Wednesday, July 22
Thursday, July 23
* * * THERE IS NO PARTIAL CREDIT * * *
You MUST attend sessions in their entirety.
Certificates will be emailed approx. 4-6 weeks after the School.
Presenter: Candace Small, LPA, LCAS, CCS
Description: This immersive simulation invites participants to step into the shoes of individuals reentering society after incarceration, while also navigating recovery from addiction. Through a series of timed, role-based activities, participants experience the complex web of challenges faced during reentry—such as securing transportation, finding employment, and complying with probation and treatment requirements—all while maintaining sobriety. The simulation highlights how systemic barriers, stigma, and limited resources can increase the risk of recidivism and return to substance use. Participants will encounter real-world scenarios that require decision-making under pressure, often with incomplete information or conflicting priorities. The simulation is followed by a guided discussion and then a panel of individuals with lived experience who openly share regarding their own journey with reintegration and recovery. This experience is ideal for clinicians, peer support specialists, criminal justice professionals, policymakers, and community members seeking to build trauma-informed, recovery-supportive community.
Presenter: Crystal Vechlekar Blair, NCC, LCMHC-S, LCAS, CCS-I, HMPI
Description:
Despite decades of research supporting addiction as a disease, many treatment approaches remain rooted in behavioral descriptions that are not fully aligned with underlying neurobiology. This disconnect can limit the effectiveness of interventions and client engagement, and at times contribute to division in the field. Understanding the impact of addiction on the brain is crucial when treating substance use disorders. However, perhaps even more vital is understanding the neuroscience of recovery.
In this training, participants will explore how addiction and recovery impact brain function and how this knowledge can be translated into practical, client-centered care. Participants will learn how to apply neuroscience to treatment planning, tailor interventions, and provide meaningful psychoeducation that reduces stigma, supports engagement, and improves outcomes for clients and their families.
Objectives:
1. Participants will be able to describe the disease model of addiction and distinguish between behavioral symptoms and underlying neurobiological processes.
2. Participants will be able to identify at least four brain systems impacted by addiction (reward, memory, stress, and volition) and explain their role in substance use and recovery.
3. Participants will be able to apply neuroscience-informed concepts to treatment planning, including the selection of interventions and delivery of client psychoeducation.
4. Participants will be able to utilize neuroscience-based psychoeducation strategies to reduce stigma, enhance client engagement, and support recovery outcomes.
Presenter: Ed Johnson, LPC, LAC, LACS, MAC, CS, CPSS (Sponsored by the SEPTTC)
Description: HIV & AIDS are no longer the threat they were 35 years ago, but there still is no cure. Patients with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) are still at greater risk for HIV infection, less likely to be on PrEP and more likely to be nonadherent with their HIV Treatment. This training will review current treatment and prophylactic protocols. Issues of encouraging patients to know their HIV status and working with special at-risk populations will be explored as well as current HIV Prevention strategies.
Sponsored by the Opioid Response Network
Presenter: Tab Ballis, LCSW, LCAS, CCS and Michael McGuire, LCSW, LCAS, LMFT, CC
Description: Blending the latest evidence-based principles and practices from Polyvagal Theory/neuroscience, the social model of recovery and positive psychology, this seminar covers how to promote progressive well-being while recognizing and fostering growth and resilience within clinical and/or peer support relationships. Today’s tsunami of trauma-informed clinical services is buoyed by trauma-transformative peer support that promotes wellness and resilience or recovery. The goal: Develop a habit of engaging in compassionate conversations that promote resilience in oneself and others.
Presenter: Scott Luetgenau, MSW, LCAS, CSI
Description: The history of opioid and stimulant use treatment in the United States is a history of systems that have alternated between care and control—frequently to the detriment of the people they were intended to serve. This session invites clinicians, peers, and program leaders into an honest reckoning with that history and its ongoing impact on practice today. Drawing on the framework of clinical humility, participants will examine how historical and structural forces (criminalization, racial and economic inequities, stigma, paternalism in treatment design) continue to shape clinical decision-making, patient engagement, and outcomes in opioid and/or stimulant use disorder treatment. The session offers concrete practices for integrating cultural humility, patient autonomy, and shared decision-making into daily clinical and supervisory work—moving providers from “expert-on” to “partner-with” stances. Participants will leave with practical strategies for surfacing assumptions, repairing trust, and changing what gets normalized in their own teams and systems.
Objectives:
Presenters: Dane Mullis, MSW, LCSWA, LCASA
Sara Harrington, JD – Juris Doctor (attorney)
Desireé Gorbea-Finalet, MA
Description: People with SUD face widespread discrimination in healthcare, recovery housing, and beyond—despite strong protections under federal disability laws like the ADA, Section 504, and the Fair Housing Act. Too often, these rights are unknown or misunderstood. This presentation, led by Disability Rights North Carolina attorney and clinical advocate, breaks down how civil rights laws protect people with SUD. Through real-world examples and recent enforcement actions, we’ll explore common forms of discrimination—including denial of care, exclusion from housing, and bias against people taking MOUD. Participants will gain practical, actionable information to recognize discrimination, understand legal protections, and support access to care and housing. Ideal for advocates, providers, and community leaders committed to advancing dignity and access.
Presenter: Ellen Elliott, PhD, LCAS, LCMHC, CCS, CSATs
Description: The purpose of this presentation is to review the state of substance use among adolescents. We will covering the growing risk of addictive disorders affecting adolescents especially vaping nicotine. We will review evidence based substance use prevention tools and other practices that will help reduce the risk of this growing epidemic.
Presenter: Erin Jamieson Day, CPS
Description: Supervising substance use prevention professionals the skills and knowledge necessary to promote growth in each of the IC&RC Prevention Performance Domains–Planning and Evaluation, Education and Service Delivery, Communication, Community Organization, Public Policy and Environmental Change, and Professional Growth and Responsibility. Proper supervision ensures high-quality, evidence-based program delivery and promotes ethical standards. This session will include case studies and facilitated discussion on providing mentorship, guidance, and support.
Presenter: Noga Zerubavel, PhD, LP, HSP
Description: Despite growing awareness of burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS), counselors and therapists often lack concrete strategies to prevent, reduce, or address these occupational challenges. To promote sustainable practice, clinicians cannot rely solely on “recharging” during evenings and weekends; instead, resilience enhancing practices must be seeded into our daily work lives. Participants will learn to support and protect themselves by integrating evidence-based skills into their daily practice. This training will provide an overview of CE-CERT (Components for Enhancing Career Experience and Reducing Trauma), a set of evidence-informed practices to prevent, reduce, and address burnout and STS. CE-CERT integrates research from neuroscience, sociology, and psychology with evidence-based processes drawn from treatments for trauma. Participants will learn to implement the 5 CE-CERT skill domains to reduce job stress and strain while amplifying compassion satisfaction and sense of meaning. Participants will engage in reflection, experiential practice, and discussion.
Presenters: Amanda Young Wilson, LPA, LCAS, CCS
Description: Co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders are the norm in behavioral health settings, yet clinicians often feel underprepared to work with both at once. This training offers a grounded and practical overview of how common diagnoses like Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, and Bipolar Disorder interact with Substance Use Disorder, using the DSM-5-TR framework as a shared foundation. Participants will explore how substance use complicates diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions (and vice versa) and examine what truly effective clinical engagement looks like for this population. Drawing on the components that make up the Spirit of Motivational Interviewing, the training emphasizes practical strategies for showing up with curiosity, collaboration, and a focus on empowerment for clients who are often labeled “difficult” or “treatment-resistant”. Attendees will leave with a clearer clinical lens and renewed confidence in navigating complexity.
Presenters: Lakisha D. Ellison, DWS, MSW, LCSW
Description:
Individuals involved in the criminal legal system frequently experience co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. Without coordinated intervention, many cycle repeatedly through jails, emergency services, and community systems without receiving sustainable treatment or support.
This presentation will highlight an innovative Re-Entry and Jail Diversion Program housed within the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO) that focuses on early identification, evidence-based treatment linkage, and coordinated re-entry planning for individuals with substance use disorders. Participants will learn how law enforcement, behavioral health professionals, and community partners collaborate to reduce recidivism, improve treatment engagement, and promote long-term treatment engagement or recovery.
The session will explore practical strategies, including screening and assessment, diversion pathways, medication-assisted treatment linkage, case management, and cross-system collaboration. Emphasis will be placed on evidence-based practices, trauma-informed care, and community reintegration strategies that address the complex needs of justice-involved individuals with mental health and substance use disorders.
Presenters: Ron Flack, Jr. M-Div, MA, PhD, LCAS, CCSI, MAC, ICAADC
Description: This presentation explores the Family Focused Recovery (FFR) model through the lens of ethical practice, integrating the NAADAC Code of Ethics to guide decision‑making with pregnant and parenting families impacted by substance use disorders. It highlights how ethical responsibilities—such as safeguarding confidentiality, ensuring informed consent, preventing discriminatory care, and maintaining clear professional boundaries—shape every aspect of integrated treatment. The session connects maternal health data, system barriers, and racial disparities to NAADAC principles on cultural humility, client autonomy, and non‑maleficence. It also examines ethical considerations in coordinating care across medical, behavioral health, child welfare, and legal systems, grounded in the requirements of 42 CFR Part 2 for SUD confidentiality. Participants learn how FFR upholds NAADAC’s expectations for professionalism, privacy, supervision, and equitable service delivery while fostering safe engagement of fathers and partners. Together, these elements position FFR as a clinically sound and ethically aligned model for whole‑family recovery.
Presenters: Jaclyn M Bandell, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP and
Angela Trombley, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC
Description: This interactive mini-track examines evidence-based care for co-occurring ADHD and substance use disorders. It covers neurobiology, assessment and treatment recommendations, health disparities, and integrative models of care to support better outcomes.
Presenters: Scott Luetgeau, MSW, LCAS, CSI
Description: The history of opioid and stimulant use treatment in the United States is a history of systems that have alternated between care and control—frequently to the detriment of the people they were intended to serve. This session invites clinicians, peers, and program leaders into an honest reckoning with that history and its ongoing impact on practice today. Drawing on the framework of clinical humility, participants will examine how historical and structural forces (criminalization, racial and economic inequities, stigma, paternalism in treatment design) continue to shape clinical decision-making, patient engagement, and outcomes in opioid and/or stimulant use disorder treatment. The session offers concrete practices for integrating cultural humility, patient autonomy, and shared decision-making into daily clinical and supervisory work—moving providers from “expert-on” to “partner-with” stances. Participants will leave with practical strategies for surfacing assumptions, repairing trust, and changing what gets normalized in their own teams and systems.
Objectives:
Presenters: Ed Johnson, LPC, LAC, LACS, MAC, CS, CPSS
Description:
HIV & AIDS are no longer the threat they were 35 years ago, but there still is no cure. Patients with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) are still at greater risk for HIV infection, less likely to be on PrEP and more likely to be nonadherent with their HIV Treatment. This training will review current treatment and prophylactic protocols. Issues of encouraging patients to know their HIV status and working with special at-risk populations will be explored as well as current HIV Prevention strategies.
Objectives: