2019

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McCullough, Amanda, BS

Mrs. Amanda McCullough is currently a graduate student at the University of Central Missouri. In May 2019 she will complete her Master’s Degree in Human Development and Family Science, with specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy. Mrs. McCullough is US military veteran and is passionate about helping military members and veterans in her career as a Marriage and Family Therapist. Mrs. McCullough is a certified Missouri Recovery Support Specialist with the Missouri Credentialing Board. She works as an MRSS at a community-based agency and also serves on the leadership team of Recovery Central, a collegiate recovery group at the University of Central Missouri. She also works as a research assistant for Missouri BCOR (Building Communities of Recovery), a SAMHSA grant-funded project through Recovery Lighthouse that focuses on the growth and sustainability of recovery support services and the strengthening of the Missouri Coalition for Recovery Support Providers.

Presentation(s): 

Grief Process & Support Systems for Young Military Widows

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Grief Process & Support Systems for Young Military Widows

Speaker(s):

Amanda McCullough, BS

Adriatik Likcani, PhD

Blake Dorsey

Presentation: For the last 17 years, the US military has been engaged in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been many casualties because of these combat operations. These casualties of war left behind families that grieve their loss. This has created many young widows, a role which is traditionally thought to be at a much later stage in life. The loss of a spouse can be one of the most difficult losses to experience with far-reaching consequences. Presenters will describe the findings of their study with young widows which explored how these young widows experienced the sudden traumatic loss of their spouse, explore the support systems used by these widows to cope with their loss and navigate the transition in their identity. Researchers will present findings and discuss interventions that counselors and therapists can utilize when working with this population.

 

Objectives:

  1. Describe how these young widows experienced the sudden traumatic loss of their spouse
  2. Describe the support systems used by these widows to cope with their loss and navigate the transition in their identity
  3. Identify interventions that can be utilized when working with young military widows

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Triumph: Overcoming the Odds

Speaker(s):

Russell Lehmann

Presentation: Insights from a 28-year-old man with autism, OCD, depression, anxiety and Bi-Polar 2 on his traumatic experiences as an inpatient in 3 separate hospitals. Attendees will engage in substantive dialogue with the presenter on how best to serve the mental health and autism population.

Objectives:

  1. Discuss best practices in interacting with patients and accommodating their individual needs
  2. Describe how baby steps are instrumental in pursuing a lasting recovery
  3. Introduce a raw and utterly transparent look into the world of autism and mental health
Lehmann_SuperSession_PPDownload
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Lehmann, Russell

Russell Lehmann is an award-winning and internationally recognized motivational speaker, poet, author, and advocate. His words have reached over 20 million people worldwide, from the United States to Argentina, Norway to Australia. Russell began to experience developmental and behavioral symptoms and struggles around the age of three. Despite numerous visits, his parent’s desperate for answers of any kind, not a single doctor or specialist could figure out what was happening. In the spring of 2003, at the tender age of 12, Russell was admitted to the psychiatric ward at his local city hospital. He stayed there for five weeks, which were some of the most trying of his life. Still, he left the children’s hospital without a diagnosis – or hope – to return home with.

In the fall of 2003, Russell was diagnosed with autism at the University of Washington’s Autism Center. He and his family were relieved to have what they believed would serve as a roadmap toward proper treatment – although they knew the tough times were far from over. In 2011 Russell found an outlet in his natural creative and poetic tendencies. He channeled the depth of his experiences thus far to write his acclaimed book “Inside Out: Stories and Poems from an Autistic Mind”. His book was featured in the LA Times, earned an Honorable Mention at the 2012 NY Book Festival, and won the award for Literary Excellency at the 2013 International Autistic People’s Awards in Vancouver, Canada. Russell took even greater comfort in learning and worked his way through high school course after course, earning a 4.0 GPA. He spent an extraordinary season breaking through comfort zones to shine in the athletic arena. He played football with the help of an encouraging coach and teammates and was honored as a member of the 2009 All-State Academic Team.

Russell then spent two years taking part-time classes at his local community college (TMCC) in Reno, Nevada. He received straight A’s and was invited to be a member of the Phi Delta Kappa Honor Society. It was through this journey that Russell discovered his true calling in life: helping those who shared his struggles and advocating on their behalf. This is when he turned his focus solely to being a voice for the unheard, for he knows how difficult it is to go unnoticed.

Russell’s name and story are known worldwide. Every presentation he gives uplifts, inspires, and increases autism and mental health awareness and understanding. He speaks honestly and authentically; his experiences resonate with every audience he speaks to. He has yet to give a speech that has not received a standing ovation. In 2018, Russell presented in 20 cities all across the country. He ended the year with a true testament to his hard work: he was named Reno-Tahoe’s “Most Outstanding Professional Under 40”.

Presentation(s): 

Insight from Inside: My Perspective After Being Inpatient Multiple Times

Triumph: Overcoming the Odds

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Insight from Inside: My Perspective After Being Inpatient Multiple Times

Speaker(s):

Russell Lehmann

Presentation: Insights from a 28-year-old man with autism, OCD, depression, anxiety and Bi-Polar 2 on his traumatic experiences as an inpatient in 3 separate hospitals. Attendees will engage in substantive dialogue with the presenter on how best to serve the mental health and autism population.

Objectives:

  1. Discuss best practices in interacting with patients and accommodating their individual needs
  2. Describe how baby steps are instrumental in pursuing a lasting recovery
  3. Introduce a raw and utterly transparent look into the world of autism and mental health
Lehmann_SuperSession_PPDownload
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Smith, James, MEd, LPC, NCC

James M. Smith, M.Ed., LPC, NCC is the Director of Student Health and Counseling Services at Lincoln University of Missouri in Jefferson City. He has held various positions in the mental health field, including being a qualified mental health provider in the prison setting, a supervisor of the Integrated Dual Diagnoses Treatment team in a CPRC, and the director of a medication assisted opioid treatment program. He is nearing completion of his dissertation for a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision. His dissertation research is a qualitative study of factors that contribute to adult male survivors’ disclosure of childhood sexual abuse. He has provided supervision to counseling interns in the M.Ed. program at Lincoln University and to post-graduate counselors-in-training and provisional licensed professional counselors.

Presentation(s): 

Ethics of Supervising: Gatekeeping, Remediation, and Ethical Decision Making

 

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Ethics of Supervising: Gatekeeping, Remediation, and Ethical Decision Making

Speaker(s):

James Smith, MEd, LPC, NCC

Presentation:

This presentation focuses on the ethical principles from various Codes of Ethics, including ACA, NASW, and the Missouri Credentialing Board, which inform the practice of supervision. Counselors, social workers, and substance abuse professionals serve as gatekeepers of the professions through the supervision of students and post-graduate applicants for licensure. Supervision practice involves parallel processes, including full disclosure, personal development planning, and termination. In each of these stages, professionals can find help in ethical guidelines. This presentation will also demonstrate how professionals can apply ethical-decision making models to issues surrounding remediation and termination of supervision.

Objectives:

  1. Apply ethical principles to the practice of supervision
  2. Apply ethical codes (ACA and NASW) in initiation, full disclosure, personal development planning, and termination of supervision
  3. Apply an ethical decision-making model to issues related to remediation and termination of supervision
Smith_James_PPSupervision EthicsDownload
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Flynn, Stephanie, LCSW

Stephanie Flynn is a Southeast Missouri based LCSW practitioner who also specializes in eating disorders, substance use disorders, trauma work, co-occurring disorders, Aroma Freedom Therapy Technique, and rural social work. She has been in practice in social work for over 22 years with a multitude of experience from working in outpatient settings, residential lockdown settings, hospital settings, to starting behavioral school programs in Northeast Arkansas. She has worked for the state of Missouri doing foster and adoptive parent training, home studies, and adoptions, to working in medical social work. She started an outpatient office in Arkansas for a company which led to the opening of several others to serve those in the rural areas who had difficulty getting services, was the assistant clinical director in an agency, and was the director of a C-Star program. She has served on a state board in the past for adoption committee. She headed up committees in her agency for Co-Occurring Disorders and Eating Disorders. She currently serves at FCC Behavioral Health as an Outpatient Therapist serving a multitude of complicated cases as well as working closely with her supervisor and IT in improving efficiency through combining file information in order to simplify forms and admissions for therapists. She also does multiple presentations for her agency on several subjects and has worked closely with their C-Star programs in her spare time the last few years.

Presentation(s): 

Co-Occurring Disorders…the Epidemic of Today’s Clinician

 

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Co-Occurring Disorders…the Epidemic of Today’s Clinician

Speaker(s):

Stephanie Flynn, LCSW

Presentation:

Co-Occurring Disorders are ever present in our practice now more than ever and we must be educated as professionals on how to best meet the needs of our clients. We cannot keep looking at the person across from us and skipping the questions about substance use or alcohol use just assuming that they do not look the type or meet the age criteria in our mind. In my experience of practice, most people I have interviewed first used marijuana at about age 10-11 due to it being available in the home. This leads us to the point that we must be treating both issues with our client or we are simply putting a band-aid on the problem. This is a nation-wide crisis, but especially in the bootheel of Missouri we are losing this battle which means-we are losing lives. I have witnessed this first hand as many of my colleagues. IT IS AN EPIDEMIC. As professionals we must make it a priority as much as we have suicide in order to make a change. In this session I will address how we can make a change in our communities, in our offices, in our clients as well as in our professional treatment of our clients.

 

Objectives:

  1. Identify those with co-occurring disorders
  2. Utilize community programs to support goals in working towards helping this population of clients
  3. Describe ways clinicians can be more effective in working with this population

 

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Colwick, Rachel, MA

Rachel Colwick has her Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, as well as a National Board Certified Counselor. Rachel is published and co-authored in two articles in the Safer Society Press. Rachel’s first publication was in the summer of 2015 titled Resolving Trauma Related Issues in Contemporary Treatment of Offenders: A Brief Review. Her second publication was in the spring of 2016 titled A Meta-Change Maintenance Model: Effective Strategies to Maintain a Pro-Social Lifestyle. Further, Rachel is a member of the professional organization, Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA). Rachel has a vast amount of clinical experience in working with those who have suffered from mood disorders, personality disorders (such as Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and Antisocial Personality Disorder), psychotic disorders, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, grief, trauma, and self-harming behaviors, to name a few. For over 5 years, Rachel has implemented process groups, psycho-educational groups, and individual therapy for those who are civilly committed sexual violent predators while at Missouri Sexual Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services (SORTS) and Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP). Currently, Rachel is providing individual therapy to adults, teens, and children at an outpatient clinical mental health setting.

Presentation(s): 

Vicarious Trauma, Secondary Traumatic Stress, or Burnout? Implications for Mental Health Professionals