Compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma are normal consequences of working in the helping field. The best strategy to address the problem is to develop excellent self care strategies, as well as an early warning system that lets the helper know that they are moving into the red zone. This is a highly interactive workshop, incorporating a combination of solo, small group and whole group -activities.
Topics covered will include:
Understanding compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma symptom checklist, targeting areas for strategic planning, evaluating self-care, identifying triggers and developing a personalized strategic plan for identifying and treating compassion fatigue

About Françoise Mathieu

During the workshop the participants will be working with hands on play therapy techniques, interacting with each other to complete various activities and seeing first-hand the expression of youth through art therapy.  H.U.G.S. uses play therapy, art therapy, music, dance, poetry, and various objects to express oneself.  The sessions can run consecutively or used as stand-alone sessions. Each session is outlined and contains clear step-by-step instructions for the crafts.

The participants will be leaving this workshop with not only education of traumatized youth expression, but also hands on activities to use in their practice, front line work or their day to day interaction with youth. Participants will be exploring the many resources for traumatized youth. I.E. Dr. Wolfelts series, Margaret Heegaurd workbooks, along with the authors titles, Where is Robert?, recipient of a certificate of appreciation from the pentagon, H.U.G.S. and Where is my Courage?

About Christine Dernederlanden

The H.U.G.S. manual was derived from the author Christine Dernederlanden's deployment to ground zero during September 11, 2001. Her main duty was to work with children of all ages and ethnicity. Her experience as the leader and facilitator for the United Nations Friendship Ambassadors September 11, 2001 grief and trauma camps enhanced her expertise in encouraging expressions from traumatized children.

This workshop is designed to educate substance abuse and mental health counselors on the prevalence of Substance Use Disorders and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among the general population, with special interest paid to the veteran population.  An overview of military culture and the difficulties facing returning veterans as well as veterans form the Vietnam War era.

This workshop will highlight the difficulties of differential diagnosis regarding the identification of these dual disorders and will discuss assessment and treatment interventions for both types of disorders. The workshops will also identify and practice techniques used to treat the client within one comprehensive treatment experience.

About Megan Sullivan

Within the trauma crucible, meditation, mindfulness, and right-brain healing methods can be used during and a trauma. This can happen by the re-telling of the Trauma narrative; practitioners being engaged as First Responders; or if practitioners have their own past traumas, these original events may be prodded by current traumatic event(s). Annihilation Anxiety often lies in the wake of traumatic events and is addressed with meditation and mindfulness. The difference between trauma-specific counter-transference, individual or personal counter-transference, and vicarious traumatization will be discussed. During this interactive workshop, discussion will include the exploration of related research, experience of various non-traditional techniques and items, and a viewing of a rare taped session of Buddhist monks using one of these meditative techniques that has been used for centuries.

During this interactive workshop, discussion will include the exploration of related research, experience of various non-traditional techniques (e.g., meditation, mindfulness) and items (e.g., singing bowl, zenergy chimes, tingsha chimes), and a viewing of a rare taped session of Buddhist monks using one of these meditative techniques that has been used for centuries.

About Dr. Dawn Brett

Efforts to address critical incident stress (CIS) have focused on post-incident intervention. Although post-incident intervention will continue to serve an essential role, there is also a need to address CIS from a prevention standpoint. Three tiers of psychological preparedness will be addressed, to create a comprehensive psychological preparedness program using existing factors within the emergency services environment.

1.  Resilience and growth: Integrating research into the training and operational environments to enhance resiliency and mitigate the stress response 2. World views and moral injury: As a supplement to customary education initiatives, preparing and equipping first responders for the potential impact on world views and moral degradation and 3.Prevention at the organizational level: Utilizing factors in the emergency services environment to lessen CIS and facilitate growth. Examples include team cohesion, organizational support, role clarity, and workload. This presentation will include applied examples, research evidence, and measurable outcomes, such as reductions in symptoms and absenteeism.

About Lori K. Gray

Dr. Lori Gray has strived to tackle the issue of trauma from multiple angles by working with first responders, trauma victims, and perpetrators. She has received awards from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Canadian and American Psychological Associations, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, University of Windsor, and Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program. Key experiences include employment and collaboration with emergency service organizations, the Psychological Trauma Program and Law and Mental Health Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Detroit Receiving Hospital (level one trauma centre in inner city Detroit), and private practice settings.

About Brad Coulbeck

Mr. Brad Coulbeck is the Detachment Commander for the OPP in Chatham. He has been an officer for 19 years, working for the Toronto Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police. He spent nine years on the Emergency Response Team, seven of those as Team Leader, Public Order Unit Leader and Search Coordinator. He holds the designations Level One Incident Commander, Public Order Incident Commander, and the rank of Staff Sergeant. Mr. Coulbeck is trained in Critical Incident Stress Management and the Advanced level of Community Crisis Response Team training. He is a certified Hypnotherapist and NeuroLinguistic Programming Practitioner.

About Marc Kobrosli 

Mr. Marc Kobrosli is a frontline paramedic with Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services. He was a founding member of the Essex-Windsor EMS Special Operations Division, where he obtained specialties in CBRNE medicine and advanced HAZMAT technician. He is an active member of the Windsor Fire & Rescue Hazardous Materials Response Team and the Provincial CBRNE Response Team. He is attending the University of Windsor and spends time teaching new Canadians and school children about the emergency services and the 911 system in Canada. He has recently developed and published a First Aid & CPR program accredited under WSIB.

First Choice - Second Choice

Lunch and Plenary Session

Safely in Our Hands:  Helping Our Helpers Stay Healthy
Angelea (Angie) Panos, Ph.D. 
Intermountain Health Care, Utah 

Dr. Angie Panos has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and has over twenty five years of clinical experience.  She is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress and a Diplomat and Fellow of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.  She has consulted with over 150 organizations after incidents of violence or trauma. 

Dr. Angie Panos has also consulted internationally to those affected by effects of war, violence and trauma. She assisted the government of Kuwait after “Desert Storm” in the planning and implementation of the postwar recovery efforts, including crisis mental health services as well as community education, rape recovery services and psycho educational materials. For her efforts she was given an award by the Crown Prince of Kuwait.  
The Association of Marriage and Family Therapists gave Dr. Panos a Special Recognition Award for Meritorious Service (1992) for her work in directing the recovery efforts with the survivors of the Altaview Hospital Hostage Siege. 

She is currently on the Board of Directors for “Gift from Within,” an international nonprofit organization that provides educational and resource materials for trauma survivors. 

Dr. Panos consulted with and helped produce numerous films, including a documentary film for PBS regarding war refugees and their struggle to survive.  Dr. Panos is currently a Professor of Practice for Argosy University and an adjunct faculty member for the University of Utah.  She has published over 10 peer-reviewed journal articles and six book chapters.  She has presented at numerous conferences world-wide on the topics of trauma and resiliency and prevention of compassion fatigue.

1. Voices of Experience - Priscilla de Villiers, Kent Laidlaw and Edward Leonard

A practical presentation by three speakers from different milieu and different vantages, who suffered serious traumatic stress due to homicide. The comparing and sharing of traumatic situational experiences, suffered by victims and responders alike, will contribute to a broader understanding of traumatic stress and stressors. 

The presentation will cover: 1 Sharing collective knowledge, 2. Critical connections arising from traumatic situations,3. Correlations of impacts upon individuals, family and community, 4. Value of anecdotal information, 5. Attitudes towards victims today, 6. The role of the media and 7. Political effects. An interactive discussion between speakers and participants on this approach and on the ideas and information generated in this presentation.

About Priscilla de Villiers

Priscilla de Villiers’ daughter was abducted and murdered by a sexual predator in 1991. She learned firsthand about personal trauma, the effects on her family, friends and the community as well as on the responders.  She soon found herself mentoring and supporting other victims of violence from across the Canada and internationally.     

About Kent Laidlaw

 Kent Laidlaw was the District Commander for the City of Burlington with the Halton Regional Police Service during that investigation as well as those of two other young women who were murdered within that year. One of which was committed by Canada’s most notorious sexual predator, Paul Bernardo. A certified traumatologist he founded and runs, Canuckcare, offering a wide range of trainings and consulting services to care-giving professionals.

About Edward Leonard

Edward Leonard, a landscape architect, lost his wife and baby son when commandos stormed their hijacked plane in Malta in1985. He worked with the Canadian Government on hijacking, the FBI in Washington and became a founding member and then Board Member of CAVEAT.

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First Choice - Second Choice

The purpose of this presentation is to propose a "hero's journey" model of post-traumatic growth in the emergency responder as a function of participation in the West Coast Post-trauma Retreat.   Post-traumatic growth and self-transcendence following psychological crises have been described in literature and philosophical accounts since antiquity. Recent clinical literature has often emphasized civilian populations exposed to trauma. However, emergency responders hold a worldview quite separate from those whom they protect. As the heroes of society, their psychological and spiritual recovery from trauma must necessarily take into account their unique culture and beliefs.         
         
The West Coast Post-trauma Retreat (WCPR) in Northern California is a six-day program specifically designed for treatment of emergency responders suffering from traumatic stress disorders. As a crucial part of the program, participants recount their career and life stories in order to make psychological sense of the traumas they have experienced. The proposed concept of the "heroes journey" provides a construct for this storytelling using archetypes and the emergency responder's quest from their distinctive "ordinary world" to a transformational "return with the elixir" and ongoing recovery.

About Marilyn Wooley, PhD

“A day at the office can consist of being harassed, working closely with pedophiles, risking exposure to hepatitis and finding people hanging from the ceiling”. Canadian Press Newswire, November 12, 2003

This presentation details how CISM is provided in the Canadian federal prison environment and the supports in place to support the volunteer CISM peer support members.  Corrections staff face the possibility of critical incidents on a daily basis and the CISM program provides support to approximately 17,000 employees nationally.  The presenters will discuss the structure of the program, information on recent research detailing the stressors in correctional work, interventions that have occurred, and program successes and challenges.  The workshop would involve a presentation on compassion fatigue and include activities for the participants such as creating their own wellness plan.

About Pamela Scott and Dorothy Reid

Pamela Scott is the Regional Manager of the Employee Assistance Program and Critical Incident Stress Management Program for the Correctional Service of Canada in British Columbia.  She has been with the department for 33 years and has held her current position for the past thirteen years.  As Regional Manager, she coordinates and trains a cadre of approximately 300 staff volunteers who act as peer helpers in the workplace.  Her role involves management of the programs, developing policies and procedures, advising management and staff, developing and providing training in EAP and CISM and the provision of wellness activities for employees.  Pamela is an approved trainer with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation and a Director of the Lower Mainland Critical Incident Stress Management Association. 

Dorothy Reid is a Clinical Team Leader/Manager with Correctional Service of Canada.  She has over 29 years of experience working with federal offenders in treatment facilities.  Her current position involves developing the assessment and intervention strategies for federal offenders in the Pacific Region who demonstrate cognitive deficits which disallow participation in core correctional programming.  She has been involved in development; implementation and evaluation of treatment strategies for high risk, high need offenders. She has also been involved in the implementation and management of Employee Assistance and Critical Incident Stress Management programs on a regional level.

Dorothy is an experienced facilitator with extensive experience in staff training in issues such as compassion fatigue, trauma and burnout focusing on both individual and organizational strategies to maintain health in high risk environments.

Evidence based research and theory will be presented related to childhood trauma. Video tapes segments will illustrate symptoms and reactions as well as practical intervention strategies to use with children and adolescents. Sensory bases interventions will be highlighted specific to the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children’s “I Feel Better Now!" Trauma Intervention Program.

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to define trauma as an experience versus a diagnostic category. Participants will learn practical evidence based intervention strategies that help more traumatized youth from victim to survivor and thriver.

About Caelan Kuban

Caelan Kuban is the Program Director of The National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children (TLC Institute). She provides short term trauma intervention and conducts local and national trainings. Caelan is the author of several articles, chapters and trauma intervention programs.

First Choice - Second Choice

Our masks are the parts of us we show the world.  Often they become so much a part of us that even for extremely well adjusted individuals it can be difficult to externalize and explore them. This workshop introduces tools we can use to explore our masks and what lays behind them. There are several facets to this interactive process-oriented workshop.  A visual feast of masks from other cultures designed to stimulate the imagination will be shown.  Various kinds of sharing processes and dialoguing will aid us in discovering the masks we wear on a daily basis.  Self-quieting and relaxation will prepare us for self-reflection.  With the mind prepared we will dig into a variety of materials including paint, tissue paper, glue, feathers and more. Participants will use these materials to create a dialog with their own blank mask. The final stage of the workshop is to share the joy and self-empowerment that comes from accessing the expression of the mask behind the mask.

1) Participants will learn about masks and their meanings in different cultures.
2) Participants will experience the relaxation and focus resulting from engaging in a creative activity.
3) Participants will have an opportunity to verbally and non-verbally explore aspects of self.
4) Participants will take home a unique mask.

About Jennifer Wortham

About Angie Panos

Secondary traumatization of caregivers is a common and unfortunate phenomenon. The symptoms, however, don’t need to be lasting or severe. Observed & Experiential Integration (OEI) is a new trauma therapy that can be self-administered by healers. This evidence based trauma therapy has taken 15 years to research and develop, and will be reviewed in this 6-hour workshop.                                

About Rick Bradshaw
Dr. Bradshaw is co-developer of OEI, and co-author of Toward Integration: One Eye at a Time (Clinician Manual & Client Handbook). He is Associate Professor of Counselling Psychology at Trinity Western University (TWU) and has completed a number of randomized clinical trials of OEI, incorporating qEEG. To date he has delivered over 50 conference papers and has 18 chapters, manuals, and journal articles published. Before TWU he was Senior Psychologist & Director of Training in the Counselling Service of Simon Fraser University for 10 years. He has been working with OEI since 1996, and currently specializes in treatment of psychological trauma and dissociative disorders. He is Level II certified in EMDR and has used EMDR for 15 years.

About Laurie Dewiler
Laurie has over fifteen years of experience working with people in counselling, workshop facilitation, teaching, and court mandated clients.  Laurie  completed her M.A., conducted research in PTSD, and since 2003 has counselled and instructed students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.  Training  in OEI and EMDR facilitate good results in therapy; finishing a Critical Incident Stress Management Program complements work on the trauma team at Kwantlen and Shepell FGI.

First Choice - Second Choice

In this 3-hour workshop, an overview of an effective treatment program for co-morbid trauma and addiction will be presented, with a special focus on treating clients in hazardous occupations, including the armed forces. Outcome studies of this program will be provided. Three experienced clinicians will give practical teaching addressing a range of interventions for the treatment of PTSD symptoms. As many of the symptoms of PTSD are physiological the role of the body, including its importance in the development of self-regulation and for releasing implicit memories, will be presented. Acupressure tapping is an effective tool for processing traumatic experiences, for symptom management and for containing overwhelming thoughts, images and emotions. Participants will learn and have an opportunity to practice this acupressure technique within the session. Sleep deprivation and disturbance is common with persons experiencing substance abuse and PTSD. Short term Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for sleep disturbance is considered a best practice therapeutic method. Participants will therefore learn practical CBT strategies for insomnia and sleep management.

About Anne Pepper
Anne Pepper, M.Ed., C.C.C., is the Supervisor of the concurrent treatment program for PTSD/trauma and addiction at Bellwood Health Services in Toronto.  In this role, she leads a treatment team that works with members of our Canadian Forces and Veterans Affairs, police, fire and EMS services who are struggling with PTSD or trauma concurrently with an addiction. Anne is a Clinical Member of the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists, and a Certified Member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association.  Anne holds a Masters of Education degree in Psychology, with graduate training in Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy, and an Advanced Certificate in Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy. She has additional clinical training in trauma therapy including a certificate in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Her professional focus is in trauma treatment that addresses the mind/body unity. Anne works both as a group and as an individual therapist, as well as conducting psycho-educational sessions on trauma.

First Choice - Second Choice

3. Supporting Child Protective Staff Following Child Fatality and Other Critical Incidents. - Mary Pulido

Child Protective Service (CPS) workers have extraordinarily difficult and demanding jobs. As "first responders" to cases of severe child abuse, support systems, such as crisis debriefing, must be incorporated into standard procedures in order to reduce the excessive stress resulting from child fatalities, severe cases of physical and sexual abuse and violence in the field and/or workplace. In New York City, the Restoring Resiliency Response (RRR) model has been utilized by Child Protective Services to alleviate the stress and anxiety associated with these issues. This model differs from classical critical incident stress debriefing, in that it does not have an investigatory stance requiring staff to retell the incident. The primary goal of these sessions is to mitigate the impact of the critical incident and to accelerate the recovery process. Focus is placed on the individual's ability to utilize support systems and past coping techniques.

About Mary Pulido

Mary L. Pulido, PhD, currently serves as the Executive Director of The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the first child protective agency in the world. She has held senior management positions at the Child Protection Center of Montefiore Medical Center, a certified Child Advocacy Center; The Children's Village, a long-term residential treatment facility for abused children; and at Covenant House/Under 21, a crisis shelter for children.

In addition to her role as the Executive Director of The NYSPCC, Dr. Pulido serves as a private consultant, lecturing and training nationally on the prevention and management of Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS). Dr. Pulido also provides consultation for trauma recovery program planning and development. Her research interests include: trauma due to violence and terrorism, the detection and prevention of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect prevention, and the management of secondary traumatic stress in the mental health field. She has also developed a protocol, entitled Restoring Resiliency Response (RRR) for crisis debriefing following child fatality, that is currently utilized throughout NYC for child protective services staff.

Dr. Pulido is a member of the Medical Reserve Corps. of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the NYC Family Court Advisory Council and the Advisory Council to the Commissioner of the NYC Administration for Children's Services. In 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Dr. Pulido to the New York City Child Fatality Review Team (CFRT). Dr. Pulido holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the City University of New York and Masters Degrees in Social Work and in Teaching.

First Choice - Second Choice

Looking at the implications of the type of work we do gives us insight, by examining the long term affects of past trauma, caring about and working to enhance and improve the lives of others.  Being caretakers we often times do not place the oxygen mask on ourselves first before giving it to others, which leads to burnout and compassion fatigue.  Within my area of expertise (military and law enforcement trauma) there are the stigmas, which prevent those who are the first responders and ones in the field from taking care of themselves. This session will look at the signs for concern, how to best address these issues, and break through the stigmas which are so detrimental to moving forward.

The participants would benefit by being in this workshop where their concerns will be addressed on the spot.  The information presented will be from my own experience as a care provider, from those with whom I have worked for nearly twenty years and from those in the room who share from their hearts.

About Dr. Bridget Cantrell

Dr. Bridget Cantrell was appointed the 2008 and 2004 Outstanding Female Non-Veteran for her service to veterans by the Governor’s Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.  In 2008, she received the Didi Hirsch Foundation Leadership Award for Erasing the Stigma of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
She has her Doctorate of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology and is a private practitioner. Dr. Cantrell is one of a small number of specially selected and trained mental health providers for the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs PTSD Program. She is also a provider under the Mental Health Fee Service Program, Puget Sound Veterans Health Care System (Seattle VA Medical Center). Specializing in trauma for several years her primary work now encompasses treating war veterans from all eras and their family members. She also works with those veterans who have been sexually abused while serving in the military. In 2003, she received the Highest Productivity award for the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) PTSD program.

We will learn simple yet profoundly effective tools to flush emotional, mental and physical toxins effortlessly from our systems. Bottom line: learn how to feel good in the moment! David's gift is in using a multifaceted yogic approach involving breath, water, sound, humor, postures, knowledge and group dynamic. Process more energy and relax bringing us to a knowingness of who we really are.

These techniques, as taught through the Art of Living Foundation have empowered 55 million people in 150 countries worldwide in the past years with greater freedom, health and well being. This technology has been presented freely after: 9/11 in NYC, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, tsunami in Southeast Asia, Veterans from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, people living with HIV/AIDS, inmates, juveniles, staff and families of the US Justice System. In the last 39 years, Dave has presented this material in such places as : Middle and High Schools and colleges, YMCAs, private clubs, prisons, Corporate America and to a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds and ages.

About David Hartman Turner and Kathleen Turner

Dr. David Hartman Turner has practiced and taught yoga and meditation for more than 39 years. He added breathing, singing, laughing, dancing, playing, knowledge, and service 19 years ago.  He’s trained and taught in Europe and all over America.   He also holds a Certificate as a Yoga Fit Teacher.
David has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, directed successful businesses, worked in corporate America, and taught computers, math, physics, biology, chemistry, and yoga in middle and high school and colleges.

Kathleen Turner holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology; she is a Licensed Clinical Drug and Alcohol Counselor. She is certified as a Disaster Response Crisis Counselor and a Criminal Justice Specialist. Kathleen is also a Reiki Master and holds a Certificate as Yoga Fit Teacher.

This workshop will explore the intersection of PTSD and people with disabilities. Typically, assessment and intervention have focused on one or the other, but have not considered the association between the two.
Studies suggest that people with some types of disabilities may be more prone to developing PTSD. Further, they may be mutually maintaining. It is also not uncommon for individuals to develop PTSD after a trauma that results in their disability, such as an automobile crash or a traumatic amputation. Furthermore, individuals with chronic medical conditions may have experienced medical procedures that resulted in pain, feelings of helplessness, loss of control, and terror. The effects of these multiple traumas are now known to be cumulative. While most studies of PTSD involve military personnel, it is known that the population most likely to develop PTSD is civilian women.

Discussion will include a review of the literature, recommended assessment methods, and implications for clinical practice. Whether working with veterans or civilians, this seminar will enhance assessment skills and understanding of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in people with disabilities.

About Penny Arcey

Penny Acrey, LMSW is the Assistant Dean for Student Success at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work, where she works with Social Work students in a variety of settings.  Formerly, she was the Associate Director of Disability Services for the University.  Her clinical interests include Trauma, PTSD, Women, and Disability.  She has presented her work at numerous State, National, and International conferences.   An alumna of UT Arlington, Penny serves on several community advisory councils and executive boards for organizations serving people with disabilities.  Originally from Houston, she and her family currently live in Fort Worth, Texas.

First Choice - Second Choice

Plenary Speaker

Peer Based Mental Health Services: Giving Purpose to Lived Experience by Having Consumers Become Part of the Solution
Lt. Col. Stephane Grenier MSC, CD 
Operational Stress Injury (OSI) - Special Advisor, Ottawa Canada 

Traditionally, mental health programs have been created and managed by professionals and clinicians.  In 2001, the Canadian Forces took an innovative approach to mental health in the workplace by appointing one of its own consumers to lead the development of non clinical interventions. A nation-wide peer support program was created and six years later a national mental health education program, centered on leveraging the lived experience of soldiers and veterans, was launched to shift attitudes and behaviours towards mental health problems. Now on part-time assignment with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, LCol Grenier has been tasked with finding ways to expand on these peer based approaches for the benefit of the broader Canadian population.  He will share with conference participants his experience of looking at mental health conditions through the eyes of consumers and adapting interventions using this paradigm. He will also illustrate how mental health education coupled with peer support initiatives can be a stepping stone to help reverse the predicted trend in mental health. 

About Lt. Col. Stephane Grenier, MSC, CD                                                                  
Lieutenant Colonel (LCol) Stephane Grenier joined the military in 1983. He has served in several missions abroad, most notably nine months in Rwanda in 1994/95 and Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2007.  He was also deployed for much shorter periods of time and has travelled to many regions of the globe including: Cambodia, Kuwait, the Arabian Gulf, Lebanon, Haiti, Norway and the Czech Republic, to name a few.   

Faced with his own undiagnosed PTSD upon return from Rwanda, he took a personal interest in the way the Canadian Forces was dealing with mental health issues. In 2001 he coined the term Operational Stress Injury (OSI) and conceived, developed implemented and managed a government based national peer-support program for the Canadian military named the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) Program.  Today OSISS is a highly successful program that delivers peer support to CF personnel, Veterans and their families affected by mental health issues, and assist those who have suffered the loss of a loved one through a Bereavement Support Program.   

In 2007 LCol Grenier was named the Operational Stress Injury Special Advisor to the Chief of Military Personnel and entrusted with the task of creating a Canadian Forces-wide work place, mental health education program.  His work led to the launch of a second highly successful non clinical mental health program within the Canadian Forces named the Mental Health & Operational Stress Injury Joint Speakers Bureau.  The Joint Speakers Bureau, now in its third year of operation, has clearly demonstrated through robust performance indicators that it is one of the most significant prevention initiatives introduced in the Canadian Forces.  The Joint Speakers Bureau is recognized as having fostered organizational and attitudinal change regarding mental health within the Canadian Forces.  

In 2009, LCol Grenier conceived a corporate mental health awareness campaign that was launched nationally by the Canadian Forces Chief of Defense Staff. The campaign was recognized and later endorsed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health as an example of corporate leadership in reducing the stigma that is often associated with mental health illnesses. 

This workshop is the second part of a 2 part series, continued from the morning session.  To fully benefit from this workshop, please select and attend Part 1 and Part 2.

In this workshop, Eric Arauz, an inspirational speaker and national award winning mental health advocate, will provide a first person narrative of the journey from the initial onset of his mental illness to the details of his current day recovery. The presentation will start by examining the personal trauma Mr. Arauz suffered as a child, prior to his own diagnosis, in which his father attempted to murder him. This part of his story is an individual example of the experience many mental health consumers have of suffering traumatic experiences within their own families. These early familial experiences will be linked to the shock and denial of his initial mental health diagnosis, his lack of belief in recovery, and lethal self stigma.  After his initial diagnosis, the speaker was incarcerated in numerous maximum security psychiatric hospitals and held in restraints for over 24 hours. The presentation will explore in-depth the experience of the hospitals and restraints, with an awareness placed on the trauma associated with treatment of the persistently mentally ill and the culture of fear associated with hospitals.  Mr. Arauz will discuss his belief that the chronic use of restraints has created a patient that is not understood and becomes isolated from interpersonal connection, an essential component for successful recovery. Lastly, the speaker will illustrate the continuing marks and stressors still attached to recovery a decade out of the hospitals, and the continuing struggle to manage his distrust of all the participants involved in his “incarceration”: police, therapists, medical doctors, family and even the trauma of needing to take pharmaceutical drugs to survive, while at the same time suffering crippling side effects.

 The participants will gain a first hand perspective into the mind and thought processes of a mentally ill consumer and his fight back into society. The presentation will lead them step by step through the hospital incarceration process, from police intervention through the hospital stay and discharge. While walking participants through this process, Mr. Arauz will elucidate his first-hand experience of delusions, paranoia and all encompassing severe psychosis. His goal is to humanize these patients professionals come into contact with on a daily basis.The speaker will also address the trauma experienced by caregivers in the hospitals taking care of this population.

About Eric Arauz

President of Arauz Inspirational Enterprises LLC-national mental health consulting/keynote speaking company: www.ericarauz.com, National award winning mental health consumer advocate, 2009 SAMHSA ‘Voice Award’ recipient, 2009 MHA-NJ Golden Bell Leadership Award recipient for mental health advocacy. Multiple time national speaker and consultant  for NASMHPD (National Assoc. of State Mental Health Program Directors), Yale University School of Nursing, Bristol Myers Squibb, CNS-Detroit, MASHMO(Midwestern Association of State Mental Health Organizations)-Indianapolis, In., Smoking Cessation Leadership Center-UC San Francisco, NCADD-NJ,  2010 Keynote speaker at American Psychiatric Nurse Association National Convention in Louisville, Ky. etc. Featured on ABC Now feature on Mind and Mood and numerous radio programs and newspaper articles (NY Post, Star Ledger, Home News etc.) Disabled veteran that served in the US Navy in Operation Desert Shield. Holds a BA with High Honors from Rutgers University and a Masters Degree from the Rutgers University Graduate School of Management and Labor Relations. Has completed a memoir-“An American Resurrection: A Memoir of Trauma and Triumph.” Consults with the Mental Health Association-NJ in their Work Institute. Sits on the NJ State Task force on Co-Occurring Disorders and numerous national consumer groups. Presenting at the 2010 ATSS Convention in Toronto on a self-created training on Trauma and the Experience of Treatment in the Mental Health System from restraints to recovery.  A nationally certified In Our Voice Trainer for NAMI and Hall of fame presenter.

First Choice - Second Choice

This ethics workshop meets standards for mandated ethics training for multiple disciplines.  As an interactive workshop, it gives participants the opportunity to share situations, dilemmas, and ethical concerns.  The workshop will include five specific areas of focus:  a values exercise that helps participants examine and identify personal and professional values; a discussion of iatrogenic harm and ways to limit its occurrence; competent practice parameters in the field of traumatology; ethical standards that are specific to trauma provision; and ways to resolve potential and actual ethical dilemmas.  Participants are encouraged to have a situation for discussion that might be a dilemma to present to the group.  They will have the opportunity to examine that situation through the use of several provided models of decision making.  Application of these ethical practice concerns to reality and the "work" of the practitioner will be a major focus of the workshop.  The presentation includes standards of practice and dilemma resolution from a variety of resources including the Office for Victims of Crime.  Implications for practice in the military setting will be included.

About Mary Beth Williams

How does one do their job and not have it affect their home life. Yet at the same time how does one not bring it home so that there is a boundary that is healthy between the two worlds. The fact is that work does impact the home life and home life does impact the work life. Part of this is communication in a way that allows one to be authentic and real and yet at the same time not to bear ones soul; sometimes to get into our feelings post work day will only make things worse and yet often the partner wants to know what our thoughts and feelings are and pushes for them to share – the result is another bad situation when there was already one at work that ‘we’ wanted to leave there – the safe refuge is gone. This will look at principles at home to maintain healthy boundaries and also ways to share without pretending. At the same we will discuss tools for family/friends to support us in a way that is helpful.

About John Robertson

Trauma and PTSD are serious issues faced by emergency services workers and military that can occur after critical incidents. First responders are often required to testify at a hearing, inquest, criminal court matter, tribunal or inquest related to these critical incidents. Having to testify can intensify one’s reaction to the trauma or re-trigger symptoms or posttraumatic stress. As a result of many experiences of first responders being required to testify, the presenters will use the example of a triple murder case to discuss effective strategies. Through poignant case study, participants will learn how to ensure the health and wellbeing of the first responder, while maintaining the integrity of the case. Recommended interventions for the peer and mental health professional for pre-testimony, during testimony and after testimony, will be outlined.

About  Barbara Anschuetz, Brad McKay and Frederick DeWinne

Dr. Anschuetz maintains a private practice in Newmarket , Ontario with a specialization in treating emergency services personnel,  individuals and families who have experienced a sudden and traumatic loss, like survivors of homicide and suicide.  Barbara is also the clinical director of the York Region CISM Team, which has 35 members, representing emergency services and mental health personnel and clergy.

Brad McKay is a Staff Sergeant of York Regional Police. He is a Certified Trauma Responder and coordinates the York Region CISM Team.

Frederick DeWinne is a Constable with the York Regional Police.

First Choice - Second Choice

About Dr. John Arrowood

During the years 2004-2007 the California Highway Patrol (CHP) faced an alarming increase in suicide unprecedented in its history. Because the incidence of suicide among members of the Patrol had become so sensationalized in the media and among the well-fueled grapevine of employee knowledge it was decided that suicide prevention and intervention  information needed to be presented swiftly, credibly, safely, and virtually simultaneously throughout the state.                                                               

Members of the CHP Peer Support Team attended 40 hours of training and under the guidance of the instructor, a licensed mental health professional, developed a course designed to meet the specific needs of the California Highway Patrol.  The collaboration of expertly trained peers and clinical specialists produced a culturally appropriate curriculum specifically designed for presentation by peer support personnel.  The goal of “Not One More!” was to reduce the incidence of suicide by increasing the staff confidence to recognize, intervene and ultimately, prevent suicide in a colleague. This workshop will present the CHP’s “Not One More!” program and review procedural challenges faced in training a large statewide organization.  In addition, the workshop will review and prepare participants to adapt the CHP’s experience for implementation in their own organizations.

About Elizabeth Dansie

Elizabeth Dansie is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Northern California. She is owner of the Psychological Services Group and responds frequently to the California Highway Patrol. She is an ICISF Approved Instructor and is contracted to provide CISM services to numerous law enforcement and fire agencies throughout Northern California.

First Choice - Second Choice

Only a handful of states in the U.S. have successfully passed legislation ensuring protection for those who provide critical incident response services. This session will provide comprehensive information on keys elements of navigating the legislative process and successfully getting legislation passed into law.
Topics will include: key pieces of legislation (Tort Liability Protection, Mandate of Confidentiality, Testimonial Privilege) to seek, use of language in bills, stakeholder involvement, importance of bill sponsors, using lobbyists, the legislative process, legislative committees, handling opposition, and potential pitfalls encountered during the process and how to respond.

About Becky Stoll

Ms. Stoll is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 16 years of behavioral health experience. She is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress and a Diplomate of the American Association of Experts in Traumatic Stress. In addition, she is certified in Acute Traumatic Stress Management by the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, is certified as a Trauma Specialist by the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists, and is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional.  She is a member of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialist and the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. Her professional experience has included both clinical and management responsibilities. Ms. Stoll’s clinical concentration has covered such areas as assessment and diagnosis, individual and family therapy, critical incident stress management and mental health disaster response.

The purpose of this presentation is to introduce Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) as a sustainable method of having people in the helping professions and trauma related fields work with peers to:  resolve distressing incidents that occur in the course of their work, resolve past upsetting or traumatic incidents that become triggered along the way in work and other settings.  The three hour presentation does not teach TIR as a technique. It does present immediately applicable theory and some practical exercises and techniques. So much emphasis is placed on coping strategies, which are certainly important and good to have.  However,  Ms. Volkman will present a realistic, practical model for real resolution of traumatic stress.

About Marian Volkman

When the Chronic Sorrow (CS) of family care giving converges with the burnout and traumatic stress of trauma work, a profound form of Compassion Fatigue can result, leaving the professional/family caregiver deeply depleted, saddened and autonomically aroused. Chronic Sorrow is the pervasive and ongoing set of grief responses found in people with permanent impairments and in those who love them.
This workshop will use a combination of mini-presentations and discovery-based learning to help participants to:
1.  Recognize CS as a crucial fourth factor in the development of Compassion Fatigue in family caregivers
2.  Explore the characteristics of CS,
3.  Differentiate CS from clinical depression and chronic grief,
4.  Discover specific, practical strategies for modulating and living well with CS,
5.  Create a personalized self care plan, and to
6.  Understand the therapeutic approaches best suited to working with people with CS.

Participants will become better able to:
1.  Recognize CS and assess it as a factor in their own Compassion Fatigue and that of their family care recipient(s) and clients.
2.  Choose appropriate goals and healing paths for themselves and, in partnership,  their family care recipient(s) and clients.
3.  Create a specific and personalized CS self care plan, and
4.  Build healthy, authentic "care-partnering" relationships with their family care recipient(s) and clients.

About Jan Spilman

The Recovery Cycle training model was developed to help tri-athletes increase their physical strength and reduce the chance of injury. We will present the key points of this model then explore its application to individuals working with and witnessing trauma. During this session we will experience and reflect on three strategies: music, art, and education. These are three powerful tools, which enable us to invigorate our bodies, minds and spirits. This interactive workshop explores the music and art within each of us, so “innate” abilities are not required to participate. Come, enjoy and engage at whatever level you find comfortable. Not a “day spa” experience, but it is structured so participants will emerge feeling stimulated to maintain, regain, or strengthen one’s own health. Practical ideas of how to integrate enjoyable self-care into professional practice and personal style will be addressed.

About Kath Murray

Kath Murray is a hospice palliative care nurse and educator. Kath established Life and Death Matters(LDM) to develop educational opportunities and resources to assist individuals in further enhancing the quality of their care for the dying and bereaved. She is director of the LDM online education program, which offers online education approved for continuing education credits with ATSS.

About  Bev Foster

Bev Foster is an experienced performer and music educator. As founder and Executive Director of the Room 217 Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation and registered Canadian charity dedicated to music and care, Bev travels widely to perform and speak. Bev teaches “Music Care: Caring for the dying person with music” one of the courses approved for credit with ATSS.

About Jennifer Wortham

First Choice - Second Choice

This workshop is the second part of a 2 part series, continued from the morning session.  To fully benefit from this workshop, please select and attend Part 1 and Part 2.

In First Nation communities the concepts of unity and individualism is often the core of conflicts and challenges. Discussing the concepts of hierarchy and leadership styles in the workplace which affects the employee’s morale often contributes to dictatorship, coercion, bullying, mobbing. In this presentation we will discuss the issues which affect individuals and the potential for violence in the workplace. We will recognize the situation as being critical as the move from unity to individualism has taken its toll on the values and imposes stresses on those resistant to change. There is a struggle for power of a few to enforce policies which often negate the existing ways. In this presentation we will look at various strategies and resources.          

About Mary Jane Hannaburg

Mary Jane Hannaburg is a counselor at the Native Mental Health Centre in Kanesatake, as the first native woman employed at the Centre.   As a counselor, she is assigned in large part to suicide intervention watches. She says the problem of substance abuse among native teens is just a symptom for deeper issues. In her role as a mental health worker, Ms. Hannaburg assists and supports clients, and their families, who may be coping with mental illness, grief, trauma, isolation and everyday stress. She is also trained in suicide prevention and intervention.

3. The Intergenerational Trauma Treatment Model (ITTM) for Complex Childhood Trauma - Valerie Copping and Katreena Scott

Intergenerational cycles of trauma are often present in children presenting with complex trauma. Although there are a number of empirically-validated treatment models for childhood trauma, they often fail to sufficiently address intergenerational patterns of trauma transmission. The Intergenerational Trauma Treatment Model (ITTM) is a multigenerational approach to trauma treatment with the aims of strengthening the parent-child relationship by motivating and teaching the parent to effectively help their children cope with the effects of trauma exposure. This manualized 21-session intervention is designed to ameliorate the impact of chronic trauma on children’s development in three treatment phases: psycho educational group sessions for parents; individual parent sessions to address trauma impact in caregivers; and finally child and caregiver intervention to address children’s trauma-related behaviors and symptoms and promote stronger parent-child relations. In this presentation, we will outline theoretical arguments supporting joint caregiver-child treatment for complex childhood trauma and describe the Intergenerational Trauma Treatment Model (ITTM). Our training focus will be on activities in Phase 1 of intervention. Strategies used to contain trauma-related affect and empower children’s caregivers will be demonstrated and practiced. Our presentation will end with a short review of research data from caregivers and children supporting the efficacy of this approach.

About Valerie Copping, PhD Candidate 2010

Valerie Copping is the author, lead trainer and clinical consultant for the Intergenerational Trauma Treatment Program. Currently, there are 10 children's mental health clinics across Ontario, and over 300 ITTM trained clinicians practicing the ITTM model as an essential service for children and their caregivers who have experienced complex trauma. There are also six Certified ITTM Trainers across Ontario who are responsible for providing 100-hours of ITTM training to new staff entering their clinics. After fifteen years of development and research, the model has proved it's effectiveness to the point of being exported to National and International audiences. In addition to providing training, courses and consultation, Valerie is involved as part-time faculty for teaching post-graduate courses on advanced clinical skills training. Finally, Valerie acts as the psychological consultant to graduating interns at the School of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto. Valerie's 20 years of clinical skills training, clinical supervision, research and practice continues to inform the innovative and comprehensive complex trauma treatment field in the provision of effective and comprehensive, innovative treatments for children who have experienced trauma and their caregivers. It is the only model available that involves the caregiver in each session of the relatively brief 21-session model.

About Katreena Scott

Dr. Scott is an Assistant Professor and Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology at the University of Toronto. Early in 2009, Dr. Scott was assigned the Canada Research Chair in the prevention and treatment of family violence. In 2008, in recognition of her contributions to the field of family violence Dr. Scott was awarded the Early Researcher Award from the Government of Ontario. Dr. Scott is the lead research investigator of The Intergenerational Trauma Treatment Model's ongoing geographical, multi-cultural, control group study. Most recently, Dr. Scott wrote and published a descriptive article on the ITTM, published in The Journal of Behavior of Analysis and Treatment: Offender and Victim (2008, November). Dr. Scott has authored numerous articles and book chapters on the development of violent relationships, the efficacy of service to male batterers, the effect of abuse and trauma on children and on empirically and ethically sound policies for working with abuse perpetrators. Dr. Scott is also the lead investigator on the Caring Dads: Helping Fathers Value their Children program, a promising new intervention program for fathers who been abusive in their families.

First Choice - Second Choice

While trauma, affects every aspect of humanness, methods for helping focus almost exclusively on the cognitive behavioral concerns. Studies in pursuit of best treatment practices have shown the effects of trauma on the limbic system. During the normal course of life, together the limbic system structures, the amygdala and hippocampus, process and store both the event and the emotions attached to the event. During trauma, this often does not happen; the emotions are stored (amygdala) but often out of context with the event (hippocampus). This happens because the amygdala is unaffected by stress hormones, but heightened stress levels suppress hippocampal functioning. Thus, in trauma, distressing emotions, confusing behaviors and impulses exist (amygdala) without access to the language and other information (hippocampus) that created them.

Since the 2004, MRI studies by Lanius, regarding the storage of emotional content within the brain’s right hemisphere, the value of using cognitive and language based strategies for trauma therapy are being questioned. Alternatively, approaches which gain the attention of the brain’s right hemisphere are showing promising results. During this presentation, a model and methods, which gain the attention of the right cerebral hemisphere and thus a more wholistic approach to trauma care, will be presented.

About Dr. Jane A. Simington

Dr. Jane A. Simington, Ph. D., is the owner of Taking Flight International Corporation and the developer of both the Trauma Recovery Certification Program and the Grief Support Certification Program. She compliments her academic background in both Nursing and Psychology, with an extensive knowledge of alternative and complimentary methods of healing, including the uses of energy-transfer-healing, dream interpretation, art and guided imagery.

Dr. Simington is adjunct faculty at Union Institute and University in Cincinnati Ohio, St. Stephen’s College, and the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta. She regularly facilitates programs and training sessions for a variety of other colleges and institutes, including Nechi Institute for Training and Health Promotion for Aboriginal Peoples in St. Albert, AB. and Grant Mac Ewan College, in Edmonton, AB. As a therapist and educator, Dr. Jane Simington has considerable experience working in the areas of grief and trauma, across the life span, with both genders, and with people from a variety of cultures, including First Nations Canadians.