Wellness Conference: April 4-5, 2024
Casper College Counseling Services believes in the importance of offering professionals, students and interested community members opportunities to learn about a variety of topics related to both physical and mental health.
Each spring we sponsor the annual Wellness Conference. The Wellness Conference allows professionals and experts in the Rocky Mountain Region to come together and share their expertise.
The Wellness Conference consists of several mini-courses presented by professionals in the community. These mini-courses throughout Thursday are FREE to the public. On Friday the workshop for professionals is presented and a fee is required to attend this workshop.
The Friday workshop, which includes 3 suicide CEUs and 1.5 ethics, is designed for mental health professionals and requires pre-registration and $35 payment. We hope to see you all there!
12 CEUs will be available this year
For more information, please contact Erin Ford
Casper College Wellness Center 307-268-2255 • erin.ford@caspercollege.edu
Download the 2024 conference brochure (PDF)
Registration for Friday afternoon’s professional workshop
To pay by check:Please return this registration form to: Casper College Counseling
Registration Form (PDF)
Attn: Erin Ford
125 College Drive • Casper, WY 82601
email: erin.ford@caspercollege.edu
To pay by credit card:
- Call Casper College Accounting at 307-268-2244
- Email registration information to erin.ford@caspercollege.edu
Schedule and Session Descriptions
Location: Walter H. Nolte Gateway building, Room 225
Thursday, April 4, 2024
9-10:20 a.m.
Providing Self-Regulation Skills to Children and Youth
- Kyree Chambers, Conscious Discipline Senior Instructor
With ever increasing behaviors in our youth, it is important to teach and educate our generation on what to do when feelings come up. By using the five steps of regulation from the research of Conscious Discipline, not only will our youth learn more skills but so will the adults supporting them. Whether in a mental health setting, a care center, school, or at home, these skills benefit all who experience them.
10:30-11:50 a.m.
Cultural Values: Examining How Worldview Shapes Therapeutic Relationships
- Amy Adwalpalker, MA, PPC
In this engaging presentation, participants will learn a framework that delineates 13 American cultural values in contrast to 13 traditional cultural values. Participants will learn to utilize this model to look for clues in the client’s speech and behavior about the client’s cultural values and will consider the impact of personal cultural lenses on the counseling relationship and outcomes. Finally, participants will learn strategies for increasing cultural competence and consideration of the impact of social location on diverse populations in Casper, and surrounding areas.
Lunch — Each attendee will be responsible for their own lunch.
Refreshments will be provided throughout the conference.
1-2:20 p.m.
Setting Boundaries in Theory and in Practice
- Kristen Rigoni, MA, LCSW
In our training as counselors, therapists, and social workers, we learn the importance of setting boundaries with our clients, in the workplace, and even in our personal lives. The code of ethics of our professions provide guidelines of what these boundaries should be. Theoretically, we understand these ethics and guidelines and agree that they should be followed. However, setting boundaries in practice is often easier said than done. This presentation will explore some of the situations that we encounter that make it difficult to set boundaries, reflect on the reasons setting boundaries can be challenging, and offer solutions to setting stronger boundaries.
2:30-3:50 p.m.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
- David Martorano, MD
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is an FDA approved therapy for medication-resistant depression. The procedure uses highly-focused magnetic pulses to stimulate nerve cells in the brain known to affect mood regulation. It is noninvasive and free of the side effects patients can experience when they take anti-depressants. Dr. Martorano is a specialist in TMS and will discuss applications in impatient and outpatient psychiatry and its use at Wyoming Behavioral Health in Casper as well as Cody Regional Behavioral Health.
6-8 p.m.
Special screening of the PBS documentary “Hiding in Plain Sight.” Followed by a Q&A panel discussion with film participants including Kee Dunning, a 2021 Casper College Exemplary Alumni and film contributor
Follow the journeys of more than 20 young Americans from all over the country and all walks of life, who have struggled with thoughts and feelings that have troubled — and at times — overwhelmed them. The film presents an upclose look at the seemingly insurmountable obstacles faced by those who live with mental health disorders and the hope that many have found after the storm. The film also features first-person accounts from parents, teachers, friends, and healthcare providers who walk with them along the journey.
Kee Dunning is a Casper College alumni and long-time supporter of the Casper College Foundation. Kee has spent 40 years in mental health practice with children and families listening, learning, and responding to the needs that arise. Dunning is thrilled to bring this special screening of her PBS documentary to the 2024 Wellness Conference and to the state of Wyoming.
To learn more about the documentary and about Dunning and her practice, visit these links: yellowstonevalleywoman.com/hiding-in-plain-sight and pbs.org/show/hiding-plain-sight-youth-mental-illness
Friday, April 5, 2024
9-10:20 a.m.
The Kee Concepts of Communication
- Kee Dunning, MS, LPC
The Kee Concepts of Communication training will include a guided exploration of the concepts. We will include strategies for having difficult yet critical conversations, how to establish accountability and set boundaries in collaborative partnerships, and how to create and maintain a psychologically safe environment. We will apply the concepts through structured simulation and debrief. Simulation and debrief are grounded in the “Debriefing with Good Judgement” — Jenny Rudolf et al, Centers of Medical Simulation and “Team Psychological Safety” — Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School. We use the concepts with all clients regardless of age and teach the concepts
across multiple professional disciplines including education and health care.
10:30-11:50 a.m.
Ethical Principle of Social Justice: Application to Practice
- Bethany Cutts, MSW, LCSW
The presentation will explore three questions: Are we promoting social justice in our practice? How are we promoting social justice in our practice? Can we do more? Utilizing Janet Finn’s “Just Practice Framework in Action,” we will look into the ethical standards and principals of promoting social justice within the helping profession and the application of the five key concepts of Just Practice: Meaning context, power, history, and possibility.
Lunch — Each attendee will be responsible for their own lunch.
Refreshments will be provided throughout the conference.
1:00-3:50 p.m.
Suicide Risk Assessment and Risk Management
- Amanda DeDiego, PHD, LPC
This presentation will provide an overview of suicide risk assessment and risk management for outpatient mental health settings. The presentation will include an overview of the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale Risk Assessment. The presentation will also discuss consideration of cultural awareness related to participant identities in suicide assessment and risk management e.g. — LGBT+, age, race/ethnicity, chronic illness. The presentation will provide ideas about documentation and strategies for
management of suicide risk for firearm owners.
Friday workshops are designed for mental health professionals and requires preregistration and $35 payment.
Includes 3 Ethics CEUS!