This is a brief description of all available breakout sessions.
For a full description with learning objectives and the biography of presenter(s) Breakouts (full) >>
DAY ONE: Thursday, May 3, 2018
8:45 am – 12:00 pm (10:00 am – 10:15 am Break): Breakout Session #1 (3 hours)
Session 1A: Right vs Right: Practicing through Ethical Dilemmas (THIS BREAKOUT FULFILLS ETHICS REQUIREMENT)
Duration: 3 hours (3 CEs)
Content Area: (8) Counselor Professional Identity and Practice Issues
Presenter: Wade Leuwerke, Ph.D.
Program Description:
Ethical dilemmas arise when counselors encounter events that require a decision among choices that seem to be equally poor or mutually exclusive. Understanding dilemmas and developing strategies to make sound, reasoned decisions mitigates the potential negative outcomes that can arise in these situations. The workshop will provide participants the opportunity to interact with the ACA Code of Ethics, consider their own ethical decision making practices, learn about comprehensive ethical decision-making models, and apply decision-making strategies to real world ethical dilemmas. Participants will actively engage in discussion with their colleagues and the presenter to apply the decision-making strategies presented in this workshop.
Session 1B: Gay Alliance SafeZone
Duration: 3.0 Hours (3 CEs)
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenters: Jacalyn McCarville, LMHC and Anita J. Van Dyke, LMHC, CADC, NCC
Program Description: The Gay Alliance’s SafeZone program strives to develop, enhance and maintain environments in workplaces, schools and other social settings that are culturally competent and supportive to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) individuals, as well as straight, cisgender people who care about diversity, equality and inclusion. Creating SafeZones is a proactive step that schools, agencies and corporations can take to create welcoming, inclusive spaces, empowering all people to reach their full potential. For the LGBTQ community, many environments pose numerous threats and obstacles. Hateful language, physical and emotional harassment and the threat of physical violence are a reality for many LGBTQ people. This course will help educate, inform and create more welcoming and inclusive communities for LGBTQ individuals. SafeZone training offers a place where all people feel welcome and safe, whether it be a room or an entire college campus. The Gay Alliance SafeZone program aims to increase the awareness, knowledge, and skills for individuals and address the challenges that exist when one wants to advocate for their LGBTQ peers, family members, friends and co-workers.
Session 1C: Treating Eating Disorders
Duration: 3 hours (3 CEs)
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenters: Erica Lutz Bobst, LMHC, RN and Sue Clarahan, RD, LD, CEDRD
Program Description: It is well known eating disorder resources and trained clinicians within Iowa are few and far between. This presentation offers basic techniques and interventions for the newer provider or student, as well as the clinician interested in seeking additional skills and resources to better serve someone struggling with an eating disorder, while gaining a better understanding of the continuum of care. This presentation will provide a review for the seasoned clinician, given the intricacy involved in treatment with this population. Given the delicate nature of these illnesses, we will review medical considerations for the treating therapist to reference, as they work to build amore confident base within their base to serve this population. With increased attention toward Binge Eating Disorder in the last few years, a portion of the presentation will be dedicated to focus on how to interrupt the cyclical pattern of behavior, conceptualizing this from a Cognitive-Behavior Therapy framework, as well as better understanding the reasoning for overvaluation of food.
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm: Breakout Session #2 (90 minutes)
Session 2A: Deciphering Connection: Exploring the Building Blocks of Our Therapeutic Alliance – Part 1
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs) Note: This session continues as session 3A
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Dr. Carlos Canales, Psy.D., CGP
Program Description: It is well known that the therapeutic alliance is the most important variable across all therapies. Technique does not compete with the personal and inter-subjective trust crafted and negotiated between therapist and client. However, clinicians receive little training as to how to evaluate this alliance or how each therapist manages this fluctuating relational quality. We tend to know more about the therapeutic alliance from an intellectual stance rather than an experiential one. This workshop aims to explore fundamentally what counts for connection. This workshop will include didactic and experiential components including a 45-minute group therapy demonstration.
Session 2B: Integrating Mindfulness and Creative Play in Trauma and Therapy Work
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs)
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenters: Emily Gordon, LMHC, LCPC and Miriam Prichard, LMHC
Program Description: This presentation will explore ways to use mindfulness and other integrative practices with children, adolescents and families in multiple settings. The presentation will include brief hands on experiences with various interventions. It will explore ways that counselors can use evidence-based play therapy and mindfulness interventions to address an array of issues in a new way. Many of the approaches and activities we will share in this presentation will address ways to feel safe, seek support and bring calm not only during session but in day-to-day life. We will explore ways to asses and utilize mindfulness and creative approaches in individual cases for both assessment and intervention of issues ranging from stress to trauma.
Session 2C: Legislative Update
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs)
Content Area: (8) Counselor Professional Identity and Practical Issues
Presenter: Kacey Peterson, MS, LMHC, Emily Piper
Program Description: This session will highlight legislation and public policy issues related to the current state of Iowa’s mental health counseling profession. Attendees will receive an in-depth review of legislation proposed during the 2018 legislative session that is relevant to the profession and participate in a discussion pertaining to future public policy agendas and areas for advocacy action. A brief legislative update from AMHCA will be provided, with special attention being placed on the progress being made at the federal level specific to Medicare recognition for LMHCs and LMFTs. Audience members will be provided with opportunities throughout the presentation to voice any questions, concerns, and recommendations to presenters.
3:15 pm – 4:45 pm Breakout Session #3 (90 minutes)
Session 3A: Deciphering Connection: Exploring the Building Blocks of Our Therapeutic Alliance – Part 2
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs) Note: This is the continuation of session 2A
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Dr. Carlos Canales, Psy.D., CGP
Session 3B: Assessment and Treatment of Trauma
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs)
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Michele Lundstrom, MA, LMHC, NCC and Rachel Saenger, MA, LPC-S, LMFT-S
Program Description: This session will discuss some of the latest research in brain science to understand what is going on in the brain when our clients experience Trauma. Trauma occurs on a spectrum and we will discuss a range of trauma DSM diagnosis as potential future diagnosis such as complex PTSD. We will also explore the symptoms and responses of trauma. We will explore the impacts of natural disaster, human inflicted and combat related traumas as well as how to help our clients rebuild secure attachments after a trauma. In this session, we will teach evidence based strategies based on the latest research for treating trauma. We will explore a range of topics such as how to teach clients self-regulation skills and other ways to calm the central nervous system, explore how an experience that’s traumatizing for one person may not be traumatizing to another and how unresolved childhood trauma can impact adults. We will look at disassociation, and where clinicians can go wrong when we are helping a client to come out of it as well as the difference between reliving trauma and processing trauma. We will discuss exploring how history taking is different with clients who have experienced trauma and how to determine when to explore their traumatic experiences.
Session 3C: Supervision: Considerations for Supervision of Counselors
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs)
Content Area: (8) Counselor Professional Identity and Practice Issues
Presenter: Amy Mooney, PhD, LMHC, NCC, ACS
Program Description:
This presentation will focus on the following:
DAY TWO: Friday, May 4, 2018
8:45 am – 12:00 pm (10:00 am – 10:15 am Break): Breakout Session #1 (3 hours)
Session 1A: Saving our Boys to Save our Girls
Duration: 3 hours (3 CEs)
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter(s): Stefania Agliano, LMSW and Bryan Hall, LCSW
Program Description: Many of the discussions, prevention/intervention programming, as well as front line assessments are designed to target either the victim (survivor) of sex trafficking or the buyer by addressing demand through legal interventions or educational programming. The missing component in the fight to eradicate trafficking is a lack of dialogue on services for the potential trafficker. As founders of I AM…we dared to create an avenue of prevention and intervention focused on our young men who participate in this heinous crime as the market facilitator engaging in highly abusive behaviors; I AM: Building A Healthy Male Identity. Workshop participants will be given an overview on the importance of working with young men and boys and insights into the struggle of those who become involved in the crime of trafficking may face, including but not limited to, the mass marketing of hyper-masculinity, socioeconomic inequalities and institutionalized oppression. This workshop will allow participants to critically reflect further on how they assess trafficking cases potentially providing a new means of intervention to explore.
Session 1B: Supervision: Pitfalls, Practice, and Process
Duration: 3.0 Hours (3 CEs)
Content Area: (8) Counselor Professional Identity and Practice Issues
Presenters: Dr. Don Gilbert, PhD, MS, LMHC, APA and Erik Oostenink, MA, LMHC
Program Description:
This three-hour panel presentation will cover information on the following topics:
Supervision strategies will be offered from the perspective of private practice, agency practice and from the Behavioral Science Board Members.
Session 1C: Assessment & Treatment of Eating Disorders in an Outpatient Setting
Duration: 3 Hours (3 CEs)
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Brandi Stalzer, LIMHP, LPC
Program Description: It has long been thought that the treatment of eating disorders is highly specialized and can only be implemented in an inpatient setting, but the data would suggest that far fewer patients participate in in-patient treatment than previously believed. The economic and social burden can limit many clients’ ability to enter inpatient treatment. With rising treatment costs, it is imperative for clinicians to explore the appropriate setting of care. This presentation will explore the appropriateness of outpatient therapy for various presentations, and discuss the treatment of eating disorders in an outpatient setting. Evidenced-based treatments like CBT-E (Fairburn, 2008), family based treatments (FBT; Eisler, Lock and la Grange, 2010), and DBT (Chen & Safer, 2010) will be explored, as well as, treatments with compelling evidence such as ACT.
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: Breakout Session #2 (90 minutes)
Session 2A: Opioid Addiction – Part 1
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs) Note: This session continues as session 3A
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Patricia Miller, MsED, LCPC, LMHC, CCMHC
Program Description: Opioid addiction conjures up images of dirty needles – in dark alleys. No so much in 2018. Today’s opioid epidemic breaks that mold. This session will cover the following topics and more:
Session 2B: Working with Adolescents Who Identify as Transgender: More Than Just a Diagnosis and Therapy
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs)
Content Area: (3) Social and Cultural Foundations
Presenter: Adam Lewis, LISW, MSW
Program Description: According to a recent report New York Times report, as many as 1 in 137 teens potentially identify as transgender. More than ever before, teenagers are expressing their gender in ways that put them at odds with their peers and families, thus requiring support from a therapist. With a prominent role within the process of gender confirmation, therapists will be called upon to understand and navigate the complicated and sometimes unpredictable journey that these clients face. This presentation will explore basic terminology related to the transgender experience, increasing participants’ comfortability with the language that our clients might use in session. We will also explore the ins and outs of working with schools, families, and other caretakers and how to provide them support, especially when their views might be at odds with the client’s. The topic of gender confirmation will be explored regarding the role of therapist as dictated by the WPATH Standards of Care and the need for collaboration with physicians. Additionally, we will work to be mindful of the policies and cultures at our agencies to ensure that microaggressions are avoided to best support our clients.
Session 2C: Family Whispering: Parents & Teens “Work Through” with the Power of T-A-D – Part 1
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs) Note: This session continues as session 3C
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Dr. Warren Phillips, Ph.D.
Program Description: This workshop presents a model for establishing emotional connection and healthy interpersonal communication between parents and teens that draws from theory and research from Interpersonal Neurobiology, Family Systems approaches, Organizational Development, Psychodynamic Theory, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. This model highlights how neurobiology, emotions, and interpersonal interaction reciprocally influence each other and how a primary focus on behavioral choices and compliance can complicate parent-child connection and communication, often resulting in escalating confusion, disconnection, and unhelpful choices by teens. This workshop provides a non-linear therapeutic model for therapists to help guide parents and teens to emotionally connect, discover the “root” of the problem in any conflict, and come to a resolution through a collaborative process. The presentation utilizes multiple teaching styles including didactic presentation, demonstrations, and hands-on experiential practice of therapeutic techniques.
2:45 pm – 4:15 pm Breakout Session #3 (90 minutes)
Session 3A: Opioid Addiction – Part 2
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs) Note: This is the continuation of session 2A
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Patricia Miller, MsED, LCPC, LMHC, CCMHC
Session 3B: Sexually Offending in Children: Children Who Molest vs Sexually Reactive
Duration: 1 Hour (1.5 CEs)
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Matthew Royster, MA, LMHC, SOTP II
Program Description:
This presentation will focus on the treatment of children who sexually offend. It will address aspects of the therapeutic relationship including how it differs from normal therapeutic relationships. The presentation will address how the views on normal sex and normal sexual development have changed. Subtypes of sexual offending will be explored as they apply to children.
Session 3C: Family Whispering: Parents & Teens “Work Through” with the Power of T-A-D – Part 2
Duration: 1.5 Hours (1.5 CEs) Note: This is the continuation of session 2C
Content Area: (1) Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship
Presenter: Dr. Warren Phillips, Ph.D.