A passionately committed educator who has been advocating for students, staff and families through counseling, teaching, coaching, and mentoring for the past twenty years.

She worked in universities with international students early in her career and was a High School Counselor in Colorado for ten years before joining the international school counseling realm in 2014. She currently works in the beautiful country of Oman at The American International School of Muscat (TAISM) where she enjoys interacting with an inclusive and diverse student population.

She is dedicated to helping people and her areas of focus are wellness, grief and loss, safeguarding children, and crisis prevention.  Chrystal became a Certified Daring Way Facilitator (CDWF) in 2020 and is committed to sharing Brené Brown’s work with the world.

She led a Daring Greatly Pre-Conference session in Bangkok in 2022, a Gifts of Imperfection ISCA Academy Course in 2021, and brings Brené's work into as much of her work as possible with students, staff and families in her school.

This pre-conference is about promoting mental health and SEL practices for all students by deepening, expanding and reflecting on our own Courage, Connection, Compassion and Vulnerability. Participants will explore how they can develop this work in their personal and professional lives by learning about vulnerability and courage building. Using Brené Brown's research participants will use her book and workbook Daring Greatly to work on their own growth, self-care and understanding to continue to create positive school environments where every individual feels valued, respected, and supported.

Our time together will be focused on building knowledge, skills and understanding around:

• Vulnerability and courage
• Self-compassion and self-care
• Values clarification and resiliency
• Trust building and empathy
• Shame and perfectionism
• Creativity and authenticity

Participants are required to read Daring Greatly before the pre-conference and complete a survey to prepare for the work. It is encouraged but not required to have also read Brené Brown's Gifts of Imperfection.

• This session will be collaborative and interactive.
• The facilitator will use videos, large group presentations, and small group workbook activities to help participants dig deep into this work.
• Time will be provided to reflect personally on the topics as well as think about how the topics can be transferred to work with students, parents and staff.
• There will be opportunities to share together and support each other in new learning and questions about the learning.
• Time will be built in so that you may leave with your workbook completed and have ideas to bring back to your school.

School counsellors often recommend external mental health interventions for students.

Typically, counsellors are well equipped to provide valuable information about expectations, process and potential outcomes of therapy, but less so for medical intervention. This may be due to a number of reasons including uncertainty about ethical considerations and knowledge in this area.

Let’s Talk about Medication aims to build knowledge about medical intervention so counsellors can feel more confident discussing this with families.

During the workshop participants will learn about ethical considerations, titrating, side effects, switching and augmentation. Five medication classes will be explored using metaphors and stories, as well as how medication and therapy work together, with time for questions.

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will walk away with a personalised ‘What to Talk About’ list, to take back to their school, as well as an information booklet on typical interventions, both medical and therapeutic, for a number of common psychological disorders.

An experienced Clinical Psychologist who is currently working as an Educational Psychologist in International Schools, first in Qatar and now in Thailand.

Prior to moving abroad, she worked in various clinical, educational and forensic settings. Terese has specialised in domestic violence, professional supervision, workshop facilitation, and educational assessments.

She previously worked with adults and children presenting with mild to moderate disorders, utilising a CBT intervention that integrates narrative and expressive techniques.

A licensed psychologist, is the author or co-author of seven books and numerous chapters on school crisis and suicide including authoring or co-authoring all National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) best practices chapters on suicide. He also co-authored handouts on self-injury for schools and parents for NASP.

Additionally, he was a previous President of NASP and the Prevention Division Director for the American Association of Suicidology. He is currently faculty at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the Director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office.

School counselors around the world are increasingly faced with students who are engaging in self-injury and students who have suicidal thoughts and plans. Youth suicide is the second leading cause of death in many countries.

This presentation will provide practical guidelines on how to intervene with at-risk students and clarify all steps needed for student safety. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of following school procedures and working as a school team to increase the circle of care for an at-risk student.

Self-injury is a complex behavior. Students engage in SI as a coping behavior with cutting being the most common with 14-18% of teenagers.

This presentation will identify many factors regarding this behavior, provide information about the most promising therapies, sample guidelines for schools, and clarify the relationship between SI and suicide.

Take a look inside the 2024 Annual Conference in Athens