2024 workshop reference guide
Counseling & Coaching Workshops
No commercial support is given for any instructor, program, or workshop. All sponsors of the conference sponsor the conference as a whole.
101. Empowering Youth: Navigating Mental Health Challenges Post-COVID-19
Summary: This workshop aims to address the pressing mental health challenges faced by youth in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, using insights from the Centers for Disease Control Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) 2022. The data reveals...
103. Reaching Teens Beneath the Surface
Summary: In the realm of adolescent counseling for ministry leaders, the conventional approach has often been to connect with and support the external personas that young people present. However, a growing divide exists between adolescents’ external world and their...
104. Riding the Waves of Emotion: Practical Skills for Emotion Regulation in Teens
Summary: Emotion dysregulation is a hallmark of adolescence. In addition, many psychological disorders experienced by teens identify emotion dysregulation as a symptom. This workshop for psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, medical professionals, and...
105. Bringing the Team Together: Effective Ethics and Collaboration when Working with Youth
Summary: A sports team does not succeed when they are all doing their own thing; the same is true with a mental health treatment team. When a child or teen has a mental health issue, they need a team of people around them working together to ensure that they are...
106. Porn and Mental Health: Understanding the Dangerous Effects of Porn on Young, Developing Minds
ummary: Sexual integrity among faith-based youth is under assault in today’s culture. According to recent research, children, teenagers, and young adults are having their minds, souls, brains, and bodies impacted like never before by the issue of pornography and...
107. Building Resilient Children: Raising Them to Embrace Life with Confidence
Summary: Children raised by helicopter or bulldozer parents tend to be fragile. These children display resistance to trying new things and panic and are angry when they make mistakes. They can also display a victim mentality and irresponsibility, lacking initiative...
201. Short and Long-term Impacts of Sexual Violence: Critical Factors in Response and Care
Summary: Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults occur in those aged 17 and under. Licensed mental health professionals, medical personnel, and ministry leaders are only beginning to understand the significant mental health impact of experiencing sexual violence,...
202. Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction: Renewed Hope through Engagement, Adherence, and Recovery
Summary: In this workshop, psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, medical personnel, and ministry leaders will examine the ever-changing patterns of substance use and addiction, with a focus on the unique challenges faced by adolescents and young adults....
204. Healing Depression for Life: The Personalized Approach for Youth that Offers New Hope for Lasting Relief
Summary: Youth depression has reached crisis proportions. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an estimated five million adolescents (aged 12-17) had at least one major depressive episode in 2021 (20.1%). Studies are clear that youth depression...
206. How Far is Too Far: Helping Teens Set Healthy Boundaries and Self-control in Relationships
Summary: The relationship skills that teens develop are vital to their long-term happiness and success. In this workshop, licensed mental health professionals and ministry leaders will examine research that has shown that the ability to identify boundaries and...
207. Overcoming Shame: The Effects of Parental and Peer Connection on Self-esteem and Hope
Summary: This workshop explores the complex interplay between shame, parental influence, peer connections, and their profound impact on one’s self-worth and hopeful outlook in youth and adolescence. By integrating a Christian Psychology perspective, encompassing...
208. The Power of Psychological Safety: Creating a Trauma-informed Ministry
Summary: Trauma is the most widespread form of suffering in the world today. For Christian clients, God designed them to be in relationships, yet trauma can cause deep emotional pain and undermine one’s ability to cultivate psychologically safe and satisfying...
302. Motivation, Decision Making, and Transformation: Helping Parents of Adolescents with Behavior Disorders and Substance Abuse Issues
Summary: Today’s children grow up in a society where truth, facts, and absolutes are replaced with lies, feelings, and vibes. Voltaire said, “When people believe in absurdities, they will commit atrocities,” and the most gullible, inexperienced, and uninformed minds...
303. The Love/Hate Relationship Between Teens and their Bodies: Eating Disorder, Body Dysmorphia, and Self-injury
Summary: The love/hate relationship that adolescents often have with their bodies is a critical and challenging aspect of their psychological well-being. This workshop delves into the intricate dynamics surrounding this phenomenon, including its links to eating...
304. Trauma and Disorders of Attachment in Children: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment
Summary: Increasingly, psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, and some medical professionals are called on to assess, diagnose, and treat children and families with attachment-related difficulties. While most mental health professionals are familiar with...
305. Raising a Generation of Courageous Girls: Identifying and Addressing the Root Concerns Facing Girls Today
Summary: Young girls are bombarded by so many media outlets, influencers, and advertisements that tell them to think, feel, and be a certain way, which is often contrary to their desire to live according to their faith. In this workshop, licensed mental health...
306. Technological Infringement: Are Social Media and AI Impacting Development in Children and Teens?
Summary Social media has become embedded in Christian clients’ human and spiritual developmental tasks. This workshop will explore the impacts of social media use on human and spiritual development growth tasks to shine a light on social media use and the current and...
307. Under Pressure: Competitive Sports, Mental Health, and Resilience
Summary: It is no secret that the sporting arena is an essential aspect of society and culture that individuals use as a source of entertainment, pleasure, and an outlet from personal hardship. Undoubtedly, this “consumer” or “spectator” role that society has formed...
401. Why Them?: A Child’s Journey through Loss, Death, and Traumatic Grief
Summary: The loss of a child is one of the most traumatic experiences a family can face. Each family member grieves uniquely, which can result in marital strain and family disunity that can also have a profound impact on surviving children. H. Norman Wright has...
402. Surviving the Dark Caves of Young Adulthood and Adolescence: Preventing and Overcoming Addictions, Depression, Anxiety, Suicidality, and Apathy
Summary: Addictions, depression, anxiety, apathy, and suicide are on a fast rise with Millennials and Generation Z. Addiction and many mental illnesses are not entities within themselves but instead adaptive survival responses to overwhelming and unbearable...
403. Bridging the Gap: How to Effectively Communicate with the Newest Generation(s)
Summary: Talking to teenagers is hard, but talking to them about mental health issues is even harder. In this workshop, psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, medical personnel, and ministry leaders will be able to identify key components in addressing...
404. Culturally Competent Suicide Prevention: How Targeted Training and Intervention Make Greater Impact
Summary: Suicide rates are increasing in youth, but risk and interventions vary widely based on ethnicity and other cultural factors. Some groups, like Native American youth, have had consistently higher suicide rates than other populations, and the suicide rate for...
406. Going Beyond the Talk: Equipping Your Children to Make Choices from a Biblical Sexual Ethic
Summary: A problem facing our world today is the bombardment of beliefs about love, sex, gender, and identity that truly needs Christians to vocally and persistently speak the Truth in Love. Unfortunately, this may prove to be difficult, especially for youth to hear...
407. Angry Outbursts and Defiance: Best Practices for Bringing Peace to the Family
Summary: Angry behaviors in children can be destructive to a family, especially if the anger is escalating to violence. Understanding the causes and characteristics of childhood anger is essential to defuse volatile situations effectively. Psychologists, licensed...