Boys & Girls at Risk: The emerging science of gender differences

Physical, neurological and psychological changes are often experienced differently by male and female adolescents. This conference provides valuable information for professionals who work with youth.

You’ll learn from experts on the latest research and build skills in the areas of prevention, intervention and treatment from a gender-sensitive perspective.

Boys & Girls at Risk: The emerging science of gender differences

Please note: the following information is for the June 2012 conference. Please check back for updated infromation.

This conference will help you:

• Communicate more effectively with the other sex as a therapist, counselor, teacher, case  manager, mentor or parent
• Learn surprising information on how trauma affects boys and ways to reach boys to help them heal
• Get “media savvy” about the hidden world of teenage cyber culture and how to know when it gets dangerous, from a female and a male perspective
• Learn the promising practices for helping female trauma survivors heal
• Acquire an evidence-based model of intervention that works for teens who are currently using substances

Who should attend?

• Social workers
• Psychologists
• Juvenile justice workers
• Mental health and addiction counselors
• Educators
• Clergy
• Others who work with adolescents and teens

Conference Agenda

7:30 – 8:30      Continental Breakfast and Registration

8:30 – 8:45      Welcome:  Flo Hilliard, MSH, Director

8:45 – 10:15    KEYNOTE: Cynthia Burggraf Torppa, Ph D, Associate Professor, Marshall University presents:

From Exasperation to Satisfaction: Gender Differences in Interpersonal Communication
Working with adolescents can be both exhilarating and exasperating and yet sometimes the factors that determine which of those outcomes will occur seem beyond comprehension. Fortunately, work from multiple disciplines provides exciting and useful insights about how our interactions with adolescents sometimes evolve into power struggles or emotionalmeltdowns. Dr. Torppa will integrate findings about children’s developmental experiences with studies of interaction and relationship development which, together, highlight how destructive--or productive--patterns of interaction develop. She will also discuss actions that can be used to give us greater influence over the quality of our interactions as we work with others.  

10:15 – 10:30  Break

10:30 – 11:15  KEYNOTE(continued with questions)

11:30 – 12:15  Lunch (provided)

12:30 – 2:00    Breakouts:

1. Fred Garcia, CSW presents:
   
   Using brief intervention with substance-abusing adolescents--a facilitator’s perspective
   Mr. Garcia will present Teen Intervene, a tested, time-efficient, evidence-based program for teenagers (12 to 19 years old) suspected of experiencing mild or moderate problems associated with alcohol or other drugs; the program also includes their parents or guardians. The Teen Intervene program integrates stages of change theory, motivational interviewing, and cognitive-behavioral therapy developed by Dr. Ken Winters. This workshop will give participants an overview of the curriculum and shared experiences by a facilitator of Teen Intervene.
2. Steven Sawyer, LCSW CSAC presents:
   
   On The Edge of Chaos: Intervening with Traumatized Males
   This workshop provides a detailed overview on keyaspects of adolescent trauma and successful intervention of it. Participants will learn about basic neurological aspects of trauma and the way that trauma manifests specific to young males. There is an additional overview of treatment of trauma in a Wilderness Therapy modality through a combination of exercise, healthy group culture, experiential experiences and cutting-edge modern treatment modalities. This seminar will revolutionize participants’ understanding of how to reach these young men.
3. Richard Guerry, Founder of the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication presents:
   
   Public and Permanent: Helping our youth become savvy, safe and responsible in the digital world (repeat breakout)
   This award-winning solution-based presentation will provide you with a greater awareness of negative, irresponsible, and malicious digital behaviors and trends--beyond the common issues of sexting, cyber bullying and sextortion-- and the method to reduce the risk of becoming a victim of a cyber crime, bullying, or digital exploitation.
4. Melissa Lopez-Larson, MD presents:
   
   What Brain Imaging Tells Us About the Differences Between Girls and Boys and the Clinical Implications of These Differences (repeat breakout)
   Dr. Lopez-Larson will provide a summary of the recent literature on gender differences in brain structure and function in children and adolescents. She will discuss how these differences may lead to increased susceptibilities to certain psychiatric conditions between genders, and she will discuss how clinical interventions can be targeted toward these gender differences.

2:00 – 2:15     Break

2:15 – 3:45     Breakouts:

5. Richard Guerry, Founder of the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication presents:
   
   Public and Permanent: Helping our youth become savvy, safe and responsible in the digital world (repeat breakout)
   This award-winning solution-based presentation will provide you with a greater awareness of negative, irresponsible, and malicious digital behaviors and trends--beyond the common issues of sexting, cyber bullying and sextortion-- and the method to reduce the risk of becoming a victim of a cyber crime, bullying, or digital exploitation.
6. Scott Caldwell, MSW and Jason Witt, MS present:
   
   Boys at Risk: A guide for understanding and action
   This session will provide a psychosocial and neurobehavioral perspective on boys at risk. After reviewing relevant research, we will discuss the implications for formulating and delivering effective clinical services with boys
7.   Sandy Hardie, CSAC, ICSpresents:
   
   Girls & Trauma: The Impact, the Challenges and the Hope
   Adolescents can be challenging when working with them in their behavior adaptations as a result of trauma. Ms. Hardie will discuss trauma and its causes and symptoms. Participants will learn and talk about techniques that can enable teens to externalize and process overwhelming experiences in a nonthreatening way.
8. Melissa Lopez-Larson, MD presents:
   
   What Brain Imaging Tells Us About the Differences Between Girls and Boys and the Clinical Implications of These Differences (repeat breakout)
   Dr. Lopez-Larson will provide a summary of the recent literature on gender differences in brain structure and function in children and adolescents. She will discuss how these differences may lead to increased susceptibilities to certain psychiatric conditions between genders, and she will discuss how clinical interventions can be targeted toward these gender differences.

3:45 Adjourn

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Cynthia B. Torppa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Marshall University, Huntington, WV. She graduated from The Ohio State University with an undergraduate degree in Psychology, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Communication with a specialization in marital and family dynamics. Her primary academic specialization is family communication. She teaches and conducts research in the area of youth development and, more recently, organizational communication and health communication.

Breakout Session Instructors

Scott Caldwell is a licensed substance abuse counselor with a decade of clinical experience with adolescents. Scott is currently an SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment) program coordinator at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers providing training to multidisciplinary groups of professionals.

 

Fred Garcia is a bilingual, bicultural state-certified social worker employed by Waukesha County Department of Health and Human Services. He has been in the Family Services Unit for the past 18 years, providing services to families and youth relating to delinquency, uncontrollable juveniles, truancy and other family issues. Mr. Garcia is a strong advocate for the Latino population and serves on a number of boards and committees relating to social issues facing today’s minority youth and families.

Richard Guerry is a national public speaker and the founder of the non-profit organization the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (IROC2). At the height of the technology revolution, Richard served as an interactive marketing executive. In this tenure, he encountered the darkest areas of the internet and discovered countless individuals unknowingly being manipulated and schemed, and their content being stolen and exploited. Richard now travels across the country speaking to digital users—young and old—regarding the importance of practicing a Digital Consciousness in every aspect of life to avoid any current—or future—digital disease. He is the author of The Golden Rule of the 21st Century.

Sandy Hardie is a certified clinical substance abuse counselor and independent clinical supervisor. She has worked in the addiction field for over 27 years, specializing in women and trauma for 15 of those years. She has been a counselor at ASTOP Sexual Abuse Center for the past six years. In that position, she serves clients who have both addiction and trauma histories. She is the Founder of Mahala’s Hope, a program that currently offers equine-facilitated learning to adults and adolescents who have addiction and trauma histories, as well as other groups. Sandy is an active member of the Trauma Informed Care Advisory Committee and facilitates statewide training on Trauma Informed Care with women and addiction. She currently serves on the State Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (SCAODA) and participates on the Diversity Subcommittee. Ms. Hardie is an Advanced Epona Instructor in equine-facilitated learning and is currently working towards completing her certification as a Certified Trauma Specialist.

 

Dr. Lopez-Larson is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine and an Assistant Investigator at The Brain Institute at the University of Utah. In addition, she is an Investigator at the VISN 19 Salt Lake City MIRECC and is the director of the suicide consultation service. Dr. Lopez-Larson received her M.D. from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine and is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. She performed her adult and child psychiatry training at Harvard Medical School training sites including Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital and Cambridge Hospital, respectively. Her main research interest is on studying the typical and atypical patterns of brain development in healthy youths and in youths with psychiatric illness. She is particularly focused on the identification of risk factors for psychiatric illness and has been applying multimodal neuroimaging techniques in her research to evaluate the brain networks believed to be involved in mood regulation and executive function.

 

Steve Sawyer is a licensed psychotherapist filled with passion and knowledge surrounding the intervention and change process. His experience comes from over a decade of intervention with tough-to-reach client populations in therapy settings ranging from residential, community-based, outpatient and wilderness therapy. He is trained in several unique therapeutic models including somatic trigger release, traumatic memory reprocessing and Brain Spotting and HeartMath. Through his experience he has authored two books, co-founded Wisconsin’s only wilderness therapy program, New Vision Wilderness, and works as a core therapeutic training development staff with the Institute of HeartMath. He was an author in the innovative and  comprehensive Heart Math Interventions therapist training, a Module that revolutionizes modern therapy interventions through an emotional physiology approach. Steve’s largest project has been the development of a Trauma Informed Care model in the wilderness setting that has challenged the entire wilderness therapy industry on making healthier interventions with their clients. NVW’s model includes the highest clinical intensity offered in the industry paired with the NVW Mastery Model which motivates teens to challenge themselves by pairing with line staff and accomplishing amazing things. Steve’s trainings are recognized nationwide for cutting-edge therapeutic techniques and inspiration.

 

Jason Witt earned his Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology from Eastern Illinois University, during which time he worked with families at a community mental health center in Danville, IL. He also spent several hours each week working with troubled teens at Danville High School. Upon graduating, Jason worked at a residential facility for boys and girls at risk in Rockford, IL for nearly three years. Over the last decade he has been an in-home therapist for troubled youths and their families in southeast Wisconsin. Jason has provided training and instruction with Scott Caldwell over the last several years with the intention of assisting parents and professionals to better understand and help boys at risk.

General Information

Fees: $159. $139/person when two or more people from the same organization attend. Fee includes instruction, materials, CEUs, meals, and nonrefundable $20 administrative fee.

Continuing Education Credits:  .7 CEUs (7 credit hours) for the conference. UW-Madison Continuing Studies is an approved CEU provider.

Time: Registration runs from 7:30-8:30 am. Conference runs 8:30 am-3:45 pm.  Continental breakfast and lunch are included.

Location: Madison Marriott West, 1313 John Q. Hammons Drive, Middleton, WI, 53562. Phone: 608-831-2000.

Conference Lodging/Location/Parking: Madison Marriott West Atrium Hotel and Conference Center, 1313 John Q. Hammons Drive, Middleton WI 53562. Complimentary on-site parking.

Madison Marriott West
Room Rate: $70 Single; $90 Double
Local: 608-831-2000 (desk)
608-831-2040 (fax)
1-888-745-2032 (toll free)

More information about the Madison Marriott West can be found at www.marriott.com. For reservations call 888-745-2032. A block of rooms has been reserved until May 24, 2012. (Map)

For more information

Contact Mary Unmuth Yockey, conference administrator munmuth@dcs.wisc.edu, 608-263-4431 or 800-442-4617

How to Register

By phone: Call 608-262-7942 or 800-725-9692.

By mail: Print, complete and mail the Continuing Studies registration form.

Online: Secure online registration will be available for this program.

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Cancellation policy: If you are unable to attend or arrange for a substitute, you may obtain a refund minus the $20 administrative fee by contacting our registration department at least 3 business days prior to the program. If you cancel 3 business days or less before the program, or do not attend, you are responsible for the entire fee. To cancel or arrange for a substitute, please call 800-725-9692.

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