Raising Resilient Youth
This presentation will review strategies and interventions to help promote self-advocacy, confidence and resiliency in our children and adolescents. Schools and agencies have found these strategies particularly helpful when supporting children and adolescents dealing with issues such as, anxiety, depression, school refusal, ADHD and oppositional behaviors. Additionally, tools for supporting parents and ways to help them develop highly effective interventions will be discussed.
Jacqueline A. Rhew, LCPC
Clinical Consultant Amita Health/Child & Adolescent Services
Jacqueline Rhew, LCPC, CADC has co-authored The Successful Parenting Workbook: create your custom plan for raising independent child into adulthood, along with several other publications in her over 25 years of treating the whole person. Jacqueline’s expertise lies in a multitude of areas such as school refusal, eating disorders, self-injury, substance abuse, gaming addictions, grief issues, trauma, depression, and anxiety. Jacqueline has served both adolescents and adults by the using specific techniques and teachings through individual, family and group therapy. Jacqueline has had proven success through the use of dialectical behavioral therapy, rational emotive behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, narrative therapy, exposure response prevention, and relational therapy during the therapeutic process. She is an expert in her field specifically consulting with schools, family agencies and mental health hospitals.
As the co-founder of the Center for Emotional Wellness of the Northwest Suburbs, she is an expert in her field and is called upon by hundreds of school districts both locally and internationally for consulting staff in order to better serve their youth. Jacqueline serves as a clinical liaison for AMITA Health Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital. She previously served as Assistant Director for the School Anxiety/School Refusal Program; a program she was instrumental in creating and developing. Jacqueline has facilitated 300-plus workshops for professionals and parents, both locally and nationally on topics ranging from anxiety, school refusal, parenting, and self-injury. She continues to be a sought after keynote speaker due to her expertise in her field. She has been featured on Chicago ABC and CBS for her exemplary work and insight. She was interviewed on the treatment of adolescents struggling with avoidant school behaviors as well as bullying. Jacqueline was recently interviewed and quoted on parenting by several newspapers and magazines, including the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Herald, and the Chicago Parent.
Adolescent Anxiety & Eating Disorder Risk: Calling for Cultural Change
The outward manifestations of eating disorders (EDs), such as, restrictive eating, body weight, and compensatory behaviors, are diagnostically relevant and necessary to monitor and treat throughout the course of recovery. However, anthropometric and dietary components of EDs alone, may fail to depict the severity of the illness, identify its origins, or prescribe its remedy. Such factors, when targeted in the context of treatment, may prompt frustration, treatment resistance and low motivation for recovery. Prevalence, complexity and severity of EDs among adolescents continue to escalate with intensification of associated health and safety risk. The need for improved treatment effectiveness is imperative. The presentation will assist practitioners in more proficiently navigating the pitfalls of treatment resistance by identifying and using less easily observable factors to engage the adolescent in a trusting and successful therapy relationship. Clinical examples unique to adolescents and families will be highlighted. Participants will learn to better identify and utilize both the outwardly observable and the intangibles to improve effectiveness as a treatment provider, foster ED recovery among adolescents and rebuild a foundation for improved health and well-being.
Jenny H. Conviser, PsyD, CEDS-S, CMPC
Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, Department of Psychiatry, Feinberg School of Medicine, Founder & CEO Ascend Consultation in Health Care
Jenny H. Conviser, PsyD is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University and Founder and CEO of Ascend Consultation in Health Care. Dr. Conviser holds Certificates of Training in Behavioral Medicine from the University of Chicago, Family and Child Psychotherapy from The Family Institute of Northwestern University and Eating Disorder Specialist (CEDS-S) from the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals.
With a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science, seven years as a NCAA Division One Head Coach, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Certification in Sport and Performance Psychology (CMPC) from the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, Dr. Conviser conducts and directs sport and performance psychology services with athletes, musicians, dancers, performers, parents and coaches across the nation to assist in achieving excellence in performance and competition. Dr. Conviser provides psychology services and mental skills training for United States Figure Skating’s senior, elite, individuals, pairs and dance national team members.
Dr. Conviser served on the Advocacy and Communication Committee for the Academy of Eating Disorders (AED) participating in campaigns to reduce weight related stigma, to reduce use of Body Mass Index Measurement in the school settings and advocating for healthy weight related depiction of children in television programming. As a member of the Psychosocial Committee of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (ICAAP), she participates in research, policy development, and physician training for the Pediatric Obesity Prevention Initiative for development and implementation of a physician/patient communication training programs.
Dr. Conviser’s research includes the evaluation of the relationship between childhood illness and eating disorder risk published (2018) in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Dr. Conviser studies communication challenges among bulimic individuals receiving dental care. The results, are hoped to improve access to care and were published in 2013 in the Journal of the American Dental Association and published in the Eating Disorder Review in 2015.
Dr. Conviser regularly provides senior professional staff training and program development for the those having life threatening eating disorders, trauma, co-occurring addictions, mood disorders and anxiety disorders. As Founder and CEO of Ascendchc, Dr. Conviser is dedicated to prevention and awareness programming and improving access to behavioral health care and related financial support.
Development and Testing of a Technology-Assisted Intervention for Parents of Adolescents in Residential Treatment
The learning objectives of this presentation are as follows:
- Learning Objective 1: Discuss the benefits of technology-assisted interventions as clinician extenders
- Learning Objective 2: Describe the development of a technology-assisted intervention for parents of adolescents in residential treatment
- Learning Objective 3: Provide data on the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of the intervention from a pilot study at Rosecrance Health Network
Sara Becker, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Brown School of Public Health
Dr. Sara Becker is an Associate Professor in the Center for Alcohol and Addictions Studies, at the Brown University School of Public Health. She completed her PhD in clinical psychology at Duke University and completed her clinical internship at Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital.
Dr. Becker conducts programmatic research focused on promoting the uptake of effective addiction treatment in community settings, using both provider-directed and patient-directed approaches. Her provider-directed research includes comprehensive implementation strategies to train providers and organizations in effective interventions. Her patient-directed work includes technology-assisted interventions to improve access to care, direct-to-consumer marketing to improve awareness of treatment options, and universal screening to improve detection of risky substance use.
Since 2012, she has been the Principal Investigator or Scientific Lead of 7 federally funded grants and has been a Co-Investigator on an additional 14 grants. Her work is currently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2018, she received the Early Career Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies’ Special Interest Group on Dissemination and Implementation Science in recognition of her scholarship and service to the field of implementation science.
Thomas Wright, MD, Addictionologist
Chief Medical Officer/Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs
Dr. Thomas Wright oversees all medical operations for Rosecrance. He specializes in working with adolescents who have a co-existing or secondary diagnosis in addition to an addiction disorder. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the field and is certified as a child and adolescent psychiatrist by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Wright is also certified in addiction medicine by the American Society of Addiction Medicine. He served on the faculty at Northwestern Medical College in Chicago and at The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago and Rockford. Dr. Wright is a regular conference presenter and has been recognized as a medical educator and leader in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. Dr. Wright received the Clinician of the Year award for clinical excellence from Addiction Professional in 2015. He joined Rosecrance in 2005.
Addressing Suicide Risk: the CAMS Process
Jason Relle, LCPC
Clinical Director
Jason Relle is the Clinical Director at Rosecrance Griffin Williamson and has been with Rosecrance since 2011. He oversees substance abuse and behavioral health residential programming for adolescents. He is a licensed clinical professional counselor that has worked with children, adolescents and families in various roles within Rosecrance. He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Miami University and his master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from the Adler School of Professional Psychology.