2020 Schedule

These presentations address current racial tensions, the impact on clinical treatment, and what addiction professionals can do to provide culturally sensitive services and advocate for communities impacted.

• BREAKOUT: The Collective Power of Women: Overcoming Shame and Trauma in Substance Use Disorder Treatment, presented by MaryMichael Haley, MA, LAC, CCTP, CSAT
  
  This presentation will address the behavioral emotional complications that are inherent when treating women with substance use disorders. Women with substance use disorders face unique challenges such as trauma, mental health issues, loss of identity, purpose, changes in social status and related stigmas. We will discuss why specialized and gender specific care is a necessity in helping women face these obstacles by providing safety in setting and the ability to be vulnerable with their peers. This promotes overcoming shame by building self-worth and self esteem in an environment of honesty, social support, validation, and forgiveness.
   
• BREAKOUT: Rehabilitating Addiction Treatment: An Anti-Racist Recovery Approach, presented by Sarah Buino, LCSW, RDDP, CADC, CDWF, and Sarah Suzuki, LCSW, CADC
  
  Addiction counselors increasingly work with clients who present with diverse intersectional identities. Although research documents declining life expectancy across racial groups, clinical guidelines remain silent on how to recognize and interrupt institutional racism in addiction recovery. In this presentation, participants will be introduced to tools of analysis to understand, address, and interrupt white supremacy dynamics when treating substance use in outpatient and inpatient settings. Participants will be introduced to concepts of internalized racial superiority and internalized racial oppression, as well as a framework to illuminate how institutional pressure to maintain “white innocence” leads to poor health outcomes.
   
• BREAKOUT: Culturally Relevant Clinical Work in Addiction Treatment: Moving Beyond Cultural Competence, presented by Lorraine Howard, LCSW, LCADC, Natalie Moore-Bembry, EdD, MA, MSW, LSW, and Marla Blunt-Carter, MSW
  
  Disparities within the addiction field go far beyond inequality of services and resources; we have to consider the impact of disparities on our work with clients. Although, the mantra "addiction does not discriminate" is accurate; there IS discrimination within addictions. Health disparities among “minoritized” groups have been documented across all structural systems. With all the attention on eradicating addiction stigma, how much attention do we really pay to how those health disparities impact substance use disorder treatment?  This interactive workshop will explore the Developmental Model of Intercultural sensitivity (DMIS) and the impact of cultural humility on the therapeutic relationship and therapy outcomes.
   
• BREAKOUT: Latino-Informed Therapy Across the SUD and Addiction Continuum of Care Using the SANITY Model, presented by Frank Lemus, Sr, PhD, MFT
  
  Latinos suffering from SUD and addiction are in need of professionals skilled in creating Latino-informed therapeutic environments facilitating awareness, intervention, assessment, referral, treatment and recovery support. This session is organized around the SANITY model of clinical practice using a Latino-informed approach keyed to the values, morals and ethics that are particularly salient for Latinos. The SANITY model describes 6 domains within the therapeutic environment including: safety, acceptance, nurturance, importance, trust, and “YES” (affirming a net positive for a client’s overall recovery and life satisfaction.)  The session provides an opportunity for in-depth learning and discussion of each SANITY domain and how to integrate these in clinical settings with Latino clients.

These presentations include focused specialization on evidence based practices and treatment approaches that advance addiction and recovery.

• KEYNOTE: Relapse and Recycling Revisited, presented by Carlo C. DiClemente, PhD, ABPP
  
  Some individuals may be able to stop or modify an addictive behavior the first time they try.  However, most make multiple attempts. Relapse is often used to label someone who has tried and not succeeded. Blame, shame, and a sense of failure often accompany “relapse”.  This presentation will examine the reality of relapse in the process of behavior change, attempt to change the conversation from relapse to recycling on the road to recovery, and address the reality of reoccurrence more effectively.
   
• BREAKOUT: How Does the Neurobiology of Addiction Guide Choices for Medication Assisted Treatment?, presented by Peter Coleman, MD
  
  This presentation will be on the magnitude and causes of the current opioid crisis, the neurobiological basis of the disease of addiction and how opioids effect the brain and cause harmful changes, evidence on why opioids are so dangerous and difficult to recover from, treatment options focusing on Medication Assisted Treatments (Methadone, Suboxone and Naltrexone), and how to help therapists and substance use disorder clinicians decide on which MAT is best for individual patients.
   
• BREAKOUT: Clinical Application of Pharmacokinetics in Cannabis Use Disorder, presented by Eric Geisler, MD, ABAM, ABFP
  
  Understanding pharmacology concepts is critical for interpretation of toxicology reporting in the clinical setting for cannabis use disorders. Debunking many of the myths of THC testing, Dr. Geisler will review principles of pharmacology and their application in the clinical setting. Dr. Geisler is the  Medical Director at Serenity Lane Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center in Eugene Oregon. He has practiced medicine in Oregon for 25 years during the development of Medical Marijuana programs and the end of the prohibition on recreational marijuana.
   
• BREAKOUT: Appearance and Performance Enhancing Drugs: A Hidden Epidemic, presented by Tavis Piattoly, MS, RD, LDN
  
  Anabolic Steroid use is rapidly becoming a public health problem. Partnership for Drug Free Kids found 7% of high school students admitted using steroids and 11% admitted using human growth hormone. The dietary supplement industry is loosely regulated and not subject to the same pre-approval requirements/quality tests as FDA-approved medication. Supplement makers don’t have to prove the products they are marketing are safe. In a study looking at 634 nutritional supplements, 15 percent included some type of prohormone not listed on the label. Health care professionals should be aware of the dynamic, social process of abuse. Active monitoring and maintaining an open, honest, and evidence-based dialogue with all stakeholders, including athletes, coaches, and parents is vital.
   
• BREAKOUT: Clear the Mind and Cut the Craving: An Evidence-Based Approach to Alcohol Use Disorder, presented by John Umhau, MD, MPH, CPE
  
  Impaired thinking and alcohol craving often hinder the process of recovery from alcohol use disorder. The provision of good nutrition is a well-established feature of recovery, even though the scientific basis for the effect of diet on brain function is not always appreciated. The targeted use of naltrexone, popularly known as the Sinclair Method, is an important yet often ignored treatment modality to drastically reduce the craving for alcohol. This talk will provide a scientific basis for the critical role of nutrition in recovery and explain the unique benefits of naltrexone targeted for use only before drinking. Benefits and potential problems associated with naltrexone therapy will be discussed.

These presentations include new guidelines, treatment approaches, and counseling techniques helping counselors leverage technology to improve treatment.

• KEYNOTE: Telehealth Best Practices Outline: COVID Clinical Issues & Documentation, presented by Marlene M. Maheu, PhD
  
  Although addictions specialists are now working from home more often because of COVID-19, many do not know how to apply existing laws and ethical codes to the use of technology. This webinar will provide specific suggestions for maintaining your ethical requirements while using technology to continue your day-to-day practice, as well as help you understand key updates issued about HIPAA compliance by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office for Civil Rights. The presenter will also share best practices about hybrid or full-time telecounseling.
   
• BREAKOUT: The Role of Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Medication To Improve Treatments for Substance Use Disorders, presented by Kathleen Carroll, PhD
  
  Tackling the addiction battles faced by more than 20 million Americans can seem like a never-ending struggle. The challenges of high costs, limited access to treatment, and the limits of treatment itself are well documented. Addiction treatment needs more than reform, it needs an entirely new approach. This presentation covers a multi-pronged, evidence-based approach that extends traditional treatment methods, most notably cognitive behavioral therapy, with computerized versions, and combines them with mHealth solutions and Medication Assisted Therapy, shows great promise for what has become one of America’s greatest health crises.
   
• BREAKOUT: Dialectic Behavioral Therapy: Modifications for Co-occurring Disorders, presented by Fredrick Dombrowski, PhD, LMHC, LADC, ACS, MAC
  
  Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT) has become one of the most widely used forms of treatment. Many clinicians using DBT skills lack training about the appropriate step-by-step application of this form of treatment. The programmatic process by which DBT is applied is as valuable as the DBT skills themselves. This presentation will provide attendees an in depth view about the appropriate application of DBT. Participants will identify the programmatic components of DBT and will be provided information as to how to adjust treatment programs to apply these components. This presentation will also provide attendees recommendations to modify DBT application to meet the needs of those with co-occurring disorders across varying levels of treatment.
   
• BREAKOUT: Digital Technology to Measure, Monitor, and Optimize Mental Health and Support Addiction Recovery, presented by Evian Gordon, MD, PhD
  
  This presentation will show how neurotechnology can be used to assess mental health, screen for risk of mental conditions and train new brain habits to support addiction recovery.  Dr. Gordon will discuss how a brain-based approach can be used to remove the stigma usually associated with screening for mental health, providing new opportunities for early intervention and prevention.  Finally, he will show how assessment data can be used to recommend personalized care plans, including clinical interventions as well as digital brain and mind training regimens.  Those in attendance will learn how this innovative technology works, how they and their constituents can benefit from it, and even have an opportunity to trial it themselves.
   
• BREAKOUT: The Art of the Progress Note: Where Law & Ethics Meet Efficiency, presented by Elizabeth Irias, MS, LMFT
  
  This engaging presentation is geared at increasing clinicians’ understanding of the legal, ethical, and liability-related factors that come into play with clinical documentation, regardless of pay source (insurance, public funding like MediCare, or private pay, etc.) or work context (agency, private practice, school-based, etc.). There will also be discussion about strategies for counselors about how to conceptualize Medical Necessity and efficiently and simply integrate it into different clinical documentation components.

These presentations address a variety of trauma-related symptoms that impact substance use disorder treatment.

• KEYNOTE: Breaking Intergenerational Patterns of Addiction, Trauma, and Dark Secrets, presented by Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC
  
  Many people can trace patterns of addiction, trauma, dark secrets and drug related fatalities in their family for four or five generations. In this presentations you will learn prevention, intervention and treatment strategies to help break intergenerational patterns of addictions, trauma and dark secrets in families. We will discuss the role of providers, persons in recovery, families and entire communities in breaking these patterns. Other topics includes: the unique risk and protective factors for children of parents with substance use disorders; Fetal alcohol spectrum as a risk factor and intervention strategies; the impact of siblings on the intergenerational transmission of addiction and intervention strategies.
   
• BREAKOUT: Trauma-Integrated Addiction Treatment: What Is It? What Should It Look Like?, presented by Michael Barnes, PhD, MAC, LPC
  
  Almost everyone who works in addiction treatment will tell you that their program is trauma-informed or trauma-integrated, but there is little agreement about what that means or what it should look like. This presentation will offer a model and a set of axioms that can be used in the development of effective trauma-integrated treatment. The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) will be proposed as a central organizing theory to help clients to work simultaneously with achievement of addiction milestones and resolution of day-to-day symptoms of PTSD and Developmental Trauma. NARM is based on somatic psychotherapy, attachment theory, and autonomic nervous system regulation. Its core themes will be highlighted as fundamental skills needed for engagement in treatment and success in recovery.
   
• BREAKOUT: Understanding Veterans and Unique Factors Contributing to SUD, presented by Capt. Garret Biss, USMC (ret.), MRED
  
  A lack of connection, authenticity, or sense of meaning and purpose are factors that promote addictive behaviors or SUD for many. This is especially true for veterans who are often unprepared for the unique ways these challenges affect members of the military. Learn why these factors are exacerbated for veterans in transition and how to help veterans navigate this high-risk period of their life. This presentation will prepare participants for working with veterans by helping them to meet veterans where they are and provide the support and understanding veterans need for their journey in recovery. During the presentation, participants will be guided through an exercise to promote greater emotional resilience that they can use in their own life and work with veterans and veteran families.
  
  
• BREAKOUT: A Family Systems Approach to Treating Trauma and Addiction, presented by Trish Caldwell, MFT, LPC, CCDP-D, CAADC, CCTP
  
  We know that connection to self and others heals both trauma and substance use, yet often times we are still treating the individual in a vacuum rather than within the context of their connection to others. The importance of integrating families in the treatment of those with a substance use disorder continues to remain statistically one of the most significant factors in treatment outcomes and compliance metrics (SAMHSA). This session will discuss the rationale for integrating the family into the treatment process as well as explore the traumatic responses of the families. We will explore concrete interventions that can be used to empower the family, and practical considerations that would be relevant to prescribers, treatment providers and the clinicians treating substance use disorders.
  
  
• BREAKOUT: Let's Talk Politics: Trauma-Informed Care Amid Social Conflict, presented by Deborah Kinlaw, LCSW, MAC, SAP
  
  The social fall-out of political unrest has triggered distressing commentary on social media, in places of work, and households across the nation. Individuals in recovery, who are identified with marginalized groups, are saddled with rising above the political rhetoric while being isolated from a substantial portion of their community. Through a trauma-informed care lens, this session will address the social needs of people in recovery amid political turmoil and physical distancing in communities across the nation.
  
  
• TOWN HALL: Trauma in 2020: Addiction, COVID-19, & Social Injustice, moderated by Samson Teklemariam, MA, LPC, CPTM, with panelists Janice E. Stevenson, PhD, Malcolm Horn, PhD, LCSW, MAC, SAP, Miguel E. Gallardo, PsyD, and Lisa M. Najavits, PhD
  
  Across the country, individuals, families and communities are dealing with trauma and loss that is compounding a history of trauma. A variety of unique complex trauma emerged this year as a direct result of a global pandemic, shelter-in-place orders, local opioid-related overdose spikes due to fentanyl, racial tensions, heightened need for cultural diversity trainings, and more. Now, more than ever, addiction professionals need an opportunity to connect and share best practices. Join this virtual town hall event to learn from leading experts on how to address trauma-related issues under our current climate.

These presentations cover critical issues for the peer recovery support specialist.

• KEYNOTE: CoacherVision, presented by Phil Valentine, RCP
  
  Coachervision – the fusion of recovery coaching and supervision. In this plenary, Phil Valentine, RCP, describes the fundamentals of recovery coaching and how they influenced the Coachervision model developed by the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) for supervision within their highly successful Emergency Department Recovery Coach program.
   
• BREAKOUT: Meaning in Life, Self-forgiveness, and Locus of Control on Recovery, presented by Rev. Livinus Chidi Uba, PhD, LCADC, LICDC-CS, MAC
  
  This presentation will examine the extent to which meaning in life, forgiveness of self, and locus of control are associated with recovery. Moran (2009) defined meaning in life as one’s purpose in life. Engel (2017) held that forgiveness of self is an adaptive process of coping that consists of the shift over time from an attitude of negative feelings and thoughts toward the self, caused by wrongdoing, to a more positive one. And Nowicki (2016) wrote that locus of control reflects the degree to which individuals believe that they can influence their own lives. This presentation is a result of an original study by the presenter. Finding meaning in life is crucial on the solitary road to recovery.
  
  
• BREAKOUT: Navigating Self-Disclosure, presented by Kris Kelly, BS, and Beth Elstad, CPRS
  
  A key component of Peer-based Recovery Support Services is the disclosure of common experiences in both addiction and recovery. Finding a balance of what to disclose and when can serve to strengthen or weaken the professional relationship. In this workshop, participants will explore the art of skillfull self-disclosure and learn useful guidelines for supporting Peer Recovery Coaches in the process. 
  
  
• BREAKOUT: Ethical Considerations for Recovery Coaches, presented by Stacy Charpentier, RCA, CPRS
  
  Recovery coaches, by definition, are able to connect to those they serve in a very unique way. By sharing their personal stories and elements of their own recovery journey, they are able to assist those looking to access or sustain recovery in a deeply meaningful way. What comes with this level of connection is also the need for clear boundaries, both personally and professionally. This workshop will help to look at some of the ethical challenges recovery coaches might face and how to develop good boundaries that allow for the same level of connection without causing harm to the recoveree, coach, or agency.
   
• BREAKOUT: Demonstrating How to Help Clients Move From Economy Class to Flight Deck, presented by Robert E. Wubbolding, EdD, LPCC, BCC, RTC
  
  Practical and immediately usable ideas constitute the focus of this presentation. After a short summary of the WDEP system of Reality Therapy, the presenter will illustrate how to use it in a simulated counseling session.  Participants will derive specific skills and techniques related to the key component of reality therapy: helping clients evaluate their own actions, thoughts, and emotions in order to formulate simple, attainable, measurable and immediate plans for positive change. Self-evaluation is a skill that has often become dysfunctional for persons with substance use disorders. Through the use of accurate empathy and careful listening, the counselor is able to assist clients to see the value and desirability of making seemingly small but actually significant behavioral changes that are internally satisfying to them.