Dates: January 13–14, 2027

Registration Price: $299.97 for the Full 2 Day Conference

CE Credits: Earn up to 18 CE credits with registration for both days. Each individual day offers 9 CE credits.

Single Day Option: Day 1 – $149.99 | Day 2 – $149.99

This 2 day program is packed with training and offers up to 18 CE credits when you register for both days.

You can attend the full conference or choose to attend just one day. Simply click the day you'd like to attend below.

Day 1 January 13, 2027 – $149.99

Day 2 January 14, 2027 – $149.99

10:00 am to 1:00 pm EST

Select one of the following classes

Class A
Layers of Loss: Structural Racism and Intergenerational Trauma

This interactive community healing circle webinar invites participants to explore the layered experiences of grief, trauma, and loss through an ecological trauma framework. Moving beyond traditional understandings of grief as death-related, this session examines non-death losses connected to identity, culture, safety, belonging, opportunity, and collective experiences across generations. Participants will explore how the legacy of chattel slavery and structural racism has shaped historical, intergenerational, and community experiences of loss, resilience, and healing.

Through guided reflection, dialogue, and shared learning, participants will engage in a healing-centered space to examine how trauma is experienced across individual, family, community, institutional, and societal levels. This experience will explore historical trauma, collective grief, ambiguous loss, and pathways toward healing and resilience. Participants will deepen their understanding of the relationship between systemic inequities, generational experiences of loss, and the importance of culturally responsive approaches to healing.

(Dr. Lisa Connors is the Associate Pastor of In His Image International Ministry in Maryland and a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) in Maryland and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Pennsylvania. She is also a National Certified Counselor (NCC), a Board-Certified Coach (BCC), a Master Addiction Counselor (MAC), a Certified Thanatologist (CT), and a Fellow in Thanatology (FT). In addition to her pastoral, clinical, and coaching work, Dr. Connors serves as a college professor and as a trainer and consultant, and she is an active member of numerous local, state, and national professional organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work, a Master of Divinity, a Master of Arts in Professional Counseling, and a PhD in Psychology.)

Class B
From Insight to Action: Utilizing CBT Strategies to Improve Mood, Modify Habits and Create Behavioral Change

This presentation will provide an interactive and experiential skills-based workshop that introduces Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques that teach and support Behavioral Modification and Behavioral Activation to improve clients’ daily level of functioning. Participants will learn and explore how habit tracking, effective behavioral activation practices, and identity formation can be used as evidence-based interventions to increase motivation, reduce avoidance, and promote sustainable behavioral change.

The experiential exercises will utilize the same tools and strategies used in session, allowing attendees to gain firsthand understanding of how these interventions can be taught to clients. The workshop emphasizes putting CBT into practice, with a focus on client education, collaborative goal setting, and individualized treatment planning. Attendees will leave with adaptable tools they can immediately integrate into clinical work across a variety of practice settings.

(Krista is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker dedicated to meeting clients where they are at and utilizing strengths-based practices in treatment. She has been in practice since 2014 and is driven by the passion she feels as a therapist. She has worked a great amount on her own growth and self-awareness while striving to help clients find their ways to effectively grow and become more internally aware in the work they do together. Krista recently expanded her private practice to a group practice and is looking forward to inspiring other therapists in the social work field.)

2:00 pm to 5:00 pm EST

Select one of the following classes

Class A
AI Is Not Your Therapist: When Clients Start Confiding in Chatbots Instead of Clinicians

Your client may be talking to someone between sessions—and it may not be another person. Increasingly, people are turning to generative AI and conversational chatbots to process relationships, seek reassurance, interpret symptoms, make decisions, cope with loneliness, and obtain emotional support. A client may ask AI whether their partner is abusive, whether their thoughts are “normal,” what their therapist “really meant,” or what they should do during an emotional crisis. Some clients may even experience these interactions as therapeutic, private, or safer than disclosing difficult material to another human. This raises an emerging clinical question: When does AI use become clinically relevant, and how should clinicians respond when the chatbot begins occupying a meaningful role in a client's emotional life?

This interactive workshop moves beyond the debate over whether clinicians should personally use AI and focuses instead on clients' use of AI for mental-health and emotional support. Participants will examine potential benefits alongside concerns involving inaccurate information, excessive reassurance seeking, emotional reliance, avoidance of human support, privacy, overvalidation, crisis response, and reinforcement of distorted or potentially delusional thinking. Particular attention will be given to distinguishing ordinary AI use from patterns that warrant deeper clinical assessment. Through realistic case scenarios and the ASK–ASSESS–INTERPRET–RESPOND–REASSESS framework, participants will practice discussing AI use without shaming clients, assessing the function AI serves in a client's life, identifying potential clinical and ethical concerns, and developing appropriate interventions, psychoeducation, boundaries, safety responses, and follow-up plans.

(Dr. Michelle Harris, DBH, LCSW, is a behavioral health executive, speaker, author, and leadership wellness strategist with more than 20 years of experience helping individuals and organizations recognize the hidden pressures that affect performance, well-being, and professional capacity. Her work brings together clinical expertise, organizational leadership, and systems thinking to help people identify what is happening beneath the surface before strain becomes crisis. Known for making complex topics practical and relatable, Dr. Harris equips clinicians and leaders with tools they can use immediately. Her presentations blend evidence-informed insight, real-world application, and candid conversations about burnout, overfunctioning, boundaries, professional impairment, and the organizational conditions that can quietly shape how people show up at work.)

Class B
Discomfort is Where we Grow: Using Motivational Interviewing and ERP for Treatment of Anxiety, Phobias, and OCD in Kids and Teens

This interactive 3-hour CEU training is designed for clinicians who might struggle to push their clients outside of their comfort zone, especially when the client is a child or teen with significant fear. Topics will include getting the clients to buy in with Motivational Interviewing (MI) techniques, explaining the anxiety cycle to different developmental groups, and how to use kindness and confidence to appropriately push our clients into not being controlled by their anxiety anymore through Exposure and Response Therapy (ERP) techniques. Clinicians will have the chance to participate in self-reflections with their own case load, and role plays to find their own style and wording. Additionally, therapists will practice the important (but hard) work of guiding caregivers in the therapy office and at home to help maintain the child and adolescent client’s growth in the outside world.

(Trainer, Briana Pfeuffer, LCSW is a clinical social worker with nearly a decade of experience working with children, teens, and families. Briana specializes in clients, child and adult alike, with complex trauma, OCD, and anxiety disorders. In her previous position she was team lead for a community mental health service that provided on-going therapy and crisis care to clients. Briana has additionally facilitated several therapy groups, including an art-based coping skills group for teens, and a support group for family members of clients with severe and complex trauma.)

Class C
Reclaiming Self: Supporting Postpartum Moms Through Depression, Anxiety & Overwhelm

Postpartum depression and anxiety don't just affect the mind—they live in the body. For many new moms, traditional talk therapy alone isn't enough to address the deep overwhelm, exhaustion, and dysregulation that can follow birth. This training is designed to equip clinicians with trauma-focused, somatic, and nervous system-based tools to help postpartum clients move beyond survival mode and truly heal.

Through a body-centered, attachment-aware, and nervous system-informed lens, this workshop will cover:

By the end of this training, clinicians will walk away with tangible interventions to help postpartum clients navigate anxiety, depression, and overwhelm, supporting them in reclaiming their sense of self in motherhood. This workshop is for therapists, doulas, social workers, and mental health professionals looking to integrate somatic and trauma-responsive approaches into their postpartum care.

(Trainer, America Allen, LCSW, is a trauma-focused somatic and parts-based therapist and the founder of suNu Healing Collectively, PLLC where she provides trauma-responsive care and clinician education. She has experience across community mental health, nonprofit, and government-adjacent settings, specializing in trauma-driven patterns such as self-silencing, over-functioning, and emotional shutdown. America facilitates trainings that translate complex trauma theory into practical, real-world clinical interventions. Her work has been featured in Women’s Health Magazine, PopSugar, and Bustle.)

Evening Sessions
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Select one of the following classes

Class A
Being A Catalyst for Change: An Invitation to Ethical Perspectives of Social Workers and Other Mental Health Professionals

During the last decade, the call of the Social Work/Mental Health Professions has intensified creating a greater need for us to be more mindful, ethical and committed to self-care. Keeping our “Rose Colored Glasses” on and staying true to the ethical responsibilities amidst the challenges and dilemmas we face as we do what needs to be done to create change is paramount. We the people are called to be the people to serve well; being more mindful, more ethical, more compassionate, and taking better care of ourselves. This invitation will teach us how to tap into the power we have within as we create innovative collaborations necessary to make an impact on the challenges we are faced with as professionals. The goal is to inspire, entertain, enlighten, and celebrate ourselves. We will learn how to “Rise Up” above the challenges we face by being more focused on the positive affect of our commitment to increase our ethical understanding and perspective.

(Trainer, Tara Rice is a seasoned LCSW-C born and raised in Baltimore, MD; where she still reside. She is blessed to have thirty five years of experience in the field of Social Work. She has extensive experience in the areas of foster care, juvenile justice, adult justice, private practice (mental health/trauma), education, community collaborations, CEU trainings, cultural diversity, research, and community outreach (advocacy and resource development).)

Class B
The Knowing-Doing Gap: Practical Executive Function Interventions for Everyday Practice

Executive dysfunction presents across the diagnostic spectrum, yet clinicians most often associate it with ADHD alone. Depression impairs task initiation. Anxiety occupies working memory. Insufficient sleep degrades prefrontal performance. Trauma biases attention toward threat at the expense of planning. When clients articulate accurate insight yet remain unable to act, clinicians frequently conceptualize the discrepancy as resistance or low motivation, and treatment stalls. This three-hour training presents a transdiagnostic framework for identifying executive function breakdown and selecting interventions matched to the capacity involved.

The class first delineates executive function as a set of discrete capacities, including activation, working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and emotional regulation, and reviews how mood, anxiety, sleep, trauma, and attentional disorders each affect them differently. Participants then learn to distinguish state-based from trait-based impairment and to separate task paralysis from procrastination, distinctions that direct intervention selection. The remainder provides instruction in Goal Management Training, including its evidence base and four-step protocol with structured practice, then develops a broader repertoire spanning nervous system regulation, environmental scaffolding at the point of performance, implementation intentions, and acceptance-based approaches to the shame cycle that follows repeated failed attempts. Participants will leave with a replicable process for matching intervention to breakdown.

(Trainer, Joe Wilner is a licensed clinical psychotherapist, board-certified coach, and ADHD-Certified Clinical Services Provider based in Overland Park, Kansas. He holds a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from the University of Saint Mary and a Master’s in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Management and Leadership from Baker University. His private practice centers on ADHD, burnout, and career counseling, and much of that work involves clients who struggle to regulate executive function. He has completed training in Goal Management Training, holds formal training in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and is a certified meditation instructor. Joe teaches psychology as an online faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University and regularly leads trainings on mental health and professional development for individuals and organizations.)

10:00 am to 1:00 pm EST

Select one of the following classes

Class A
Beyond Strength and Silence: Culture, Masculinity, Faith, and Mental Health Among African American Men

This engaging training explores the intersection of culture, masculinity, faith, and mental health among African American men, with a specific focus on how the Black Church influences the understanding, expression, and management of depression. Participants will examine how cultural expectations surrounding masculinity, emotional expression, spirituality, stigma, and help-seeking can shape mental health experiences and decisions. Grounded in the Health, Illness, Men, and Masculinities (HIMM) framework and qualitative research with African American men, the training provides a culturally responsive perspective for understanding barriers to mental health care while recognizing the strengths and importance of faith-based support.

Participants will explore practical strategies for reducing stigma, building trust, improving culturally responsive communication, and strengthening collaboration between mental health professionals and faith communities. The training is designed to help social workers, mental health professionals, educators, clergy, and other helping professionals better recognize the cultural factors that influence mental health engagement among African American men and develop approaches that promote meaningful connection, appropriate referrals, and improved access to care.

(Dr. Terry Edwards, PhD, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and mental health therapist with nearly two decades of experience supporting individuals, families, and communities through life’s challenges. He earned his PhD in Clinical Social Work and Supervision from Walden University in 2026, his Master of Social Work in 2008 and his Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Psychology in 2004 from The Ohio State University. He also holds an Addictions Certification from the University of Michigan. Dr. Edwards believes quality mental health care should feel accessible, familiar, and safe. His approach is warm, honest, authentic, and culturally responsive, creating a space where clients can explore anxiety, depression, burnout, grief, relationship challenges, self-esteem, life direction, behavioral concerns, and generational or past trauma without judgment. He works collaboratively with individuals, professionals, and families to identify strengths, overcome barriers, and develop the confidence and tools needed to become the best representation of themselves. His philosophy is simple: healing begins when you feel safe enough to be seen, heard, and understood.)

Class B
Becoming a Neuro-affirming Therapist: A Focus on Adult ADHD

“Becoming a Neuro-Affirming Therapist (Focus on Adult ADHD)” is designed to assist participants in gaining knowledge and perspectives that will support their professional development. We will define and discuss neurodivergence, distinguishing medical, disability, social, and identity models. We will use Adult ADHD as an example: providing an overview of prevalence, adult diagnosis, long-term consequences, executive functioning, and treatment approaches. An emphasis on a whole person approach will assist participants in understanding the importance of shifting from a diagnostic/treatment to a well-being model, with an emphasis on positive psychology and other key theoretical frameworks. Participants will be guided to understand and consider what it means to become a neuro-affirming practitioner, including: support for executive functioning challenges, adaptations and shifting expectations related to the therapist-client interface, multimodal collaboration, and addressing relationship and workplace considerations. Finally, participants will be invited to consider a plan for their own growth in this area and will be able to leave the session with a SMART goal to take that plan forward. 

(Micah Saviet, LCSW-C, NBC-HWC is a clinical social worker, specializing at the intersection of trauma and neurodiversity at Adult Trauma and ADHD Solutions and is certified as an Advanced Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner and as a Brainspotting Therapist He is a also an ADHD and health and wellness coach and co-principal at Pathways Ahead. He is Director of the Springer Institute for Research, researches topics in health and wellness and ADHD coaching, and has authored over 20 peer-reviewed research articles, including: 1) A descriptive review of ADHD coaching research; 2) ADHD Coaching--Evolution of the field; 3) Development of a manualized coaching intervention for adult ADHD; and 4) a prospective study exploring ADHD coaching for adults.. He is also co-author of the upcoming text: Flourishing with Adult ADHD: The Evidence-Based Guide to Client Well-being for Therapists and Coaches. Through the Springer institute he also provides research consultation. He is an international presenter on topics related to ADHD, therapeutic approaches, and coaching and also consults with other professionals related to their work with ADHD populations. Elizabeth Ahmann, ScD, RN, PCC, NBC-HWC is a professor of health and wellness coaching in the School of Integrative Health at Notre Dame of Maryland University. She is a registered nurse and an ADHD and health and wellness coach and co-principal at Pathways Ahead. She is also Director of Research for the Springer Institute, researches topics in health and wellness and ADHD coaching, and has authored over 25 peer-reviewed research articles, including: 1) A descriptive review of ADHD coaching research; 2) ADHD Coaching--Evolution of the field; 3) Development of a manualized coaching intervention for adult ADHD; and 4) a prospective study exploring ADHD coaching for adults. She is also co-author of the upcoming text: Flourishing with Adult ADHD: The Evidence-Based Guide to Client Well-being for Therapists and Coaches. She has experience with research to practice translation and curriculum development and is an international presenter on topics related to ADHD and coaching.)

2:00 pm to 5:00 pm EST

Select one of the following classes

Class A
Embodying Our Code of Ethics: Challenging Injustice

This dynamic and interactive training empowers social workers, counselors, advocates, and community professionals to move beyond theory and fully embody the social justice mandate within the NASW Code of Ethics. Through reflection, skill-building, and real-world application, participants will explore how to effectively recognize and challenge injustice at both individual and systemic levels. This session integrates direct practice insights with macro-level advocacy tools, ensuring participants leave with concrete strategies and renewed confidence to make ethical, justice-driven decisions in their everyday work.

(Kendra Van de Water, LSW, is a social worker, educator, advocate, author, and nationally recognized leader in youth justice and systems change. She is the Co Founder and Co CEO of Youth Empowerment for Advancement Hangout (YEAH Philly), a Black led organization advancing innovative approaches to youth justice, violence intervention, advocacy, and policy reform. Her work focuses on challenging systems that cause harm and building more equitable, community centered responses for young people and families. Known for her bold and practical approach, Kendra challenges social workers to move beyond simply knowing the Code of Ethics and begin embodying it. Through training, consulting, and public speaking, she helps professionals examine power, confront injustice, advocate within and beyond their organizations, and translate social work values into meaningful action.)

Class B
Navigating Discomfort and Transitions: Regulation Skills for Uncertainty and Change

Change can activate anxiety, grief, avoidance, identity disruption, and physiological distress—even when the transition is wanted or necessary. This interactive, evidence-informed training equips clinicians to help clients navigate uncertainty without rushing them toward acceptance, minimizing their circumstances, or relying on forced positivity. Participants will examine how intolerance of uncertainty, emotional dysregulation, experiential avoidance, and cultural or systemic pressures can influence clients’ responses to life transitions.

Using case examples, guided reflection, audience polling, and experiential practice, participants will learn culturally responsive strategies for recognizing dysregulation, distinguishing productive discomfort from overwhelm, and helping clients reconnect with strengths, meaning, relationships, and manageable action. Applications will include grief, career changes, caregiving, relationship transitions, identity development, health changes, and other periods of uncertainty. Attendees will leave with grounding, emotional-regulation, meaning-making, and positive-psychology tools that can be incorporated into assessment, treatment planning, and clinical interventions.

(Dr. Tekeah “TC” Mason is a positive psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, author, speaker, and continuing-education trainer with more than 21 years of experience in behavioral health, clinical supervision, program leadership, mentoring, and group facilitation. She holds a PhD in Psychology and a Master of Social Work and maintains clinical social-work licenses in Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia. Dr. Mason’s work focuses on positive psychology, emotional regulation, resilience, gratitude, grief, life transitions, and sustainable flourishing. Her doctoral research explored how women used intentional positive activities to support flourishing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through Beautiful Weirdo Therapy & Consultation, she translates research into culturally responsive, practical strategies that help clients and helping professionals navigate discomfort, reconnect with their strengths, and create meaningful well-being without minimizing trauma, systemic barriers, or real-life challenges.)

Class C
Beyond Overthinking: Teaching Intuitive Decision-Making and Somatic Trust in Clinical Practice

It is common for clients to arrive in therapy paralyzed by overanalysis and reliant on external validation rather than their own internal wisdom. While traditional talk therapy helps clarify thought patterns, it often stays in the head—leaving clients disconnected from the intuitive clarity held in the body. This training gives clinicians a clear roadmap for helping clients tune back into their felt sense and build lasting somatic trust.

Together, we will examine how early developmental experiences, relational dynamics, and societal pressures teach individuals to override their gut feelings. We will unpack a straightforward framework to help clients distinguish the loud, urgent chatter of anxiety from the quiet, grounded presence of true intuition. You will learn experiential somatic tracking interventions to help clients reconnect with interoceptive signals and make choices rooted in authentic self-trust.

(Christina Scott (she/her) is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in Ohio. With a history in substance use treatment, community mental health, University counseling, and school-based therapy, she currently runs an online private practice, Rising Action Counseling LLC. When she is not providing clinical services, she teaches CE courses on topics such as Positive Psychology, neurodivergence, trauma-informed care, Play Therapy, sleep disturbance and dreamwork, and using media/pop culture in counseling. Christina is a Registered Play Therapist, a Certified Integrative Mental Health Practitioner, an Autism Spectrum Clinical Specialist and an ADHD-Clinical Services Provider. A proud geek therapist, Christina co-authored a chapter in the book, Using Superheroes and Villains in Counseling and Play Therapy: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals (edited by Lawrence C. Rubin) and has an intervention featured in Liana Lowenstein’s book, Assessment and Treatment Activities for Children Adolescents and Families VOLUME 4: Practitioners Share Their Most Effective Techniques. Christina also wrote a chapter for An Autistic Anthology: Neuro-Narratives of Mental Health Professionals, which came out in November 2024, and feels honored to have contributed to this fantastic resource for autistic individuals entering the mental health profession!)

Evening Sessions
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Select one of the following classes

Class A
Art and Ethics of Clinical Supervision: Building Competence, Navigating Challenges, and Turning Difficult Conversations into Learning

Clinical supervision is a distinct professional competency that extends beyond case consultation, administrative oversight, and the transfer of clinical knowledge. Effective supervisors must balance the development of clinical competence, protection of clients, ethical accountability, and the cultivation of a supervisory relationship that supports honest reflection, constructive feedback, and professional growth. Yet clinical expertise alone does not necessarily prepare clinicians to supervise effectively.

This interactive workshop examines the knowledge, skills, and responsibilities involved in providing effective clinical supervision. Drawing on the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Guidelines for Clinical Supervision in Health Service Psychology, contemporary supervision literature, and practical supervision frameworks, participants will explore competency-based supervision, reflective practice, supervisory alliance, cultural humility, feedback, professional boundaries, and the identification of concerns regarding clinical competence.

A central component of the workshop focuses on difficult conversations, including how supervisors can address clinical errors, ethical dilemmas, defensiveness, performance concerns, and relational ruptures without losing sight of client welfare or supervisee development. Participants will learn to prepare for challenging discussions by clarifying what needs to be addressed, how they hope to approach the conversation, and what outcomes they intend to achieve. They will then apply a structured approach to exploring differing perspectives, communicating concerns, making clear requests, and translating difficult conversations into opportunities for learning and accountability.

Through case examples, guided reflection, discussion, and applied exercises, participants will develop practical strategies for strengthening their supervisory practice. The workshop emphasizes that effective supervision requires both relational skill and professional accountability, with ongoing attention to the supervisor’s own competence, biases, and impact on the supervisory process.

(Elan Javanfard is a Psychotherapist (LMFT # 87054) who specializes in reintegrating the whole self, by utilizing present focused methods of discovery and coping. He works for Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services in Los Angeles overseeing all Crisis, Residential, and Substance Treatment. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education & Psychology.)

Class B
Beyond the Diagnosis: Human-Centered Clinical Practice with Immigrant and Refugee Clients

Immigrant and refugee clients are often assessed through clinical frameworks that prioritize symptoms and diagnoses while overlooking migration history, cultural identity, legal vulnerability, family relationships, and the social conditions shaping distress. This interactive training invites clinicians to move beyond the diagnosis and engage clients through human-centered, culturally responsive, and ethically grounded practice. Participants will examine how pre-migration experiences, migration journeys, resettlement stress, acculturation, discrimination, language barriers, immigration status, and social determinants of health influence mental health and access to care.

Through reflection, clinical vignettes, and applied discussion, participants will examine clinician positionality, power, privilege, and implicit bias while learning practical strategies for culturally responsive assessment and intervention. Participants will practice distinguishing psychiatric symptoms from cultural expressions of distress and understandable responses to displacement, using the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, working effectively with interpreters, identifying client and community strengths, and adapting evidence-informed interventions. The training emphasizes cultural humility, curiosity, shared decision-making, ethical advocacy, and seeing each client as a whole person whose migration story, relationships, strengths, and aspirations are central to clinical care.