Invited Addresses

Friday, November 17 | 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Presented by:

Michelle G. Craske, Ph.D.,

Director of the Anxiety and Depression Research Center, Associate Director of the Staglin Family Music Center for Behavioral and Brain Health, University of California, Los Angeles

Participants earn 1 continuing education credit

Michelle G. Craske, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Psychology, and of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Kevin Love Fund Centennial Chair, Director of the Anxiety and Depression Research Center, and Associate Director of the Staglin Family Music Center for Behavioral and Brain Health, at the University of California, Los Angeles.

She is also co-director of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge. She has published extensively in the area of fear, anxiety, and depression, including over 590 peer-reviewed journal articles as well as academic books and several self-help books and therapist guides, and is on the Web of Science Most Highly Cited Researcher List.

She has been the recipient of extramural funding since 1993 for research projects pertaining to risk factors for anxiety and depression among children and adolescents, neural mediators of emotion regulation and behavioral treatments for anxiety disorders, fear extinction translational models for optimizing exposure therapy, novel behavioral therapies targeting reward sensitivity and anhedonia, and scalable treatment models for underserved populations. She is Editor-in-Chief of Behaviour Research and Therapy and holds the position of Officer of the Order of Australia.

Dr. Craske served as ABCT President in 2015 – 2016.

Categories: Transdiagnostic, Treatment-Other

Keywords: Depression, Anxiety, Treatment

Threat and reward sensitivity are fundamental processes that become dysregulated in the context of vulnerability to, or expression of, anxiety and depression. Treatments have traditionally targeted reductions in threat sensitivity with limited effects upon reward mechanisms.

Investigation of reward sensitivity is essential for our understanding of anxiety and depression and for targeted treatment approaches. I will present our latest findings regarding neural, behavioral, and subjective features of reward hyposensitivity that correlate with and predict anxiety, depression and anhedonia.

These findings led us to develop a treatment that specifically targets reward hyposensitivity, termed Positive Affect Treatment, which we have shown to be more effective than CBT that specifically targets negative affect and threat sensitivity. I will present our replication study in anxious, depressed, and extremely low positive affect individuals, where the symptomatic outcomes occur in parallel with changes in target measures of reward anticipation-motivation and attainment. I will also present findings from virtual reality technologies for delivering aspects of Positive Affect Treatment.

I will conclude with evidence for reward-related mechanisms within the context of exposure therapy for fears and anxiety, and potential methods for targeting such mechanisms. ”

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:

1. Describe the features of reward hyposensitivity that characterize anhedonia, depression, and anxiety.

2. Explain the evidence that shows that Positive Affect Treatment is an effective treatment for depression, anxiety, and anhedonia.

3. List the different therapeutic strategies that directly target reward sensitivity and describe the ways in which virtual reality technologies can augment such strategies.

Long-Term Goal:

Present the evidence for hyposensitivity to reward as a risk factor and as a treatment target for depression and anxiety.

Outline

Topic A: Importance of targeting reward sensitivity to understand and treat anxiety and depression
a. Treatments to date have mostly targeted elevated threat sensitivity, and have had limited effect upon positive affect and reward sensitivity
b. Evidence for neural, behavioral and subjective features of reward hyposensitivity that correlate with and predict anxiety, depression and anhedonia.

 
Topic B: Positive Affect Treatment directly targets reward sensitivity

a. Description of therapeutic strategies included in Positive Affect Treatment
b. Evidence for efficacy of Positive Affect treatment relative to active control condition (Negative Affect Treatment)
c. Evidence for Positive Affect Treatment to lead to greater improvements in reward sensitivity than Negative Affect Treatment
d. Use of virtual reality technologies to augment Positive Affect Treatment

 
Topic C: Relevance of reward processes for exposure therapy

a. Reward/relief mechanisms are essential to extinction and thereby relevant to exposure therapy
b. Preliminary evidence for relevance of anhedonia/low positive affect to exposure therapy
c. Possible therapeutic strategies for increasing reward sensitivity in the context of exposure therapy

Recommended Readings:

Craske, M.G., Meuret, A., Echiverri-Cohen, E., Rosenfield, D., & Ritz, T. (in press). Positive affect treatment targets reward sensitivity: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Craske, M.G., Meuret, A., Ritz, T., Treanor, M., & Dour, H. (2016). Treatment for anhedonia: a neuroscience driven approach. Depression and Anxiety, 33, 927-938. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22490

Craske, M.G., Meuret, A., Ritz, T., Treanor, M., Dour, H., & Rosenfield, D. (2019). Positive affect treatment for depression and anxiety: a randomized clinical trial for a core feature of anhedonia. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87, 457–471. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000396

Sandman, C. F., & Craske, M. G. (2022). Psychological Treatments for Anhedonia. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, 58, 491–513. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2021_291

Saturday, November 18 | 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Presented by:

Michael Southam-Gerow, Ph.D.,

Professor of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Director of the Center for Evidence-based Partnerships in Virginia.

Participants earn 1 continuing education credit

Dr. Southam-Gerow is a professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He is also the director of the Center for Evidence-based Partnerships in Virginia.

His research focuses on the dissemination and implementation of psychological treatments. Dr. Southam-Gerow also studies emotion processes (e.g., emotion regulation) in children and adolescents and treatment integrity.

He is Associate Editor of the Implementation Research and Practice, the author of dozens of scholarly papers, and is the author of Practitioner’s Guide to Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents, now available in paperback (as well as translated into Dutch and Korean) and Exposure Therapy for Children and Adolescents, both published by Guilford Press.
 

Categories: Dissemination & Implementation Science

Keywords: Implementation, Community-Based, Stakeholder Relevant

Moderate level of familiarity with the material

 
“A key goal of implementation science (IS) is to increase access to quality mental health services. Despite many notable and important strides achieved, the mental health crisis has only worsened in recent years in the U.S. and many other countries around the world.

To address the challenge, implementation science may benefit from refocusing its efforts in several different directions. This keynote will identify these multiple avenues for research, directions with potentially large returns on investment with regard to increasing access to quality mental health services.

First, a focus on workforce development, recruitment, and retention, a major challenge for many states and localities, needs additional scholarly attention.

Furthermore and relatedly, service financing, especially payment for evidence-based services, would benefit from increased scrutiny by implementation scientists.

Additionally, service coordination systems, grossly under-resourced, reliant on limited and out-of-date information, and operating in a mostly opaque manner to families who need services, warrant scientific inquiry. Potential paths to addressing these areas of concern are outlined and examples from ongoing work in Virginia will be highlighted.

Last, future directions that implementation scientists could take will be identified.”

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:

1. Identify understudied areas of implementation science
 
2. Enumerate multiple ways that science could inform efforts to improve access to mental health services
 
3. Describe the relevance of community partnership building, as well as ways to partner

Long-Term Goals:

• Identify possible community partners for their research
• Meet with a prospective community partner

Outline

• Context of mental health crisis and efforts to address it
• Ecological model for implementation
• Addressing practitioner and provider organization factors
• Addressing systemic factors
• Examples from Virginia
• Future directions to consider

Recommended Readings:

Center for Evidence-based Partnerships in Virginia. (2021). Needs assessment and gaps analysis, 2021 report. Report prepared for the Division of Family Services of the Virginia Department of Social Services. Available online

Rodríguez, A., Southam-Gerow, M. A., O’Connor, M. K., & Allin, R. B. (2014). An analysis of stakeholder views on children’s mental health services. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 43, 862-876.

Sale, R., Wu, J., Robinson, A., Finn, N., Aisenberg, G., Kaur, N., Riso, A., & Southam-Gerow, M. A. (2023). Workforce and other factors impeding implementation and sustainment of FFPSA evidence-based programs: A study of obstacles and opportunities. Report prepared for the Division of Family Services of the Virginia Department of Social Services. Available online

Saturday, November 18 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Presented by:

Thema S. Bryant, Ph.D.,

Professor of Psychology, Graduate School of Education and Psychology, Pepperdine University.

Participants earn 1 continuing education credit

Thema S. Bryant, Ph.D., is a tenured professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University, where she directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. Her clinical and research interests center on interpersonal trauma and the societal trauma of oppression. She has raised public awareness regarding mental health by extending the reach of psychology beyond the academy and private therapy office through community programming, organizational consultation, popular books, and media engagement.

Bryant is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women and a past APA representative to the United Nations. She also served on the APA Committee on International Relations in Psychology and the Committee on Women in Psychology.

In 2013, APA honored Bryant for Distinguished Early Career Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. The Institute of Violence, Abuse and Trauma presented her their media award for the film Psychology of Human Trafficking in 2016, and the Donald Fridley Memorial Award for excellence in mentoring in the field of trauma in 2018. The California Psychological Association recognized her for Distinguished Scientific Achievement in Psychology in 2015. One of the foundational scholars on the topic of the trauma of racism, she gave an invited keynote address on the topic at APA 2020. That year, APA’s International Division honored her for her International Contributions to the Study of Gender and Women for her work in Africa and the Diaspora.

Bryant—known popularly as Dr. Thema—is host of “Homecoming,” a mental health podcast, and director of the mental health ministry at First AME Church in South Los Angeles. She is author of the book Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole Authentic Self and co-author of The Antiracism Handbook: Practical Tools to Shift Your Mindset & Uproot Racism in Your Life and Community. She is editor or co-editor of the APA books Womanist and Mujerista Psychologies: Voices of Fire, Acts of Courage and Multicultural Feminist Therapy: Helping Adolescent Girls of Color To Thrive. Her presidential initiatives aim to enhance belonging and engagement within APA and use psychological science to address trauma, grief, and oppression nationally and internationally.

Bryant completed her doctorate in clinical psychology at Duke University and her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical Center’s Victims of Violence Program. Upon graduating, she became the coordinator of the Princeton University SHARE Program, which provides intervention and prevention programming to combat sexual assault, sexual harassment, and harassment based on sexual orientation.

Categories: Trauma, Multicultural Psychology, Racial Trauma

Keywords: Multicultural Psychology, Racial Trauma, Trauma

All levels of familiarity with the material

“There is a need for all practitioners to be trauma-informed and culturally attuned. This presentation will describe the types, dynamics, and effects of trauma, including the collective trauma of oppression. The presenter will explore the needs for these two principles as guideposts in both assessment and treatment, within the frameworks of liberation psychology. Attention to context and acknowledgment of the pervasiveness of trauma and oppression are required for the provision of ethical care. The dangers of avoidance and minimization of trauma and cultural oppression will be outlined. Barriers to the provision of this care and ways to address these barriers will be described. Finally, Dr. Thema will address self-care and community care for the provider given the realities of vicarious trauma and racial battle fatigue.” 

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:

1. List three potential effects of the trauma of oppression.
 
2. Describe the difference between traditional models of trauma recovery and Liberation psychology models.
 
3. Describe sustainable self-care and community care for practitioners.
 

Long-Term Goals:

Attendees will have an understanding of liberation psychology. 

 

Outline

• Defining trauma
• Defining Trauma-Informed Practice
• Types of trauma
• Trauma effects
• Trauma responses to perceived danger
• Protective and resiliency factors
• Trauma interventions and guiding principles
• Coping strategies
• Cultural context
• Liberation psychology
• Barriers to attending to collective trauma of oppression
• Care for providers

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Recommended Readings:

Bryant-Davis, T. (2019). The Cultural Context of Trauma Recovery: Considering the PTSD Practice Guidelines and Intersectionality. Psychotherapy, 56(3), 400–408.

Bryant-Davis, T., Fasalojo, B., Arounian, A., Jackson, K. L., & Leithman, E. (2021). Resist and rise: A trauma-informed womanist model for group therapy. Women and therapy. https://doi-org.lib.pepperdine.edu/10.1080/02703149.2021.1943114

Hakimi, D., Bryant-Davis, T., Ullman, S. E., & Gobin, R. L. (2018). Relationship between negative social reactions to sexual assault disclosure and mental health outcomes of Black and White female survivors. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 10(3), 270–275. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000245

Sunday, November 19: 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Presented by:

Wilson Kwamogi Okello, Ph.D.,

Assistant Professor, Penn State University

Participants earn 1 continuing education credit

Dr. Wilson Kwamogi Okello (he/him)is an accomplished early-career artist and scholar who draws on Black critical theories to advance research on student/early adult development theory. Most immediately, he is concerned with how Black critical approaches make visible the epistemic foundations that structure what it means to be human and imagining otherwise possibilities for Black being therein.

He is also concerned with how theories of Blackness might reconfigure understandings of racialized stress and trauma, qualitative inquiry, critical masculinities, and curriculum and pedagogy to create conditions of possibility in the education context and society. Widely published, he has over 40 scholarly publications in venues such as the Journal of College Student Development, Race, Ethnicity and Education, and the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Dr. Okello is co-editor of “Trauma-informed practice in student affairs: Multidimensional considerations for care, healing, and wellbeing,” a New Directions for Student Services volume, and solo author of a forthcoming text with SUNY Press that explores the potential of centering Blackness in student development theory.

Dr. Okello is a sought-after speaker and consultant; he has delivered over 150 invited keynotes/talks/performances across the United States and internationally. Among other early-career awards, he received the 2022-2023 Council on Ethnic Participation Mildred Garcia Award for Exemplary Scholarship by the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and he was named a 2022 Emerging Scholar by the American College Personnel Association. He is the recipient of the University of Rhode Island’s Distinguished Alumni Rising Star Award, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Outstanding Professional Award, and Youngstown State University’s Outstanding Alumni Award. Dr. Okello earned his Ph.D. from Miami University, his master’s degree is from the University of Rhode Island, and he holds a bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University. He was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio. Currently, Dr. Okello is an assistant professor of higher education at Penn State University, where he is a research associate at the Center for the Study of Higher Education.

Category: Multicultural Psychology

Keywords: Cognitive Schemas/Beliefs, Mindfulness, Race

“Questions of life and living, joy, and thriving beg more of educators and researchers who think and theorize about power, privilege, and oppression. This session confronts living in and against norms that contend for holistic wellness. It will offer recommendations for cultivating habits and creating environments that afford opportunities to affirm affective capacities, specifically, joy as a present and persistent way of being.”
 

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:

1. Complicate the notion of joy in their lives and work.

2. Examine the institutions, social pressures, and expectations that structure work and living.

3. Discuss tools to set the conditions for joy.

Long-Term Goal:

Joy is a matter of interiority. Joy is something we do and have the power to generate in ourselves. Like all skills, we can better attune to joy with practice.
 

Outline

• Narrative opening that complicates understandings of joy
• Brief review of literature relevant to the discussion
• Explore the potentialities of joy in our work and living
• Praxis: Collective reflection on how attendees can cultivate joy
• Takeaways: Setting the conditions for joy
• Q/A

Recommended Readings:

Jacobs, H. (1987). Incidents in the life of a slave girl: Written by herself. Harvard University Press.

Menakem, R. (2021). My grandmother’s hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Penguin Books Limited.

Okello, W.K. (forthcoming). Unspeakable joy: Higher education, loopholes of retreat, and the practice of Black joy.