A New Way of Seeing Mental Wellbeing

A New Way of Seeing Mental Wellbeing

May 2&3, 2026
Dobbs Ferry, NY

Many thanks to the New York Peace Project for supporting this gathering! (Learn more here) 

This is a weekend for people who know our current mental health story isn’t working. Hear from people (speakers at the event) on the front lines here.

If you feel moved to support the next generation of clinicians and helpers, donations allow students to attend who might not otherwise have the opportunity. Every contribution makes a difference.  THANK YOU for considering it!
Support a student seat — $50
Sponsor partial tuition — $100
Sponsor one full student — $150–$200
Sponsor multiple students — open amount

Across two days in May, we’ll explore a radically different understanding of the human mind — and what becomes possible when that understanding is applied to real‑world suffering, without adding more pressure, pathology, or harm.

For decades, a dominant story has shaped how we respond to distress:
- people are broken
- their minds are malfunctioning
- and they need to be fixed, managed, or controlled.

This story has led to overmedication, exhausted helpers, revolving doors in services and systems, and a quiet erosion of hope.

This weekend gathering starts from a different premise: what if people are not broken problems to manage, but expressions of an intact intelligence we’ve been unintentionally working against?

Saturday May 2: Rethinking systems

Saturday focuses on the systems that hold people’s lives — healthcare, mental health, justice, education, faith communities, and community programs.

We’ll look at how a well-intentioned misunderstanding of the mind became embedded in policies, procedures, and “best practices,” and how a clearer view of the human system can ease pressure, reduce unintended harm, and open space for wiser, more humane work.

You’ll hear from people who have taken this understanding into some of the hardest places, including settings where:

• despair was being medicalized
• reentry was framed as near‑inevitable failure
• trauma and addiction were assumed to mean permanent damage
• and human experience itself was misunderstood — now being re-examined through emerging research

They’ll share what has changed — and what has not — when systems begin to relate to people as inherently whole rather than fundamentally damaged.

Sunday May 3: Carrying It Forward

Sunday is for those who want to continue the conversation. You don’t need a title or prior experience — just curiosity and a willingness
to look again.

The focus isn’t on “fixing yourself,” but on exploring how this understanding naturally carries into everyday life — especially when things feel challenging.

We’ll look at what it means to:

• stay oriented to clarity and kindness when circumstances get messy
• respond without over-managing, withdrawing, or taking on what isn’t yours
• remain steady and effective without tightening, numbing, or hardening

There’s space to reflect on your own life and work, and to see how this understanding can simplify — rather than complicate — the way you show up.

Continuing Education Credit available for professionals who require or value formal credit for their ongoing learning. Because the ideas we’ll explore are most powerful when shared, we strongly encourage organizations to send 2–3 people from their teams. Attending together supports deeper reflection, shared language, and practical follow‑through once back in the work setting.

JOIN US

This weekend isn’t about personal growth alone. It’s about understanding the human system well enough to reduce suffering — in families, communities, and institutions — without adding more pressure, pathology, or harm.

If you sense that the story we’ve been telling about minds and distress is too small, and you want to participate in a truer, kinder one, you’re warmly invited to join us.

At a Glance
• 9am to 5pm each day
• Refreshments and lunch included each day
• Attend one day or the full weekend 
• Mercy University, Dobbs Ferry, NY - A calm, accessible setting overlooking the Hudson River, chosen intentionally to support learning, reflection, and meaningful conversation.
• PLENTY of free parking 
• About an hour by train from NYC
• Lodging - area hotels nearby
The campus of Mercy University in Dobbs Ferry is easily accessible via the Metro-North Hudson line. Ardsley-on-Hudson Station

• Line: Hudson Line (Green)
• Walking Distance: Less than 5 minutes from the platform to the campus entrance.
• Travel Time: Approximately 40–45 minutes from Grand Central Terminal.

Registration (See payment button above)
• Standard Attendee Rate - Full weekend - $340
• Standard Attendee Rate - Single day - $190
• Group Rate - 3 persons - Full weekend - $885
• Group Rate - 3 persons - Single day - $525
• Group Rate - MORE THAN THREE PERSONS? Reach out to wendy@forwardwithwendy.com

About our faculty
This weekend is led by an experienced faculty of practitioners, researchers, and teachers who are actively shaping how mental wellbeing is understood and applied in real-world settings through the Inside-Out / Innate Health understanding.

They bring decades of frontline experience across addiction services, mental health, reentry, education, and community-based work. These are not theorists at a distance. They’ve lived inside the systems and discovered a simpler, more humane understanding of how people actually change.

What unites this faculty is not a method or model, but clarity—a shared commitment to speaking honestly, practically, and humanly about how the mind works, and what that means for real lives.

Chana Studley (learn more) Chana brings decades of experience working across mental health and addiction systems, challenging diagnosis-driven models that unintentionally limit human possibility. Her work powerfully illustrates how clarity, rather than correction, can restore dignity, agency, and forward movement in people long seen as “chronic.”

Jacqueline Hollows (leaɓrn more) Jacqueline’s work in reentry and incarceration settings demonstrates how a clear understanding of human experience can transform outcomes where failure is often assumed. She speaks from lived, frontline experience about what becomes possible when people are met with understanding instead of prediction.

Jeanne Catherine-Gray (learn more) Jeanne Catherine-Gray, Ph.D., is a researcher and co-founder of Innate Health Research, a nonprofit focused on real-world solutions to the global mental health crisis. Her work explores how people access resilience and psychological change, particularly in communities facing adversity, and helps bridge research with practical, prevention-oriented approaches to care.

Rob Cook (learn more) Rob brings a rare blend of military leadership, personal recovery, and deep insight into trauma and addiction. His voice cuts through deficit-based narratives, showing how understanding the mind can quietly restore stability and direction even after extreme life disruption.

Stewart Iskowitz (learn more) Stewart’s work with the New York Peace Project spans individual, community, and systems-level change rooted in the Inside-Out understanding. He offers a clear, grounded perspective on how insight scales—shifting not just personal wellbeing, but culture, conflict, and connection.

Wendy Williams (learn more) Wendy brings the perspective of a nurse, educator, and practitioner who has worked inside both healthcare and mental wellbeing systems. She focuses on translating this understanding into clear, human language that reduces overwhelm and helps professionals and individuals alike orient back to clarity and steadiness.

Continuing Education (CE) available for eligible professionals

This program offers 5.0 contact hours of continuing education.

Participants will receive a complete CE packet, including the agenda, learning objectives, faculty credentials, assessment, evaluation form, and certificate of completion. These materials may be submitted to your licensing or credentialing board for independent or self-study continuing education credit.

Many professionals—including case managers, counselors, addiction specialists, and peer specialists—regularly submit educational activities in this way. Because requirements vary by profession and state, final approval of credit is determined by each participant’s licensing board.

For Social Workers and Nurses:
A direct submission option will be provided.

• Nurses: This activity has been approved for 5.0 contact hours through ANCC accreditation.
• Social Workers: Approved for 5.0 GENERAL continuing education credits (ASWB Learner Level: Intermediate).

Includes approval for:

• New York State Board for Social Workers

Need more information? 
Contact Wendy Williams at wendy@forwardwithwendy.com or text +1.774.421.9429

Many thanks to the New York Peace Project for supporting this gathering! (Learn more here)