We are so excited to come together for 3 days of learning! We have designed the following tracks to guide your learning. You can mix and match what you watch live or pick a single track. Don’t worry! You’ll have some time to watch ALL the talks before we shut the conference app down.
Track 1: Business and Technology
We are talking about how business and technology are transforming our profession. These courses examine the intersection of business or technology and clinical work, often with a focus on relevant laws and ethics, providing state of the art information that #moderntherapists need to succeed. Note: Some courses in this track do not offer continuing education (CE) credit.
Track 2: Ways of Being
Most conferences focus on what you do to or with clients — the tasks of therapy. But there is a large and growing body of literature on the importance of working on you as a clinician — your ways of being, rather than ways of doing. We have made it our mission to change that focus and provide challenging and empowering content that will transform how you are as a clinician. We will share innovative presentations that guide therapists on their personhood as a therapist in ways that improve outcomes for clients.
Track 3: Ways of Doing
Many clients are not treated effectively by traditional therapy. As we increasingly understand the diversity of the people seeking treatment, we begin to realize that there is so much more to consider when we’re in the room. We’re presenting topics that blast through these gaps in our knowledge, looking at special populations, challenging treatment issues, and innovative techniques. We will be sharing the new stuff, the treatments that are not taught in graduate school, and the things that just plain work, even though they’re not done in the traditional ways.
Track 4: Misfits, Outliers, Subversives, and Skeptics: Challenging the Status Quo
Systems are often created to sustain themselves. We believe this intent can lead to a toxic mess of complacency. Instead, we want to take the view of the skeptic, who is ready to turn psychotherapy or the profession as a whole on it’s head. Yes, we’re talking about the #moderntherapy upside down, folks. We’re not going to put any crazy theory up on the stage – we’re presenting well-researched, blow your mind, “why do we still believe the status quo any more” kind of shenanigans.
All times are Pacific.
Speakers, courses, and times are subject to change. In addition, continuing education hours for recorded sessions may not match continuing education amounts for sessions attended live. All CEs listed in this schedule assume live attendance of the full duration of the course. Not all session recordings may be available, for technical or other reasons.
8:30 – 10:00 AM — Welcome!
Ways of Being and Business and Technology: Katie Vernoy, MS, LMFT | Showing Up For Our Clients: The Modern Therapist’s Impact on Therapy Outcomes (1 CE hour) — Interviewed by Melvin Varghese, PhD
The majority of therapist education is focused on how we take care of clients. Evidence-based practices, clinical technique, and knowledge about how a client’s demographics and upbringing impact them – these are all topics readily discussed in our graduate programs and our continuing education workshops. We must provide service to our clients. We must be client-focused.
However, when we actually look at the research, who we are as therapists, how well we know ourselves, how we show up in the room, and how we develop relationships with our clients are more impactful than a specific technique or bit of knowledge.
The data shows that a focus on the clinician in education and training is essential, and that models and techniques are not the main drivers of success in treatment.
This presentation focuses first on the research that supports this clinician-facing approach and then moves to practical ways you can show up better for your clients. Yes, we are taking care of our clients, but first we must take care of ourselves.
At the end of this workshop, attendees will be able to:
- Identify 2 ways that influences in therapists’ personal lives impact client outcomes
- Define the 3 pathways to therapeutic benefit posited by the Contextual Model
- Describe 4 variables that positively impact the therapeutic alliance
- Apply 3 changes to treatment systems to improve therapy delivery to clients
10:00 – 10:30 AM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
10:30 – 11:30 AM
Business and Technology: Katie Read, LMFT | Clinician to Coach: How and Why Therapists are Outgrowing their Offices (Non-CE)
Aren’t coaches the WORST? Aren’t they just doing untrained, unlicensed therapy? Why would any self-respecting therapist add coaching?
As it turns out, therapists have a unique opportunity to raise the bar in the coaching world while increasing their freedom, income, and impact.
As a therapist, you can bring your unique skill-set to a huge variety of businesses, entrepreneurs, and everyday people struggling with any number of non-clinical issues.
Find out:
- How to add coaching while protecting your license and your clients,
- Which coaching niches therapists are finding huge success in,
- What service all therapists should strongly consider adding, and
- How to launch yourself successfully into the coaching realm!
11:30 AM – 12:00 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
12:00 – 1:30 PM
Skeptics and Outliers: Curt Widhalm, MA, MS, LMFT | Irrational Ethics: How Current Standards Fail to Recognize Culture and Humanity (1.5 CE hours, can be used for Law & Ethics)
Therapist ethical codes attempt to convey a shared value system that promises a predictable set of standards of behaviors and treatments from those with the therapeutic professions. But what happens when those very same ethical codes are inconsistent, or when ethical standards risk producing classist, sexist, or racist outcomes? What do therapists do when those codes aren’t representative of their cultural backgrounds or even accepting of the predictable flaws of individual rationality?
This workshop explores the development, interpretation, pedagogy, and application of therapist ethical codes on individuals in situations where guidance from the codes appears to run counter to common sense and demand therapists behave in ways that are contradictory to the very goals of sound treatment and ethical practice. Many of the steps involved in the development of ethics codes can lose sight of the fact that people performing therapy are humans, too, which has an impact on the ways that ethical decisions are made.
Thinking outside of the traditional normative box and fixed establishment of therapeutic ethics, we will explore the ways that client beneficence can be achieved within psychotherapeutic work while acknowledging the very real and competing flaws of the humans who serve in the therapist role. This workshop will address how compromises made during the writing of ethics codes try to unify disparate and competing roles in the profession and the consequences that these compromises have on the delivery of psychotherapy.
- Identify 3 ways that ethical codes fail to represent the viewpoints of non-dominant cultures
- Identify 3 ways that ethical codes conflict with common therapist behaviors
- Discuss 3 proposed ethical changes that remove conflicting goals due to various roles in the therapeutic profession
1:30 – 2:00 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Ways of Doing: Lindsey Bryan-Podvin, LMSW | Financial Therapy: Helping Clients with Money Stress (1 CE hour)
Therapists are routinely faced with clients voicing stress about finances, and yet, most of us are not trained on the nuances of treating financial anxiety. Social workers cite little-to-no training on personal finance and how to help their clients clinically, and other disciplines may also be missing this training. Therapists are routinely given the messaging that money shouldn’t matter (think, “you didn’t become a therapists for the money” and other similar sentiments). Therapists have some of the biggest money hangups of any healthcare discipline. Couple the lack of training with the messaging therapists often get about the importance of shunning money, and you have a huge gap in financial anxiety treatment and a missing piece of therapists understanding their personal money stories. Led by a financial therapist, this workshop will teach attendees with not only what financial anxiety is, but how they can use their breadth of skills and apply them to help their clients with financial anxiety. The presenter will also encourage therapists to start digging into their own money stories, so when clients present financial anxiety, the therapist can be aware of their own bias.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Define financial anxiety
- Categorize individuals into one of four money archetypes using an assessment process
- Apply at least three therapeutic skills when working with clients who express financial anxiety
- Apply a values-based money exercise that can be used with clients
3:00 – 3:15 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 15 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
3:15 – 4:15 PM
Business and Technology: SimplePractice | The Evolution of Care: Preparing Your Practice for the Future of Therapy (Non-CE)
Mental health care is changing, in many ways for the better. The population of practitioners is shifting to more closely match the communities we serve. The transition to virtual care, while sudden and unexpected for most, has made services more accessible to more people in more places, faster.
This panel discussion goes beyond models of treatment, to examine the larger picture of how mental health care and the people who provide it are changing. Panelists will offer their perspectives about what therapy will look like a generation from now, and what you can start doing today to be prepared for the changes to come.
In this panel, practitioners will:
- Understand what evolution of care looks like
- Discuss growing trends in the health and wellness industry
- Learn practical and clinical skills that can help you evolve your client care
4:15 – 4:30 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 15 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
4:30 – 6:00 PM
Skeptics and Outliers: Angela Caldwell, MA, LMFT | The Results Are In: You Have No Personality (1.5 CE hours)
This presentation will engage audience members in a lively and humorous discussion about the pseudoscience of personality testing. This workshop will include meaningful review of the application of “reliability” and “validity” as they pertain to psychological assessment. Participants will be guided through empirical research summarizing the disappointing evidence base for measures like the MBTI, the Big Five, the DiSC Assessment, and the MMPI-2: While personality testing has been a widely popular area of the field since World War I, and a large portion of corporate America has come to rely on these tests for hiring decisions, most are about as useful as your weekly horoscope.
The presentation will include an historically- and empirically-based critique of the concept of personality. This review will encourage participants to become suspicious of the fundamental idea of personality in the first place, and understand the limitations of its usefulness in the larger global community. The presentation will end on a personal note, asking therapists to resist their natural urges to categorize humans based on personality traits.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Define “reliability” in the specific context of personality assessment
- Define “validity” in the specific context of personality assessment
- Compare the reliability of at least three personality tests
- Describe at least three limitations of the construct of “personality”
VIP Reception: The Psycho Social
September 24, 2020 6:00 PM
Join all the #moderntherapists and speakers who are on this virtual conference journey with you! We’ll be taking our signature networking event to the interwebs to support all of the networking you’ll be doing throughout the conference!
7:00 AM — Yoga
8:00 AM — Keynote
Ways of Doing: Daryl Chow MA, PhD (Psych) | IMAGINE THIS: Tiny Ideas for Focal Changes in Education, Supervision, Professional Development (1.5 CE hours)
Imagine this: What if we can re-build our higher education, clinical supervision and professional development activities from the ground up? What might this look like? What needs to be different? What ideas need to be subverted?
In this talk, I aim to untether our prior assumptions about the way we develop in our profession, based on what we know from the hidden sides of psychotherapy outcomes, and graft learnings from research in the development of expertise and the learning sciences.
I hope to dream up with you some small but pivotal ideas, so as to take each of us to our individual and collective growth edge. Because we are already seeing bright lights from others who are already reaping the rewards of this new frontier.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to
- Identify at least three common failures in the current professional education and development processes of mental health professionals
- Apply at least two findings from research on the development of expertise to their own clinical work
- Apply at least two findings from the learning sciences to their own clinical work
- Describe at least three small changes in therapist development process that could reasonably lead to better outcomes in psychotherapy
9:30 AM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
10:00 AM — Break Out Sessions
Join us for three 60-minute talks! Learn more about how to be a therapist, do therapy better, incorporate technology and solid business practices, and challenge the status quo!
Business and Technology: Jessica Tappana MSW, LCSW and Katie Read, LMFT | Creating a YOU filled website to better serve your clients (Non-CE)
Your website is more than a marketing tool. Learn how to use your website to better serve your clients by making it easier for clients to begin counseling, setting a foundation for a positive therapeutic relationship and create content that can support clients throughout the course of treatment. Learn how to improve client access to therapy services, begin to build a positive therapeutic relationship before the client ever begins therapy, and what pieces of content can enhance your clients’ counseling experience – all from your website!
Ways of Doing: Shira Myrow, MA, LMFT | The Problem with Spiritual Bypass: Therapy and Spiritual Perspectives as Dual Healing Modalities (1 CE hour) — Interview by Katie Vernoy, MS, LMFT
Case Presentation highlighting the inherent therapeutic challenges in a situation where a couple has such a powerful narrative of their spiritual trajectory, they override the hard work of self reflection, accepting personal responsibility and self-agency in the process. Wisdom and insight are bestowed in prayer and meditation versus earned and acquired through engagement in practical applications of couples therapy.
The therapist will recount the difficulty in bridging the gap between a form of spirituality that bypasses the initiatory and essential value of working through conflict and struggle –and the depth and meaning a spiritual perspective can provide.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Define Spiritual By-Pass in the context of mental health care
- Describe at least three ways in which spirituality and therapeutic modalities can be mis-aligned
- Describe at least two ways in which differing healing modalities could be supportive to growth and healing.
Skeptics and Outliers: Edith Gonzalez, PhD and Laura Pignato, PhD | Who’s Keeping the Gate? Supervisors Perspectives on their Responsibilities (1CE hour)
Faculty and supervisors in psychotherapy graduate programs serve multiple roles, including the role of professional gatekeeper. However, an individual supervisor’s role, influence, and responsibility for gatekeeping in an academic context is often unclear. A supervisor’s level of influence in academic procedures after reporting an ethical violation by a supervisee may be limited (Trepal & Hammer, 2014) due to structural barriers, current power dynamics and limited role capacity, and unclear standards of practice. Supervisors often report unclear lines of responsibility for remediating supervisees (Gazzola, Stefano, Tehriault, & Audet, 2013) and reporting impairment or ethical breaches (Brown-Rice & Furr, 2015; Foster, Leppma, & Hutchinson, 2014). Moreover, the ambiguity of doctoral student supervisors’ authority in the evaluation and remediation process remains unaddressed in current gatekeeping practices (Corley, Lloyd-Hazlett, Schuermann, & Blessing, 2020), despite doctoral student supervisors serving as the primary supervisor for mental health professionals in training throughout various graduate programs. This presentation will explore gatekeeping standards and responsibilities for supervisors, with specific attention to doctoral students’ perceptions of gatekeeping, and the implications for faculty, and supervisors, and psychotherapy graduate programs.
At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:
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- Identify at least five legal, ethical, and educational standards that address gatekeeping
- Identify at least three areas of ambiguity in doctoral student supervisors’ role authority related to gatekeeping
- Describe at least three common perceptions of gatekeeping among doctoral student supervisors in mental health care
- Describe four phases of gatekeeping consistent with the presented findings
11:00 AM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
11:30 AM — Plenary
Business and Technology: Kiaundra Jackson, LMFT | Beyond the Couch: The Power of Building a Personal Brand to Impact the Masses (Non-CE)
“Congratulations, You Have Been Selected to Impact the Masses!” We see other therapists dominate in their area of expertise and we may ask ourselves “How are they able to do that?” Well, that person is no different than you. Being selected as a speaker, expert, author or presenter is exciting and can open the door to many opportunities beyond the couch. Unfortunately, many therapists give little strategic thought on how to maximize these valuable engagements. Each time you show up, you have a unique and limited opportunity to increase your influence and extend your expertise. The great news is all you need to do is build a personal brand that separates you from others in your field. Learn what a personal brand is and how to use it to impact the masses. Unlock the power of thinking beyond your clinical skills and outside the box to help more people.
12:30 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
1:00 PM — Breakout Sessions
Join us for three exciting 60-minute talks! Learn more about how to be a therapist, do therapy better, incorporate technology and solid business practices, and challenge the status quo!
Ways of Being: Sonya Lott, PhD | Cultivating Cultural Humility Through Self-Compassion (1 CE hour)
This workshop will explore the framework of a multicultural orientation as a way of being as individuals as well as psychotherapists. The importance of cultural humility, the foundation of a multicultural orientation will be discussed. Participants will be invited to participate in a brief mindfulness activity and explore the complexities of their multiple cultural identities.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Explain the importance of cultural humility in the development of a multicultural orientation.
- Describe at least three challenges to cultural humility.
- Explain the three components of self-compassion.
- Describe three ways in which the practice of self-compassion facilitates the growth of cultural humility.
Business and Technology: Joe Sanok | From Clinical Work to Taking on the World: How to build passive income through podcasting (Non-CE)
Podcasting is reshaping the entire content space and most therapists are not using it to grow their practice or build passive income.
This session will cover three major pillars of podcasting:
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- How to determine the direction, content, and purpose of a podcast.
- The exact structure to grow income, innovation, influence, and impact through a podcast.
- How podcasting will level up every area of practice.
During this course you’ll decide how a podcast can help more people in your area of interest, have a structure to create an email course that converts listeners into fans, create a schedule of content for a podcast, and practice interviewing a potential buyer to discover what product should be first. If you are looking for the best ROI for time with the largest audience, then this session is for you. The statistical difference between putting an hour into a blog and an hour into a podcast is the difference between a six foot tall person and Mt. Everest (30,000′). The question is, are you ready to be Mt. Everest? If you want to reach more people and grow streams of income in a way that represents your values and curiosity, this session is absolutely for you!
Skeptics and Outliers: Susan Pease Gadoua, MSW, LCSW | Is Marriage Becoming Extinct? The Changing Nature of Couples and Family (1 CE hour)
Global media headlines are filled with news about how marriage is becoming obsolete. Many heterosexual Millennials and GenXers are choosing to cohabit rather than make their unions legal. Meanwhile, the LGBTQQ population in many countries continues fighting to have the law recognize their unions. The number of children born outside of marriage has increased 600% since 1960.*
In this talk, participants will learn the 7 alternatives to traditional marriage currently in practice, how and why these changes are taking place, and what the therapy profession must do in order to stay up to date. Attendees will learn how to support clients where they are (even if they choose lifestyles the participant doesn’t agree with or understand) Participants will learn ways to help couples get into healthier marriages from the start and/or help spouses redefine their established (but troubled) marriage. (*According to the U.N.’s World Marriage Data 2008 report)
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Describe seven different marital trends that have emerged in the relatively recent past (some in just the past 5-10 years)
- Identify at least five driving forces behind these changes that have directly, dramatically and permanently changed the way people form family today.
- List at least four viable options clients who are struggling with an unworkable marriage have when their relationship is in jeopardy.
Business and Technology: SimplePractice | Telehealth Best Practices (Non-CE)
Thousands of clinicians rushed into telehealth out of necessity when the pandemic hit. This workshop will help you take your telehealth to the next level. This workshop will review clinical best practices as well as the physical setup (lighting, sound, and staging) and preparation (managing hardware and internet connectivity) that will help you do your best work online, and look your best doing it.
2:00 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
2:30-4:30 PM — Panel Discussion
Ways of Being and Ways of Doing: Erasure and Exclusion in Therapy: Implications for Clients and Clinicians (2 CE hours)
Therapist training and case examples that focus on majority-oriented interventions, examples, and opportunities create barriers for clients from minority populations and therapists from those demographics who desire to enter into the field of psychotherapy. In this panel discussion, panel members will discuss the limitations in psychotherapist training for specific populations around race, gender identity, sexual identity, disability, and body sizes for both clients and clinicians. Recommendations to be more inclusive in training, education, client experience, and therapist opportunities for these populations will be made to make the field more inclusive.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Identify at least 1 way that Bi+ erasure impacts client development
- Describe at least 2 barriers that trans/non-binary therapists face in training
- Identify at least 2 barriers for clinicians with disabilities in training and career opportunities
- Identify two ways that fatphobia shows up in therapist’s lives and practices.
4:30 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
5:00 PM — Shenanigans
Who knows what we’ll get up to at this evening’s reception – join us for some virtual networking!
7:00 AM — Yoga
8:00 AM — Keynote
Ways of Being: Harry J. Aponte, PhD, h.c., MSW, LCSW, LMFT | Training the Use of “Self” in Therapy (1.5 CE hour)
The presence of the “personal self” of the therapist has been an issue demanding to be addressed since the inception of talking therapy. Freud addressed it in his concept of Countertransference, which then called for their undergoing a didactic psychoanalysis as part of their training. Going forward to systemic based therapy, Murray Bowen incorporated work on differentiating therapists-in-training from their families of origin. Virginia Satir also made it part of her formation of therapists to work on resolving their personal issues, because she viewed therapists’ use of self as the main tool for change in therapy.
All of these approaches advocated for preparing therapists to engage clients in the therapeutic process by healing their own personal hang-ups, so that their issues would not contaminate the work with clients. This is a reasonable goal given that the work of therapy is always conducted through the relationship between therapist and client, which inevitably carries with it a personal component – the human to human connection between therapist and client.
The problem here is that we, our flawed humanity, never fully resolve our personal issues, and so they are inevitably ensconced in the therapeutic relationship. Therapists can and should be trained to work with all of their humanity, with particular emphasis on working through their own flawed humanity, and in particular their core personal issue(s), their signature theme. The ability to use this aspect of our personal humanity in a conscious and purposeful manner within the therapeutic process requires a structured and systematic training process, the training of the person of the therapist. This workshop focuses on that training.
By the end of the workshop therapists will be able to:
- Conceptualize at least one of their personal issues or experiences in the context of its potential for impacting their therapeutic work.
- Apply at least two techniques to integrate their own life experiences and personal issues into the work they do as therapists.
- Achieve measurably improved empathy, insight, and effectiveness in their therapeutic processes by using their life experiences and personal issues in therapeutic relationships, assessments and interventions.
9:30 AM — Break
Short break for a breath, a re-set, and a word from our sponsors.
9:40 AM
Harry J. Aponte, PhD, h.c., MSW, LCSW, LMFT | Training Therapists in the Use of Self (1 CE hours) — Negeen Moussavian, AMFT Live Supervision Participant
All therapy is conducted through the medium of the relationship between client and therapist. There are three basic components of the therapeutic process: the relationship, the assessment, and the intervention. It is through the humanity of the therapist that the empathic connection is made with the client, that the therapist understands and intuits what is driving the pathology in the client and clients’ relationships, and that the therapist reaches the most wounded and vulnerable places in the client when intervening. But, what is this “humanity”? It is the life experiences, gender, culture, race/ethnicity, spirituality, etc. of the therapist – but most especially the therapist’s own personal woundedness through which the therapist can relate to the client’s woundedness. We will present here on how therapists can more fully and effectively utilize all of their selves, taking their therapy to another level when working purposefully and professionally through their own person.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Apply a systematic conceptual framework to the use of self in therapy
- Apply the Person of The Therapist Model to the use of self in therapy
- Apply at least three practical methods and tools to the use of self in therapy
- Supervise other therapists on the active and purposeful use of self in therapy
10:40 AM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 20 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
11:00 AM — Breakout Sessions
Join us for two amazing 90-minute talks! Learn more about how to be a therapist, do therapy better, incorporate technology and solid business practices, and challenge the status quo!
Ways of Doing: Nicol Stolar-Peterson, MSW, LCSW, BCD | Deflecting and Navigating Court in Chaos (1.5 CE hours, Can be used for Law & Ethics) — Interviewed by Benjamin Caldwell, PsyD, LMFT
Most clinicians’ worst nightmare is court. Being subpoenaed, dealing with attorneys, going to court, not feeling confident in what to say and what to not say, and feeling overwhelmed. This workshop is an opportunity to learn how to confidently and effectively serve the therapist’s role in a court setting. Clinicians will learn how to minimize “invitations” to court and what to do if subpoenaed. We will talk about consent, invoking privilege, court letters, dealing with attorneys, court appearances, testimony, and more. Participants will learn how to prepare for court and “timeline” a case.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Exert greater control over court-related requests in clinical practice.
- Invoke privilege in at least two sets of circumstances where it is appropriate to do so.
- Differentiate records called for in a subpoena or court order from those that do not need to be disclosed.
- Implement their own “court policies,” including ethical fee schedule for court-related requests.
Business and Technology: Kelly Higdon, LMFT and Miranda Palmer, LMFT | Impacting and Improving Clinical Outcomes Through Business Practices (1.5 CE hours)
As a private practice owner, business processes impact not only you and your business growth, but your clients’ experience and outcomes. If you want to improve your clinical outcomes, retention, referral base, and success in therapy, business processes are the place to start. In this presentation we will show you the businesses processes that have an impact on the therapeutic relationship and the steps you can take to improve them ethically. We will cover messaging, marketing, intake strategies, and policies that influence client outcomes.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Describe at least 3 business processes that impact the therapeutic relationship
- Describe the relationship between a clinical niche and clinical outcomes
- Identify at least 3 research-supported strategies for improving outcomes in therapy through changes in processes
12:30 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
1:00 PM — Panel Discussion
Ways of Being: The Magic of Therapeutic Mistakes (1.5 CE hours)
How can we expect our clients to be vulnerable enough with their imperfections if we aren’t humble enough with them about our own? Even when making a mistake in session with a client, we can model strength in our own vulnerability and the courage to acknowledge we aren’t perfect. Sometimes these are magical moments that are far more transformational than any masterfully executed intervention. How we show up in these moments makes all the difference in the world to improve the results that clients want out of therapy.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe at least two ways in which a therapist’s perfectionism impedes therapeutic alliance
- Describe two ways how therapists’ family of origin values can influence treatment decisions
- Describe at least 3 differences between collectivism and individualism and how these show up in the therapy room when working with Latinx clients.
- Apply 2 practices of Feedback Informed Treatment with clients
2:30 — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
3:00 PM — Breakout Sessions
Join us for two powerhouse talks! Learn more about how to be a therapist, do therapy better, incorporate technology and solid business practices, and challenge the status quo!
Ways of Doing: Dana McNeil, MA, LMFT | Polyamory: How to be an effective therapist when you don’t agree with or understand non-monogamous relationships (1 CE hour)
According to a 2019 report by the U.S. Census Bureau, Millennials are waiting until later in life to get married. This delay allows them to have more time to experiment and explore sexual behaviors. Millennial clients are also more open to and accepting of consensual non-monogamy than any other previous generation. These same millennials grew up embracing the idea of seeking therapy to navigate setting up healthy boundaries in their relationships. As more and more couples are considering whether an open relationship, or even polyamory, is right for them, they are often met with therapists who have questioning attitudes about working with this population. This course seeks to help introduce clinicians to the many ethical non-monogamy options their clients may be considering. This course will help clinicians to better understand how to support these clients’ making the best choices for their relationships and the boundary-setting goals for therapy. This course will also help clinicians to manage their discomfort and reconnect with the goal of allowing clients to make their own decisions about what is best for their own lives without passing judgment or conveying skepticism.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Differentiate at least three forms of ethical non-monogamy
- Define at least four key terms clients may introduce in session
- Describe at least two ways in which a therapist’s attitude about a client’s lifestyle choices can impact a therapy client
- Apply at least three tools for helping clients to set healthy rules and boundaries in their relationships
Business and Technology: SimplePractice | Financial Best Practices (Non-CE)
One of the most important functions of a practice is managing money. With insurance payments, in-person payments, and credit card payments coming from a variety of sources, it’s easy to get disorganized. Will Morales, Senior Product Manager at SimplePractice, shows how to make collecting payments easy, quick, and well-organized using features of SimplePractice software. Learn to collect payments automatically, ensure they are assigned properly, and run detailed reports for your practice.
4:00 PM — Break
Exhibitors – Demos – Games – Discussion Lounge
Take 30 minutes to reset, debrief on the last talk, network, and engage with the amazing resources and demos our exhibitors have to offer. Don’t miss out on the games – there will be some amazing prizes!!
4:30 PM — Plenary
Ways of Doing: Travis Heath, PsyD | Moving Beyond Multicultural Counseling: Preferred Mediums of Healing and Psychotherapy on the Margins (1.5 CE hours)
Imagine the possibilities for people, most especially people from marginalized groups, being able to speak on behalf of their own healing. Instead of inviting people of non-European descent into Eurocentric models of healing, what if we instead invited in healing practices from our own communities? What might be possible if instead of ‘treating’ people solely through psychiatric and psychological knowledges, we co-created alternative knowledges with the people who consult us? Finally, what are the possibilities for how this practice might look in action? Autoethnographic practice stories of a Muslim man named “Madhi” facing discrimination in his community and a young black man named “Ray” entangled in the criminal justice system will be used to help take learners inside the therapy room.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Differentiate between multicultural counseling and cultural democracy.
- Define an anti-colonial stance and at least two ways it can manifest in practice.
- Craft at least four therapeutic questions that actively address issues of systemic discrimination and inequity.
6:00 PM — Final Thoughts
Final thoughts (and prizes) with your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy
The Virtual Conference Experience
