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Conference Presenters:

Presenters' Biographies
Presentation and Workshop Descriptions and Bibliography
2008 Fall Conference

Liz Brenner
Elizabeth G. Brenner, LICSW, has worked in group home, inpatient, outpatient and home based settings with children, adolescents and families since 1982. She is the Director of the Intensive Program in Family Therapy at the Family Institute of Cambridge in Watertown, MA. In that year long program, Liz teaches about using family systems ideas. For more information about this course, please visit www.familyinstitutecamb.org.

For the past three years, Liz has been providing training for staff at the Department of Social Services as a member of the Family Centered Services Project. She provides supervision and organizational consultation to clinicians and agencies. Her current teaching interests include mindfulness for clinicians, working with "bad behavior" as well as working effectively with adolescents, couples, and families. Liz has a private practice in Providence, RI and Watertown, MA. Her clinical work integrates family systems, trauma and recovery models including the use of EMDR. She can be reached at 617-924-9255.

Presentation: Living and Working with Violence and Unpredictability
Living with family violence is a common occurrence. Unlike the cultural stereotypes of the "perpetrator" who has no redeeming qualities, often violence and other "bad behavior" occur in a more complicated individual and relational context. A significant part of the dilemma for those living with violence is finding a path through this complex, unpredictable terrain. Liz will share her story of growing up with a father afflicted by Bipolar Disorder who was intermittently violent during periods of mania. She will then examine with the audience the perceptions and reactions we have to violence that can support our ability to work effectively with clients or get in the way. As helping professionals we are all working with people who are hurting themselves and others in a myriad of ways. Helping people to take responsibility for their behavior regardless of personal history, social dictates and the actions of others in their lives can be the hardest thing to accomplish. It is often difficult to respond therapeutically, finding the right intervention on the continuum of confrontation to empathy. It is particularly challenging to address actions that clients do not define as problematic. We will examine the types of clients and problems we each find challenging and how we can respond to help improve readiness for and ability to change.

Presentation Objectives/Teaching Goals:
1. Participants will be able to identify two of their strengths in helping clients take responsibility for their behavior and two of their challenges.
2. Participants will reflect on their own experiences of being hurtful to others in order to see violent and abusive behavior on a continuum we all experience and express.
3. Participants will be able to articulate two practices or ideas that they might try to help support their ability to work with people who have "bad behavior".

Workshop: Mindfulness for Self Care and Clinical Effectiveness
Workshop Description: This workshop will allow participants to define and practice mindfulness as a tool for self-examination, self-regulation and intervention. We will discuss concepts and interventions related to staying grounded and working in the present moment as they are relevant to the treatment of clients and the health and effectiveness of the clinician. The theoretical framework will integrate mindfulness practices with concepts from Daniel Siegel's interpersonal neurobiology as well as ideas about trauma work including witnessing violence. We will use reflective practices to increase awareness of our assumptions, biases, and emotional reactions so that we can address differences and challenges with clients in conscious and respectful ways. There will be opportunity to notice the ways that we are already working mindfully. Participants will think about the usefulness of further introducing mindfulness practices in their clinical work.

Workshop Objectives/Teaching Goals:
1. Participants will learn to define mindfulness practices and will be able to articulate a couple of ways that they are relevant to clinical practice.
2. Participants will participate in a mindfulness exercise and be able to decide whether they feel they would like to use this practice for themselves and in their work.
3. Participants will be able to identify one or two of their personal challenges to being mindful in difficult situations as well as some of the strengths they bring to challenging clinical moments.

Bibliography:
1. Jenkins, Alan. Invitations to Responsibility: The therapeutic engagement of men who are abusive. Adelaide, South Australia, Dulwich Centre Publications, 1990
2. Weingarten, Kaethe. Common Shock: Witnessing Violence Everyday, How We Are Harmed, How We Can Heal. New York, New American Library, 2004
3. Siegel, D. The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well Being. New York: Norton and Company, 2007

Edward Hallowell, MD
A child and adult psychiatrist and graduate of Harvard College and Tulane School of Medicine, Dr. Hallowell is the director of The Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury, MA. He was a member of the faculty of the Harvard Medical School from 1983 until he retired from academics in 2003 to devote his full professional attention to his clinical practice, lectures, and the writing of books. He has authored fourteen books on various psychological topics, including attention deficit disorder, the childhood roots of happiness in life, methods of forgiving others, dealing with worry and managing excessive busyness.

Dr. Hallowell is a highly recognized speaker around the world and has presented to thousands on topics such as ADD, strategies on handling your fast-paced life, the Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness and other pertinent family and health issues. He has been featured on many television programs and has been interviewed in national media.

Presentation: Delivered From Distraction
Dr. Hallowell will focus on the material that is presented in his book on ADD that was published in January 2005. A great deal has happened since Dr. Hallowell wrote the best-seller Driven to Distraction 10 years ago, particularly in the new area of understanding adult ADD His goal is to help people master the power of ADD while avoiding its pitfalls. His message will be all encompassing and talks about what it is like to have ADD, explains some of the brain science behind it, and talks about how to get diagnosed properly, available medicinal and non-medicinal treatments, etc. He will also address the many people who have ADD coupled with other learning issues, worry and ADD, sex and relationships and ADD, and tips on how to live your life to the fullest if you have ADD.  

Presentation Objectives/Teaching Goals:
1. Present a strength-based approach to AD/HD
2. Identify the challenges to identification and management of ADD
3. Identify the benefits of changing environment to treat AD/HD
4. Implement strategies for diagnosis and treatment

Workshop: Worry in Children
Covers the basics of worry in children. What are the basic patterns? What is normal worry in a child and what is abnormal? When should a parent or a teacher seek help for a child's worrying? What are the diagnosable kinds of worry in children? What are the common socially induced kinds of worry? How does technology fit in? What can a child do to worry less? What can a parent or teacher do? What is the role of professional intervention?

Highlighted among the diagnosable conditions will be separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder, depression, and trauma. The non-diagnosable but still troubling kinds of worry that will be highlighted include problems with connectedness (family conflict, friendship problems, social isolation, bullying, scapegoating, and others), problems with global worries (crime, disease, hunger, ecological concerns), and general styles of a worried mind that are passed down in families from generation to generation.

Workshop Objectives/Teaching Goals:
1. Identify the basics of worry in children
2. Outline what is normal and abnormal
3. Identify the steps that parents and teachers can take

Bibliography:
Hallowell, Edward M.D. and Ratey, John M.D. Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood. New York: Pantheon Books, 1994
Hallowell, Edward M.D. and Ratey, John M.D. Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder. New York: Ballantine Books, 2005
Hallowell, Edward M.D. When You Worry About the Child You Love: Emotional and Learning Problems in Children. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996

Lisa Halpern
Lisa Halpern currently works as Program Director of the Dorchester Bay Recovery Center, run by the Vinfen Corporation in Dorchester, Massachusetts to provide peer-directed and operated services, support and education to promote recovery. She also works at NAMI's Massachusetts affiliate as Manager of In Our Own Voice, an outreach and support program in which consumers help educate the public on mental illness. Lisa graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University, having double majors. She then received two merit-based fellowships to study at Harvard where, in June 1999, she was first diagnosed with schizophrenia and had two stays at McLean Hospital that year.

Presentation: Recovery from Serious Mental Illness: Surviving and Thriving offers insight into the hope and recovery now possible for people with severe psychiatric conditions. Lisa tells the story of her sickest days, when she left Harvard's Kennedy School of Government because she could no longer read, write or speak, and of her determination to return to school and complete her studies. She now works as a provider of mental health services and describes how she learned to accept and succeed with her illness. Her presentation enriches an audience's understanding of how people who struggle with disorders like schizophrenia, psychosis, and depression cope with the reality of their illnesses while recovering and reclaiming productive lives.

Presentation objectives/teaching goals:
1. Better understand mental illness from an inside view.
2. Better support the eradication of stigma.
3. Recognize the possibilities for recovery from serious mental illness and the reasons for hope.

Workshop: Working with Individuals with Mental Illness - what doctors, social workers, peers and family members need to know is the product of coalescing a decade's work in the mental health profession with Lisa's personal experience living with schizophrenia. Lisa has worked for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health as Special Assistant to the Commissioner and Deputy Director of Emergency Management; a dual-diagnosis PACT team as its first peer mentor and its first Director of Consumer Affairs; the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) as its first state coordinator and now a national trainer for In Our Own Voice (a recovery-based consumer speaker program); and presently is the Director of Vinfen Corporation's Dorchester Bay Recovery Center, a dual-diagnosis day program that has transformed from professional-run to peer-run. Through her keen observation and lived experience, Halpern has developed, and will discuss here, four helpful hints for interacting with individuals with psychosis in the workplace and school domains.

Workshop Objectives/Teaching Goals:
1. Better appreciate the benefits of hearing about sick people getting well.
2. Understand some of the challenges of working with individuals with psychiatric difficulties and hints to surmount them.
3. Learn helpful techniques for dealing with and interacting with individuals with psychosis in the workplace and school domains.

Bibliography:
Halpern, L. "Brain Training: An Athletic Model for Brain Rehabilitation", Psychiatric Services, April 2006.
Halpern, L and K. Duckworth, "Peer and Consumer Involvement in the Psychiatric Emergency Service." In R. Glick et al (Eds.) Emergency Psychiatry: Principles and Practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008.
Halpern, L, H. Trachtman and K. Duckworth. "From Within: A Consumer Perspective on Psychiatric Hospitals". In press. In S. Sharfstein (Ed.), The Textbook of Hospital Psychiatry. American Psychiatry Publishing, Inc, 2008.

Barry Fogel
Barry S. Fogel, MD is a neuropsychiatrist and behavioral neurologist at the Brigham Behavioral Neurology Group in Boston. A graduate of UCSF School of Medicine, he completed a neurology residency at Harvard-Longwood and a psychiatry residency at Stanford before beginning his academic career at Brown. In 1988 Dr. Fogel co-founded the American Neuropsychiatric Association - the leading national organization of neuropsychiatrists. Over the course of his career he has treated neurobehavioral problems in patients ranging in age from 6 to 96. He is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a senior editor of two major textbooks, and the author of over 125 articles and book chapters on topics in neuropsychiatry, behavioral neurology, geriatrics, and health policy.

Presentation: Neuropsychiatric Empathy: The Experience of a Different Brain
Differences in brain function not only can change patients' behavior, thinking, and emotions, they also can change the meaning and significance of patients' behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Understanding the specific linkage of brain and behavior in a given case is the basis for a special form of empathy that patients and caregivers find more useful than a generic attitude of concern and helpfulness. Recent advances in functional brain imaging, neuropsychology, and behavioral pharmacology have improved clinicians' ability to link brain and behavior. The presentation will survey some of these advances, and illustrate with case examples how "neuropsychiatric empathy" can improve clinical outcomes.

Presentation objectives/teaching goals:
1. Explain how understanding of brain-behavior relationships can change caregivers' emotional reactions to patients' behavior
2. Discuss subjective aspects of impairments in social learning, emotional expression, and executive function
3. How to formulate brain-based interpretations of behavioral symptoms that enhance clinicians' relationships with patients and caregivers

Workshop: Brain Imaging, Neuropsychological testing and EEG in the Evaluation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
This workshop will describe what different types of testing can and can not do. Participants will be asked to present clinical situations for discussion to help determine the appropriate role and interpretation of diagnostic tests.

Workshop Objectives/Teaching Goals:
1. Discuss the scope and limits of common neurodiagnostic procedures in neurodevelopmental disorders
2. Illustrate how tests should be integrated into the process of assessment of common neurodevelopmental problems
3. Offer examples of common pitfalls and misinterpretations of test results

Bibliography:
1. Fogel BS, Shellow R (Work Group co-chairs): Practice Guideline for the Psychiatric Evaluation of Adults. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1995.
2. Stoudemire A, Fogel BS, Greenberg D: Psychiatric Care of the Medical Patient, Second Edition. New York, Oxford University Press, 2000.
3. Fogel BS, Schiffer RB, Rao, SM (eds.): Synopsis of Neuropsychiatry: Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2000.
4. Schiffer RB, Rao SM, Fogel, SM (eds.) Neuropsychiatry, second edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2003.

Keith Jones
Keith P. Jones is the President and CEO of SoulTouchin' Experiences, an organization aimed at bringing a perspective to the issues of access, inclusion and empowerment that affect himself as well as other persons with a disability. Mr. Jones is also extremely active in multi-cultural, cross-disability education and outreach efforts. He conducts trainings (including train the trainer) with the purpose of strengthening efforts to provide services and information to people with disabilities. Most recently Mr. Jones was recognized by the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission with the 2006 Moro Fleming Consumer Involvement Award as well as being a recent graduate of the inaugural class of Initiative for Diversity in Civic Leadership.

Presentation: Race, Gender and Disability
Keith discusses how issues of gender, culture and ethnicity in America play out for youth, young adults and their families in the disability community.

Presentation objectives/teaching goals:
Participants will be able to identify:
1. How and what role (if any) personal beliefs and/or prejudices play in interacting with people with disabilities.
2. Social and systemic barriers to community and educational inclusion
3. Community-based and practical approaches to inclusion

Workshop: Beyond Graduation and Disability
This session will take a look at the barriers and challenges that are literal as well as figurative before and after graduation.

Workshop Objectives/Teaching Goals:
Participants will:
1. expand on the approaches to barriers
2. develop a three-point action plan

Nancy Raine
Nancy Venable Raine is a poet and writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Southern Poetry Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Women's Review of Books, Marie Claire, and the London Guardian. She is the author of After Silence, a memoir published by Crown Publishers (Random House) in 1998. The book was a New York Times Notable Book for 1998 and received the 1998 Books for a Better Life Award and the 1999 Quality Paper Back New Visions Prize in nonfiction. Amazon.com selected After Silence for its Women's Studies Top Ten of 1998. After Silence has been published in Great Britain, and has been translated into four languages.

In addition, Ms. Raine has had a distinguished and varied career in the arts, with professional positions at the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Presentation: After the Silence
A thirty minute talk focusing on the central message of her book, After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back - that sexual assault is a crime that moves outward from the victim to his or her family, friends, co-workers and society itself. This will be followed by a reading from the book and Q & A.

Presentation objectives/teaching goals:
1. To increase the understanding of the impact of rape and sexual assault on survivors.
2. To help eliminate barriers between survivors and their communities
3. To help the community understand its own reaction to sexual assault so that it can become a "partner" in healing for survivors and their families and friends.

Workshop: Perspectives on Survival
The workshop will be focused on facilitating an exchange among Island service providers focusing on an inventory of services currently available to rape and sexual assault providers and how these services could be improved.

Workshop Objectives/Teaching Goals:
1.Develop an assessment of current services available to survivors in the community - community service organizations, local law enforcement and educational institutions, medical and nonprofit organizations, churches, and other sources of survivor support.
2. Develop a set of goals for improvement/changes to such services
3. Discuss strategies for attaining goals and how these support services can better work together in the future.

Bibliography:
Herman, Judith Lewis. Trauma. New York: BasicBooks, 1992
Terr, Lenore. Too Scared to Cry: Psychic Trauma in Childhood. New York: Harper and Row, 1990
Lewis, Michael. Shame: The Exposed Self. New York: Free Press, 1992
Raine, Nancy. After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back. New York: Crown Publishers (Random House), 1998