2025 Anxiety and Depression Conference

2025 Anxiety and Depression Conference is organized by The Milton H. Erickson Foundation and will be held from Sep 27 - 28, 2025.

Why Attend?

• Learn from renowned psychologists and therapists
• Discover cutting-edge research and innovative treatment approaches
• Participate in interactive workshops and panel discussions
• Network with mental health professionals and advocates

Educational Objectives

1. Identify cognitive style and its effect on experience in general and symptomatic experience in particular
2. Identify the role of global cognitions in client problems
3. Describe and model how asking “how” questions can identify the client’s experiential deficits (i.e., missing or incorrect information that work against effective decision-making)
4. To describe and discuss recent studies on the role of over-general cognitive style in treatment response.
5. To demonstrate how general language can generate specific effects in the listener.
6. To list and describe the key components of a “process-oriented hypnosis”
7. Create homework assignments for families that focus on experiential learning to change anxious patterns.
8. Describe three “elimination strategies” that increase anxiety in families.
9. Use three key questions to increase parental engagement in a first session.
10. Understand one key teaching of the Greek stoic philosopher, Epictetus.
11. Describe two hotly debated theories about the causal linkages between cognitions (belief in negative thoughts) and feelings.
12. Describe the potential role and limits of an automated digital device in the modification of negative thoughts and feelings.
13. Describe the accuracy of therapists in estimating their empathy for patients, as perceived by patients.
14. Describe two powerful and accurate ways to assess empathy at every therapy session.
15. Describe the philosophy of “joyous failure” when practicing the Five Secrets of Effective Communication.
16. Explain the Law of Opposites.
17. Explain the therapeutic function of seeking out symptoms of panic.
18. Construct a simple formula to generate a request to increase threatening stimuli.
19. List at least four types of interceptive exposure that can be conducted in the treatment office.
20. Describe two key overlapping patterns of anxiety and depression.
21. Explain to teens and families how avoidance creates anxiety.
22. List three mistakes that support passivity in a depressed teen/young adult.
23. Identify two common behavioral habits that maintain anxious arousal
24. Describe two experiential techniques that foster embodied regulation and presence.
25. Explain two effective strategies to reduce excessive worry through nervous system engagement
26. Identify and describe the four phases of the Sequence of Engagement for Anxiety (Regulate, Relate, Reason, Experiment), demonstrating an understanding of how each phase contributes to managing anxiety in clients.
27. Demonstrate the application of evidence-based techniques for regulating the nervous system, building trust, challenging cognitive distortions, and implementing real-world interventions, such as opposite action and practicing panic, in simulated or case-based scenarios.
28. Develop and implement a structured intervention plan incorporating the Sequence of Engagement, effectively using anxiety-deactivation strategies to address specific anxiety triggers and measure client progress.
29. List three trends in anxiety treatment that have improved outcomes. 
30. Describe the most common mistake in OCD treatment. 
31. Create at least one resource to share with clients to use outside of sessions. 
32. Identify the flawed treatment goals of those with social anxiety and the underlying beliefs that drive them.
33. Describe three or more essential targets of social anxiety treatment.
34. Outline the guidelines for skills practice in social anxiety disorder.
35. Explore Integrative Approaches: Attendees will be able to describe how hypnotherapy can be integrated with evidence-based treatments for anxiety and depression, including cognitive-behavioral and somatic approaches.
36. Demonstrate Strategic Communication: Attendees will observe and analyze conversational techniques used by hypnotherapists to elicit client motivation, reframe internal conflict, and support adaptive engagement with distress.
37. Apply Contextual Interventions: Attendees will learn how to tailor hypnotic interventions to the client’s natural language, values, and lived experience to enhance therapeutic alignment and reduce resistance.