2024 Overview of Keynote Presentations

THURSDAY – JULY 25, 2024

The Poet’s Keys

A Guide To Unlocking Growth
Tucker Bryant
July 25, 2024 – 9:00am – 10:15am

We all want to actualize our potential to be forces for positive change — both in our own lives and in the lives of the clients we serve. Creativity can be an immensely powerful tool for drawing out and nurturing human potential, but many of us only turn to creativity as a last resort; when the routines and processes with which we are most familiar fail us and we feel we already have no other choice. As a result, many of us miss out on the lion’s share of our opportunities to enact positive disruption.

In this interactive and experiential keynote, poet and former Googler Tucker Bryant will reveal how turning to the tools poets have used for millennia to proactively evolve their crafts can lead us to a more sustainable momentum of growth and transformation. Attendees will leave equipped with the tools to build a culture of creative disruption and exploration in the most important realms of our lives and work.

Objectives

• How to uncover opportunities for positive disruption in our routines/lives
• How to develop a more collaborative relationship with imagination & experimentation
• How to step into the power required to introduce our difficult ideas to the world

Empowerment, Compassion, & Embracing Life’s Challenges

The Gifts of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
Dr. Debbie Joffe Ellis
July 25, 2024 – 10:30am – 11:45am

For Therapists and non-Therapists alike, recent times have been fraught with challenges that include world and local events, lingering Covid and other issues. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is the vigorous, holistic and compassionate approach that heralded in the cognitive revolution in psychotherapy.

In this presentation Dr. Debbie Joffe Ellis, wife of the brilliant Albert Ellis PhD who created REBT, will describe the basics of REBT and a selection of its tools and techniques, along with its relevance to each of us.

REBT is both a powerfully effective evidence-based therapeutic approach and an enriching way of life for those of us who apply it as such. REBT is a brilliant means for achieving a “Healer, Heal Thyself” outcome, and can provide impactful prevention of burn-out.

If time allows, a live demonstration may be given along with Q & A. The presentation will be a thorough introduction for those who know little about REBT, and a substantial revision with updates for those participants with a knowledge of REBT principles and practices.

Objectives

• Attendees may expect to learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy negative
  emotions.
• Attendees may expect to learn and discern the differences between irrational thinking
  and rational thinking.
• Attendees may expect to learn REBT’s ‘prescriptions’, and a few of its main tools, for coping with life’s challenges, anxiety and other unhealthy negative emotions.

Interoceptive Awareness

How Sensing Ourselves Supports Healing From Trauma
Jenn Turner, LMHC, RYT
July 25, 2024 – 1:45pm – 2:45pm

Experiences of complex, intergenerational and systemic trauma often lead survivors to have a heightened focus on their outer word through exteroception. Hyper awareness of our external environment and relationships are protective ways the human organism seeks to predict and protect against further harm.

Jenn will share her over 20 years of experience in creating safer, braver therapeutic relationships where clients are able to turn inward and expand their capacity to sense and feel into themselves.

Objectives

• Participants will learn about the impacts of complex trauma on the neurological ‘default network’ and the impact that has on interoception.
• The ways the therapeutic relationship can mirror trauma dynamics through power and expertise, shutting down opportunities for interoception, will be explored.
• Participants will learn techniques to bring interoception and sensory wisdom into client sessions.

Story, Sound, Silence

Buddhist Wonderings On Grief and Loss
Chenxing Han
July 25, 2024 – 3:00pm – 4:00pm

How do we grieve our losses? How can we care for our spirits? How might we cultivate greater creativity and ease as caregivers and care-seekers? This interactive talk by Chenxing Han, author of one long listening: a memoir of grief, friendship, and spiritual care, offers a Buddhist perspective on these questions by drawing on compassionate storytelling and embodied rituals. Together we will explore how story, sound, and silence can support the thriving of our practices and communities.

Objectives

• Explore some of the vast diversity of Buddhist traditions and practices through compassionate storytelling and embodied rituals
• Learn to respectfully draw from Buddhist teachings and practices as a tool for supporting people who are suffering from grief and loss
• Recognize the importance of honoring culture, lineage, and ancestors as a way to cultivate greater creativity and ease as caregivers and care-seekers

Science, Kindness, and Substance Use

Inviting Change in a Stigmatized World
Carrie Wilkens, Ph.D. & Jeff Foote, Ph.D.
July 25, 2024 – 4:15pm – 5:30pm

While the development of treatments for substance use disorder has continued over the past 4 decades, our cultural view and understanding of these struggles has remained freighted with stigma and shame that prevents those struggling and their families from getting help.

The Invitation to Change approach (ITC) is a model designed to facilitate positive change in individuals struggling with problematic behaviors, such as substance use. It combines various evidence-based practices to create a comprehensive roadmap rooted in both science and compassion. This approach is accessible and aims to challenge societal assumptions and stigma related to substance use while offering new perspectives and effective strategies for everyone involved, including providers, families, and those facing the issue.

The research supported, effective strategies for encouraging change encompass motivational, behavioral, and relational elements. The ITC approach incorporates the principles and techniques from different established methods like the Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (CRAFT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help both professionals and laypeople create an environment conducive to change. Key elements of this approach include using positive reinforcement for behavioral
change within a context of self-compassion and compassion for others, as well as fostering new viewpoints on substance use and the process of change.

Join us in learning how science and kindness can help people change.

Objectives

• To gain an understanding of the role and impact of stigma in the struggle by individuals, families and their providers in dealing with substance use issues.
• To gain an understanding of a non-shaming, collaborative and compassionate approach, the Invitation to Change (ITC), for family members and professionals in their helping roles, including the four major elements of this approach.
• Learn several strategies and understandings that family members can implement when assisting a loved one struggling with substance use and change.

Little Treatments, Big Effects

Single Session Interventions As A Mental Health Moonshot
Jessica L. Schleider, Ph.D.
July 26, 2024 – 8:30am – 9:30am

The discrepancy between need and access to mental health support is incontestable. Due to provider shortages, high treatment costs, and myriad structural barriers, up to 80% of youth and 50% of adults with mental health needs go without services each year. Status-quo mental health systems will never meet population-level needs for support, creating a need for a “Mental Health Moonshot” in the United States. Single-session interventions (SSIs) are well-positioned to rapidly increase access to evidence-based supports at precise moments of need, both within and beyond formal health care systems. SSIs mitigate key treatment access-barriers: many are self-guided (requiring no therapist) or deliverable by non-professionals; web-based (completable from any location); and 5 to 60 minutes in length, eliminating premature treatment dropout. SSIs are also effective. To date, >70 randomized trials have shown their capacity to reduce mental health problems and increase uptake of further treatment, with sustained positive impacts up to nine months later. In this talk, I will overview how my research lab, the Lab for Scalable Mental Health, has built and tested free, evidence-based SSIs for youth and adults, and how we have leveraged multi-sector partnerships to disseminate SSIs to more than 50,000 people to date. I will also share insights from my new book, Little Treatments, Big Effects, on how SSIs can transform our mental health system into one that is accessible to all, one turning-point at a time.

Objectives

• To understand the concept of ‘single-session interventions’ (SSIs).
• To learn state-of-the-art research on how, why, and for whom SSIs can reduce mental health problems.
• To identify tools and resources to apply evidence-based SSIs in real-world practice.

Chatter

The Voices in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It
Ethan Kross, Ph.D.
July 26, 2024 – 9:45am – 10:45am

The most important conversation we have each day isn’t with our boss, our spouse, or our friends: it’s the one we have with ourselves. When we’re facing a challenging task, our inner voice can motivate us and help us keep our focus. But more often than not, we come up against the nagging voice that tells us we can’t do it, or that people will laugh at us if we try. The million-dollar question, then, is how can we transform our self-saboteur, determined to undermine our success, into an internal life coach that will buoy us up and help us expand our potential?

In this talk, world-class psychological scientist Ethan Kross will provide a guide to mastering self-talk. Blending cutting-edge science (from his own lab) and real-world case studies he explains how anyone can harness the power of their inner voice. The tools are all around us—from the objects we surround ourselves with, to our relationships with other people, the physical spaces we inhabit, and the digital worlds we interact in.

This talk is a lively exploration of how we can use those tools to make our inner voice work in our favor, and it answers some valuable questions along the way. For instance, why do we seem immune to toxic chatter when we attempt to provide other people with advice? What factors determine whether we receive—and provide—helpful or harmful social support? And how can we approach our decision-making differently, learning to control our emotions and reason wisely instead of acting on impulse?

Objectives

• Understand why we have an inner voice and how it can help or harm us.
• Identify the science-based tools that exist for harnessing your inner voice.
• Understand how your personal relationships and physical spaces can affect the way we talk to ourselves.

Depression, Suicide, and Hope for Better days

An Interview & Performance with Musician Chase Bryant
Chase Bryant and Kelly Holes-Lewis, M.D.
July 26, 2024 – 11:00am – 12:15pm

Award winning country musician, Chase Bryant, will share his story, insights, and struggles with depression and his suicide attempt in a candid interview on stage. Modern Minds Medical Director and Board Certified Psychiatrist, Kelly Holes-Lewis M.D., will conduct the interview in what promises to be a powerful and important conversation. Chase will perform acoustic versions of songs he has written during the interview as a way to share his story.

Objectives

• Attendees will learn key signs and symptoms of suicidal ideation within the context of a real-world setting.
• Attendees will learn and identify important thinking patterns and emotional experiences people may present with if they are experiencing significant mood problems and suicidal ideation.
• Attendees will be able to identify useful interventions for someone who has attempted suicide to include community supports and clinical interventions.

Cultivating Resilience

Becoming a Worthy Opponent
Lisa Marchiano, LCSW, NCPsyA
July 26, 2024 – 2:00pm – 3:00pm

How do we, as therapists, help our clients address challenges and hardships? Ideally, the work we do with clients supports their empowerment and enables them to meet life’s demands more effectively. When does focusing on personal power help a client to move forward, and when does it unduly place responsibility on her shoulders that is not hers to bear? If we help the client understand the external forces that are impacting them and their lives, are we providing helpful context? Or taking away their agency?

In this presentation, Lisa will explore these questions and consider how we might help clients become a worthy opponent capable of exercising personal authority – and when doing so might be counter-productive. To help us explore these themes, she will use the Grimm’s fairy tale Fitcher’s Bird, which features a heroine who is able to claim her personal power to defeat an evil sorcerer.

Objectives

• Identify ways that women can be held back from accessing their agency and authority.
• Name eight qualities that women may have difficulty cultivating in themselves.
• Define the term “worthy opponent” and discuss its relevance to women’s lives.

In Our Own Voices

Mental Health Through the Lens of Our Youth
South Carolina Students
July 26, 2024 – 3:15pm – 4:15pm

The Lowcountry Mental Health Conference will host a group of young people (rising 9th – 12th graders) from across South Carolina who are looking to share their thoughts on mental health, personal growth, and their ongoing search for personal identity and meaning. These talented high school students will share parts of themselves through a variety of different mediums to include poetry, written prose, music, theatre, and the visual arts. The outcome will be a powerful experience and a window into the world of our young people!

Objectives

• Attendees will be able to gain insight into present day emotional and cognitive experiences of young people and apply this understanding in clinical treatment settings.
• Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of mental health issues and challenges from an adolescent developmental model.
• Attendees will learn new ways to empathize and relate to adolescents presenting with mental health issues.