Full tuition fellowships are available to Academy Diplomates/Members who wish to attend the 2009 International Winter Symposium in Colorado Springs. Significant savings are available to Academy Diplomates/Members who wish to attend any other educational programs on this list. Please be advised that all conferences, programs, presenters and related information are subject to change without notice and should be verified. For additional information regarding the programs, as well as registration procedures and available hotel accommodations, please e-mail The Academy at IABMCP@att.net. If you wish to be kept immediately informed of all future programs, please e-mail us your request along with your complete postal address (including zip code) as many of these materials are better sent via surface mail.

 

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37th Advanced International Winter Symposium – Addictive Disorders, Behavioral Health & Mental Health

Details to be finalized.

 

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Update on Psychopharmacotherapy and Therapeutic Neuromodulation
Philip Janicak

July 12 - 16, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

This symposium will review recent clinical trial results and use this information to develop optimal treatment strategies for the major psychiatric disorders.

The objectives of the symposium are for participants to 1) recognize the significant number of patients who are insufficiently responsive to initial therapeutic interventions, and 2) utilize available biological treatments optimally, including the first and second generation antipsychotics, antidepressants, mood stabilizing agents, anxiolytic/sedative hypnotics and device-based therapies. Upon completion of this symposium, participants will be able to develop treatment strategies based on the results of randomized-controlled, pragmatic and naturalistic trials tempered by the realities of clinical practice and to describe clinically relevant issues related to drug therapy, including pharmacokinetics,pharmacodynamics, and drug interactions.

Resilience Across the Lifespan: Strength-Based Strategies To Nurture Balance, Self-Discipline, and Hope in Ourselves and Others
Robert Brooks

July 12 - 16, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

As professionals, we must manage our own feelings of stress and burnout as we attempt to bring meaning to our lives and the lives of others. In this symposium, Dr. Brooks will describe interventions rooted in a strength-based framework for nurturing a “resilient mindset”, including the attributes of self-dignity, responsibility, compassion, and hope for both patients and professionals.

Symposium participants will learn: techniques for enhancing empathy and our own “stress hardiness”; the components of motivation, emotional intelligence, and a “resilient mindset”; the importance of identifying and reinforcing “islands of competence”; how to change “negative scripts” and “negative mindsets” and how to promote change in oneself and others. Dr. Brooks will elaborate on many strategies with case examples for enhancing hope, motivation, self-discipline, and resilience.

Substance Abuse and Dual Diagnosis: New Treatment Approaches
Roger Weiss

July 19 - 23, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

Alcohol and drug abuse are among the most common clinical disorders that present clinicians with significant challenges. Moreover, many patients with psychiatric illness have coexisting substance abuse problems, making the treatment of these dually diagnosed patients particularly difficult. The objective of this symposium is for participants to apply new therapeutic approaches based on recent research findings to patients with substance abuse and dual diagnosis problems. Clinical techniques to help engage ambivalent or unmotivated patients early in treatment will be emphasized.

Mindfulness, Radical Acceptance, and Willingness: Teaching DBT Acceptance Skills in Clinical Practice
Marsha Linehan

July 19 - 23, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

This symposium will focus on how to teach mindfulness and reality acceptance skills. It will consist of practicing various mindfulness exercises drawn from DBT, an empirically supported treatment for individuals with borderline personality disorder. The symposium will include lecture, discussion, and a heavy emphasis on experiential practice. Participants will learn the newly revised and updated DBT mindfulness skills and strategies for how to integrate them into clinical practice. The course is open to both DBT and non-DBT therapists, focusing on integrating these skills within any treatment orientation.

Mindfulness Meditation: Exploring the Self
Ronald Alexander

July 26 - 30, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

For 2,500 years, Buddhist meditation practices have developed what is referred to as “skillful methods” for study and transformation of the mind/body process. In this symposium, participants will learn how to utilize the practices and principles of Buddhist psychology to resolve afflictive factors of mind, mood, and happiness. Mindfulness meditation training, known for promoting clarity of mind, spaciousness of self, and compassion, will be explored.

Using methods from the Buddhist and Non Dual schools of mindfulness practices, as well as contemporary theories of self, relational, cognitive behavioral and health psychologies, participants will directly experience, practice, and learn clinical skills for promoting insight, wisdom, and knowledge. This seminar will be highly experiential and theoretical, as participants will practice clinical skills utilizing meditation methods introduced during the symposium.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Treating the Multi-Problem Adolescent
Michael Hollander

July 26 - 30, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

Clinicians who work with multi-problem adolescents are frequently challenged by the complex clinical presentations of adolescents who are often difficult to engage and keep in treatment. This symposium is designed for professionals who have a working knowledge of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and who work with adolescents and families in a wide range of treatment contexts. Participants will learn how to apply the theory, principles, functions and modes of comprehensive DBT to working with high-action adolescents and their families.

Clinical Care for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Comprehensive Developmental Approach to Assessment, Diagnosis, and Intervention
Celine Saulnier

August 2 - 6, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) impact multiple areas of functioning and consequently demand a multidisciplinary approach to conceptualization, diagnosis, and intervention. Not only is there extreme variability within the autism spectrum, but across development as well. With both the diagnosis and awareness of ASD on the rise, there is a need for mental health practitioners to learn about the nature and course of ASD.

This symposium will help practitioners define ASD from infancy through young adulthood; identify, assess, and diagnose symptoms that change throughout development; and identify intervention strategies that are effective in addressing autism symptomatology within academic, therapeutic, or community contexts. This symposium will also present state-of-the-art research paradigms on ASD and provide opportunities for case presentation and discussion.

Child and Adolescent Disorders: Diagnostic Issues, Causal Factors, and State-of-the-Art Interventions
Stephen Hinshaw

August 2 - 6, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

This symposium will address key issues related to developmental psychopathology including temperament, attachment, heritability, continuity, comorbidity, and parenting styles. Major classes of child and adolescent disorders: externalizing/disruptive disorders, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety and mood disorders, and pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) will be examined intensely. Specific emphasis will be placed on symptoms, impairment, gender and ethnic differences, risk and causal factors, long-term course, and evidence-based treatment strategies. The objectives of this symposium are for participants to be able to describe the principles of developmental psychopathology, the core features of the major child and adolescent disorders, and strategies for effective intervention.

An Integrated Approach to Complex Trauma for Older Adolescents and Adults
John Briere

August 2 - 6, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

Recent research indicates that trauma-related disturbance can be quite complex. When traumaexposure involves early, repetitive, interpersonal maltreatment, especially in the context of ongoingpsychological neglect or parental disattunement, the outcome may involve not only classicposttraumatic stress, but also dysfunctional attachment styles, altered relational schema, affectdysregulation, and overdeveloped avoidance responses.

Drawing on the latest research and theory, Dr. Briere will present a nonpathologizing,developmentally-informed therapy for these complex posttraumatic presentations. His approachincorporates relational, cognitive-behavioral, and mindfulness principles to support the processing of implicit and explicit traumatic memories through careful therapeutic exposure, and the development of increased affect regulation capacities so that avoidance behaviors such as substance abuse or tension reduction activities are less necessary for psychological equilibrium. Participants also will learn to describe the reworking of cognitive responses and activated relational schema within the therapeutic relationship, and a reconsideration of culturally transmitted assumptions regarding emotional pain, suffering, and the need to avoid “negative” internal states.

New Developments in the Treatment of Victimized Individuals: Treating PTSD and Complex PTSD
Donald Meichenbaum

August 9 - 13, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

Research indicates that 50% of psychiatric patients have a history of victimization which is often overlooked in both assessment and treatment. In this workshop, Dr. Meichenbaum will highlight recent developments in the treatment of patients with PTSD, Complex PTSD and comorbid disorders. He will consider the assessment and treatment implications of neuroscience research from a life-span perspective and highlight ways to provide integrated treatments in a culturally-sensitive fashion. Participants will learn how to conduct evidence-based trauma-focused CBT and spiritually-oriented interventions with children, adolescents and adults and specific ways to treat returning soldiers and their family members.

Psychological Treatment of Anxiety Disorders
Jonathan Abramowitz

August 9 - 13, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

Anxiety disorders are prevalent, chronic, and disabling, and make up a large proportion of atherapist's caseload. This symposium is designed for participants to learn a comprehensive conceptual overview of the anxiety disorders and how to utilize the psychological treatments most associated with strong treatment outcomes for anxiety disorders including panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. A model of each disorder will be provided, and will be dicussed.

Anxiety disorders often have an interpersonal component in which significant others are drawn into participating in excessive avoidance strategies, compulsive rituals, and providing reassurance. This symposium will address how to engage significant others in therapy as necessary. Becausepharmacology can add or detract from the efficacy of psychological treatment for anxiety, how to workeffectively with medicated patients will be discussed.

Clinical Psychopharmacology: Principles and Practice
S. Nassir Ghaemi

August 16 - 20, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

This symposium will provide partcipants with an unique opportunity to learn the principles and pratice of contemporary psychopharmacology. Partcipants will learn to 1) apply key statistical concepts to be able to understand psychopharmacology research; 2) comprehend the importance of nosology for psychopharmacology and take a critical approach to the basis of psychiatric diagnosis in DSM-IV; 3) utilize the pharmacology of the major psychotropic drug classes; 4) describe the research evidence base for the clinical use of psychotropic drugs in the major mental illnesses; and 5) appreciate conceptual assumptions in the practice of psychopharmacology, including values and beliefs, and recognize and critique one’s own assumptions.

Substance Abuse and Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders: An Integrative Treatment Approach
Donald Meichenbaum

August 16 - 20, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

Substance Abuse Disorders (SUDs) are prevalent among individuals with psychiatric disorders, ranging from 20% to 70%, but SUDs are often under-identified and under-treated in psychiatric patients, and similarly, psychiatric disorders are not adequately addressed in substance abuse treatment centers. In this advanced workshop, specific therapy skills will be discussed, modeled and practiced for the integrative treatment of patients with internalizing problems and externalizing problems. A self-assessment Therapist's Checklist will be used to self-evaluate attendees' knowledge and level of expertise. Partcipants will learn how to use an integrative phase-oriented treatment approach with such varied dually diagnosed clinical populations as returning veterans, patients who are in residential treatment settings, and with unmotivated, mandated, treatment-resistant challenging clients.

Psychotherapy As Care of the Soul
Thomas Moore

August 16 - 20, 2010

Cape Cod, MA

Treating The iGeneration: Advanced Training for Helping Adolescents, Young Adults and Families

September 15 to 17, 2010

Scottsdale, Arizona

This conference will focus upon treating adolescents, young adults and families manifesting a wide variety of difficulties. A few of the programs/workshops that will be presented are as follows:

Treatment of Depression and Suicidality in Adolescents
Donald Meichenbaum, Ph.D.

Depression is the most prevalent mental health disorder among adolescents, affecting some 20% of youth by the age of 18. Left untreated, depression has found to be associated with serious outcomes such as suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, school failures, early parenthood and adult depression. This workshop will provide a comprehensive and practical consideration of ways to assess and treat depression, suicidality and the presence of co-morbid disorders. A Case Conceptualization Model that informs assessment and treatment decision making will be provided and a critical review of the “state of the art” in providing treatment on primary prevention and treatment basis will be offered. How to integrate treatments like pharmacotherapy, parent involvement will also be considered. Topics such as “bullycide”, how to tailor interventions to adolescents, and treatment non-adherence will be considered.

Strengths Based Therapy: Six Principles of Effective Therapy with Adolescents and Families
Robert Bertolino, Ph.D.

Emerging out of 40 years of empirical date, a Strengths-Based approach provides practitioners with essential principles and practices for improving effectiveness and increasing therapy outcomes. Participants in this workshop will learn about six key principles of a Strengths-Based approach and their application to a wide range of contexts and settings including outpatient, residential, child protection, community-based, and private sectors with adolescents and families experiencing a continuum of concerns such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, trauma, and delinquency. The material presented in this workshop is highly practical and will include film and video examples, PowerPoint slides, and handouts used to enhance the learning experience of each participant.

Get Out of My Life: But First Can You Take Me To The Mall? Working with Highly Resistant Adolescents
Robert Ackerman, Ph.D.

Families under stress produce adolescents who are under stress. This is especially true for families that experience alcohol and drug abuse problems, child abuse, sexual abuse, spouse abuse, divorce, and other dysfunctional behaviors. Many of the young people from these families become at risk for a variety of emotional and behavioral problems. This workshop will address the emotional and behavioral impact on youth who become “high risk” for a variety of problems. A cognitive behavioral model for helping adolescents will be presented. Additionally, techniques for working with “resistant” adolescents will be included along with suggestions for counselors, educators and parents.

Making it Clear for Teens: Basic Sculpting with People
Peter Alsop, Ph.D.

One out of every four kids is currently growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise drug dependent family. If we add all of the other addictions, work-aholism, gambling, sexual acting out, that adds up to a lot of adolescents in pain. Less than one out of ten are getting any education or help about how to cope with the problems they face living in these families. Experiential sculpting techniques are powerful. They access feelings instantly, and encourage creative thinking. They are often fun and always involving. Dr. Alsop will describe the differences between educational and therapeutic sculpts; model different sculpts, and show how any social situation can be sculpted.

Advanced EMDR Clinical Training

October 7, 2010

Scottsdale, Arizona

Mindfulness as a Therapeutic Tool for Psychotherapy: Advanced Clinical Training for Therapists and Counselors

October 21 – 24

Scottsdale, Arizona

Tranceformations: Integrating Mind and Body with Hypnosis
David Spiegel, M.D.

Hypnosis has been both oversold and underappreciated as a means of enhancing psychological control over somatic processes. Hypnosis differs from ordinary consciousness in that it is a state of highly focused attention with a reduction in peripheral awareness, usually associated with physical relaxation. We usually respond to images and manipulate words, while in hypnosis we often respond to words and manipulate images. This image processing ability allows us to modulate perception, as studies using event-related potentials, MRI and PET illustrate. The hypnotic ability to modulate perception has clear clinical application in pain control, and can influence other kinds of somatic performance as well, ranging from helping patient through invasive medical procedures to control of irritable bowel symptoms. Hypnosis can also facilitate cognitive restructuring of problems ranging from habit problems such as smoking to mastering traumatic stressors.

Lust, Anger, Love: Treating the Sexually Addicted Client
Maureen Canning, MA, LMFT

The dynamics specific to sexual addiction set it apart from other addictive processes. This workshop will educate interventionist in understanding these dynamics and the complexities specific to sexual compulsive behaviors. By discussing the ideology of sexual disorders, exploring the cycle specific to sexual addiction and understanding the criteria for sexual addiction treatment the interventionist will receive valuable knowledge to enhance their intervention skills.

“Echoes” of a Reflected Self: The Psycho-dynamics of Narcissism
Rokelle Lerner

Many addicts suffer from false pride, entitlement and grandiosity that unfortunately don’t disappear with sobriety. This narcissism interferes with personal and professional relationships that are so filled with conflict and pain that relapse often occurs. This lecture will examine the relational consequences of narcissism and offer tools to clinicians who recognize the destructive dynamic in treatment and recovery.

Life with Pop: Lessons on Caring for an Aging Parent
Janis Abrahms Spring, Ph.D, ABPP

Nineteen million Americans care for an aging parent or partner, with 44 million baby boomers in the wings. As we help our patients confront their caregiving challenges, we are forced to confront our own challenges in surviving old age.

With a Little Help from my Friends: Effects of Stress on Cancer Patients
David Spiegel, MD

As modern medicine converts many previously terminal illnesses into chronic ones, there is more need than ever for techniques that provide comfort, social support, and stress management skills to those with cancer, heart disease and other serious medical illnesses. Illness increases social isolation, and this underscores the fact that diseases disrupts not just body physiology but social networks. The increased need for social support is evidenced by the growing public appetite for complementary treatments, now utilized by 42% of American who pay more out of pocket for such approaches than they do for conventional medical care. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that psychotherapeutic techniques such as group therapy reduce distress, pain and social isolation, and may affect survival time. Therapeutic domains include building new networks of social support, encouraging the expression of emotion related to the stress of illness, detoxifying fears of dying and death, restructuring life priorities, improving relationships with family and friends, and clarifying communication with physicians. New mind-body pathways linking stress and social support to diurnal patterns of stress hormones such as cortisol and immune function and to cancer progression will be reviewed. The modulation of perception, emotion, cognition and social support are critical elements in managing the stress of medical illness: feeling may lead to healing.

How Can I Forgive You? A Radical Approach to Healing Interpersonal Wounds
Janis Abrahms Spring, Ph.D, ABPP

We hear that forgiving is good for us ― but is this true? How can we rise above the trauma of an affair or other betrayals? This workshop will offer concrete steps for healing ourselves and relationship wounds.

Continuing Education Credit

Continuing education credit from various professional associations/boards is available to individuals attending the programs in Scottsdale and Tucson. Among the professional associations/boards from whom continuing education is available are the American Psychological Association, the Association of Social Work Boards, the National Board of Certified Counselors, the Association for Addiction Professionals, the California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors and the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

Health Forum On-Line

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The Academy is pleased to announce that it is co-sponsoring (with The Behavioral Medicine Research and Training Foundation) a number of intensive courses dealing with behavioral medicine, pain management, and a number of related topics.

Most courses are on CD and include topics such as “EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback”, “Neuropsychophysiology (Advanced EEG)”, “Pain Assessment and Intervention for Behavioral Clinicians”, “Hypnosis”, and “Basic Psychophysiological Instrumentation”. These courses are very comprehensive, generally 45 to 50 hours in length, and feature e-mail and/or phone communication with the instructor. Significant savings are available to IABMCP Diplomates/Members.