Producer: VPA/Brattleboro Retreat
This seminar will consist of five talks centered on the treatment of emerging adults using a developmental neurobiological model, with a particular focus on the unique developmental challenges posed to and by Gen Z. There will be a panel discussion to conclude the day.
Please note that partial credit will not be given for partial attendance--you must participate in the entire webinar. Please arrange any other obligations you may have so that you can attend the entire webinar.
US Cultural Evolution and Gen Z’s Internalized Relationship to Power
The relationship between individuals and authority in the USA has undergone a radical evolution since the 1960’s, shaped by cultural, political and technological factors as well as world events. This section will present a historical perspective regarding events within the United States which have shaped this relationship within the Gen Z generation.
Psychotherapy with Gen Z: The Impact of Being Digital Natives
This presentation explores the unique challenges and opportunities faced by Gen Z, the first generation of digital natives. Constant access to information and communication through digital devices has significantly shaped Gen Z’s mental health, social interactions, and sense of purpose. The greater presence of, and reliance on, technology has disrupted neurobiological processes critical for developing safety, trust, and healthy social connections, leading to issues such as anxiety, depression, disrupted sleep, loneliness, cyberbullying, reduced attention spans, and diminished face-to-face social skills. The same digital environment, however, has also opened doors for better mental health support. Gen Z's online experiences have increased mental health awareness and reduced stigma, making them more open to discussing mental health struggles. Digital platforms have given them the language and space to express their experiences more effectively. This section will delve into how being a digital native affects emerging adults' neurobiological and psychological development, using clinical examples from a community-based outpatient treatment center. It also explores how Gen Z is arriving in our treatment spaces and strategies for improving mental health treatment for this generation.
Neuroscience-Informed Treatment of Trauma
In this section, we will explore the understanding and treatment of trauma from a neurobiological developmental perspective, which incorporates the understanding that the experience of trauma is synesthetic, entailing an interaction between all elements of the human organism, including the brain, the body, and emotional/psychological experience. We will look at the key brain regions impacted by trauma and how that impact is translated into felt experience, particularly emotion regulation, self-experience and safety and trust. We will then turn to how these understandings translate into neuroscience-informed treatment, outlining an approach centered on helping emerging adults manage their trauma in a way that frees them to move into the world in a more autonomous and relationally connected fashion. We will briefly consider how we have attuned to gender and gender identity in creating a supportive and sensitive atmosphere that fosters trauma healing.
High on Illusions: Cannabis Potency, Risk and Science
Cannabis and related products such as CBD, THC, delta-8, etc., and their more widespread legalization, have increasingly gained them public acceptance as “safe” recreational drugs. This has contributed to a multi-billion-dollar legal cannabis industry which now has powerful and increasing influence on public perception. Over the same time course, growers and developers of products that originate in the cannabis plant have, through hybridization and extraction, dramatically increased the available potency of intoxicants to users. While there is robust and longstanding evidence that the increase in potency of THC alone is associated in regular users with a very significant increase in the sometimes-permanent emergence of psychotic symptoms and illnesses, there remain many dozens of compounds in the plant that still have not been studied. The impact on genetically and environmentally vulnerable individuals is wildly out of sync with the popular impression that use of cannabis and related products is relatively risk-free. This talk will attempt to expand on the details supporting a much more cautious approach, especially in anyone under the age of 25-30, given that current research doesn’t yet allow us to predict in advance who is most at risk.
Neurobiologically-Informed Family Therapy: Cooking on a Hot Stove
This section offers an original formulation of family therapy from a developmental-interpersonal neurobiological perspective. Families can present with histories of trauma, loss, and disorganization, and in varying states of conflict, developmentally stalled and deregulated. Treating these families requires an active, developmentally attuned approach, grounded in contemporary interpersonal neurobiology, and focused on enacted, right brain-mediated, affectively charged patterns of relating within the family that impede developmental progress. This section will describe recent developments in the field of interpersonal neurobiology and their relevance for understanding the emergence and persistence of individual deregulation within the family. A model for conceptualizing family process will be described, drawing upon recent neuropsychoanalytic understandings of enactment and their critical role in therapeutic change. Therapeutic processes of disruption, repair, and reintegration in the context of family therapy will be described.
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists, and is also approved by the Vermont Board of Psychological Examiners to sponsor continuing education for psychologists licensed in Vermont. This course is intended to qualify for specialty mandated credit types as follows:
Ethics: 0
Cultural Competency: 0
Continuing education courses sponsored by the Vermont Psychological Association are pre-approved by the Vermont Office of Professional Regulation for continuing education credit for licensed independent clinical social workers in Vermont. This course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credit types;
Ethics: 0
Cultural Competency: 0
Continuing education courses sponsored by the Vermont Psychological Association are pre-approved by the Vermont Board of Allied Mental Health for continuing education credit for licensed clinical mental health counselors and licensed marriage and family therapists in Vermont. This course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credit types:
Ethics: 0
Cultural Competency: 0
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Connecticut accepts these credits for continuing education for psychologists in Connecticut pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 20-191c(b). This course is intended to qualify for specialty mandated credit types as follows:
Veterans' Mental Health: 0
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing educaiton for psychologists. Based on this approval, this course is pre-approved for credit for Connecticut licensed professional counselors under Conn. Agencies Regs § 20-195cc-3(a)(1). This course is intended to qualify for mandated credit types as follows:
Ethics: 0
Veterans' Mental Health: 0
6 CE Credits for Psychologists & LMHCs
7.2 CE Credits for LCSWs
6CE Credits for LMHCs
The Massachusetts Board of Registration of Psychologists accepts credits earned from courses sponsored by APA-approved sponsors as indicated in 251 C.M.R. §§ 4.02, 4.03.
As a course sponsored by an APA-approved CE sponsor, this course qualifies for credit for clinical social workers and certified social workers in Massachusetts under 258 CMR sec 31.04(2)(d).
The Vermont Psychological Association (VPA) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7610. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. VPA is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor live continuing education for psychologists. The New Hampshire Board of Psychologists accepts credits earned from courses sponsored by APA-approved sponsors as indicated in Psyc § 402.01(d)(11). This course is intended to qualify for specialty mandated credit types as follows:
Ethics: 0
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education to psychologists. As a course sponosred by an organization with such approval, these credits are also accepted by the New Hampshire Board of Mental Health Practice for clinical social workers licensed in New Hampshire, as provided in Mhp 402.02(b)(1). This course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credits:
Ethics: 0
Suicide Prevention: 0
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education to psychologists. As a course sponosred by an organization with such approval, these credits are also accepted by the New Hampshire Board of Mental Health Practice for clinical mental health counselors licensed in New Hampshire, as provided in Mhp 402.02(b)(1). This course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credits:
Ethics: 0
Suicide Prevention: 0
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. As a course sponosred by an organization with such approval, these credits are also accepted by the New Hampshire Board of Mental Health Practice for marriage and family therapists; pastoral psychotherapists; and school social workers licensed in New Hampshire, as provided in Mhp 402.02(b)(1). The course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credit types:
Ethics: 0
Suicide Prevention: 0
6 CE Contact Hours
The Vermont Psychological Association is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0210. This course is intended to qualify for specialty mandated continuing education topics as follows:
Ethics: 0
Professional Boundaries: 0
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor live continuing education for psychologists. The Vermont Psychological Association maintains responsibility for its programs and their content. Psychologists and other professionals licensed in states whose respective licensing boards approve continuing education offered by APA-approved sponsors may earn continuing education credits for this course.
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association (VPA) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7610. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. VPA is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Dr. Jesse Viner created Yellowbrick in recognition of the specialized needs of emerging adults and their families, and the necessity for a treatment system that addressed the unique challenges of the transition into adulthood. Following his education at Yale, The Chicago Medical School, Northwestern University Medical School Psychiatry Residency and The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, Dr. Viner has served as Director of Adult Psychiatry Inpatient Services for Northwestern University Medical School; Medical Director of Four Winds Chicago, and Director of University Behavioral Health. He is a Supervising & Training Analyst on the faculty and a Trustee on the Board of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. He was an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine (1980-2012) and currently is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Rosalind Franklin Medical School. Dr. Viner is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is the Chair of the Ethics Committee for the American Psychoanalytic Association and is the recipient of the Illinois Psychiatric Society 2015 award for Excellence and Innovation in Patient Services.
Dr. Pete Myers earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in 1999, after having completed his master’s degree in the social sciences at the University of Chicago in 1992. Prior to his graduate training, he graduated from Kalamazoo College with a bachelor’s liberal arts degree with a major in psychology. He has worked in the field of mental health for the past 33 years. His background is grounded in psychodynamic and family systems-based approaches. He began his career as a dormitory counselor at The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago, returning after graduate training to become Clinical Director, Co-Executive Director and Director of the Brooke Whitted Center, a transitional program for emerging adults with significant mental health challenges. His tenure at the Orthogenic School was formative in his experience working within a therapeutic community emphasizing the important influence of groups and their milieu. Dr. Myers is a board member of the Association Children’s Residential and Community, an international organization advancing quality interventions for youth of all ages and their families. He served as a part-time lecturer at the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago Campus. Beginning with his work at the Orthogenic School, he has been a strong leader and advocate for quality interventions for LGBTQ+ individuals, in particular gender-diverse individuals, which are affirming and respectful one’s identity development.
Emma Katz, LCSW received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and MSW from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. Originally from Evanston, IL, Emma moved to Brooklyn, NY following graduate school. Emma began her career working in Harlem and the South Bronx with children, adolescents, and families involved in the child welfare system. Following this, Emma worked at a residential treatment facility in Brooklyn that provides treatment for adolescents with psychiatric diagnoses and criminal justice system involvement.
Dr. Jung Mi Yi is a licensed clinical psychologist who enjoys working with adults and youth. She began her career providing crisis and therapy services to all populations in emergency rooms. For the last 13 years, she has served in leadership roles in hospital, outpatient, and residential settings, developing and administrating programs for youth with psychiatric challenges and those diagnosed with developmental disabilities. Dr. Yi graduated from Ripon College with a B.A. in Psychology. She earned both her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She also completed a mini-MBA certificate program in Executive Management from Loyola University.
Dr. Michael Losoff is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, subsequently earning a master’s in Human Development from The Pennsylvania State University and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. He completed a two-year NIMH Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Research and Clinical Work in Adolescence, jointly sponsored by Northwestern University Medical School and The University of Chicago. Dr. Losoff brings a deep understanding of development during adolescence and young adulthood and to utilizing this understanding within the kinds of rich clinical settings that are relevant and resonant to Yellowbrick’s intensive community immersion model of treatment. These settings have included the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago and Little City Foundation. He has an appreciation of and expertise with in-depth, analytically informed psychotherapy and was the Founding Director and Coordinator of Clinical Services of the Center for Depth Psychotherapy at the C.G. Jung Center of Chicago. Additional leadership roles have included Program Director of the Child and Family Consultation Center at Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4). Dr. Losoff served as President (2013-2014) of the Chicago Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology.
Dr. David Baron received his B.A. in Psychology (magna cum laude) and M.D. degrees from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Baron went on to complete his psychiatry residency at Tufts/New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Rosalind Franklin University/The Chicago Medical School. He served as Administrative Psychiatrist and Interim Director of Mental Health Services for the DuPage County Health Department, supervising 50 psychiatrists and over 200 other clinical staff. Dr. Baron has worked to understand mind and brain as different languages for the same essential human experience, including the complexity of neuroscience, the evolutionary basis of the human brain and behavior, and the deeply personal subjective experience of every individual. He is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He served on the Ethics Committee of the Illinois Psychiatric Society as a member from 2001 to 2006, and as Chairman from 2006 to 2011.
Bryn Jessup, Ph.D., is the Director of Family Services & Systems at Yellowbrick, an intensive, neurobiologically-informed treatment program for young adults and their families. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1984, where he developed an enduring interest in adolescent and young adult development, trauma, and family therapy. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Michigan Children’s Hospital, he joined the staff at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he became the Associate Clinical Director of its Inpatient Psychiatry Unit. He also served on the adjunct faculty of Northwestern University from 1986 through 2011. He joined The Phoenix Institute in 1996, a Chicago-based psychotherapy practice group specializing in trauma, and continued outpatient work with children, adolescents, adults, and families in private practice before joining Yellowbrick in 2015.
