Keynote by Matt Willis, MD, MPH, Public Health Officer for Marin County
Marin’s Public Health Officer since 2013, Dr. Willis is a champion for innovative and highly collaborative approaches to complex public health challenges. A Marin native, he calls on experiences as a physician, public health advocate, and father to build common understanding and compassion-based solutions to pervasive local challenges, from health inequities to substance use. He is a member of several state task forces dedicated to the opioid epidemic and has shared the community-based substance use prevention model RxSafe Marin in state and national forums.
Building an Inclusive Community:
How to Raise Children Who are Compassionate about Difference
In a time when both national and local politics can be divisive, it is more important than ever for us to raise children who are compassionate and inclusive of others. In this panel discussion, we invite four community experts to share up-to-date information about the impacts of social isolation and exclusion in our community, as well as strategies for talking about difference and creating more inclusive communities, starting with our own families.
Moderated by Carrie Sterns, Jeremiah Fellowship Director at Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice. Panelists include Janna Barkin, author, speaker, proud mother of transgender son; Karen DeVaney, PsyD, licensed clinical psychologist; Pepe Gonzalez, principal of Laurel Dell Elementary School; and Karen Kaplan, Executive Director of Wings Learning Center and Executive Director of Offerings.
The ‘”Appropriate” Response: How Mindfulness Practices Can Help Parents and Caregivers Cultivate Their Deepest Presence
A Zen Master was once asked, “What is the point of practice?” And the Master replied, “to offer the appropriate response.” Parents and caregivers often struggle to know and offer the “appropriate” response to children. Explore how a range of mindfulness practices can help parents and caregivers cultivate a deeper sense of presence that will allow them to resource their innate parenting wisdom and thereby offer some form of the “appropriate” response. Learn how to integrate mindfulness practices into clinical work with parents. Session will include guided meditation and discussion.
Taught by Grace Fisher, LMFT, JD, M.Ed, licensed marriage and family therapist and teacher at Spirit Rock Insight Meditation Center.
Clinical Presentations of Pathological Internet Use: Insights from Research and Suggestions for Practice
The rapid penetration of Internet technology has had profound effects on interpersonal communication; associated with this transformation is the experience of feeling both connected and isolated – often at the same time. In this session, the presenter will discuss the prevalence of “technology related” concerns within the clinical hour and suggest both assessment and treatment strategies. Topics include current research into the obsessive use of the Internet and the comorbidity of DSM diagnostic criteria and pathological Internet use.
Taught by Mark Edwards, MS, LMFT, psychotherapist, consultant and lecturer at Sonoma State University.
