What happens to the brain as our clients age? Many clients of psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, medical professionals, and ministry leaders are concerned that they may lose their memories and become senile. Clients often want to know if there are...
Thursday 9/14 8:45 – 10:00 AM
116 | Beyond Chemical Imbalance: How to Talk with Faith-based Clients about Psychiatric Medications
Speaking about psychological struggles as chemical imbalances or as disorders of neurotransmitter systems is common in today’s culture, but this is a folk metaphor more than a scientific conclusion. Although individuals’ brains are involved when they struggle, mental...
115 | Identifying and Treating Moral Injury In the Setting of Severe Trauma
The focus of this workshop is to briefly review the research on religion and mental health, discuss why evidence-based treatments in Christian mental healthcare are important, examine the limitations of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and challenges involved in...
101 | Recognizing Dissociative Symptoms in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Health Disorders
Dissociative symptoms often go undetected by psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, and medical professionals. Knowledge of how dissociative symptoms present in clients with PTSD dissociative subtype, Complex PTSD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Anxiety...
113 | How to Create a Healthy Congregation: The Role of Emotional and Relational Intelligence in the Church Culture
If God’s purpose of church leaders is to help their people “become conformed to the Image of His Son,” then what might that look like? What does it mean to “grow in Christ” and become a “mature” Christian? What impact should sanctification have on the moods,...
112 | Dealing with Spiritual Struggles in Psychotherapy: Empirical Evidence and Clinical Applications from a Christian Perspective
This workshop will cover dealing with spiritual struggles in psychotherapy, based on the Pargament and Exline (2022) book, Working with Spiritual Struggles in Psychotherapy: From Research to Practice (see also Tan, 2022c). The six major spiritual struggles that will...
111 | Faith and Hope: Providing Pastoral Care and Counseling to Alleviate Stress and Anxiety
The Bible illustrates and addresses the nature of anxiety and the call to live godly lives of hope and faith. How, then, should Christians deal with stress and anxiety in their lives, and how can ministry leaders and coaches bring God’s healing word to the subject? In...
110 | Developmentally Appropriate Treatment of Childhood Trauma: The Evidence-based Use of Play Therapy
Psychotherapy with traumatized children must be developmentally appropriate. To use “adult therapy” with children is not only ineffective but also dishonoring. It is imperative to consider the encompassing psychological and neurobiological effects of trauma on...
109 | Preparing to Blend: Effective Pre-stepfamily Counseling with Couples and Children
In blended families, the rules are different, but the majority of dating and engaged couples walk into their wedding with both eyes shut; a full 75% of couples forming blended families get no premarital counseling at all—and those that do usually receive the same...
108 | Staying in the Furnace Without Getting Burned: Attending to Intense Emotional Conflict in Couples
This workshop will bring findings from recent research showing how psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, pastors, and marriage coaches can help couples redirect emotional intensity, such as anger, despair, and hopelessness, toward relational intimacy...