AUgust 21st Lunch & Learn (1CE)

**10:15am Session:   Strengthening Sisterhood: Empowering Girls to Resist Societal Pressures, Fight Unrealistic Standards, and Develop a Healthy Sense of Self

Dr. Julia Taylor is an Associate Professor of Counselor Education in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia and co-directs the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) with Dr. Michael Lyons. The VPSMH is a statewide collaborative effort with the Virginia Department of Education aimed to recruit and retain school mental health professionals and improve evidence-based practices. Dr. Taylor's research, service, and advocacy efforts focus on (1) improving K-12 mental health service delivery, (2) effective data-based decision making, and (3) equity issues concerning the preparation, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive school counseling programs.  

Presentation Description

 Girls are inundated with confusing messages that often interfere with their ability to learn, lead, and develop authentic relationships. This presentation will address these important issues, with a focus on helping girls develop leadership skills to help revive a generation that has become exhausted by social media saturation and unattainable, unrealistic standards. 

11:30am Session: Comapassion and Ethics: Intersectionality in Action

Devika Dibya Choudhuri is a Professor and the Program Coordinator of Counseling Programs at Eastern Michigan University. A Licensed Professional Counselor, Board-Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Approved Clinical Supervisor, and Certified EMDR Therapist, she has 20 years of clinical experience with refugees, immigrant and multicultural populations, as well as trauma survivors on violence, sexuality, grief and loss. She uses narrative, somatic, and EMDR approaches in working with trauma. Her scholarship focuses on multicultural and social justice issues in counseling, supervision and pedagogy, as well as cultural competency in trauma counseling, group work, and ethics. She has published textbooks on Multicultural counseling, LGBTQ+ issues, and articles on pedagogy and multicultural issues. She served on the National Board of Certified Counselors from 2009-2015, the Minority Fellowship Advisory Council from 2015-2018, as President of the Association for Specialists in Group Work in 2020 and is currently serving on the American Counseling Association Governing Council. She is a recipient of various awards and a 2015 American Counseling Association Fellow. 

She serves as an Editorial Board member for the Journal for Specialists in Group Work, the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, a Reviewer for Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development as well as the Journal for Counseling & Development. Currently, her research includes a phenomenological study of group process observers; and validation of an instrument to measure historic trauma across diverse clients, explore multigenerational effects of trauma due to racism and colonization and develop community-based interventions. Most recently, together with Dr. Christopher McCarthy, she published an edited book entitled Fundamentals of Group Process Observation 

Presentation Description

 With a case study to focus on, participants will examine the ethical and legal dictates that pertain, followed by an intersectional discussion that reveals the inability of rigid ethical directives to allow compassion and equity. We will discuss how to develop an ethical compass leavened with compassion.  

1:00pm Session: Suicide in a Small Town: Developing Competence to Work with At Risk Rural Clients

 Dr. Tracie Self is counselor educator at Minnesota State University's Department of Counseling and Personnel.  Dr. Self  has extensive experience in research and practice within a rural community.  As a clinician in a community of less than 5,000 for almost two decades, she has developed a passion for working with rural clients and their unique needs, which has informed their research agenda as a counselor educator over the past five years. Additionally, Dr. Self has been both a site and university supervisor for over a decade and has worked extensively with counselors-in-training and new professionals in developing rural-competence when establishing new practices in rural communities. Over the past five years, Dr. Self has spearheaded several advocacy projects to increase suicide awareness in rural communities. 

Presentation Description

 Researchers have continued to indicate individuals who are living in rural areas are at higher risk of developing mental health symptoms, especially suicide (National Advisory committee on Rural Health and Human Services, 2017). Individuals in rural communities may experience greater levels of isolation, leading to loneliness and self-stigmatization (Heitkamp, Nielsen & Schroeder, 2019). Further, rural individuals may face additional concerns regarding access to care.  These include limited services, such as long wait times for an appointment or limited hours of availability given a scarcity of rural mental health care providers, as well as a lack of insurance or other means for covering the costs of mental health care. Individuals from rural areas are almost twice as likely as their suburban and urban counterparts to die from suicide.  Additionally, individuals who die by suicide in rural areas rarely have a mental health dignosis, indicating they have not previously been sought mental health help. They also indicate a reluctance to reach out for assistance with tools such as 988 and other crisis services. When treating clients in rural communities, it is imperative to understand the nature of rural culture and apply interventions approrpiately and within the boundaries of cultural competence.  Further, it may be imperative to work with the community to develop appropriate suicide interventions at a systemic level in order to curb the rates of suicide. 

2:15pm Session: Intro to Sex Therapy

 Hannah (she/her) began her career working with underserved vulnerable clients in the heart of Seattle. Advocating for harm reduction approaches to addressing addiction, mental health and homelessness through housing first programming. After returning home to big sky country, she worked as a sex educator from the local Title V clinic. In 2016, she began pursuing her clinical work at a Community Health Clinic with an integrative behavioral health model. For the last few years focusing on her private practice, Prickly Peach Sex Therapy in Bozeman, MT.  Hannah holds a PhD in Clinical Sexology with a Kink Conscious focus and is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Supervisor and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and trained as a gender and trans affirming therapist with WPATH. The Foundress of Oh Hi Collective, she is motivated to offer continuing education for organizations, community and individuals around sexual health. In her down time, you will find her enjoying cake, spending time with her other half, and laughing at her adorable rescue bulldog, Dax.  

Presentation Description

 Sex Therapy is often discussed as a specialty within the realm of pop culture. This introduction to sex therapy covers the way that certification builds on the knowledge of counselors may already have to take a deeper dive into working with clients on issues of shame around sex and intimacy.  

3:30pm Roundtable: Professional Counselor Identity: The Role of Professional Counseling Associations

Cindy (she/her) is the current president of the  UM chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, the international honory society for counselors.  She holds professional counseling licensure in 4 states and has maintained an active private practice for over a decade.  Cindy believes professional counselor identity is hard fought for and must be maintained.  Engagement in professional counseling associations is vital to protecting that identity. Associations can serve as a touch stone for professional counselors in areas of professional development, legislature about counselor and client rights, etc...  Cindy is an active member of several professional counseling associations and is a former president of the Iowa Mental Health Counselors Association.  Since moving to MT to complete her PhD at UM she has become an active member of PCA of MT and hopes to see it grow to serve all Montana counselors and by extension, their clients.

Presentation Description

This roundtable presentation brings together leaders from a different counseling associations to explore the role professional counseling associations play in developing, fostering relationships and informing the public about our professional counselor identity.

3:30pm Roundtable: Professional Counselor Identity: The Role of Professional Counseling Associations

Tom is the current president of the Professional Counselors Association of Montana (PCA Montana).  He is a former president and lifetime member of the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA).  Tom has been a counselor in MT for over 40 years and has demonstrated a dedication to the field in both his work with clients and his mentorship of young counselors. He is passionate about providing resources and support to Montana's counselors and hopes to firmly establish this state association before he retires from his leadership position.

3:30pm Roundtable: Professional Counseor Identity: The Role of Professional Counseling Associations

 Dr. Emily Sallee is an Assistant Professor of Counseling at the University of Montana as well as the Executive Director of the Montana Safe Schools Center housed at UM.  She engages in professional advocacy by serving on the MSCA Board of Directors as Board Chair and in various other roles throughout the state.  Dr Sallee is currently the president elect of the Rocky Mountain Association for Counselors Educators and Supervisors (RMACES). Her research interests include adolescent suicidality and non-suicidal self-injury, school violence and prevention, and advocacy for the role of professional school counselors. Emily is also the part-time school counselor at a K-8 frontier school and has a small clinical practice working with youth.