2026 Michigan Trauma Summit

When trauma happens, it can result in years of mental health and addictive disorders before a person receives help. How can we, as helping professionals, transform years of unresolved trauma into a healing experience within a limited number of sessions? This session will discuss effective therapeutic strategies and how to implement them in time-constrained settings.

This session will be a deep dive into the research on trauma treatments in psychosis, touching on clinician concerns and some simple formulation and differential diagnosis.

This session explores how to recognize when the natural grieving process has shifted into PTSD or complicated grief following a traumatic loss. Participants will learn to distinguish normative grief reactions from trauma-related responses by examining key clinical features, trajectories of recovery, and maintaining factors that interfere with adaptation to loss of a loved one. The presentation highlights common warning signs, including persistent avoidance, intrusive memories, restricted emotional range, and prolonged functional impairment, and offers guidance on assessment and differential diagnosis to support timely, effective intervention.

This session introduces the Concurrent Treatment for PTSD and Substance Use Disorders Using Prolonged Exposure (COPE) manual developed by Drs. Sudie Back and Edna Foa. The COPE treatment manual is an evidenced based treatment for clients presenting with comorbid PTSD and SUD. Therefore, this session broadly reviews integrating the components of prolonged exposure (PE) for PTSD (psychoeducation, in vivo and imaginal exposure, processing, etc.) plus relapse prevention strategies for SUD (craving identification, urge surfing, self-management planning, etc.).

Data supports that engagement is the key to a successful helping relationship. The lens that we use as we interact with people served makes a difference in how we communicate. This session will explore strategies that can be utilized to strengthen engagement with individuals who have experienced trauma.

Childhood trauma disproportionately affects the veteran population. A study conducted by Laird and Alexander (2019) found that 46% of their sample of 898 veterans receiving care at a VA outpatient clinic had an ACE score of 4+ (compared to 12% of the general population). An ACE score of 4+ exponentially increases risk for depression, SUD, PTSD, and suicidality, along with many other deleterious physical, psychological, and behavioral outcomes. With the suicide rate for veterans being double the rate of the civilian adult population (34.7 per 100,000 versus 17.1 per 100,000), more needs to be done to assess for and address pre-military trauma as part of veteran suicide prevention efforts.

Despite decades of research supporting effective, evidence-based treatments for PTSD, many individuals still do not receive these interventions in routine care. This session explores why effective PTSD treatments remain underutilized and how this gap can be addressed. The presenters begin by discussing common myths surrounding evidence-based PTSD treatments, including beliefs about patient readiness, treatment tolerability, symptom exacerbation, and lack of flexibility. The presenters then review key barriers to implementation of evidence-based treatments for PTSD including limited training and consultation, time and productivity expectations, clinician burnout, and organizational constraints that interfere with treatment delivery. Grounded in real-world clinical experience, the presentation will highlight practical, feasible strategies for overcoming these challenges. Topics will include balancing fidelity and flexibility, strengthening clinician confidence in trauma-focused work, addressing emotional and ethical concerns, and promoting organizational cultures that support high-quality PTSD care.

CPT is a short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy for PTSD and related conditions. CPT is one of the most supported therapies across our clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of PTSD. This presentation will provide a brief overview of CPT as a course of treatment. The focus will be key features of CPT, including the CPT rationale for how people can recover from PTSD, and the core cognitive and emotional concepts used in the treatment. The presenter will provide information to determine which individuals CPT may or may not be best suited to help.

Many of the individuals we serve have experienced or are currently experiencing continuous invalidation. This invalidation can occur in many ways and impacts them in ways that can lead to intense emotions and problematic behaviors. This session will assist with conceptualizing invalidation and providing an understanding of how the pervasiveness of invalidation can negatively impact individuals, including severe self-invalidation of their own experiences. There will be discussion of ways to assist clients with increasing their ability to validate their own experiences and to increase recovery from invalidation. This session will provide discussion of various strategies that can be utilized to assist individuals with recovering from invalidation.

This session offers an overview on human trafficking and its correlation with substance use and prepares participants to recognize risk factors, identify indicators of exploitation, and apply appropriate response strategies within their professional scope of practice.

Childhood trauma disproportionately affects the veteran population. A study conducted by Laird and Alexander (2019) found that 46% of their sample of 898 veterans receiving care at a VA outpatient clinic had an ACE score of 4+ (compared to 12% of the general population). An ACE score of 4+ exponentially increases risk for depression, SUD, PTSD, and suicidality, along with many other deleterious physical, psychological, and behavioral outcomes. With the suicide rate for veterans being double the rate of the civilian adult population (34.7 per 100,000 versus 17.1 per 100,000), more needs to be done to assess for and address pre-military trauma as part of veteran suicide prevention efforts.

Despite decades of research supporting effective, evidence-based treatments for PTSD, many individuals still do not receive these interventions in routine care. This session explores why effective PTSD treatments remain underutilized and how this gap can be addressed. The presenters begin by discussing common myths surrounding evidence-based PTSD treatments, including beliefs about patient readiness, treatment tolerability, symptom exacerbation, and lack of flexibility. The presenters then review key barriers to implementation of evidence-based treatments for PTSD including limited training and consultation, time and productivity expectations, clinician burnout, and organizational constraints that interfere with treatment delivery. Grounded in real-world clinical experience, the presentation will highlight practical, feasible strategies for overcoming these challenges. Topics will include balancing fidelity and flexibility, strengthening clinician confidence in trauma-focused work, addressing emotional and ethical concerns, and promoting organizational cultures that support high-quality PTSD care.

CPT is a short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy for PTSD and related conditions. CPT is one of the most supported therapies across our clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of PTSD. This presentation will provide a brief overview of CPT as a course of treatment. The focus will be key features of CPT, including the CPT rationale for how people can recover from PTSD, and the core cognitive and emotional concepts used in the treatment. The presenter will provide information to determine which individuals CPT may or may not be best suited to help.

Many of the individuals we serve have experienced or are currently experiencing continuous invalidation. This invalidation can occur in many ways and impacts them in ways that can lead to intense emotions and problematic behaviors. This session will assist with conceptualizing invalidation and providing an understanding of how the pervasiveness of invalidation can negatively impact individuals, including severe self-invalidation of their own experiences. There will be discussion of ways to assist clients with increasing their ability to validate their own experiences and to increase recovery from invalidation. This session will provide discussion of various strategies that can be utilized to assist individuals with recovering from invalidation.

This session offers an overview on human trafficking and its correlation with substance use and prepares participants to recognize risk factors, identify indicators of exploitation, and apply appropriate response strategies within their professional scope of practice.

Why do they do what they do? Understanding the origin and function of one’s behavior is critical to engagement and treatment. This session will provide participants an opportunity to advance assessment and explore critical elements of providing treatment. Professional use of self (polyvagal theory) and relational safety will be explored.

 This session is a follow up to Dr. Bishop’s keynote address. Dr. Bishop will discuss the importance of accurate and thorough assessment and diagnoses of mental health disorders. Participants will be able to interact and ask questions to further their understanding of PTSD and the available treatments.

This session will be a deeper dive into the research on trauma treatments in psychosis, touching on clinician concerns, and some simple formulation and differential diagnosis.

This interactive session will introduce participants to integrated, evidence-based approaches to working with co-occurring traumatic stress and substance misuse, with particular emphasis on “defiant hospitality” as a clinical stance. Defiant hospitality is framed as a deliberate, values-driven approach to care that prioritizes engagement, dignity, and autonomy while remaining anchored in empirical evidence and clinical judgment. The first portion of the workshop will orient participants to contemporary conceptualizations of co-occurring PTSD and SUD (PTSD+SUD), including the scientific rationale for concurrent treatment and the core components of integrated treatment models. The second portion of the session will focus on common clinical concerns and relational dynamics that arise when working with PTSD+SUD, examining how a stance of defiant hospitality can inform therapeutic decision-making within evidence-based care. Topics will include determining when and whether trauma-focused processing is indicated, addressing avoidance and ambivalence, navigating safety and risk, and sustaining engagement in the context of ongoing substance misuse. Throughout, participants will consider how to balance clinical boundaries and flexibility without defaulting to exclusionary or sequential models of care. The session will emphasize applied learning through case vignettes, guided discussion, and participant reflection.

CPT is a short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy for PTSD and related conditions, and is well established as a frontline treatment across our clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of PTSD. This presentation is suited for providers who already have basic training or experience with CPT, and who want to delve further into the nuances of CPT delivery. This 90-minute didactic lecture focuses on enhancing advanced Socratic dialogue skills for delivering CPT for PTSD in community mental health settings. The presentation emphasizes refining the use of guided discovery to help clients identify, evaluate, and modify entrenched trauma-related “stuck points,” particularly in the context of complex presentations and high levels of avoidance. Participants learn how to deepen questioning strategies, balance structure with responsiveness, and use moment-to-moment clinical judgment to promote cognitive flexibility without confrontation or over-directiveness. The lecture also addresses adapting Socratic dialogue to diverse cultural, cognitive, and literacy levels common in community populations, while maintaining fidelity to CPT. Practical examples illustrate how skilled questioning can enhance engagement, facilitate emotional processing, and support meaningful belief change in real-world clinical contexts.

Why do they do what they do? Understanding the origin and function of one’s behavior is critical to engagement and treatment. This session will provide participants an opportunity to advance assessment and explore critical elements of providing treatment. Professional use of self (polyvagal theory) and relational safety will be explored.

This session is a follow up to Dr. Bishop’s keynote address. Dr. Bishop will discuss the importance of accurate and thorough assessment and diagnoses of mental health disorders. Participants will be able to interact and ask questions to further their understanding of PTSD and the available treatments.

This session explores how to recognize when the natural grieving process has shifted into PTSD or complicated grief following a traumatic loss. Participants will learn to distinguish normative grief reactions from trauma-related responses by examining key clinical features, trajectories of recovery, and maintaining factors that interfere with adaptation to loss of a loved one. The presentation highlights common warning signs, including persistent avoidance, intrusive memories, restricted emotional range, and prolonged functional impairment, and offers guidance on assessment and differential diagnosis to support timely, effective intervention.

This session introduces the Concurrent Treatment for PTSD and Substance Use Disorders Using Prolonged Exposure (COPE) manual developed by Drs. Sudie Back and Edna Foa. The COPE treatment manual is an evidenced based treatment for clients presenting with comorbid PTSD and SUD. Therefore, this session broadly reviews integrating the components of prolonged exposure (PE) for PTSD (psychoeducation, in vivo and imaginal exposure, processing, etc.) plus relapse prevention strategies for SUD (craving identification, urge surfing, self-management planning, etc.).

Data supports that engagement is the key to a successful helping relationship. The lens that we use as we interact with people served makes a difference in how we communicate. This session will explore strategies that can be utilized to strengthen engagement with individuals who have experienced trauma.