Join David Kessler in conversation with Ashley Judd. Ashley is an actress, author, and activist who has spoken openly about her own experience with sexual assault and harassment as well as loss and trauma. Last year, her mother died by suicide. In the wake of her mother's death, Judd has spoken about her trauma and her journey to healing. In addition to mental health advocacy, she has become an important voice in suicide awareness. Kessler is a grief expert and author who brings his own experience of healing after a mass shooting in childhood, neglect, sexual abuse, and the death of his younger son. In this discussion, Judd and Kessler will share their insights on grief, trauma, and healing. They’ll discuss life’s challenges, the importance of finding support, and the power of hope. This is a powerful and important conversation that will resonate with therapists, mental health professionals, and many others. 

Note: Upgrade with this optional lunch event! Simply add at registration.

In this engaging keynote with Emily Nagoski, Ph.D., sex educator and bestselling author of Come As You Are, she will describe a transformative approach to “low desire.” Based on her expertise and the most current science, this talk offers three actionable ideas for helping clients sustain (or rebuild!) a sexual connection in a long-term relationship. Emily will breakdown the new science, new language, and new perspective of sex in long-term relationships.

Note: Upgrade with this optional dinner event! Simply add at registration.

Please note this event is only available for in-person attendance!

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is a prominent figure in the field of psychotherapy and trauma treatment, as well as the New York Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score. Join Bessel for his keynote speech as the recipient of the 2023 Innovations in Psychotherapy Award. Dr. van der Kolk will discuss his latest insights and recount breakthroughs in the field over the years. His pioneering work and contributions to the field of psychotherapy have inspired generations of clinicians around the world.

When it launched in 2021, therapist Nedra Glover Tawwab’s book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace, became an instant bestseller. As 1.5 million Instagram followers clamored for her clinical wisdom, she became an in-demand guest on shows like Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk and Good Morning America. She’s gone on to create many research-based tools to foster healthy relationships.  

Join Nedra as she explores the current trend of cutting off family members and labeling people and relationships as “toxic.” Taking us deep into what really lies at the heart of troubling family dynamics, she’ll offer clear advice for identifying dysfunctional family patterns and choosing the best path forward. In this workshop, you’ll learn: 

• The clinical diagnosis for dysfunctional families is anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and more DSM labels 
• Therapist Role in the Process: Support, Sounding Board, Connector, Advocate, and Pattern Revealer 
• Managing your clinical perspective when you believe a client should end an unhealthy relationship 
• Among the most significant contributors to your mental health, relationships can cause you pain, or they can heal you. 
• Some adults are having a second child—still not choosing their relationships wisely 

Learning Objectives: 

• Evaluate why clients want to stay in unhealthy relationships and provide skills for how to stay without mental health consequences. 
• Distinguish between guilt and discomfort when clients decide to leave or make changes in unhealthy family relationships. 
• Explore how therapists can help by being responsible for teaching strategy, high lighting patterns, and providing support. 

Note: Upgrade with this optional lunch event! Simply add at registration.

Join Jud Brewer, New York Times bestselling author and thought leader in the field of habit change, for this thought-provoking keynote. Drawing on his clinical work, research studies, and development of next-generation digital therapeutics for habit change, Dr. Brewer will discuss the underlying behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of why habits are formed and how mindfulness can paradoxically tap into these very processes to uproot them.

Dr. Brewer struggled for years to help his patients overcome anxiety, overeating and severe addictions. After over a decade of laboratory research on habit change, someone using a digital therapeutic that he had developed for habitual eating innocently asked him to develop a program for anxiety. This led to a lightbulb moment for him that forever changed his clinical practice and his research, leading to new (and now evidence-based) treatment paradigms and a New York Times bestselling book on treating anxiety as a habit.

After this talk, you will have a simple, pragmatic, 3-step process that you can use with clients and patients to help them unwind unhealthy habits and build healthy habits—without willpower.

Note: Upgrade with this optional dinner event! Simply add at registration.

Please note this event is only available for in-person attendance!

No book has better combined daring self-disclosure and biting humor in describing a therapist's own experience in therapy than Lori Gottlieb's acclaimed Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. It's spent years on the New York Times bestseller list and is being adapted into a television show. She's also the writer of the wildly popular advice column "Dear Therapist" for The Atlantic and co-host of the DEAR THERAPISTS podcast, which brings listeners real sessions with real people, and is now in its fourth season and is produced by Katie Couric.
In this special evening program, she'll share what she's learned since writing Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and from years of doing live podcast sessions and writing a national advice column, discussing the promise and the perils of sharing what happens in our offices and what it means to be a therapist in today's modern world.

You don’t want to miss this closing keynote! Bestselling author, child psychiatrist and award-winning educator, Daniel Siegel is joined by Frank Anderson, author, psychiatrist, therapist, and IFS lead trainer for a conversation on how to equip children with tools to deal with overwhelming challenges they face- with skills founded in “mindsight” and IFS parts work.

Social and emotional learning emerge from the cultivation of mindsight and greater access to self-energy–our ability to sense the mind, inside and out, and move that mental life toward integration as we honor differences and promote compassionate linkages and connections.

Take home strategies to teach kids how to differentiate and appreciate the various aspects of their states of mind, and learn how to integrate, adapt, and develop resilience when faced with overwhelming challenges in their life.