognitive and somatic dysfunction. Emotional dysregulation leads to many of the syndromes of mental illness outlined in the DSM-IV. Application of documented alteration of autonomic, endocrine and immune function in victims of life trauma also lends itself to explaining the cause of a host of chronic disease processes.

3:15-4:45

Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice Ronald Siegel, Psy.D

What do we look for in a psychotherapist? When we are in pain, the answer probably isn’t academic knowledge or training. Rather, we hope that our therapist will be wise—have a deep understanding of how to live life—and compassionate—able to supportivley enter into our suffering with us. This workshop will explore how wisdom and compassion can be cultivated in therapy, for both the therapist and the client. We’ll explore how to foster psychological insight, spiritual awakening, self-knowledge, cognitive flexibility, empathy, and caring action. We’ll see how to use mindfulness practice to become wiser and more compassionate ourselves, and in the process enhance our therapeutic relationships, prevent burnout, and deal skillfully with seemingly impossible situations.

3:15-4:45

Dissociation Theory and the Healing of Trauma Robert Scaer, MD

The late syndromes of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, especially dissociation, are clearly the defining symptomatic and physiological manifestations of trauma. Posttraumatic somatosensory implicit memories are stored in somatic procedural memory as a state, or capsule, emerging into the Present Moment with internal or external cues, or triggers. This model provides a compelling explanation for the spectrum of posttraumatic symptoms, and a template for the essential ingredients in healing trauma.