Credit for Attendance
VSIAS is an education provider for a number of credentialing and academic organizations. VSIAS exercises its ethical responsibility to ensure that contact hours are earned fairly and honestly by awarding contact hours for session attendance only if an individual attends a minimum of 80 percent of that session. VSIAS Faculty can not make exceptions to this policy and will take required professional action in cases of misrepresentation.

Candice Norcott, Ph.D.
Candice recently completed her Postdoctoral training in Yale University’s Department of Psychiatry. In this position she worked as a clinician in Outpatient Services at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, to adults diagnosed with co-occurring serious mental illness and substance abuse disorders who live in transitional and supported housing programs in New Haven, Connecticut.

Voices: A Program of Self-Discovery and Empowerment for Girls ~ Introductory level
(Limited 25 to 50 participants)

Adolescence is a time of tremendous discovery, struggle, and growth. This process is particularly difficult for girls as they face unique challenges along the road to healthy development. Their challenges can be exacerbated by our culture - which often offers girls a toxic environment in which to grow. Many young women lose their voice in this process. This workshop is based on the curriculum, Voices: A Program of Self- Discovery and Empowerment for Girls. It is designed to encourage girls and young women to find and express themselves. The program materials (facilitator’s guide and participant’s workbook) can be used in schools, treatment facilities, and juvenile justice settings.

This training describes the world of girls, as well as providing an overview of the elements needed for creating gender-responsive services. The focus is on interactive exercises that demonstrate the strategies that counselors can use with girls and young women. The topics covered include developing a positive sense of self, building healthy relationships, substance abuse, physical and emotional wellness, sexuality and planning for a positive future. The issues of girls in the juvenile justice system are also addressed.

Workshop Topics:
Developing gender-responsive services
The world of girls
Theoretical foundation
Becoming trauma-informed
Girls in juvenile justice settings

Specific interactive activities
o Self
o Relationships
o Health (physical, emotional,

Objectives: 

• Understand the world of girls/young women
• Discuss gender differences
• List elements of gender-responsive services
• Use specific strategies

Paul Evensen
Senior Vice President, Community Systems Group, Inc.
Paul has worked with hundreds of community coalitions across the country addressing a variety of health concerns including immunization, physical activity, literacy, youth suicide, substance abuse, nutrition, poverty and HIV. For the past fifteen years Paul has specialized in evaluation of community coalitions and how evaluation information can help volunteers improve, celebrate and sustain their important works.

Are “environmental interventions” just the latest prevention buzzwords?
The science, art, and evaluation of environmental interventions.
(Limited to 50 participants) (Repeated in the afternoon)

It seems like every couple of years a new trend hits the prevention community complete with buzzwords, bumper stickers, and a cadre of consultants. This session looks carefully at the growing emphasis on environmental strategies and explores three key questions: (1) What is the science behind the fad? (2) Can environmental strategies build on or compliment current prevention work? (3) How are environmental strategies evaluated at the local level?

Objectives: 

• Participants will be able to describe the key scientific findings and principles behind environmental strategies.
• Participants will be able to identify environmental strategies that are appropriate to their current prevention goals.
• Participants will be able to create a basic evaluation plan for a locally implemented environmental strategy.

Cecily Rodriguez,
Director, Office of Cultural & Linguistic Competence, Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Cecily Rodriguez has worked with limited English proficient (LEP) immigrants and refugees from around the world for eighteen years in Texas, Mexico and Virginia.

Nhat Nguyen, MSW
CSB Transportation Coordinator, Fairfax Falls Church CSB. Nhat Nguyen is an Asian American born in Vietnam and immigrated to the US as a refugee with his family in the 1970s.  After settling and acculturating in Springfield, Virginia, he completed his undergraduate in Clinical Psychology from George Mason University. 

Dina Hackley-Hunt
Manager, Training and Staff Development , Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare. She is also the chair of the Cultural and Linguistic Competency committee for the agency and a member of the DBHDS sub-committee.

Building CLAS in your Organization- Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services- Ways to get started.
(Limited to 25 participants)

Objectives: 

• Introduce the foundations of cultural and linguistic competence
  
• Explore what cultural and linguistic competence mean to you
  
• Introduce the CLAS Standards as a framework for how to integrate cultural competence into your agency

Erin Johnson, LPC, FAMI and Cara Marinucci, LPC, FAMI
She has extensive experience working with clients who present with anxiety, depression, addiction, trauma, relationship issues and work stress. In addition to her private practice, she provides consultation and training for a home-based counseling agency, and is an Approved Clinical Supervisor through NBCC, providing clinical supervision for LPC licensure candidates.

Clinical Application of Music & Meditation in Addictions Counseling,
Intermediate Level Training
(Limited to 40 participants) (Continued in the afternoon)

These evidenced based practices (Silverman, M.J. (2003), Music therapy and clients who are chemically dependent:  A review of literature and pilot study.  The Arts in Psychotherapy, 30, 273-281), combining meditation and the therapeutic use of music, offer innovative tools and techniques for the therapist working with clients presenting with addictions/substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health disorders.  Participants will learn creative and effective ways to engage clients wherever they are in the recovery process.

Objectives: 

• Understand the theory and clinical application of music and imagery for working with addictions, substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health disorders.
• Learn and experience various ways that the therapeutic use of music can enhance the recovery process.
• Practice basic guiding skills using music and imagery in dyads.
• Understand how music evokes imagery that can be a focus of treatment. 
• To learn and experience several meditation practices that can be used to enhance the client’s capacity for self-awareness and intentional action. 
• To learn and experience various ways that music and sound can be utilized to enhance meditation practice and to reduce stress. 

Sandy Downey, LPC
Sandra Downey has over seventeen years of experience as an outpatient therapist at the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Community Services Board. She provides integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment in individual and group therapy modalities. Ms. Downey works as part of a team responsible for the development and implementation of an Intensive Treatment Program for clients with substance use and co-occurring disorders. She has had extensive training in the therapeutic use of motivational interviewing since 1998. Ms. Downey has been a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT, Inc.) since 2004.

Motivational Interviewing Clinical Skills Development Training – Intermediate Level
(Limited to 30 participants)

Continued through these times:
Day/Date/Time:
Monday, July 19, 1:15 – 4:30 PM
Tuesday, July 20, 8:30 – 11:45 AM & 1:15 – 4:30 PM
and Wednesday, July 21, 8:30 – 11:45 AM

This workshop is designed for practitioners who have previously attended at least six hours of introductory training in motivational interviewing (MI). It will offer a brief review of current theory and the fundamental spirit, principles and methods of MI, and then focus intensively on clinical skills development. Participants will learn and practice strategies that help clients discover their own reasons for making changes and begin to take steps towards a brighter future. The format of the workshop will be interactive in nature, and participants will be afforded an opportunity to directly observe, experience, and practice basic MI skills. This workshop is a continuation that begins Monday afternoon, continues through a full day on Tuesday, and ends Wednesday morning. Participants are expected to attend all four sessions of this workshop. (Limited to 30 participants)

Objectives:

• Deepen their understanding of the fundamental spirit, principles and methods of motivational interviewing.
• Be informed of current theory underlying the efficacy of MI.
• Increase skillfulness in applying motivational interviewing (e.g. use of OARS, building trust, helping clients discover reasons and confidence to change, supporting clients in taking action) in clinical work.
• Learn practical clinical activities that can be used with clients in a variety of clinical settings and populations.

Sandy Kanehl, M.Ed., C.S.A.C.
Sandy has been teaching and training for over 20 years; including courses in Counselor Identity Function and Ethics, Substance Abuse Counseling, and topics in Advanced Substance Abuse Counseling in the Counselor Education Graduate Program at Lynchburg College, as well as presenting at Virginia Counselor’s Association Conventions, and American Counseling Association conventions in San Diego, San Antonio and New Orleans.

Focus on Recovery: How do you define it, who gets to decide, and why is it important?

As the addictions field shifts its focus from illness to recovery and recovery-oriented systems of care, we must clarify what we mean by the term recovery. Surveys by the Hart Research group and Hazelden have shown that the public clearly does not know what recovery means. Researchers, clinicians and mutual aid advocates may convey different meanings from one another. Until the addictions field can clarify what it means by recovery, stigma and misunderstanding will continue. This workshop will discuss current literature on this topic and challenge participants to assist in crafting a simple, inclusive, measurable definition of recovery that captures its essence and is acceptable to recovery’s many constituencies.

Objectives: 

• Understand the implications of a clear definition of recovery for advocacy, reporting treatment outcomes,
  ROSCs, etc.
• Consider who has a stake, and who has authority in defining recovery
• Identify boundaries for the concept of recovery; e.g Is it all-or-nothing? A matter of degrees?
• Arrive at a working definition of recovery

Gerard Lawson, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, ACS
Associate Professor of Counselor Education - Virginia Tech, president-elect of the national Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.

Essential Elements of Clinical Supervision in Virginia
(Limited to 60 participants)

Day/Date: Monday, July 19, and Tuesday, July 20
Time: ALL DAY, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM both days. You must attend both days all day in order to get credit. You will need to pre-order a lunch box or bring your lunch with you, as there will not be time to go out and purchase your meal.

This presentation is designed to meet the Virginia Board of Counseling clinical supervision training requirements for counselors who provide supervision to LPC residents. This workshop will present what is known from the supervision research and literature, focusing on structuring the supervisory relationship, assessing and evaluating supervisee skills, supporting and intervening to improve supervisee skills, legal and ethical issues in clinical supervision, and the specific licensure requirements for LPC residents in Virginia.

Objectives:

Identify and Understand the:
1) Roles and functions of clinical supervisors
2) Models of clinical supervision
3) Mental health-related professional development
4) Methods and techniques in clinical supervision
5) Supervisory relationship issues
6) Cultural issues in clinical supervision
7) Modalities of supervision
8) Legal and ethical issues in clinical supervision
9) Evaluations of supervisee competence and the supervision process

Paul Evensen
Senior Vice President, Community Systems Group, Inc.

Are “environmental interventions” just the latest prevention buzzwords?
The science, art, and evaluation of environmental interventions.
(Repeated from morning) (Limited to 50 participants)

Sandy Downey, LPC
Sandra Downey has over seventeen years of experience as an outpatient therapist at the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Community Services Board. She provides integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment in individual and group therapy modalities. Ms. Downey works as part of a team responsible for the development and implementation of an Intensive Treatment Program for clients with substance use and co-occurring disorders. She has had extensive training in the therapeutic use of motivational interviewing since 1998. Ms. Downey has been a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT, Inc.) since 2004.

Motivational Interviewing Clinical Skills Development Training – Intermediate Level
(Limited to 30 participants)

Continued through these times:
Day/Date/Time:
Monday, July 19, 1:15 – 4:30 PM
Tuesday, July 20, 8:30 – 11:45 AM & 1:15 – 4:30 PM
and Wednesday, July 21, 8:30 – 11:45 AM

This workshop is designed for practitioners who have previously attended at least six hours of introductory training in motivational interviewing (MI). It will offer a brief review of current theory and the fundamental spirit, principles and methods of MI, and then focus intensively on clinical skills development. Participants will learn and practice strategies that help clients discover their own reasons for making changes and begin to take steps towards a brighter future. The format of the workshop will be interactive in nature, and participants will be afforded an opportunity to directly observe, experience, and practice basic MI skills. This workshop is a continuation that begins Monday afternoon, continues through a full day on Tuesday, and ends Wednesday morning. Participants are expected to attend all four sessions of this workshop. (Limited to 30 participants)

Objectives:

• Deepen their understanding of the fundamental spirit, principles and methods of motivational interviewing.
• Be informed of current theory underlying the efficacy of MI.
• Increase skillfulness in applying motivational interviewing (e.g. use of OARS, building trust, helping clients discover reasons and confidence to change, supporting clients in taking action) in clinical work.
• Learn practical clinical activities that can be used with clients in a variety of clinical settings and populations.

Scott M. Reiner, M.S., C.S.A.C., C.C.S.
Scott Reiner is the Program Development Manager for the Division of Community Programs of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice. In this position, Scott is responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating major initiatives in juvenile justice, including a focus on practice improvements, mental health and substance abuse, assessment strategies, and the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative.

Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory (SASSI) Administration and Scoring Training
(Limited to 40 participants)

The SASSI is a widely used, empirically validated screening instrument to identify the presence of substance use disorders. This training covers the essentials of the adult and adolescent versions of the SASSI and prepares participants to administer the instrument to clients, score the inventory, apply the objective decision rules, and finally to interpret the results and provide feedback to the client. The training covers the background on how the SASSI was developed and how it should be used, basic administration, scoring and interpretation, knowledge of the individual SASSI scales, and fundamental skills in providing client feedback. The training includes both didactic presentation and actual hands on practice with the instrument. Successful completion of the training will take approximately 3.5 hours and will provide that amount of NAADAC approved training credits. The training includes all materials and a certificate of completion.

Objectives: 

The goals of this presentation are that all participants will have a new and evidenced-based assessment tool that will give them probability outcome measures for substance dependence and substance abuse diagnosis.  The SASSI is not diagnostic but can give important information that will assist the clinician to make a more functional and accurate treatment plan in the treatment of substance abuse and dependence.

Dr. Sadie Sheafe, Ph.D., LCSW, ABS Diploma
Dr Sheafe is a Board Certified Clinical Sexologist, American Board of Sexology Diplomate and Licensed Clinical Social Worker; she is certified in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Currently she serves as Chairman, Virginia Legislative Committee, National Association Social Work (NASW); she is also Regional Representative for NASW, Hampton Roads.

Seeking Safety: Substance Abuse and Military Traumas in Co-ed Groups, Intermediate Level
(Limited to 30 participants)

This workshop will focus on the successful development/implementation of co-ed groups suffering from military trauma (sexual and combat) and/or substance abuse. This workshop will use the evidence based practice (EBP) model of “seeking safety”. The many implications for treatment of both men and women in co-ed groups will be discussed.

Objectives: 

• Discuss the development of a Co-ed group suffering from trauma and substance abuse.
  
• Discuss the implementation of a Co-ed group with trauma and substance abuse.
  
• Discuss the importance of rapport in a Co-ed group suffering from substance abuse and trauma.
  
• Discuss the value of safety in a Co-ed group suffering from substance abuse and trauma.
  
• Discuss implications for greater success in recovery using EBP treatments in substance abuse treatment.

Charles Adcock
Licensed Clinical Social Worker since 1991
Certified Substance Abuse Counselor since 1989
Clinical Faculty- Medical College of Virginia, Department of Psychiatry
Working in the addictions field since since 1984
29 years in recovery. Program Director and part owner of Family Counseling Center for Recovery in Richmond, Va. Member of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

Maryann Hughes Cox, MSW, LCSW
is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Richmond, VA.  She has been in private practice for over twenty years.  Maryann has worked in a variety of settings in addition to private practice.  She is a Certified Practitioner of psychodrama and group psychotherapy.   Maryann provides training in experiential therapy, trauma and addictions to professionals both internationally and domestically. Maryann is known in her community for her work with trauma & addiction. 

Jimmy Christmas, LCSW
is a seasoned mental health professional and entrepreneur motivated by challenge and rewarded through the seamless implementation of key clinical, administration, operational and financial initiatives that aid profitability, productivity and quality of any Project Management endeavor.

Recovering Counselors in the Addictions Field: Pros and Cons. What the Future May Hold?
(Limited to 30 participants)

This workshop will explore the history of the addictions field as it developed from paraprofessionals to the expectations of the field today. We  will discuss the impact recovering professionals have had on this progression. The ways we have had a positive impact and also aspects of recovering professionals that have hindered the development of our profession. We will present both historical information as well as examine directions the field is heading and how recovering professionals can play a role in the future of our field.

Objectives: 

The objective of this workshop is to examine the past so that we can ensure that there is room in this field for recovering professionals to contribute to the future.  It is designed to celebrate the contributions we have made as well as develop excitement about the rewards professionally and personally that exist in the addictions field today.