Plenary Speakers

Speakers for the next NCAD will be announced in early 2019. Below are speakers from 2018.
Sunday, August 19, 2018 | 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM

P01A - From Dreams to Heartbreak: Breaking the Stigma of Addiction by Making ‘The Choice’
In this inspirational plenary session, Tony Hoffman, former BMX Pro, U.S. Olympic Coach and person in recovery, will reflect on the choice that changed his life forever. Many believe that small, insignificant choices have no impact on their lives, but one choice created a roller coaster ride in Hoffman’s life. He will address his early years as a talented athlete with a negative attitude and how his mental health issues became a foundation for his eventual substance use. Attitudes, choices and thought processes led him to marijuana, which opened the door for prescription painkiller and heroin use. It was a decision that changed his life forever. Hoffman will address the restoration of his life and how his recovery has allowed him to give back.
 
Tony Hoffman, Founder, Former BMX Pro, U.S. Olympic Coach & Person in Recovery
Tony Hoffman is a former BMX Elite Pro and placed second at the 2016 World Championships. Hoffman also has been sober since May 17, 2007. His BMX career started in high school, as he was a top-ranked BMX amateur with multiple endorsements. He also started drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and using prescription painkillers. In 2007, he was sent to prison for two years, but in time began rebuilding his life’s purpose. After paroling prison in late 2008, Hoffman started living out his dream with his addiction behind him. As soon as he was released, he used the experience to inspire others to live their life with purpose. Hoffman has dedicated his life to awareness projects around the country, while advocating a shift in thinking towards recovery.



Sponsored by
Sunday, August 19, 2018 | 4:15 PM - 5:15 PM

P01B - Plenary - Unspoken Legacy: Reverberations of Trauma in the Alcohol Fractured Family
When people think of trauma, they often think of acute, dramatic situations, such as a natural disaster or automobile accident. Yet the majority of those who experience trauma experience a more subtle and chronic form that exists within their own family. Claudia Black, PhD, will discuss a portrait of addiction in the family, offering an overlay of how adverse child experiences are the foundation of emotional dysregulation fueling traumatic responses, including generational repetition. She concludes the presentation offering a seven-step process for healing.

Objectives:
  • Identify how the trauma responses to flight, fight and freeze become acted out in the family impacted by alcohol use disorder.
  • Delineate the more blatant and the more subtle traumas in the alcohol addicted family system.
  • Recognize emotional dysregulation with addictions and trauma symptoms of family members.
 
Claudia Black, PhD
Claudia Black is the recipient of numerous national awards including the 2014 Father Joseph C. Martin Professional Excellence Award, the NAADAC 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Washington School of Social Work, the 2010 Conway Hunter Award for excellence in the field of addictions and the 2012 Robert Rehmar Addiction Professional Award. She has been a keynote speaker on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as well as on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. Her workshops have been presented to a wide range of audiences including military academies, prison systems, medical schools and mental health and addiction programs. Black has extensive multi-cultural experiences working with agencies and audiences in Japan, Brazil, Australia, Scotland, Iceland, Germany, England and Canada. She is the author of: It Will Never Happen To Me, Changing Course, My Dad Loves Me, My Dad Has A Disease, Repeat After Me, Relapse Toolkit, A Hole in the Sidewalk, Depression Strategies, Straight Talk, Family Strategies, Anger Strategies, Deceived: Facing Sexual Betrayal, Lies and Secrets, The Truth Begins With You, Intimate Treason and her most recent book, Unspoken Legacy.
 
 

Sponsored by:
Monday, August 20, 2018 |  8:30 AM - 9:45 AM

P02 - Plenary - Creating Balance in Recovery: How to Teach, Practice and Live in Dialectics
The foundational concept of dialectical behavior therapy indicates that the dialectic is critical in sustaining balance. Finding and maintaining this balance is the focus of mental health and addiction treatment. Attendees will discover how we can create our own balance and show our clients how to self-care by using acceptance and change at the same time. Accepting the dialectics of our lives means that we can embrace all of the truths that exist about ourselves and about other
people, places, things and situations. We will then evolve as addiction professionals and private practitioners to model the very ideas that we ask our clients to embrace. Attendees will learn how to change talk into treatment and how to reinforce the use of dialectics in practice.

Objectives:
  • Identify how living in the extremes has harmed us personally and professionally.
  • Discuss the benefits of practicing and living in the balance created by using dialectics.
  • Describe how to incorporate acceptance and change talk into treatment and how to reinforce the use of dialectics with our clients.
 
Bari K Platter MS, RN, PMHCNS-BC, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Center for Dependency, Addiction and Rehabilitation, University of Colorado Health System
Bari K Platter, MS, RN, PMHCNS-BC is a Psychiatric/Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist with over thirty years of experience working in a variety of mental health settings. Bari is a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) trainer and a certified Crucial Conversations trainer. Additional areas of expertise include Solution Focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Interpersonal Communication, Cultural Competency and Case Management. She is a nationally recognized speaker/ trainer and is published in the areas of addiction, cultural competency and mental health nursing. Ms. Platter received the Florence Nightingale Award in 2016 and has been nominated for the ANCC Magnet Nurse of the Year for 2017.
 
 
Presented by:
Sponsored by:
Tuesday, August 21, 2018 | 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM
P03 - Plenary - All in the Family 2018: The Intergenerational Experience of Gender Rules, Trauma and Love
This provocative presentation will explore the ways in which families transmit the core experiences of gender Socialization: the “Man Rules” and the “Woman Rules.” The session will discuss how the rules have changed significantly in the past 50 years and continue to transform the way we show up as human beings. Using a trauma- informed and compassionate lens, we will look at the complex ways that trauma shame and the experience of love interact in family systems both positively and negatively. Attendees will leave with new insights on how to work more effectively with families as well as personal tools for exploring their own core experiences of this complex and deeply-felt phenomenon.

Objectives:
  • Explain and review the basics of family systems and gender socialization and how they influence our current relationships.
  • Explain trauma as a defining and organizing experience that forms a recovering person’s sense of self, others in a family system
  • Recognize and have a greater understanding of the way that families experience, process and exhibit the symptoms of trauma and how that influences our current relationships.
 
 
Dan Griffin, MA, CEO & Lead Consultant, Griffin Recovery Enterprises, Inc.
Dan Griffin, MA, senior fellow of The Meadows, has dedicated his work and life to exploring and redefining what it means to be a man in the 21st century. Griffin is dedicated to helping men be better men by understanding the impact the “Man Rules” have on their personal lives and their professional lives. Griffins’ newest book, “A Man’s Way through Relationships,” is the first book written specifically to help men create healthy relationships while navigating the challenges of the “Man Rules.”
Presented by:
Sponsored by:
Wednesday, August 22, 2018 | 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM
 
P04 - Plenary, Sexual Addiction: Diagnostic Challenges and New Research
In the rapidly changing field of sex addiction treatment, it can be difficult to stay informed about new developments and research. Stefanie Carnes, PhD, will discuss the current considerations in sex and pornography addiction, including the most up to date research and information on diagnosis, etiology and treatment. This presentation will address the differences between the addiction model versus other conceptualizations and will address issues of assessment and differential diagnosis, while providing a brief overview of treatment strategies. Pornography, trauma and attachment issues will be discussed.

Objectives:
  • Recognize and understand new research on the etiology and diagnosis of sex addiction.
  • Recognize the role of trauma and attachment.
  • Understand new research on pornography addiction including information on sexual condition, neuroscience and sexual dysfunction
 
Stefanie Carnes, PhD, LMFT, CSAT-S, International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals
Stefanie Carnes is the president of the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals, and a senior fellow for Meadows Behavioral Healthcare, where she works with sexually addicted clients and their families. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy-approved supervisor. Carnes is also a certified sex addiction therapist and supervisor. She is the author of numerous publications including, “Mending a Shattered Heart: A Guide for Partners of Sex Addicts,” “Facing Heartbreak: Steps to Recovery for Partners of Sex Addicts,” and “Facing Addiction: Starting Recovery from Alcohol and Drugs.
Wednesday, August 22, 2018 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
 
P05 - Lunch and Plenary - Starting the Food, Body Conversation: Tools and Strategies for A Healthy Relationship
Up to 35% of patients who struggle with substance abuse will exhibit eating disorder behaviors, and yet, so much more will leave treatment with an unhealthy relationship with their body and the food they put in it. How do we set our clients up to have a positive relationship with their body? In this session Robyn will give valuable information with practical, creative strategies to support and create a safe environment for those wanting to develop a healthy relationship with their body and the food they put in it. Attendees will gain tools on how to identify and screen when your client becomes susceptible to an eating disorder. Robyn candidly speaks about her personal experience of overcoming alcoholism and eating disorders and will also address clinical strategies for helping the client establish a more productive relationship with body and food.
 
Objectives:
  • .Summarize what a healthy relationship with your body and the food you put in it looks like.
  • .List the three phases of nutritional healing—The Body Conversation.
  • .Identify when an unhealthy relationship with body and food is an eating disorder
     
Robyn Cruze, MA, Eating Recovery Center
A well-known published author, public speaker and coach, Robyn Cruze, MA, is Eating Recovery Center’s National Recovery Advocate. Robyn participates in national media events and conferences exclusively for Eating Recovery Center and its Partner Programs. She also serves as a crucial source of support and knowledge to alumni, families and professionals on behalf of Eating Recovery Center and the Eating Recovery Center Foundation. Australian born, Ms. Cruze struggled with an eating disorder for over a decade. Now fully recovered for over ten years, Ms. Cruze is a speaker, coach and published co-author of Making Peace with Your Plate (CRP) with Espra Andrus, LCSW. Ms. Cruze has a Master’s degree in Solo Performance from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has worked as a professional actor in film, TV and theater across Australia and the United Kingdom. She is an avid writer on topics such as nutrition, body image healing and eating disorder recovery. Ms. Cruze is also the author of a children’s affirmation book, Lovely Dreams.
John Clapp, PhD, MSW.
Interim Dean and a Professor at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California.
 
Dr. Clapp is known internationally for his research and translational work in the field of alcohol problem prevention. A fellow in the American Academy of Health Behavior, Clapp is currently studying the system dynamics of drinking events with a team of engineers and computer scientists with the goal of developing “smart” real-time prevention applications. 

Dr. Clapp has published more than 100 journal articles, with his work appearing in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Addiction, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, among numerous other top research journals. 

Dr. Clapp has been awarded more than $32 million in grants and contracts (NIAAA, NIDA, U.S. Department of Education, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation) and has been principal investigator on over 20 funded projects. Dr. Clapp was the founding co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. 

As a leader in the prevention of alcohol-related problems experienced by college students, he served six years as the director of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery. He also served on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention National Advisory Council. Clapp’s work and expertise has been featured in numerous international media outlets, with coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, ABC National News, among numerous others.
 
 
 
Presented by: