October 25 – 27, 2011

Presented by North Texas State Hospital – Vernon Campus – Vernon, Texas
Wilbarger County Auditorium

Featuring:

Dr. Robert Morgan – “Treating the Mentally Disordered Offender: A Model and Guide for Practice” 

Robert D. Morgan completed his Ph.D. in counseling psychology at Oklahoma State University and a postdoctoral fellowship in forensic psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and the Missouri Department of Mental Health. He is currently the John G. Skelton, Jr. Regents Endowed Professor in Psychology at Texas Tech University and the Director of forensic services at Lubbock Regional Mental Health Mental Retardation Services.  His research has been continuously funded for the past 8 years including by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Justice. He is co-author of The clinician’s guide to violence risk assessment (2011) and co-authoring Treating the Mentally Disordered Offender: A Model and Guide for Empirically Supported Practice to be published by Oxford University Press. He is also the Series Editor-in-Chief for Correctional Interventions that Work also to be published by Oxford University Press. His research and scholarly activities include treatment and assessment of mentally disordered offenders, forensic assessment, and professional development and training.

Also Featuring:

Dr. Melanie Gordon Sheets – “A Modified DBT-CBT Recovery Program for a Forensic Population: Treating Individuals with Highly Destructive Coping Behaviors”

Melanie Gordon Sheets, Ph.D. is the Chief Psychologist at Big Spring State Hospital, the Co-Director of the Lone Star Psychology Residency Consortium, and a Clinical Assistant Professor with Texas Tech University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry.  She earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. She has worked with psychiatric inpatients for 25 years and in Texas state mental health facilities since 1992. Specialty areas have included individual and group psychotherapy, psychological assessment (personality, neuropsychological, malingering, and trial competency evaluations) with forensic, VA, and general psychiatric inpatients. She has authored a therapy workbook entitled, “Out-of-Control: A Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Workbook for Gaining Control of Our Emotions and Emotion-Driven Behavior” – 2009. Recovery Works Publications. She has conducted the DBT-CBT group at Big Spring State Hospital since 2004.

Dr. Stacey Shipley – “Competency to Stand Trial: Forensic Evaluation, Report Writing, & Expert Testimony”

Stacey L. Shipley, Psy.D., completed her doctorate in forensic psychology from California School of Professional Psychology in Fresno, California and obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas with a Minor in Criminal Justice.  Her clinical and forensic training has focused on both adults and adolescents, particularly in forensic settings. Dr. Shipley is a licensed psychologist in Texas, Iowa, and North Carolina and is the Director of Psychology at North Texas State Hospital.  She specializes in forensic evaluations (e.g., CST, fitness to proceed, insanity, risk assessments, psychopathy classification) and treating maternal filicide offenders. Her professional presentations have included those areas of forensic practice, as well as the relationship between mental illness and violent crime.  She has published articles in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, regarding psychopathy and its clinical implications.  She has also published chapters on maternal filicide, serial rape and murder typologies, forensic case formulation for adult sex offenders, and co-authored Introduction to Forensic Psychology: Issues and Controversies in Crime and Justice (2nd Ed.) and the upcoming (3rd Ed.) published by Academic Press.  She co-authored The Female Homicide Offender: Serial Murder and the Case of Aileen Wuornos (2004) published by Prentice Hall’s Women in Criminal Justice Series.      

Additional features and workshops include:

Andrew W. Carruthers, J.D.; Brent A. Carr, J.D.; and Brian D. Shannon, J.D. – “Interface Between the Courts and Forensic Hospitals Judges Panel”

Presentations by a legal scholar, felony and misdemeanor court judges, followed by a panel discussion of the legal experts.

Michele Borynski, Ph.D. & Jennifer Russell, Ph.D. – “Violence Risk Assessment: An Overview for Community & Inpatient Evaluations”

Thomas R. Mareth, M.D. – Chair DSHS Dangerousness Review Board – “Dangerous Review Board Training”

About North Texas State Hospital (excerpted from http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/mhhospitals/northtexassh/ntsh_about.shtm)
History of Wichita Falls State Hospital
“In 1917, the State of Texas created the Northwest Texas Insane Asylum. It was located on 940 acres seven miles south of Wichita Falls…In 1925, the name was changed to Wichita Falls State Hospital (WFSH). It had a modern surgical operating room, radiology, laboratory, electrotherapy apparatus, and hydrotherapy equipment. By 1930, the census was over 1500 patients with a staff of 235, including seven doctors and 93 attendants. During the height of the Depression, the hospital was virtually a self-sustaining community. It had an agricultural enterprise that included farming, hogs, chickens, and cattle. Most of the staff lived on the campus.

By World War II, the hospital consisted of 35 brick buildings and 60 frame structures. Due to wartime shortage of available employees, 234 staff members served approximately 2400 patients. Staff worked six days per week, 12 hours per day. Six nurses rotated coverage at night; three staff members offered occupational therapy. The end of the war saw the total number of employees rise to 503 by the early 1950′s. In 1951, Vernon State Home was activated as a branch of WFSH at the old Victory Field Army Air Corps training field. Vernon served about 400 patients “who do not require an active medical or psychiatric program,” while WFSH continued with a census of 2400. Volunteer programs and charitable donations made life more pleasant for the patients during this period.

In 1955, psychiatric treatment was revolutionized with the introduction of psychotropic medications. Major changes in mental health care continued to occur in the 1960′s. The Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation was created. New community MHMR centers and outreach programs were established through the state hospital system to better serve the citizens of Texas. The first volunteer services coordinator was hired in 1960, and the first social worker was hired in 1966. Vernon State Hospital (VSH) was established as a state hospital separate from WFSH in 1969. Child and adolescent services were added in the early 1970′s. With more effective medications, increased community services, and placement in nursing homes, the hospital census dropped below 900 by the middle of the decade…

The 1980′s saw the genesis of psychosocial programming and programs such as the client worker program, Fairweather Lodge, and Career Village. These programs profoundly affected the ability of patients to return to their communities. Vernon State Hospital was redefined as the state’s forensic psychiatric facility in 1987; as a result, WFSH’s catchment area grew from 23 counties to 53. By late in the decade, the average census at WFSH had fallen below 500, while the number of admissions and discharges increased. The hospital was more effectively and efficiently treating more people. The end of the decade also saw the introduction of the first atypical antipsychotic drug, Clozaril. Although extremely expensive and wrought with many side effects, it could effect profound improvement in some persons with mental illness.

Another change in Wichita Falls State Hospital’s operation came in 1993 when the responsibility for the substance abuse recovery program was removed from the state hospitals and given to the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse…Concern for healthcare costs and methods lead TDMHMR to explore new and more efficient ways of doing business. As a result of that initiative, TDMHMR initiated the merger of the administrations of Wichita Falls State Hospital and Vernon State Hospital in January 1996.”

History of Vernon State Hospital

The first state psychiatric facility in Vernon, TX, was a geriatric extension of Wichita Falls State Hospital called the Annex. It was first opened in 1951 at Victory Field, the former World War II Army Air Corp pilot training facility south of the city. It served about 400 “senile-type” patients. In 1967, construction of a new psychiatric rehabilitative facility began on 69 acres at the northwest edge of Vernon. In 1969, Vernon State Center began operation as a state hospital serving general psychiatric patients from 30 counties of northern Texas, independent of Wichita Falls State Hospital. It offered inpatient psychiatric services to a predominantly rural population and also operated seven rural-based outreach centers…

In 1971, the Texas Legislature created a statewide treatment facility for drug dependent youth. Because of Vernon’s remote location from the metropolitan drug scene, it was selected to be the site for this new service…Over the years, the adolescent population evolved: From the first years as a drug treatment facility, the need became one to serve teens with a dual diagnosis of drug dependency and a mental illness. The program – serving an average census of 75 patients — was eventually renamed the Adolescent Forensic Program (AFP) because approximately 90% of the patients had, in addition to a dual diagnosis, an involvement with the law enforcement/judicial system.

In 1983, Vernon State Center’s name was changed to Vernon State Hospital (VSH) to maintain continuity throughout the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (TDMHMR) system.

• Persons with felony charges who have been found incompetent to stand trial;
  
• Persons admitted for pre-trial evaluations for competency and issues of insanity;
  
  • Persons found not guilty by reason of insanity;
    
  • Persons from other state hospitals who have been found to be manifestly dangerous;
    
  • Mentally retarded persons who have been found incompetent to stand trial on misdemeanor or felony charges;
    
  • Persons from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) and other jails who need inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. [The hospital has never been asked to fulfill this mandate as TDCJ developed its own psychiatric services.]…
    

The year 1995 also marked the birth of an initiative between TDMHMR, the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), Vernon State Hospital, the City of Vernon, and the Vernon Business Development Corporation to open a TYC youth boot camp facility at VSH’s South Campus. As a result of the cooperative efforts of all parties, the VSH South Campus (Victory Field facility) was leased to the Texas Youth Commission the following year. The VSH Adolescent Forensic Program transferred to the VSH North Campus in September 1996, moving into four renovated buildings on the south side of the Maximum Security Program. The move necessitated an $8.5 million construction project, resulting in the building of the Mooney Building, which houses the adult Behavior Management and Treatment Program, and the Heatly Building, a new adolescent activity building. It also necessitated additions to the administrative complex, new fencing, and other renovations. By the late fall of 1997, the adult maximum security and adolescent forensic programs were fully operational at one campus location.

In January 1996, TDMHMR combined the administrations of Vernon State Hospital and Wichita Falls State Hospital under the leadership of James E. Smith, Superintendent. This initiative was in answer to the ever-pressing need to provide the citizens of Texas with more effective and more cost-efficient mental health care. Consolidation of the two hospitals became official on September 1, 1998, under the temporary name Vernon-Wichita Falls State Hospital. Nine months later, the 76th Legislature formally renamed the organization North Texas State Hospital, retaining the location names – Vernon campus and Wichita Falls campus – to designate the individual sites.

The Vernon campus of North Texas State Hospital has a history of offering exceptional mental health care to the various groups of patients entrusted to its care and plans to continue to offer the best care available to the specialized populations of patients who are now in its charge. Throughout the years, it has maintained Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations accreditation as well as a reputation for “country care.” It has become nationally recognized as a benchmark in the forensic mental health care field.

History of North Texas State Hospital

After two and a half years of intensive planning and incremental consolidation, Vernon and Wichita Falls State Hospitals officially became a single mental health care organization on September 1, 1998…the state legislature formally renamed the “new” organization North Texas State Hospital (NTSH).

Today North Texas State Hospital operates two sites 55 miles apart in north Texas. The Vernon campus provides forensic services for the entire state of Texas and offers both a 284-bed Maximum Security Program for adults and a 78-bed Adolescent Forensic Program for dually diagnosed youth ages 13-17. The Wichita Falls campus provides general psychiatric inpatient services for child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric patients with a bed capacity of 330.

Together, the two campuses of the organization comprise the largest state hospital in Texas.

Last updated April 08, 2011″

TAAP (Texas Association of Addiction Professionals)

Doubletree Hotel at Bush International Airport
15747 JFK Boulevard – Houston, Texas  77032

DBT-CBT for Co-Occurring Disorders and Destructive Coping Behaviors: A Workbook-Based Group Therapy Program Combining DBT, CBT, and AA Recovery Principles

This 1.5 CEU workshop will be presented by Melanie Gordon Sheets, Ph.D.

from 10:30 – 12:00 pm on Friday, Sept 23^th, 2011.

This workshop will provide an introduction to the workbook based DBT-CBT recovery program, a modified DBT program for individuals with affective disorders, personality disorders, and destructive coping behaviors, such as substance abuse, self-injury, suicidal threats, verbal/physical aggression, eating disorders, overshopping, etc. Some key recovery concepts, skills, techniques, and understandings will be discussed and several program worksheets will be reviewed.

Training Objectives:

• Participants will gain information about the structure of the DBT-CBT program, target populations, problems addressed, and utility in various treatment settings and by various providers including peer support specialists.    
  
• Participants will understand the basic dynamics of Emotional Mind which drive emotional dyscontrol, relief-seeking destructive coping behaviors, and the Cycle of Suffering.
  
• Participants will gain familiarity with the use of the Wise Mind Worksheet to work through destructive emotional states, thoughts, and impulses to facilitate constructive problem-solving and life-enhancing coping responses.
  
• Participants will gain familiarity with the structure and use of a “Game Plan” (a client developed individualized recovery plan) including the use of Rational Mind and Wise Mind to challenge recovery sabotaging Emotional Mind “excuses” and Rational Mind “obstacles.”
  

Dr. Sheets is the Chief Psychologist at Big Spring State Hospital, the Co-Director of the Lone Star Psychology Residency Consortium internship program, a Clinical Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and the author of the DBT-CBT “Out-of-Control” recovery workbook. She began her career as a mental health technician at Richardson Medical Center in 1985 helping individuals with agoraphobia, substance abuse, depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Borderline Personality Disorder. She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology in 1992 from Texas A&M University where her training emphasized psychoanalytic and Jungian psychotherapy methods. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Dallas VA Medical Center in the PTSD Clinic, the Substance Abuse Unit, and Inpatient Psychiatry units. She has conducted the DBT-CBT Group since 2004 for forensic, VA, and general psychiatric inpatients.

The full title of the therapy workbook is “Out-of-Control: A Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Workbook For Getting Control of Our Emotions and Emotion-Driven Behavior (targeting drug / alcohol abuse, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, anger, cutting, and codependency recovery)” – published by Recovery Works Publications (2009).

(click here to visit the Houston Chapter website)

TAAP is a state affiliate of the national organization, “The Association for Addiction Professionals” (NAADAC), formerly known as the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors.   The name change reflects the increasing variety of addiction services professionals: counselors, administrators, social workers and others, who are active in counseling, prevention, intervention, treatment, education and research.

For more information about TAAP, visit their website at:  http://www.taap.org

For more information about NAADAC, visit their website at:
http://www.naadac.org

Use the link below to check out the chart and to read the text from the workbook related to the chart.  I don’t know why, but you’ll go to a page view that doesn’t open the file…BUT, if you click the link again when you get to that page…it’ll come up like it’s supposed to!  

The Levels of Emotion Chart – from the DBT-CBT Therapy Workbook by Melanie Gordon Sheets, Ph.D.

Review the levels of emotion in the chart and answer the following questions.

What level are you currently at?

What has been you lowest and highest level today?

What is the level of your best functioning over the past week? the last month?

At what level were you at when “Something Happened” and you ended up having to go into treatment?

At what level should you seek help so you can prevent going into treatment?

Most group members believe we should call our support person, sponsor, counselor, or crisis worker at level 5 or 6. Knowing what they know now, they want to get help BEFORE things begin to get out-of-control. At levels 5 and 6, we still have a fair amount of Rational Mind going on. This helps us to seek support…and to accept the Rational Mind and Wise Mind understandings and suggestions offered to us!

View the pdf file for a readable image – click the link below

The Dynamics of Emotional Mind – DBT-CBT Conference Handout – 072411

This hand-out addresses the dynamics of Emotional Mind and its role in driving destructive emotion-driven coping behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, aggression, eating disorders, etc.)

The “Cycle of Suffering”- when we respond to emotional pain and life problems in destructive, emotion-driven ways, we end up with new problems and increasingly severe old problems…and we feel worse than before.  If we respond to this new level of pain and problems in destructive ways, our pain and problems will continue to intensify and multiply.  Because we’re not working through our pain or resolving our problems, our emotional baggage piles up.  The trauma from the past weighs us down in the present and intensifies present misery.  What could have been temporary pain and problems has turned into long-term pain and suffering.  The only way to get the cycle of suffering to stop…is to stop it.  We can stop our suffering by stopping our destructive coping behavior.  We must turn on Rational Mind to “think through before we do” and we must “follow through” with Wise Mind problem-solving and life-enhancing coping behaviors.

Based on:  “Out-of-Control:  A Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Workbook for Getting Control of Our Emotions and Emotion-Driven Behavior” copyright © 2010 by Melanie Gordon Sheets, Ph.D.   (www.dbt-cbt-workbook.com)

I’m just thinking…and haven’t totally processed this.  I’m thinking that one reason obese folks receive such negative scrutiny along with negative character judgments is that their addiction is very obvious…thus, the judgments come…perhaps similar to the judgments people make of others with obvious addictions…if they recognize the signs of such severe addictions.  In my life, I have been slender and I have been morbidly obese and I’m very aware of the discrimination based on weight, both interpersonally and professionally…and, I was always hard on myself. 

It ALWAYS amazed me when close friends would say, “I really don’t think of you as a fat person.”  At that time, I was huge…and I would say, “C’mon man, I’m wide both ways!” as I gestured left to right and front to back.  Their follow-up responses led me to believe that this was because they knew me as a person, the whole person including my positive personal characteristics and they did not superficially judge me to be a “fat person” as they would others they didn’t know…the nasty generalizations of the stereotypes of a very heavy person.  They perceived me and responded to me based on my character and personality, not the way I looked.

Once I had lost a lot of weight, my obese sister once said…”Isn’t it nice that you are no longer invisible.”  She was referring to the positive acknowledgement that better looking people receive…people show you positive regard and treat you differently.  I then told her how a young man working at a grocery store stopped me in the parking lot as I was pushing my cart to the car and he actually asked me if I would like some help with my groceries.  That was a first.  Had I been heavy and for me, less attractive, would he have offered?  I think not.  Me, I make a point of being nice and acknowledging people who I perceive are not commonly acknowledged or the recipients of random acts of kindness and respect.  Was just thinking….

Link to the LinkedIn discussion

Link to William Anderson’s book on Amazon

“For many, yes. Many use substances as a coping behavior to help bring their emotional level to a more tolerable or comfortable level. Also, returning to such a behavior reduces the extreme tension of wanting to do it and not allowing ourselves to…thus, the experience of immediate relief or peace in-the-moment. To help us to feel better about relapsing, we’ve probably come up with all types of reasons (emotion-driven lies) as to why it is okay to do and would help us…and how we can also quit again when life settles down, etc…unless of course, it is a major emotional reflex to an immediate stressor and we do it VERY impulsively…without giving it much thought.

Relapsing on substances is little different than wolfing down a big bag of cookies or scoops n’ scoops of ice cream, or starting to smoke again, a “forbidden” sexual encounter….whatever. I think these types of behaviors have to do with attempts to bring an “out-of-control” emotional mind into control…so that we feel better and more comfortable in the emotional moment. It is all about being desperate for relief and doing what brings us relief, often immediate relief. It’s a desperate way to experience a sense of emotional, psychological, and physical peace IN-THE-MOMENT…although we’ll have hell to pay when we come to (when the emotional moment passes and rational mind picks up strength).

When we come to and realize what just happened and are faced with the consequences of our behavior…and the unresolved problem…we feel bad again…and then we may continue destructive coping….chasing “peace in the moment”…When we use destructive coping behaviors to deal with our pain and problems, we enter the Cycle of Suffering. Our problems multiply and intensity and we go through a period of increased pain and suffering as a result.

I believe most people use destructive coping behaviors to some degree (e.g., overworking, oversleeping, physical aggression, yelling, throwing fits, being rude and ugly, ‘always speaking our mind”, lying, gambling, obsessive exercise, cheating, sleeping around, codependency, procrastination, smoking, prescription meds, alcohol, overeating or eating the desired “poison foods” for us, being hyperreligious, narcissistic….and the list goes on and on.) I actually tell my patients that it’s “normal” to be “abnormal” and entirely abnormal to be so perfectly normal and in control of ourselves. We all do some destructive coping behaviors and the healthier or more in recovery we are…the less we do these things…and the more we work VERY hard to stay in control of our emotions, behaviors, and our addictions of choice….and the more we choose life-enhancing coping behaviors instead.

I’m obviously very passionate about this…it’s one of those, “been there, done that, still doing that…having to fight for recovery at times to stay in control…and not to get too far out of control” type of things for me. I believe that when we are in recovery…we remain “works in progress.” Sometimes it’s a daily battle and sometimes, an occasional battle. We’re emotional critters and creatures of habit…and when we hurt or are feeling desperate and “out-of-control”…we tend to fall back into old patterns of relief-seeking behaviors…or to certainly think about doing them!

We’re emotional critters and creatures of habit…and when we hurt or are feeling desperate and “out-of-control”…we tend to fall back into old patterns of relief-seeking behavior…or to certainly think about doing them!”

And you know the more we think about doing them…the more likely we are to finally do them. That’s because the tension is building…we want…and we won’t allow ourselves to have…and we want…we tell ourselves “NO”…and we want…and we’re tired of the pain, problems, tension, and frustration…and we become desperate for relief and peace…that we finally do what we keep trying not to do…and we relapse. Have you “been there, done that?” Have you been through this struggle? It’s a battle of the minds, Emotional Mind vs. Rational Mind and Wise Mind. It’s a battle of wills…willingness vs. willfulness. Which recovery skills do you use to get through the “fixing to relapse” moment? Do you still have these moments?

I believe that one of our major recovery tasks is to learn ways to keep our Emotional Mind in control and to tame our Emotional Mind when it is getting out-of-control. That’s my biggest recovery task…and it’s always a battle of the mind states and a battle of will. Sometimes, I grow tired of the battle and dealing with my emotional, willful self. At those tired, weak moments, I remind myself….”Mel, what do you want…peace and stability or chaos and pain?” Isn’t it horrible that you have to parent yourself even when you’re a grown-up!?

Link to the LinkedIn discussion

Link to Elisabeth’s book:  “Good Things, Emotional Healing Journal: Addiction on Amazon

Link to Elisabeth’s blog

Omni San Antonio Hotel at the Colonnade
9821 Colonnade Boulevard
San Antonio, Texas 78230

DBT-CBT for Co-Occurring Disorders and Destructive Coping Behaviors: A Workbook-Based Group Therapy Program Combining DBT, CBT, and AA Recovery Principles

This 3 CEU workshop will be presented by Melanie Gordon Sheets, Ph.D. from 1:30 – 5:00 pm on July 28^th, 2011.

This workshop will provide an introduction to the workbook based DBT-CBT recovery program, a modified DBT program for individuals with affective disorders and destructive coping behaviors, such as substance abuse, self-injury, suicidal threats, verbal/physical aggression, eating disorders, overshopping, etc. Some key recovery concepts, skills, techniques, and understandings will be discussed and illustrated via the completion and review of several program worksheets.

Training Objectives:

• Participants will gain information about the structure of the DBT-CBT program, target populations, problems addressed, and utility in various treatment settings and by various providers including peer support specialists.    
  
• Participants will understand the basic dynamics of Emotional Mind which drive emotional dyscontrol, relief-seeking destructive coping behaviors, and the Cycle of Suffering.
  
• Participants will gain familiarity with the use of the Wise Mind Worksheet to work through destructive emotional states, thoughts, and impulses to facilitate constructive problem-solving and life-enhancing coping responses.
  
• Participants will gain familiarity with the structure and use of a “Game Plan” (a client developed individualized recovery plan) including the use of Rational Mind and Wise Mind to challenge recovery sabotaging Emotional Mind “excuses” and Rational Mind “obstacles.”
  

The opening of the workshop will be conducted in didactic fashion to provide a basic overview of the DBT-CBT program; however, the program will concentrate on modeling the psychotherapeutic / psychoeducational process of the DBT-CBT inpatient recovery group held at Big Spring State Hospital (BSSH). Twelve volunteers will be solicited from the audience to function as “group members” for this portion of the program. A question and answer period will be offered during the latter portion of the presentation.

Dr. Sheets is the Chief Psychologist at Big Spring State Hospital, the Co-Director of the Lone Star Psychology Residency Consortium internship program, a Clinical Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and the author of the DBT-CBT “Out-of-Control” recovery workbook. She began her career as a mental health technician at Richardson Medical Center in 1985 helping individuals with agoraphobia, substance abuse, depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Borderline Personality Disorder. She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology in 1992 from Texas A&M University where her training emphasized psychoanalytic and Jungian psychotherapy methods. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Dallas VA Medical Center in the PTSD Clinic, the Substance Abuse Unit, and Inpatient Psychiatry units. She has conducted the DBT-CBT Group since 2004 for forensic, VA, and general psychiatric inpatients.

The full title of the therapy workbook is “Out-of-Control: A Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Workbook For Getting Control of Our Emotions and Emotion-Driven Behavior (targeting drug / alcohol abuse, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, anger, cutting, and codependency recovery)” – published by Recovery Works Publications (2009).

Dr. Sheets will be presenting on the DBT-CBT Workbook program at the Houston Chapter of TAAP Spectrum 2011 Conference in September 2011 and at the North Texas State Hospital Forensic Conference in October 2011.  Details will follow.  

TAAP is a state affiliate of NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals

Join TAAP through the national association
NAADAC – The Association for Addiction Professionals

NAADAC

By joining NAADAC, you will automatically become a member of TAAP if you reside in Texas.

As a member of NAADAC, you will receive numerous benefits designed to help you grow and prosper as an addiction professional.

NAADAC has memberships available for professionals, students, and even organizations!

For more information about TAAP, visit their website at:
http://www.taap.org

The TAAP 2011 State Conference
July 28-30, 2011
Omni San Antonio Hotel At the Colonnade
Click here for Details

For a draft conference schedule - http://www.taap.org/associations/3397/files/matrix%20for%20web.pdf

The information below is excerpted from the TAAP website.

TAAP is the Texas State Affiliate to NAADAC.  NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals, is the largest national organization for addiction-focused health care professionals with 11,000 members.  NAADAC is dedicated to the professional growth and development of addiction specialists.

Our Mission

TAAP seeks to promote the advancement of Addiction Professionals by uniting alcoholism and other addiction counseling professionals throughout Texas.

TAAP organizes and charters local chapters in Texas, and assists in stabilizing and increasing their membership.

By means of legislative initiatives, promotional campaigns and professional networking opportunities, TAAP will promote awareness of the disease of chemical dependency and other addictions and compulsive behaviors.

TAAP will advocate for standards for licensure and certification of qualified counselors to ensure the competency basis of those who counsel alcoholics and other addicts and their families and assure a high order of professional standards and ethics among those in the addictions counseling profession.

Organization Profile

TAAP is a confederation of individual counselors, prevention specialists, and other persons who have a direct interest in the field of addiction.  While the bulk of our membership is comprised of those professionals dedicated to the recovery of alcoholics and drug abusers and their families from the devastating illness of alcoholism and drug abuse, many of our members serve a clientele that suffer from other addictions as well.

United, we have a voice in important and critical matters relating to our association and profession, as well as those we serve.  This unity enhances our capability as individuals and gives us strength in professional matters.  Through a united effort, we are more likely to be recognized in legislative arenas.  Together we can work in partnership with state and federal agencies that regulate our industry, and we can promote public policy that will help us meet our goals.

For more information about NAADAC, visit their website at:
http://www.naadac.org

The organization evolved and became known as the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC) in 1982, uniting professionals who worked for positive outcomes in alcohol and drug services. It’s new name is NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals. The name change reflects the increasing variety of addiction services professionals: counselors, administrators, social workers and others, who are active in counseling, prevention, intervention, treatment, education and research.

Houston Chapter of TAAP Spectrum 2011 Conference – Sept 2011 (click here to visit the Houston Chapter website)

The workshop opens at 9 A.M. with a keynote speech by Dr. Virginia “Ginger” Hilley addressing professional well-being.   Dr. Hilley is a psychologist at Big Spring State Hospital. 

Breakout Session Topics:

• Infant Mental Health
• Adolescent Mental Health
• Veteran’s Mental Health
• DBT-CBT for Co-Occurring Disorders

Dr. Melanie Gordon Sheets will be presenting the co-occurring disorders training on treatment of individuals with mental illness and substance abuse problems.  Dr. Sheets is the Chief Psychologist at Big Spring State Hospital and has been a clinical psychologist in Texas since 1992.  She has published a workbook based on the DBT group therapy program at the hospital.  This group provides treatment for individuals with major mental illness (Major Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder, PTSD, Borderline Personality Disorder) and addiction type problems such as bulimia, drug and alcohol abuse, and cutting. 

Dr. Sheets will present 3 break-out sessions.

Part I: When Emotional Mind Drives, We Wreck-Out…and Our Lives Become a Total Wreck

Addresses the dynamics of Emotional Mind and its role in driving destructive emotion-driven coping behaviors (e.g., substance abuse).  Related concepts and worksheets will be discussed: emotion-driven thoughts, emotion-driven lies, the cycle of suffering, and the big picture of my life.

Training Objectives:

• Participants will understand how Emotional Mind dynamics drive destructive behaviors.
• Participants will recognize the similarities among various types of destructive/addictive behaviors.
• Participants will gain familiarity with the use and application of “The Cycle of Suffering Worksheet” and “The Big Picture of My Life Worksheet.”

Part II: Using Rational Mind and Wise Mind to Get Control of an Out-of-Control Emotional Mind

Addresses the role of Rational Mind and Wise Mind in recovery and the choice to utilize life-enhancing coping behaviors to deal with upsetting Emotional Mind states despite impulses to respond in destructive ways. Related concepts and worksheets will be discussed: thinking through before we do, challenging emotion-driven thoughts, looking at the big picture of the situation and our life, and the Wise Mind Worksheet.

Training Objectives:

• Participants will understand the role of Rational Mind and Wise Mind in recovery.
• Participants will gain familiarity with the use of Rational Mind and Wise Mind to work through destructive thoughts and impulses and to facilitate constructive problem-solving and life-enhancing coping responses.
• Participates will gain familiarity with the use and application of “The Wise Mind Worksheet.”

Part III: The Game Plan – An Individualized Recovery Plan Incorporating Rational Mind and Wise Mind to Counter Recovery Sabotaging Excuses and Obstacles

Discusses the development and use of a Game Plan for recovery.  Special plan features include the identification of Emotional Mind “Excuses” and Rational Mind “Obstacles” (true obstacles) that can sabotage follow through with recovery steps and the use of Rational Mind and Wise Mind to challenge excuses and to problem solve to get around the obstacles in our recovery path. A sample plan for “Have Bipolar, Must Quit Drugs and Alcohol” will be reviewed.

Training Objectives:

• Participants will understand how the Game Plan differs from conventional treatment plans.
• Participants will understand the format and use of a Game Plan and its application for a wide range of recovery goals.

Melanie Gordon Sheets, Ph.D. is the author of

“Out-of-Control: A Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Workbook for Getting Control of Our Emotions and Emotion-Driven Behavior” (2009)  Recovery Works Publications.

Please contact Jill Stephens at 432-570-3333 or Judy Craig at 432-683-3648 for more information about the conference.

The cost is $15 without CEU’s and $30 with 8.0 CEU’s.

NAMI Midland is located at 1204 Lawson, Midland, TX  79701.

One major difference is the title change.  The new title clarifies the struggles FOCUSED ON in the workbook.  Most certainly, the bulk of the material in the workbook focuses on the issues and struggles common to depression, anger, codependency, substance abuse, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder as the new title reflects.

The cover of the workbook lists a variety of common destructive coping behaviors, “emotion-driven coping behaviors.”  Some are frequently addressed in the workbook (revenge, suicide threats/attempts, aggression, saying hurtful things, overeating, and sleeping around) and some are not, like road rage, gambling, and anorexia.  Given these are all driven by an out-of-control Emotional Mind, the skills, attitudes, and understandings taught in the workbook apply just the same.  The new title was added to emphasize what the actual workbook text targets rather than what it applies to!

Some changes were made to the back cover (design and text) and some minor text changes were made.  If you are completing this workbook with a support group (or anyone else!), it doesn’t matter if members have different versions.  The text reads much the same and the pages are consistent across versions.

Honestly, I’d buy the earlier version if the price was a lot cheaper!  Otherwise, I’d go with the updated version.