ACT as a Catalyst: Transforming Treatment for Trauma and BPD

🌿 A Not-So-Ordinary Therapist Training Retreat! 🌿

When: Sept 12th to 14th, 2025

Where: The beautiful Roslyn Retreat Center in Richmond, Virginia. This peaceful 150-acre sanctuary offers the perfect setting to relax, renew, and reinvigorate personally and professionally. Single or double rooms with private bathrooms, high-speed internet, and all linens provided.

Why it's different: We believe the best learning happens when you're engaged, relaxed, and having a good time. No death-by-PowerPoint here! Get ready for three days where serious learning meets serious fun! Ditch the fluorescent office lights and stuffy conference rooms for walking trails, good food, and training that actually sticks! Expect interactive sessions and plenty of laughter alongside the serious work of enhancing your clinical skills. Join us for a retreat where you'll leave with more than just notes—you'll have new techniques, new colleagues, and renewed enthusiasm for your vital work

What We Will Learn:

Trauma and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are both treatable conditions, but both present unique therapeutic challenges that can leave even experienced clinicians feeling stuck, unqualified, or ineffective.This intensive two-day workshop demonstrates how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can enhance evidence-based treatments for both conditions by increasing therapeutic engagement and treatment effectiveness.

Day 1 integrates contemporary research on BPD with practical clinical applications, addressing diagnostic complexities, treatment accessibility, and stigma reduction. Participants explore the interplay of genetic predisposition, trauma, and environmental factors in BPD development, while learning strategic approaches to diagnostic communication and treatment planning. The workshop demonstrates how ACT's psychological flexibility framework complements established treatments like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Mentalization-Based Treatment, with specific focus on crisis management and suicide prevention. Through experiential learning, clinicians develop skills to blend ACT principles with evidence-based approaches while effectively managing risk and liability concerns.

Day 2 focuses on enhancing trauma treatment through ACT integration, addressing clinical hesitation around exposure work and introducing innovative approaches to trauma processing. Participants learn to leverage ACT processes - including self-as-context, present moment awareness, and values clarification - to strengthen traditional exposure protocols and increase treatment adherence. Through structured role-play and experiential exercises, clinicians practice implementing ACT interventions that support clients through challenging therapeutic work while maintaining emotional regulation and engagement.

This workshop equips mental health professionals across practice settings with immediately applicable tools for treating trauma and BPD, transforming therapeutic challenges into opportunities for meaningful clinical work and lasting client change

Target Audience: This workshop is for practitioners who have a foundation in ACT.

Cost:
Early Registration (July 18th, 2025)          

          Single Room $850

          Double Room $600

Standard Registration

          Single Room $950

          Double Room $700

CE certificate (12 hours) free

Registration fee covers: instruction, lodging (two nights), coffee, snacks and the following meals: September 12th: dinner; September 13th: breakfast, lunch and dinner.  September 14th: breakfast and lunch

CE Credits

• The activity has approval for 12 CEs for social workers, psychologists and counselors

• The Association for Contextual Behavioral Science is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Association for Contextual Behavioral Science maintains responsibility for this program and its content

• This activity has approval for 12 CE credits for social workers.

  • Weaver and Associates, provider # 2017, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Weaver and Associates maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period:4/10/2025 to 4/10/2026. Social workers completing this course receive 12 clinical continuing education credits.

• You must attend the course in its entirety in order to receive continuing education credits.

• CE credits are not given for the coffee/tea time, meal times, or the 15 minute breaks.

Refunds: A $100 processing fee will be charged for registration refunds up to July 18th, 2025. We regret that after July 18th, refunds cannot be made, but you may request credit toward a future program. If you need a refund, please contact us via email at DrMirandaMorris@gmail.com

Instructor Bios

Shawn Costello Whooley, PsyD, is a psychologist and Peer Reviewed ACT Trainer in private practice in Baltimore, MD, and in the Trauma Recovery Program at the Baltimore VA Medical Center. She is also the founder of Stillpoint Journeys, a coaching and training practice focused on moving the work of behavior change out of the office and into life by using extended hiking trips (and other adventures – equine, sailing) to experience the processes of ACT in real time. Shawn provides ACT and CBS training internationally and in academic settings. She serves as a Conference Strategy Committee member of the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) and is also an active member of the Mid Atlantic Chapter of ACBS, where she has served as President and Treasurer. Shawn is co-author of The Inner Critic Workbook: Self-Compassion and Mindfulness Skills to Reduce Feelings of Shame, Build Self-Worth, and Improve Your Life and Relationships. In her copious spare time, Shawn can’t get enough of all things outdoors, nature, and the environment.

Jennifer Weaver, LCSW, is a social worker in McLean, VA. She focuses on the latest research and modern approaches to BPD treatment. She is advanced-trained in DBT, MBT, and GPM-A, all evidence-based treatments for BPD. She is a Supervisor in Mentalization based Treatment for Adolescents (MBT-A) with the Anna Freud Centre in London, and consults regularly with Dr. Lois Choi-Kain, Medical Director at the Gunderson Personality Disorders Program at McLean Hospital, Boston. Jennifer is also co-author of Raising a Kid Who Can - organized and illustrated more like a travel guide than parenting book, parents can dip in and out for the latest science and key strategies that can help support studier, more adaptable kids. Jennifer is a popular trainer and past professor at Catholic University. She taught in their MSW program for over 16 years, developing courses in Child, Adolescent and Young Adult work, including skills in CBT, DBT, and ERP. Jennifer is the founder of two child psychotherapy programs, including the Helix Center (an IOP developed in part to treat early BPD), and Weaver and Associates (a group outpatient psychotherapy practice and training center with 16 specialized child and parent therapists and ASWB approved trainings).

Miranda Morris, PhD, is a psychologist in Bethesda, MD. She is a Peer Reviewed ACT Trainer and conducts regular workshops in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and related therapies including Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) and basic Relational Frame Theory (RFT). She is a Past President of the Association for Contextual Behavior Science (the primary organization of the ACT community) and is an active member of the Mid Atlantic Chapter of ACBS Chapter and their ACT Carolinas affiliate. In her paid-work life, she is the Co-founder of True North Therapy and Training, a group dedicated to sharing contextual behavioral therapies with clients, practitioners, and the broader communinity.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Please email Miranda Morris at drmirandamorris@gmail.com