2nd Annual Youth and Family Series

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aejKD1eRIh 

Session 1 - October 19th
Why Don’t You Act MY Age? Communication Through the Generations

Ken Jenkins is the Training Manager for Ada County Juvenile Court Services in Boise, where he supports staff working with troubled youth and their families. During his thirty-five-year career in adult education he has worked in the military, law enforcement, and juvenile justice.  His main interest today is improving inter-generational communication.

Challenges in overcoming generational barriers are ubiquitous, and include Gen X and Baby Boomer parents, grandparents, and other adult mentors trying to connect with our younger generations, GEN Z and Millennials.  This informal and informative session will focus on providing attendees with both communication and generational awareness skills and packs data and self-reflection into a succinct learner-focused package.

Understanding "Mental Health" vs “Mental Illness” Language

Margaux Edwards Crockett is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. She has a BS in Secondary Education and MS in Counseling. Margaux specializes in child and adolescent therapy, eating disorders, aging, domestic violence and trauma therapy. She currently works for Central Idaho Counseling, the Donnelly Elementary School, Rose Advocates, and Valley Community Prevention Services.   

Margaux will help attendees understand the various stigmas and misconceptions surrounding mental health and how recognizing personal emotions aids in the process of problem solving, and decreasing the ups and downs of anxiety and depression. 

Session 2 - October 26th
Stigma and Biases that Hinder Effective Communication

Jennifer Caple is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker certified in compassion fatigue, crucial conversations, critical incident stress management and suicide prevention who owns Elevate 208, life coaching and counseling. Previously she worked in schools, hospice, and St Luke’s McCall emergency room (for 17 years). She is Director of the local Community Crisis Response Team.  

Jennifer will help attendees identify communication patterns that are unhealthy and strategies to reduce these. She will discuss ways to be more cognizant of inner biases and how these may impact the people around us to the detriment of effective communication. Finally, she will touch on differences in cutting and suicidal ideation, and ways we can make a positive impact in the lives of others to reduce the chances of suicide..

Are You Settling for Half of the Rainbow?

Ryan J Hulbert, Ph.D., holds a PhD in clinical psychology (University of Nebraska) with sub-specialties in alcoholism treatment and rural community mental health. He has worked as a psychologist for tribal and governmental agencies for more than twenty years including Clinical Services Administrator for the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections. In addition, he currently teaches psychology at Boise State University.

Using light passing through a prism as an analogy, Ryan will discuss how our perceptions, which are almost always at least somewhat distorted, affect our attitudes. As with blue light, when our perceptions are most distorted, our are hearts are cool, but, when like red, our perceptions are less distorted, our hearts become warm. He’ll help you not get bent out of shape.    

Session 3 - November 2nd
Having THE (Suicide/Self Harm) Conversation
Breakout Sessions-Choose One.

Breakout Session #1
Talking to Teens about Mental Health and Suicide

Ashley Brown is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker working as a Mental Health Therapist for St. Luke's Behavioral Health in McCall. She has worked in settings as varied as child welfare and mental health, hospital emergency room and inpatient floors, and hospice. She takes a warm and straightforward person-centered approach with her clients. Ashley grew up in McCall, and is passionate about bringing mental health care to rural areas.

Mallorie Getto is a Licensed Master’s Social Worker working as a Mental Health Therapist for St. Luke's Behavioral Health in McCall. Mallorie has been working to improve access to mental health care in rural areas for nine years. She is the president of the Community Medical Fund, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing financial barriers to health care. She also volunteers her time working with kids and teens locally as a coach.

Suicide and mental health are not illustrated in very realistic ways in traditional and social media, and talking to teens about suicide and mental health can be scary. Ashley and Mallorie will take some of the fear out of those conversations. “They will discuss how to help teens know what to look out for and how to support each other, and ways to have more effective and safe conversations about warning signs of mental health concerns and suicidal thoughts. They will also talk about what to do if your teen comes to you with concerns. The more calm and comfortable you are with these conversations, the more likely your teens are to reach out to you.

Breakout Session #2
Talking to Adults about Mental Health and Suicide/Covid Isolation

Margaux Edwards Crockett is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. She has a BS in Secondary Education and MS in Counseling. She specializes in child and adolescent therapy, eating disorders, aging, domestic violence and EMDR trauma therapy. She works for Central Idaho Counseling, the Donnelly Elementary School, Rose Advocates, and Valley Community Prevention Services.  

Margaux will talk about sadness vs depression and explore the roots of anxiety.  How to recognize the symptoms of depression and develop coping techniques that will maintain mental well-being.  She will also discuss the stress factors affecting adults and the elderly.         

Following Breakout Sessions:  Managing Our Thoughts

Eric Mikkelsen, LMFT, has spent more than twenty years in the counseling, therapy, performance coaching, and training fields in our local community as part of National Ski Patrol and Valley County Search and Rescue. 

Eric will close out the evening and talk about managing our thoughts. He will discuss what we can do to manage our thoughts so those thoughts don't manage us. If time allows, he will discuss some specific tools that, if employed, can have a profound and powerful effect in how we show up in this world and manage our greatest challenges instead of being managed by those challenges.  

Teresa Fanselow will share a personal story of suicide and loss that her family experienced in 2004.  Through her story she hopes to leave the audience with life lessons on things they would have done differently, warning signs they missed, and just how important it is for parents to check in and really know their kids.  Teresa has a non-profit organization that teaches social emotional learning and substance abuse prevention classes in grades K-10.  She has been serving the west central mountains for 12 years with these programs. 

Mental Wellness for Those Left Behind

Jennifer Caple is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker certified in compassion fatigue, crucial conversations, critical incident stress management and suicide prevention who owns Elevate 208, life coaching and counseling. Previously she worked in schools, hospice, and St Luke’s McCall emergency room (for 17 years). She is Director of the local Community Crisis Response Team.  

Jennifer will share tips and tricks to on how to proactively control your emotions and mental health and discuss ways to tap into your mind and body to get out of emotional overwhelm and into cognitive thinking. She will discuss how to move from past and future thinking back into the present moment so that you can be more efficient, productive and engaged with yourself and those around you.  She will provide information on free apps and resources that offer the tools you need to help better manage your mental health and support your loved ones.