Session Description: Family involvement in substance use and co-occurring treatment can be a turning point for recovery—or a major source of clinical complexity. Not all families are healthy or functional, yet with skilled engagement, even challenging systems can become valuable allies in client care. This workshop provides clinicians with advanced, evidence-informed strategies to maintain a strong therapeutic alliance with the client while ethically and effectively integrating family members into the treatment process.

Drawing on systemic, trauma-informed, and attachment-based frameworks, we will explore how to navigate loyalty binds, emotional triangulation, role confusion, and cultural factors that influence family engagement. Participants will learn how to turn potential alliance ruptures into opportunities for systemic repair, keeping the client’s goals and autonomy at the center of care.

Through a blend of didactic teaching, real-world case vignettes, and interactive discussion, attendees will gain practical tools including a Clinical Engagement Checklist, boundary-setting scripts, and a Triangle Mapping Tool for visualizing and resolving triangulation patterns.

By the end of the session, participants will be equipped to:
- Identify common risks and alliance challenges in family-inclusive treatment.
- Apply strategies that preserve client trust while engaging families as recovery partners.
- Implement interventions that support healthy boundaries and systemic healing.

This workshop is designed for therapists, counselors, supervisors, and multidisciplinary team members working in residential, outpatient, or hybrid settings where family involvement plays a key role in treatment outcomes.

Session Description: This presentation will provide realistic information and understanding of the lives of children growing up with parental addiction. Childhood trauma and chronic unmanaged stress of growing up with parental addiction causes lifelong effects. Children develop survival roles which can cause misunderstanding, suffering, and confusion outside the family system. Services are limited for all of these children. Poverty, parental incarceration, systematic racism and other forms of discrimination further affect availability and participation. The kinds of trauma and its effects are crucial to know. We must believe a child when they do courageously disclose difficult or frightening living situations, or even unimaginable abuse and neglect. Targeted intervention can offer acceptance, compassion, trust, sharing of emotions, and development of coping skills. Children do, though, certainly develop resiliencies and strengths through the adversity based on many factors in the environment and their own inner resources. These are to be validated and built upon. The survival roles will be explained in a developmental manner. Examples of resiliencies to look for and to celebrate are offered. Each of these are accompanied by examples of children. Some time will be spent demonstrating, some with voluntary small-group audience participation, activities that are engaging and meaningful to do with children in groups. Some may be adapted to individual work. Full directions and rationale for each activity, including additional ones, are provided.

Session Description: This training explores the clinical challenges of working with individuals who experience emotional numbness and suicidal thoughts. These clients often present with disengagement, low motivation, and a diminished sense of connection or purpose—making traditional therapeutic approaches less effective. Through a compassion-focused lens, participants will learn how to assess warning signs, foster engagement, and introduce practical, hope-centered interventions. The training equips clinicians with tools to respond to passive and active suicidal ideation, build therapeutic alliance with resistant clients, and help clients reconnect with meaning in their lives.

Session Description: Despite the well-established effectiveness of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), access remains limited, particularly among underserved and hard-to-reach populations including individuals experiencing homelessness, recent incarceration, or acute crises. Traditional treatment systems often impose barriers such as long wait times, rigid program requirements, and stigma, leaving many without care during critical windows of need. In response, a new wave of innovative, low-threshold models is emerging across the U.S. to bridge this gap. This presentation will highlight practical, real-world approaches designed to meet people where they are—both geographically and clinically. Examples include EMS and paramedic teams initiating buprenorphine in the field following overdose reversal, jail-based programs that coordinate mobile MOUD vans for induction at the time of release, and emergency departments offering same-day prescribing without requiring formal intake into long-term addiction treatment. Additional models include bridge clinics co-located within hospital settings or syringe service programs, and community outreach teams pairing peer support specialists with prescribers to offer street-based buprenorphine induction. These approaches reduce friction in the care continuum and reflect a shift toward harm reduction-oriented delivery systems. Drawing on recent studies in the published literature, this session will cover outcomes and operational models. Particular attention will be given to how these programs reach underserved populations and navigate regulatory and logistical barriers. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of scalable models for expanding access to MOUD and how these approaches can be adapted to a variety of clinical and community settings.

Scientific Basis or Research: This presentation will highlight emerging, low-threshold and non-traditional models for MOUD delivery that have shown promise in overcoming structural and situational barriers, as evidenced by publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals (see specific studies below in "Bibliographic References").

Bibliographic References: Carroll, G., Solomon, K. T., Heil, J., Saloner, B., Stuart, E. A., Patel, E. Y., Greifer, N., Salzman, M., Murphy, E., Baston, K., & Haroz, R. (2023). Impact of Administering Buprenorphine to Overdose Survivors Using Emergency Medical Services. Annals of emergency medicine, 81(2), 165–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2022.07.006 Sullivan, R. W., Szczesniak, L. M., & Wojcik, S. M. (2021). Bridge clinic buprenorphine program decreases emergency department visits. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 130, 108410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2021.108410 Krawczyk N, Buresh M, Gordon MS, Blue TR, Fingerhood MI, Agus D. Expanding low-threshold buprenorphine to justice-involved individuals through mobile treatment: addressing a critical care gap. J Subst Abus Treat. (2019) 103:1–8. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2019.05.002 Chan, B., Hoffman, K. A., Bougatsos, C., Grusing, S., Chou, R., & McCarty, D. (2021). Mobile methadone medication units: A brief history, scoping review and research opportunity. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 129, 108483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2021.108483

Does your session require a specific room set? : No

Session Description: This session examines the increasing use and clinical implications of unregulated substances commonly referred to as “gas station drugs,” a broad category of over-the-counter compounds including tianeptine, kratom, phenibut, synthetic cannabinoids, and other poorly regulated psychoactive products. Despite being legally sold at convenience stores, smoke shops, and online, many of these substances pose significant risks for dependency, adverse physical effects, and interactions with other drugs, especially in vulnerable populations such as adolescents, individuals in recovery, and those with limited access to healthcare.

In addition to exploring the pharmacology of these substances and the current usage trends, this session will also focus on the importance of community awareness and intervention strategies. Participants will discuss how to effectively raise awareness in communities about the risks associated with these substances and encourage proactive engagement among community members to support those affected.

Moreover, the session will address public health issues arising from the legal uncertainty surrounding these substances, emphasizing strategies for screening, clinical intervention, client education, and policy advocacy. By equipping professionals with the tools needed to foster community engagement and awareness, we can better identify and tackle these emerging challenges within addiction treatment and prevention contexts, ensuring a more comprehensive approach to addressing the issues at hand.

Session Description: Although family therapy has the largest base of empirical support for treating adolescent substance use (ASU), there are several significant barriers to its widespread adoption. Informed by research and clinical practice in real world settings, this training will provide instruction in techniques for therapists to build a relational frame with youth and their families. Participants will be invited to learn and practice a relational and systemic set of interventions that are socioculturally attuned, pragmatic, and accessible. Techniques include Parent Collaboration, Enhancing Parental Love and Commitment, Parent Ecoystem, Family Goal Collaboration, and Relational Reframing. The training will be experiential, with opportunities for participants to observe the techniques via video demonstrations, practice with co-trainees, and engage in reflective processes related to self of the therapist. At the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
• Provide information on the core elements approach for family therapy for adolescent substance use.
• Increase clinicians’ capacity to understand adolescent substance use problems as relational.
• Familiarize clinicians with treatment engagement strategies for adolescents and their families.
• Offer clinicians an overview of family therapy techniques for inviting change in meaning and change in behavior for adolescents and their families.
• Explore with clinicians how self of the therapist and identity/systems of oppression impact family therapy for SUD.

Session Description: Deception in psychotherapy is far more common than many clinicians realize, yet it remains one of the least discussed aspects of therapeutic practice. Research suggests that clients withhold information or provide false details in approximately 70-90% of therapeutic encounters, ranging from minor omissions to significant fabrications about symptoms, behaviors, or life circumstances.
This presentation addresses the complex phenomenon of client deception through both theoretical and practical lenses. We will explore the underlying motivations that drive clients to lie - including shame, fear of judgment, desire to please, or self-protection—and examine how these deceptions can both hinder and, paradoxically, sometimes reveal important therapeutic material.
Drawing from attachment theory, psychodynamic principles, and contemporary research on therapeutic relationships, we will discuss how to recognize subtle signs of deception while maintaining the delicate balance between clinical curiosity and therapeutic trust. Participants will learn strategies for creating safety that reduces the likelihood of deception, as well as skillful interventions for addressing dishonesty when it emerges.
Rather than viewing client lies as obstacles to overcome, this presentation reframes deception as meaningful communication that can deepen our understanding of client psychology and strengthen the therapeutic alliance when handled with skill and compassion.

Session Description: This presentation will challenge the clinical label of "treatment resistance" reframing persistent distress as a deeply rational, albeit painful, response to early interpersonal trauma. Individuals struggling to heal are not fundamentally flawed but are governed by internal and relational survival strategies, which often prevent them from accessing safety and connection. We will explore the painful, contradictory bind many trauma survivors experience: desperately wanting to be seen and understood while simultaneously being terrified that true closeness will inevitably expose their perceived inadequacy and unworthiness.

This internal conflict is further complicated by survival behaviors like substance use. While substance use can functionally mitigate some forms of emotional pain, it often simultaneously intensifies alienation from self and others. We will explore how to intentionally shift clinical practice from a focus on pathology and compliance to a paradigm centered on enhancing a safer form of relational joining. The core aim is to equip clinicians with strategies to help clients gain secure access to their internal experiences and fundamentally aims to recode attempts at connection from feeling like a potential threat to building a genuine alliance.

Session Description: Embark on a transformative journey with Project Empathy, a workshop designed to dismantle the stigmatization surrounding substance use disorders. Rooted in evidence-based practices, this innovative session provides a profound exploration of the neuroscience of addiction. By seamlessly integrating the latest research, we unveil barriers, shedding light on why current treatment models often fall short and leave a significant population unsupported.

Introducing solution-focused therapy, strength-based approaches, positive psychology, and empathy as potent tools, this workshop offers practical insights for incorporating these principles into a range of substance use disorder-related interactions. Whether in casual engagements or professional treatment methodologies, discover how to infuse empathy and positive intervention into every facet of your approach.

Stay informed with up-to-date information on the impact of substance use, with a dedicated focus on the unique challenges faced by adolescents. Project Empathy serves as your gateway to a more compassionate and effective understanding of substance use disorders. Join us in breaking down barriers, fostering empathy, and reshaping the narrative around addiction. It's time to transform knowledge into action and ensure that everyone, without exception, belongs and matters.

Session Description: Harm reduction helps individuals reduce the consequences of risky behavior and is a proven, effective intervention. However, many clinicians fear the liability of working with someone who is making unhealthy, dangerous, and illegal choices. This presentation will describe Harm Reduction Psychotherapy’s (HRP) core concepts, how to use it in practice, and why it is a controversial topic. Referencing the Board of Social Work Standards for Practice Code of Ethics, Board of Counseling Regulations Standards of Practice, AMHCA Code of Ethics, and NADAAC/NCC AP Code of Ethics the presenters will role-play how they have managed the ethical challenges of practicing HRP. Participants will walk away with a clearer understanding of the ethical considerations in using HRP with individuals and groups as well as tangible tools to engage clients in individual and group sessions.

Session Description: Self-care for therapists and other healthcare providers has long been discussed and verbally supported. Society makes statements akin to "You have to prioritize yourself!" This sentiment in the field typically refers to self-care as surface-level luxuries as opposed to consistent practices that support deep-rooted value and balance. Additionally, there are very few organizational steps taken to support this concept. Too many therapists or healthcare practitioners fall victim to internalized stigma of the healthcare professional: It is selfish to practice self-care as a healthcare practitioner. The terms "burnout" and "compassion fatigue" are often used interchangeably in the field, by employers and practitioners alike. This creates confusion in practitioners when attempting to identify which issue they are facing. Each of these issues can have negative consequences, but they differ in the way those consequences manifest. Therefore, healthcare practitioners must utilize self-care practices as preventive tools to avoid each issue: burnout and compassion fatigue.

Session Description: This session explores the emerging role of GLP-1 receptor agonists in treating addictive behaviors - from binge eating to alcohol use disorder. We will examine how these medications influence reward pathways, reduce compulsive drive, and support recovery when integrated with psychological and relational care. Blending science, ethics, and clinical insight, this presentation opens the door for a nuanced discussion about healing, agency, and the future of metabolic psychiatry.

Family members—whether biological, extended, or chosen—are often overlooked in clinical, research, and policy discussions about the impacts of substance use disorders (SUD). For every individual with a SUD, multiple family members are affected, and the health and social impact of a loved one’s substance use on families is substantial. Families impacted by SUD are at high risk for their own health issues, including depression, anxiety, and exacerbation of substance use or chronic health problems. The impact of these consequences is heightened because of the stigma, guilt, shame and self-blame that often accompany substance use. As a result, families affected by SUD seldom seek support for themselves, which perpetuates their social isolation and increases their health risks. This session will describe the literature on the unique effects of SUD on families and how these effects can change throughout their loved one’s substance use trajectory, including research understanding the “special grief” people who are bereaved by overdose deaths experience. Dr. Osilla will also discuss a range of evidence-based strategies for supporting families. In particular, she will provide clinical insights on implementing the Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (CRAFT) for families seeking tools to help a loved one who is resistant to treatment. Additionally, she will share grief support techniques for those grieving a drug-related death. This session ultimately aims to champion the needs of families affected by SUD, and it urges the field to both understand the nuances families experience and tailor effective strategies for serving this often-overlooked group.

Enjoy dedicated networking events and engaging activities that encourage meaningful conversations while enjoying the company of like-minded peers who are passionate about fostering a supportive community for healing and growth. Seize the opportunity to broaden your network and fully explore the array of opportunities we have in store for you! Enhance your experience and get firsthand insights into the latest products and services in addiction treatment and behavioral health. Explore our buzzing Exhibit Hall to establish long-lasting relationships, explore innovative solutions, and discover exciting opportunities that can transform your professional and personal development.

Session Description: 5.24 billion people currently engage with social media globally. More than 100 million users are currently estimated to engage with A.I. chatbots. These astounding numbers are only predicted to continue to increase. Although evidenced to offer some benefits, social media and A.I. chatbots/“companions” have both been the targets of vociferous criticism regarding significantly negative effects they can produce for some users. As juggernaut incubators and conduits of psychopathology, a risk factor of emergent alarm to professionals surrounds how engagement with either may engender the manifestation of substance abuse, relapse, psychosomatic symptoms, support false self-diagnoses (including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, autism, OCD, self-harm, addiction, and gender/sexual identity-related disorders), and contribute to the sharing of inaccurate, specious, and even dangerous mental health and addictive disorder information.

There is thus a critical call for an increased understanding of how social media, “Influencers,” untrained digital Creators, A.I. chatbot “companions” (created through apps like ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, Claude, Character.ai, and Replika), and online echo chambers promote inaccurate healthcare information and potentially dangerous widespread contagion effects. These are robust topics of current concerned discussion among healthcare professionals, and the focus of this interactive session. A Q&A will follow the presentation.

Session Description: Why do relapse rates remain stubbornly high despite decades of treatment advances? The answer lies in what we're not addressing: the unprocessed traumatic wounds that fuel addiction at its core. While traditional behavioral interventions focus on surface-level symptoms, cutting-edge research reveals that clients turn to substances to regulate emotional distress when secure human connections—the very foundation of healing—are absent or damaged. Without addressing these underlying attachment disruptions and trauma responses, even our most motivated clients remain vulnerable to relapse and ongoing emotional distress (van der Kolk, 2014; Johnson, 2019).
This workshop introduces addiction counselors to Emotionally Focused Therapy's attachment-based framework that treats addiction as an attachment disorder requiring relational healing, not just behavioral modification. You'll discover how EFT interventions process underlying traumatic affect while creating secure attachment bonds that replace substance self-medication.
Through powerful video demonstrations, guided practice, and experiential exercises, you'll learn how EFT: (1) helps clients access and organize internalized emotional pain underlying trigger moments, (2) engages clients with this newly unfolding narrative so they experience their story's emotional truth, while (3) facilitating vulnerable, authentic sharing with significant others and helping clients receive loving responses.
This approach proves especially effective with clients who've attempted recovery multiple times but struggle to sustain progress—those who know what to do but can't maintain doing it.
You'll leave equipped with specific interventions for accessing traumatic distress safely and creating corrective attachment experiences that stabilize long-term recovery by addressing addiction's emotional roots, not just behavioral symptoms.

Session Description: Clinicians working in the SUDS field will encounter many clients with negative body image. While some of the body image issues may relate to a co-occurring Eating Disorder or Body Dysmorphic Disorder, negative body image and “normative discontent” are sadly much too common for many individuals. Criticism is so often projected onto our mirrored reflection and ourselves, causing distress and distraction.

Amidst the many complex steps involved in treating addictions, negative body image and body image disturbance are difficult issues to address. Beliefs about one’s body, including culturally influenced idealizations about shape and size, are developed in multifactorial ways, and the unlearning and reframing of these beliefs are similarly multifaceted.

This session will focus on gaining knowledge that can assist in effectively navigating clients toward a life with a less disordered relationship with the body. This presentation will focus on the truths about body image, accompanied by a variety of multi-theoretical interventions to consider incorporating into ongoing recovery work. Among the strategies highlighted will be decreasing dangerous language traps, applying memorable metaphors, focusing on function-over-form, and unblending the distress projected onto the body. There is no magic cure, but a combination of tools to incorporate into ongoing treatment can help.

Session Description: In recent decades, trauma has evolved from a narrowly defined clinical concept into a dominant explanatory model in behavioral healthcare —particularly within the field of addiction treatment. Once restricted to extraordinary events, trauma now encompasses a wide spectrum of human experience—both ordinary and extreme, personal and collective. This presentation traces the historical expansion of trauma theory, from its somatic roots to its current status as a cultural and clinical lens. Drawing on neurobiology, diagnostic criteria, and anecdote, we explore the transformation of trauma into both a ubiquitous diagnostic category and a powerful cultural narrative within addiction services. While the shift has brought important advances—such as decreased stigma, greater understanding of adversity, and expanded access to trauma-informed care—it has also produced unintended consequences. These include the risk of over-pathologizing normative suffering, fostering a sense of helplessness, and minimizing the complexity of post-trauma responses, including resilience and growth. Through audience engagement, and examination of landmark studies (e.g., ACEs, van der Kolk’s brain research), this session critically examines the implications of trauma’s conceptual expansion. Attendees will gain a nuanced understanding of trauma’s evolving definition, its benefits and pitfalls as a clinical framework, and consider how to engage trauma narratives without defaulting to pathologization. Emphasis will also be placed on culturally responsive care and the underutilized concept of post-traumatic growth. Ultimately, the goal is not to undermine trauma theory but to contextualize and sharpen its use in clinical practice—bringing greater clarity, empathy, and effectiveness to treatment.

Session Description: With the rise of legalization for recreational use, cannabis has become a staple in today’s social and economic industries. Consequently, there have also been a rise in medical, mental/emotional and legal issues related to cannabis use. This session seeks to inform participants of the significance of cannabis use disorder as an emerging trend and threat to public health and safety. Participants will be able to address this concern directly through harm reduction strategies, increased comfort in engaging in dialogue with advocates of cannabis use and informing their clinical peers and clients of the significance of cannabis use as a clinical disorder.