Embodiment for Caregivers: Integrative Methodologies for Cultivating Self-Care

Presenter:  Rev. Keely Garfield, MFA, BCC, UZIT, YACEP

Cultivating our ability to care for ourselves prepares us as effective care providers for others. Self-care encompasses all the things we do that contribute to our health and create a sense of well-being in our lives. Embodied self-care is vital in helping us avoid burnout and flourish. 

Cultivating our ability to authentically care for ourselves better prepares us as effective care providers for others. Self-care encompasses all the things that we do, consciously and unconsciously, that contribute to our health and create a sense of well-being in our lives.

There are many factors to taking care of ourselves that allow us to achieve physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual balance. Some of these are extremely tangible, such as how we eat, move, rest, where we live, or how we deal with stress and emotion. Just as important are the less tangible aspects of self-care, such as how we navigate the world, how we relate to others, and how we allow things to unfold around us. Introducing patterns of self-care into our lives is vitally important in helping us to avoid burnout and truly flourish. 

The workshop is open to all bodies and abilities.

Objectives:

In this interactive workshop, participants will engage in an exploration of embodiment by learning to:

1. Assess their own self-care needs and identify a practical path towards improved wellbeing.
2. Utilize therapeutic movement practices to enhance circulation, respiration, digestion, and mobilization.
3. Practice breath awareness to energize and facilitate deep relaxation.
4. Learn mindfulness strategies for self-regulation, grounding, and staying present.

Wednesday PM Workshops Session III

May 21, 2025, 1:45 PM – 3:15 PM

√    Spiritual & Creative Practices

NBCC Content Area:  Wellness and Prevention

Presenter: Patricia R. Williams, PhD, DMin, LMFT

This workshop will offer a discussion of four “panes” of complicated grief resident in the unconsciousness of African American women discovered during the presenter’s recent research project. Following the paradigm of Johari’s window, the presentation will offer a re-imagining of Johari’s concepts into perspectives of fragile self-perception which lead to internalized personal struggles. The premises upon which the theoretical conceptualization for complicated grief is constructed are Hegel’s ideas concerning unhappy consciousness: 1) it forms in the context of fear and bondage, and 2) loss of self-consciousness is grief.

The workshop aims to achieve the following goals.

1. Present ACPE-funded research results focusing on concealed grief states of African American women from a socio-cultural perspective
2. Offer spiritually integrated insights for detecting and understanding unconscious grief states in African American women
3. Engage spiritual practitioners in a critical dialogue concerning the research results and their clinical implications.

Monday Pre-Conference Workshops

May 19, 2025, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Tuesday PM Workshops Session II

May 20, 2025, 1:45 PM – 3:15 PM

√    Theories & Practice

√    Spiritual & Creative Practices

NBCC Content Area:  Social and Cultural Foundations

Presenter: Timothy J. Usset, PhD, MDiv, MA, MPH, ACPE-CE

Many Veterans still do not access evidence-based treatment for PTSD, and current evidence-based PTSD treatments may not effectively address moral injury and spiritual distress. Building Spiritual Strength (BSS) is an eight-session, spiritually integrated group intervention for PTSD, moral injury, and spiritual distress (Harris et al., 2011; Harris et al., 2018). BSS encourages social connectedness between participants in treatment groups and reconnection with faith/belief system communities and can be offered outside managed care settings. BSS is facilitated by appropriately trained chaplains and/or mental health professionals (Usset et al., 2021). Broader efforts are ongoing to train community clergy and mental health professionals on the facilitation of BSS outside of Veterans Affairs (VA) care contexts. Additionally, interest in moral injury as a construct to better understand healthcare worker distress has emerged in the past four years.  Methods.

This presentation will discuss the results of two clinical trials as well as the ongoing implementation and dissemination efforts of BSS. Results. Of note, the 2nd clinical trial of BSS was compared to present-centered group therapy (PCGT). Both groups showed clinically significant reductions in PTSD symptoms with large effect sizes (BSS, d = 1.06; PCGT, d = .92) as measured by the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), with no statistically significant differences between groups. BSS was more effective than PCGT at reducing symptoms of spiritual distress as measured by the divine subscale of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (time x condition) = -3.24, p = .001). Active dissemination and implementation efforts of BSS are ongoing through the VA Diffusion Marketplace and the VA’s Office of Rural Health. Barriers and facilitators to implementation will be discussed through the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Conclusions. BSS has been shown to be an effective intervention for PTSD, moral injury, and spiritual distress in service members and Veterans. Lessons learned from implementation and dissemination efforts will be helpful for further adoption of several new moral injury interventions to meet the needs of service members/Veterans and healthcare workers. 

Objectives:

1. Develop awareness of the moral injury literature
2. Understand the intervention development process
3. Review results of multiple clinical trials
4. Understand barriers and facilitators of intervention adoption.

Tuesday AM Workshops Session I

May 20, 2025, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

√ Theories & Practice

√ Leadership & Program Development

√ Spiritual & Creative Practices

Presenter: Geoff Goodman, PhD, ABPP

This presentation contends that a discernible pattern exists between a person’s attachment relationships to their primary caregivers and their attachment relationship (or nonattachment relationship) to the living God—the God of personal spiritual experience.  Each of the four attachment relationship patterns has implications for how therapists work with spiritually curious or spiritually grounded clients.  How can therapists talk about a client’s attachment relationship to God as a displacement of—or defense against—their attachment relationships to parents?  How can therapists talk about a client’s attachment relationships to parents as a displacement of—or defense against—their attachment relationship to God?  Transforming these attachment relationships to restore wholeness and unity is a crucial treatment goal of Attachment-Informed Psychotherapy (AIP) and the central topic of this presentation.

I will demonstrate how therapists can use AIP to enhance clients’ understanding and lived practice of their attachment relationships to God and to significant others.  AIP is uniquely positioned to address the underlying relationship wounds that so often derail a client’s spiritual journey and their everyday relationships.  The goal of AIP is to uncover and work through resentment and guilt toward parents, often coinciding with a need for their approval and often carried over into one’s relationship to God as a parent figure.  The client’s latent spirituality can become a lever of both psychological and spiritual transformation.  Although there are many methods of harnessing clients’ spirituality, this presentation references the principles of attachment theory to articulate one specific approach that audience members will find easy to comprehend and apply to their own clients.  This approach leverages our understanding of the four attachment relationship patterns that govern the construction and maintenance of all relationships, both to God and to significant others.  A case illustration of AIP applied to a client’s relationship to God is offered.

Learning Objective #1: Participants will describe the four attachment relationship patterns and how each one might determine the quality of a client's interactions with the therapist.

Learning Objective #2: Participants will explain the correspondence and compensation hypotheses as they are applied to the associations between a client's attachment relationship to parents and their attachment relationship to God.

Learning Objective #3: Participants will identify how the therapist's knowledge of the spiritually curious or spiritually grounded client's specific attachment relationship pattern might impact their treatment of such clients.

Learning Objective #4:  Participants will identify how the therapist's own attachment relationship impacts the intervention strategies used with clients.

Monday Pre-Conference Workshops

May 19, 2025, 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM

√    Theories & Practice

NBCC Content Area:  Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship

Presenters: Dr. Claire Bamberg, DMin, LMFT; Dagmar Grefe, PhD, ACPE-CE

In its 100-year history, ACPE has been in dialogue with cognate fields in social sciences, understanding and caring for people from different cultures and in different contexts. Professional Coaching is an emerging field in the helping professions and the business world with promising potential for enriching our practices of spiritual care education and therapy.

Coaching is both a discipline and an art. It is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Professional coaching competencies (as set forth by the International Coaching Federation, the most globally recognized credentialing program for coach practitioners) align with many practices of spiritual care education and psychotherapy. The workshop highlights aligned competencies, such as presence, effective communication, client-centeredness, evoking awareness, and cultivating learning. The workshop introduces the main competencies through clinical demonstrations and highlights implications for the education of spiritual care providers and psychotherapists.

Measurable Learning Objectives:

1. Attendees will gain appreciation for the nuances of deep listening
2. Attendees will be able to describe the cultural implications embedded language
3. Attendees will be able to apply basic coaching competencies in their setting

Thursday AM Workshops Session IV

May 22, 2025, 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM

√    Theories & Practice

NBCC Content Area:  Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship; Human Growth and Development

Presenter: Carol Z.A. McGinnis, PhD, SIP, BC-TMH, LCPC(MD), NCC

Graduate programs accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP, 2024) require multicultural counseling as an important aspect of that curriculum with client diversity as an important component in identity development and interpersonal functioning in society.  This educational mandate highlights the importance of research that expands on what we know about marginalized populations who are vulnerable to stigmatization and unfair treatment through bullying, ostracism, and other social injustices (McGraw et al, 2023).  Understandably, these clients often struggle with negative mental health issues that can be complicated by unhealthy anger (Strong et al, 2022) and/or spiritual conflict (Captari et al, 2022) that would require a spiritually integrated psychotherapy treatment plan. 

To date, there is very little peer-reviewed research available on the “furry” population with the bulk of this work falling on the shoulders of an international team of psychologists and social workers known as the Furscience Team.  This team of researchers have welcomed our counseling study items as a part of their most recent survey effort in July of 2024 and this presentation has been designed to disseminate these new learnings.  The content shared in this presentation will help counseling professionals to gain insight into the furry experience for clients who either identify as a member of this community or have family members who identify in this way.  Our hope is to continue this research relationship with the Furscience Team and conduct additional research in the future.

Learning Objectives - as a result of this workshop, participants will be able to:

    1. describe what/who a “furry” client may be

    2. differentiate bio-psycho-socio-spiritual (BPSS) issues associated with this identity

    3. demonstrate psychospiritual strategies that may be useful for these clients

    4. articulate how "furry" client identity is similar to other forms of intersectionality

Tuesday PM Workshops Session II

May 20, 2025, 1:45 PM – 3:15 PM

√    Spiritual & Creative Practices

NBCC Content Area:  Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship

Presenters: Beth L. Muehlhausen, PhD, MDiv, BCC, LCSW; Satoe Soga, DMin, MDiv, BCC, ACPE-CE

As a result of this educational opportunity, participants will be able to:

1. Articulate a beginning understanding of qualitative research utilizing interpretive phenomenology methodology which was used to evaluate a cultural exchange program.
2. Understand the impact of a cultural exchange program on the cultural competency and humility of chaplain students.
3. Understand the key qualitative patterns and themes that emerged from interviews with students.

Understand how findings from this research project impact the spiritual care practices of all chaplains and mental health professionals in caring for persons from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Chaplains and mental health professionals are expected to care for persons from an increasingly diverse cultural/ethnic landscape while instances of discrimination are on the rise. Houston Methodist has created a cultural exchange program with chaplaincy students from Mexico and the United States as a means for increasing their humility, confidence and competence in dealing with persons from various cultures and ethnicities. This workshop will share findings from a qualitative research project that utilized interpretive phenomenology methodology to evaluate this program and the impact on the students’ chaplaincy.  Special attention will be given to the implications for all chaplains and mental health professionals in achieving cultural humility. The workshop format will be interactive with a combination of lecture (sharing of research findings) and discussion. This workshop will address the NBCC content areas of a) multicultural competency as a professional counselor, and b) research and program evaluation.

Wednesday PM Workshops Session III

May 21, 2025, 1:45 PM – 3:15 PM

√    Theories & Practice

√    New Outcomes & Curriculum Development

√    Research

NBCC Content Area:  Social and Cultural Foundations

Presenter: Brittany M. Powell, ACPE-CE

There are currently 24 states that have legalized the use of cannabis for recreational use, including the District of Columbia, and there are a few more states that have decriminalized the use of cannabis1. There is a growing awareness that laws are changing in the nation and around the globe concerning cannabis. Canada has legalized cannabis use for both recreational and medicinal. The U.S Department of Justice proposed in May of 2024 that marijuana be reclassified from a Schedule I drug to a less dangerous Schedule three drug alongside some anabolic steroids. As we are amid a generational shift, one wonders about the attitudes and educational needs in understanding the healing and medicinal components of cannabis for spiritual care and healthcare professionals. 

In this workshop, we will discuss the current research that supports that education on the use of cannabis in the clinical setting is needed for both medical and non-medical staff. This workshop aims to provide a trauma-informed approach to caring for patients or family members who may engage in cannabis use for medicinal or recreational reasons. It will also build awareness of the history of cannabis use in this country and how the “war on drugs” led to the mass incarceration of communities of color. This workshop aims to invite certified educators and certified educator candidates to reflect on how to address educational needs on the growth and healing components of cannabis which will address the outcome category relational dynamics and spiritual care to others.

IIA.4 Demonstrate how one uses self-care practices, including trauma-informed approaches, for support of wellbeing, including when providing spiritual care.

IB.7 Articulate an understanding of one’s implicit bias and systemic bias when providing spiritual care.

IIA.5 Demonstrate how one is addressing one’s implicit bias and systemic bias when providing spiritual care as appropriate to one’s context

IIB.5 Evaluate one’s ability to address bias and seek justice when providing spiritual care as appropriate to one’s context.

Tuesday AM Workshops Session I

May 20, 2025, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

√    New Outcomes & Curriculum Development

NBCC Content Area:  Wellness and Prevention