In this Climate Change & Mental Health 101, the speaker will go over the neuropsychiatric impacts of extreme weather, heat, air pollution, nutritional disease, and rising vector illnesses, and then turn to the emotional effects of climate change, discussing the syndromes of grief, anxiety, anger, and hopelessness in response to climate change and considering how they may be responded to psychotherapeutically in both group and individual settings.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common and often debilitating mental health condition characterized by unwanted intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and repeated distress-reducing behaviors (compulsions). Frequently misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and mistreated, this series of lectures will demystify OCD and related disorders and the most effective protocols for helping those who suffer from them. Attendees new to or heavily experienced in treating OCD and related disorders will gain knowledge from multiple perspectives. This unique format features six lectures from top experts in the field, scheduled across three sessions over the Fall season. This series includes experts presenting on uncertainty acceptance in OCD treatment, sleep and OCD, process-based treatment of severe OCD and related disorders in for teens, similarities and differences in interventions for OCD and related disorders, current best practices for children and adolescents, and multimodal treatment of pediatric OCD at higher levels of care.

When victims of child abuse, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, or sex trafficking are identified, we know trauma has occurred and internal recovery work from trauma is needed. However, few professionals know how to effectively respond. This session will focus on providing information on trauma, triggers, trauma-informed care, and trauma-focused care to help clients heal through The Survivor’s Journey. Participants will learn the twelve internal and external journeys clients should travel that moves them from victim, to survivor, to thriver.

There is a great deal of interest in the relationship between the immune system and in particular inflammation and psychiatric syndromes. This presentation focuses on the relationship between inflammation and mood disorders. The goals of the talk are; (1) to distinguish between acute and chronic inflammatory states, (2) discuss the impact of peripheral inflammation on dopamine and glutamate systems of some people with inflammation and major depressive disorder, (3) review a series of studies we have performed exploring inflammation, depression and the resolution of both inflammation and depression with a high dose omega-3 fatty acids.