2023 workshop reference guide
Pre-Conference Workshops
When you’re ready to lock in your workshops, click on manage conference schedule where you can reserve your workshop selection.
001 | Mental Health, Faith, and Ethics: Current Challenges and Issues
In recent years, Christian mental health and medical professionals, as well as students in the field, have faced continued challenges and complex situations requiring careful consideration and balance of ethical issues, faith, and law. This workshop reviews the 2023...
002 | PTSD and Complex Trauma: Differential Diagnosis and Evidenced-based Treatment Models
Traumatic events can come in many forms. For example, some forms of trauma are relational in nature while others are not, some are single-incident, and others are chronic; some occur in childhood, and others occur later in life. In this workshop, survivors of PTSD...
003 | When Loving Him is Hurting You: Hope and Help for Women Caught in the Cycle of Narcissism and Emotional Abuse
We live in a “me-centered” culture, with many selfishly asserting their “rights” and powering over others in the process. This epidemic of selfishness, entitlement, and emotional immaturity fuels narcissism and marital sexual abuse, traumatizing many and eroding the...
004 | The Faith Factor: Spiritual Interventions in Therapy
Spirituality has become a recognized area of importance in the mental health field, even raising the importance of a multicultural competency requirement. However, the reasons for addressing it and how to engage Christian clients with biblical spirituality are...
005 | Sandtray Therapy for Traumatized Adolescents
Traumatized adolescents need a therapeutic experience that is physically, emotionally, and spiritually safe with a psychologist or other licensed mental health professional. The therapeutic distance and kinesthetic nature of sandtray therapy help them process...
006 | Practical, Evidence-based Interventions to Thrive Against Anxiety and Stress in Challenging Times
Many Americans are overwhelmed by prolonged stress and anxiety that impacts their mental health. Effective practices are needed to mitigate stress and resist anxiety. This workshop will present evidence-based interventions used to address stress and anxiety by...
007 | Zippers and Wallets: Helping Couples Navigate the Power Issues in Marriage
When is the issue, not the issue? When the issue is sex or money. Both hallmark causes of marriage conflict are seen frequently by licensed mental health professionals and ministry leaders, and both are commonly misunderstood as being too specialized (or too awkward)...
008 | Grace for the Children: Post COVID-19 Mental Health Disorders and Interventions
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that one in five children had a mental disorder; however, only about 20% of those children received care from a mental healthcare provider. Home from school and separated...
009 | Creating Stability in the Chaos: D.B.T. for Borderline Personality Disorder and Complex Trauma
Emotional and behavioral instability and chaos are hallmarks of borderline personality disorder. These difficulties may also be seen in those who struggle with complex trauma, especially early attachment trauma. As a result, deep characterological and trauma work is...
010 | Research on Faith-based Therapies: What you Need to Know to Have an Evidence-based Practice or Ministry
The focus of this workshop is on briefly reviewing the research on religion and mental health, discussing why evidence-based treatments in faith-based counseling are important, illustrating evidence-based faith-based therapies now being used, describing how to design,...
011 | Shame Interrupted: God’s Beautiful Words to the Disgraced
Shame is finally receiving the attention it deserves. Those who have been shamed are escaping wordless silence and giving voice to their experience. The next challenge is for their spoken fragments to be drawn together and reframed by God’s words. As an expression of...
012 | Pornography, Compulsivity, and Bondage: Helping Individuals and Couples Get Set Free from the Sexual Strongholds
Pornography and sexual compulsivity can be devastating to individuals, couples, and families. In fact, with the dramatic increase in pornography usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, our nation is facing a virtual “porndemic.” Discovering and disclosing sexual...
013 | “I’ve Survived, but Now What?”: Grief Coaching to Navigate Beyond Trauma and Loss
Once the shock and numbness wear off after trauma or a difficult loss, clients often wonder, “What can I do to stop hurting? How can I move on?” Grief coaching is a highly effective option for those not paralyzed by complicated grief but who want the support and...
014 | Christ-centered Internal Family Systems Therapy: How to Develop Healthy Boundaries for Your Soul
Painful burdens can hold clients back from building the lives they want to live. This experiential workshop teaches licensed mental health professionals how to apply key principles for helping willing Christian clients (henceforth clients) befriend parts of their soul...
015 | “KISS” – Keeping Intimacy Sweet and Simple: Coaching Couples to Marital Bliss
Great marriages happen intentionally, not automatically. Drift happens in Christian couples, but coaches and ministry leaders can help couples gain the marital bliss for which they are searching. Kissing is the bridge leaving the land of loneliness and crossing into...
016 | Rethinking Depression and Neurobiology: The Serotonin Debate and Drug-free Treatments
Depression is a complex disease state with alterations in brain circuits, impacting the immune system and elevating inflammatory factors resulting in cellular damage to brain cells and alteration in neuronal DNA expression. Serotonin has been implicated in both the...
017 | Lifeline for Families Dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is a thief. In this workshop, the presenter will speak through the lens of a gerontologist and from personal experience of how Alzheimer’s affected her husband and family. This workshop will educate psychologists, other licensed mental health...
018 | Unable to Stop: When Food Addiction and Trauma Collide
This workshop will explore the relationship between trauma and compulsive and addictive eating, which can lead to obesity and other medical issues. Participants will discuss the role of excess food in the experience of trauma and the challenges and setbacks faced in...
019 | Understanding Implicit Bias and Applying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Improve Multicultural Competence in Mental Health Care
Racism, prejudice, and discrimination are well documented in the literature as disparities experienced by marginalized groups. These disparities contribute to the lack of access to quality healthcare and mental healthcare services; housing; education, and employment...
020 | The Fentanyl and Opioid Crises: Trends, Issues, and New Horizons in Treatment and Recovery
Psychologists and other mental health and medical professionals must be equipped to confront the most devastating addiction crisis in history. Opioids, including fentanyl, heroin, and emerging synthetic opioids, are fueling a deadly drug crisis in the United...
021 | From Fixing to Attending: Faith-based Framework for the Use of Psychiatric Medications
Many Americans take medications for mental health problems, and faith-based clients and patients often have questions about the appropriate use of psychiatric medications. While medications can be helpful, the way that psychologists, other licensed mental health...
022 | Spiritual Abuse: A Mental Health Professional’s Guide to Working with Those Hurt by the Church
After 20 years of groundbreaking research, counseling, and consulting, the presenters have found a rise in church leaders choosing charisma over character, causing a systemic rise of toxic faith communities. Lack of trust and increased disengagement with the Church...
023 | Gender Identity & Religious Faith in Clinical Practice
Helping people navigate diverse gender identities and gender identity questions is complex and often polarizing work. For families informed by conventionally religious faith, some approaches to care raise as many questions as answers. This pre-conference workshop will...
024 | Military Strong: Resilience in the Midst of PTSD, Suicide, and Reintegration
The military ethos has been one of toughness and implies that service members can face any situation, overcome any threat, and defeat the enemy. Despite these expectations, servicemembers are continuously faced with traumatic events, which can result in problems with...
025 | The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope
Our encounter with suffering has many sources—not least of which is ourselves. Indeed, some of our suffering will endure throughout our entire lives. How is it possible for us to form hope in the face of suffering? Moreover, how does research from interpersonal...
026 | Change Your Brain Every Day: Developing Elite Mental Performance
The brain is involved in everything clients do and everything they are. In this workshop, the presenter will share the most practical lessons he has learned from building the world’s largest database of brain scans related to psychiatry. Licensed mental health...
027 | Story-informed Trauma Therapy: A New Approach to Recovery
Trauma is the “gateway” to various psychological, emotional, physiological, social, and relational sequelae, dysfunctions, and disorders. Trauma, in one form or another, is what brings most of our clients into therapy with licensed mental health professionals and...
028 | Abuse, Trauma, and the Emotionally Destructive Relationship
We have all heard the nursery rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” It is a lie. The Bible says that words harm people and that reckless words pierce like a sword. Current research agrees that emotional abuse can harm a person’s...
029 | Race, Justice, and Diversity: Using Emotional Intelligence, Relational Wisdom, and Worldview Assessment to Improve Practice
Psychologists, other licensed mental health professionals, and medical professionals face significant challenges in responding effectively to issues of race, justice, and diversity in the context of increasing political polarization while seeking to support and...
030 | Attachment-based Intervention for Clinically Resistant Depression
A substantial number of people seen by psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, and medical professionals suffer from what the DSM-5-TR now refers to as early onset Persistent Depressive Disorder, which usually starts in childhood or adolescents and...
031 | The Anxiety Reset: Effective Collaborative Treatments and Strategies for Anxiety Disorders
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in four American adults suffer from an anxiety disorder, including over 40% of young adults (ages 18-29). This mental health challenge is not going away and has been exacerbated by...
032 | For Such a Time as This: A Dynamic Christian Approach to Counseling and Psychotherapy
This pre-conference workshop will cover a dynamic Christian approach to counseling and psychotherapy for Christian clients (Tan, 2022a, 2022b) as spiritually integrated psychotherapy (Pargament, 2007). It will include: 1) A Christian perspective on human nature and...
033 | Marriage and Family: Dealing with Difficult Relationships at Home
Our clients long for home to be a safe haven where they feel known, loved, and connected. Yet, marriage and family relationships are complicated and messy, often making living at home a struggle and strain on an individual’s mental health. The stresses from difficult...
034 | Coaching for Emotional Intelligence and Healthy Spirituality
Healthy emotional self-awareness and self-management influence everything: healthy spiritual formation, relationships, learning, decision-making, physical and mental health, happiness, stress resilience, creativity, leadership, likability, and general success in life....
035 | Promoting Forgiveness in People Experiencing Trauma
When people experience serious interpersonal harm, most are resilient post-trauma; some develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and some experience post-traumatic growth (PTG). In many cases, injustices must be dealt with, but many also want to forgive their...
036 | Mental Health Healing After the Trauma of Adverse Childhood Experiences
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can overwhelm a person throughout the lifespan and produce not only continuous and immeasurable emotional pain and suffering, but also result in serious mental and physical health problems. Approximately one-half of adults in the...
037 | Teen Loneliness, Loss, and Suicide: Healing a Lost Generation
Our culture has progressively changed over the past several decades, and though it has affected the broader population, teenagers have been affected the most. Loneliness is the most significant indicator of this impact, with teenagers and young adults being two times...
038 | Acceptance and Commitment Theory and Practice: Introduction and Faith-based Applications for Christian Clients
In this pre-conference workshop, the presenter draws upon the second edition of Faith-Based ACT for Christian Clients: An Integrative Treatment Approach to present the theory and practice of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Participants will explore the...
039 | The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth: Full Disclosure for Couples Navigating Relational Betrayal
Trust is an integral part of growing close to a spouse. Trust will be broken when there are secrets or lies about behaviors. In rebuilding trust, creating a new foundation of truth-telling is essential. Full disclosure is a process to help couples heal from the pain...
040 | Holy Passion: Sex Therapy Trends and Insights from Over 50 Years of Clinical Practice
The presenters will integrate their 50 years of clinical expertise with relevant research as the basis for accurate assessment of sexual issues in couples. In this workshop, psychologists, other licensed mental health professionals, medical professionals, and ministry...
041 | When the Pressure is Too Much: Kids, Performance, and Perfectionism in Sports, Academics, and Everyday Life
It Is no secret that today’s youth struggle managing stress and anxiety related to performance and perfectionism. As a result, kids are getting lost and desperately seeking help, hope, and encouragement. The presenters are very familiar with the stress and immense...
042 | Deconstructing Negative Self Talk: Practical Tools to Escape a Toxic Mindset
Though it is normal to get in a negative space, marked by negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, people desire to reside in a positive space with hopeful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The presenters will use Switch Theory, a new modality based on Cognitive...
043 | The Role of Emotional and Relational Intelligence (E.R.I.) in Treating Anxiety, Depression, and Social Isolation
Christ said, “… I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10, NKJV). Unfortunately, the sad reality is that most people, including Christians, are not living or enjoying the “abundant” life that our Lord designed us to...
044 | The Epidemic Behind the Pandemic: Assessment and Treatment of Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Vicarious Trauma
It is well-documented that the COVID-19 pandemic left a huge legacy of compassion fatigue in the medical community, resulting in consequences like physical and mental health challenges and large numbers of healthcare workers leaving their jobs or even abandoning the...
045 | Human Trafficking and the Sex Industry: How to Identify and Help Those Who are Trapped
Trafficking of people, or human trafficking, is an illegal activity that touches all nations and has long-lasting physical, social, and psychological consequences for survivors and all those involved. Traffickers exploit both genders, all ethnicities, the aged and...
046 | The New SYMBIS Project: Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts
Ministry leaders and coaches want the very best for the couples in their care and a system that makes it personal, profound, and easy. Say hello to the SYMBIS Assessment. Helping couples—whether engaged or married for decades—just got easier and more effective. Learn...
047 | Healthy People, Healthy Relationships: How Conflict in Relationships Can be the Catalyst for Deeper Healing
Couples facing regular conflict and routine marital tension often fail to realize there tends to be a conflict pattern that comes up repeatedly in their relationships. Interestingly enough, that conflict pattern is often rooted in both their emotional health in the...
048 | Incorporating Christian Faith into EMDR Therapy*
This advanced workshop aims to enhance the collaboration between an EMDR-trained counselor and a client seeking trauma work who has an experience of God incorporated into EMDR therapy. The workshop’s primary focus is assessing and accessing the client’s AIP regarding...
049 | A Good Blend: Effective Stepfamily Therapy for Couples and Children
Complex blended families need stepfamily-informed licensed mental health clinicians and ministry leaders who can insightfully help couples and children. This workshop will explore the key relational challenges leading to stepcouple and blended family distress and how...
050 | Grace Together and Loyal Love: Marital Renewal for Couples’ Counseling and Group Ministry
Grace Together is a couples’ curriculum for counseling with a psychologist, other licensed mental health professional, or a small group or large learning event with a ministry leader. This workshop is based on the Grace and Hope Model that the presenters have...
When you’re ready to lock in your workshops, click on manage conference schedule where you can reserve your workshop selection.