The 2023 Conference on Mental Health will feature keynote speaker Sean Astin. Astin is a vocal advocate for mental health awareness, bi-polar disorder, civic engagement, and other issues. He is an energetic and passionate speaker who promotes a culture of volunteerism to all audiences. Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, voice artist and producer, best known for his film roles as Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Bob Newby in Netflix’s hit series, Stranger Things 2. He is also the author of the New York Times best-selling There and Back Again, a memoir – co-written with Joe Layden – of his film career with emphasis on his experiences with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Individual perceptions of the harms or benefits of pornography use vary widely with some dogmatically offering examples of sex positivity and others violence towards women to justify their respective claims. While groups and individuals continue to offer strong opinions on the impacts of pornography use, the scientific literature exploring pornography and its effects is filled with ambiguity, statistically trivial relationships, and severe methodological issues (i.e., how pornography is measured, defined, and conceptualized).
During her keynote address, Dr. Burke Harris will share her groundbreaking research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the long-term effects of childhood adversities. She will discuss how ACEs can lead to toxic stress, which can disrupt brain development and increase the risk of chronic diseases later in life. Dr. Burke Harris will also highlight the importance of early intervention and trauma-informed care in mitigating the impact of ACEs. In addition to her research, Dr. Burke Harris is a passionate advocate for children's health and well-being. She has been a vocal proponent of policies and programs that prioritize the needs of children and families, including the creation of a California Health Task Force led by Dr. Burke Harris herself. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.
Building on what we have learned about Adverse Childhood Experiences we should have the tools we need to help build Positive Childhood Experiences. Is it just possible that all we need to know is contained in the works of Ainsworth on Secure Attachment, Vygotsky on The Zone of Proximal Development, Piaget's Stages of Development, Erickson's Stages of Development, Kohlberg's Stages of Development, Anderson's work on Early Personality Development, Henderson's work on Resiliency and Victor Frankl's thoughts on building and maintaining our own individual inner tranquility? Surely we can put what we know into a comprehensive pattern of growth and development which will enable any individual to achieve a level of inner stability and resiliency as to be close to immune to any of the issues of focus in this conference.
Eating disorders are a complex mental health concern that is often missed by medical practitioners, therapists, and other treating professionals. The addictive nature of eating disorders is not widely known despite the relapse rate, difficulty in maintaining recovery, and the average length of getting into recovery. In our society, losing weight and being thin is touted as "superior" and healthy without looking at the underlying issues. These beliefs contribute to the disorder through the praise of those around them, the belief that they are doing what others cannot do, and the need to numb the emotional pain that they are experiencing. Due to all of this, individuals with eating disorders have been identified as a "difficult" population to treat due to the chronic nature of the disorder, lack of training and education, and the addictive qualities of the disease. Clinicians often feel under-prepared, under-educated, and out of their depth in working with clients with eating disorders. We aim to empower clinicians with tools and a greater understanding of the evidenced-based modalities that they are likely already using in their practice, to better help their clients with body image concerns, disordered eating, and full-blown diagnosable eating disorders. The modalities that will be reviewed are CBT-E (Enhanced CBT, specifically for eating disorders), DBT, ACT, RO-DBT, FBT (Family Based Therapy, also known as the Maudsley Method), and EFFT (Emotion-Focused Family Therapy). Each modality will include a description, direction on how to use the modality, and the most recent research for the use of this modality within the eating disorder population. We will expand upon what modality is most appropriate for the treatment of the different eating disorders (i.e. Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, and OSFED, (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder)) and how to implement them in the office. Furthermore, we will aid therapists in when to apply specific interventions/modalities throughout the course of the eating disorder and within the different diagnoses. In addition, we will compare and contrast the effectiveness of the treatment modalities within the different disorders. The presentation will also focus on individual and support person/family/couples therapy treatment modalities to better empower the support people in their lives and give therapists more support and tools to use in the recovery process. In addition, we will discuss the complexity of the disease and how to incorporate a multidisciplinary team (Primary Care Physician, Dietitian, Psychiatrist, etc) to help improve outcomes and review the basic medical complications that can arise in this population.
State of Utah and Federal updates on psychedelic therapeutic intervention research and legal landscape. Summary of the history and current research as well as a summary of legislative report and recommendations to the Utah legislature for MDMA and psychedelic treatment of mental conditions. Discussion about concurrent therapy treatment and safety protocols in development in research and practice across the US and the world.
