10th Annual Wellness Together Conference

Under Construction™: Adolescent Brain Development in Real Classrooms is a highly interactive session translating adolescent brain science into practical, educator‑ready strategies that improve behavior, engagement, and learning. The session begins by addressing a common challenge in middle and high schools: adolescent behavior is often misunderstood and punished rather than interpreted through a developmental lens shaped by brain maturation, stress sensitivity, and evolving executive functioning.

Participants are introduced to the BUILD™ Model—Belonging, Understanding risk‑reward systems, Impulse buffering, Learning through errors, and Dignity‑preserving accountability—as a framework for aligning instruction, discipline, and MTSS supports with how the adolescent brain develops. Brain myth‑versus‑fact polls engage participants in debunking common misconceptions and building shared understanding of impulse control, decision‑making, and emotional regulation.
Using real‑world school scenarios, participants engage in facilitated, small‑group problem solving to apply the BUILD™ framework to classroom responses, discipline decisions, and policy alignment while maintaining accountability and safety. Structured discussions explore how misaligned policies can unintentionally escalate adolescent behavior.

The session concludes with guided application and reflection, ensuring participants leave with ready‑to‑use tools, including a Decision‑Making Delay Tool, Risk‑vs‑Reward Interview Guide, and a Brain‑Aligned Discipline Planning Sheet. Grounded in evidence that brain‑aligned approaches improve self‑regulation and decision‑making, this session equips educators to respond to behavior with clarity and purpose while supporting mental well‑being as a foundation for learning.

Continuing Education Information

Course Syllabus | Speaker Resume | Session Flyer | Course Attendance | Course Evaluation

Upon completion of the course, attendance form, and evaluation, you will receive a Confirmation of Attendance Certificate through email. If you do not receive your Confirmation of Attendance Certificate within ten business days, please contact [email protected]

This course meets the qualifications for 1.0 hours of Continuing Education Credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Wellness Together, Inc., Provider #141369, is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor Continuing Education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs. Wellness Together maintains responsibility for this course and its content.

Led by Dr. Laura Bond and Emma Katherine Hill from Harvard’s Global Mental Health Lab, this session provides an accessible mental health skills training designed for anyone who works with children. Attendees will gain practical tools to cultivate empathy, facilitate collaborative problem-solving, and master conflict de-escalation strategies. Designed for non-clinical providers, this workshop equips everyday educators and mentors to confidently support youth navigating subclinical mental health challenges.

Please note: This is a 2-hour breakout session with a 15-minute break at 3:30 PM.

Across many school systems, substance use is still met first with suspension, even when educators know exclusion alone rarely changes behavior and often disconnects students from support. This session opens with a brief rural school context and invites participants to quickly map the systems currently in place within our own settings, surfacing the tension between suspension-based responses and alternatives.

The session moves into a tiered MTSS approach to substance use intervention, from prevention to intervention to maintenance, discussing what is and is not working at each level, including prevention efforts, first-time and repeat suspension responses, and the complexity of recurring substance use.

Participants explore coordination across administration, counseling, and prevention programs such as YVAPE to strengthen alignment. A key focus is how brief, harm-reduction informed interventions can extend beyond discipline into ongoing support, including the “build your own quit kit” model as a student-centered tool for goal setting and engagement.

The session introduces a practical pathway informed by motivational interviewing and used in real school settings, including a 3-session individual model for first-time substance-related suspensions and a structured group counseling format. Our goal is to provide prevention, but when met with intervention have the option for maintenance, not just consequence.

We conclude with a vision for the future, engaging in a professional learning community setting building shared language and supporting staff in carrying this work collectively. Participants engage in dialogue on scaling these practices within our individual contexts and identify what is needed to make intervention more sustainable and coordinated.

Continuing Education Session Information:

Course Syllabus | Speaker Resume | Session Flyer | Course Attendance | Course Evaluation

Upon completion of the course, attendance form, and evaluation, you will receive a Confirmation of Attendance Certificate through email. If you do not receive your Confirmation of Attendance Certificate within ten business days, please contact [email protected]

This course meets the qualifications for 1.0 hours of Continuing Education Credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Wellness Together, Inc., Provider #141369, is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor Continuing Education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs. Wellness Together maintains responsibility for this course and its content.

This session aims to equip school professionals with knowledge and tools to better support grieving students. Participants will explore foundational grief theory, including grief across developmental stages and the impact on behavior, relationships, attendance, and academic performance. As mental well-being is a foundation for learning, students cannot fully engage academically when grief and loss go unsupported.

The session will also examine the current grief landscape, highlighting the growing number of students impacted alongside the limited education and training many school professionals receive in responding to grief. Through discussion, interactive moments and real-world examples, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges grieving students face and the critical role schools play in creating compassionate, grief-informed environments.

Participants will leave empowered to bring grief to the table within their schools and communities through meaningful conversations, advocacy, and intentional support practices. The presentation will provide practical strategies for developing a grief support response plan tailored to a school, including interventions, crisis response considerations, communication strategies, and approaches for building sustainable systems of care. Attendees will gain actionable tools to empower school communities to create cultures of belonging, strengthen student support systems, and foster hope for grieving students and families.

Chronic absenteeism driven by anxiety and internalizing distress has reached unprecedented levels in K–12 education. Clinicians, school personnel, and families often struggle to distinguish between externalizing truancy and anxiety-based school refusal, leading to interventions that inadvertently exacerbate student avoidance.

This 60-minute course provides mental health practitioners with a clinical conceptual framework for understanding internalizing disorders (Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, OCD, and Somatization) as they present in academic settings. Participants will analyze the neurobiological mechanisms of avoidance and the "accommodation loop"—wherein well-intentioned adult accommodations maintain clinical distress. Finally, attendees will learn a collaborative, exposure-based re-entry protocol bridging clinical treatment, school administrative support, and family system boundaries.

Continuing Education Session Information:

Course Syllabus | Speaker Resume | Session Flyer | Course Attendance | Course Evaluation

Upon completion of the course, attendance form, and evaluation, you will receive a Confirmation of Attendance Certificate through email. If you do not receive your Confirmation of Attendance Certificate within ten business days, please contact [email protected]

This course meets the qualifications for 1.0 hours of Continuing Education Credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Wellness Together, Inc., Provider #141369, is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor Continuing Education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs. Wellness Together maintains responsibility for this course and its content.