2026 ATNS Conference

Workshop Summary:

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This half-day workshop will be a highly interactive opportunity to delve more deeply into
challenging cases. In small groups, participants will present cases and get feedback from peers to help break what can seem like an impasse in the treatment. It may also be helpful in situations when the therapist notices being activated themselves by the case. The treatment approaches discussed will encompass and combine all the neuroplastic treatments: PRT, EAET, ISTDP, PSRT, Sarno-informed therapy, etc.


The session will open with a brief presentation providing an outline for guidance in treating
challenging cases. The majority of time in this workshop will be dedicated to in-depth
presentation of cases by the participants. Depending on the number of people present, these may be done in the large group or in small break-out groups. The structure of Balint Groups will be introduced and used as a method to help keep the discussions on track and psychologically safe for the case presenters.


Following case presentations, the small groups will report out the important factors discovered
and shared about how to treat challenging cases. Even if you do not present your own case, there will be ample opportunities to learn from the discussion about others’ cases that will be
applicable to your own work.


This session is geared towards mental health professionals such as psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, marriage and family counselors, mental health counselors, etc. These professionals generally see their patients weekly or more often. Mental health training is assumed.



Learning Objectives:

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1. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to identify psychosocial issues that are often unrecognized by the client that impair their progress in treatment.
2. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to apply techniques to help the client recognize the problems that are impeding their progress.
3. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to recognize techniques that can help the client overcome the stresses, traumas, or emotions that lead to persistence of neuroplastic pain or illness.
4. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to assess how their own patience helps their patients get messages of safety.
5. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to identify and use transference phenomena in their treatment of patients.

The Central Role of People-Pleasing in Neuroplastic Pain  Workshop Summary:

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People with neuroplastic pain often identify as people-pleasers. The thesis of this talk is that people-pleasing is more than just a common personality trait among people with neuroplastic pain; rather, it can be the central contributor to pain which has significant implications for healing. This talk will explore the core ways people-pleasing can generate and perpetuate pain, as well as the underlying psychological and emotional dynamics that give rise to being a people-pleaser, including a disconnection from the authentic self, fears of rejection, and guilt. It will also discuss how breaking free of people-pleasing is much more complex and nuanced than simply “being more assertive,” and how people-pleasing dynamics can occur in the practitioner-client relationship.


Learning Objectives:

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1. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to define people-pleasing and explain
   why it is different from excessive niceness.
2. Attendees will be able to describe why people- pleasing can be a core contributor to mindbody pain and explain the developmental context that facilitates people-pleasing.
3. Attendees will be able to describe the interconnection ofguilt, disconnection from the authentic self, and pain. 4. Attendees will be able to identify effective interventions that guide clients towards greater authentic self-experience and self- differentiation as core elements to healing from chronic people-pleasing and pain.
   
   
   
Teaching the Brain Safety Through the Body: Using Movement, Sensory Input, and Graded Motor Imagery to Reduce Threat Workshop Summary:


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This session will explore an integrative, body-based (somatic) approach to treating neuroplastic symptoms that complements pain reprocessing therapy (PRT) and emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET). Drawing from a physical therapy and manual therapy background, the talk introduces the HEAL Method, with particular emphasis on Activity as a mechanism for communicating safety through graded movement exposure, sensory input, neurosomatics and graded motor imagery. Attendees will learn how graded movement, sensory-system engagement (visual, vestibular, proprioceptive), and motor imagery can support patients who struggle to respond to cognitive or emotional interventions alone.


Learning Objectives:


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1. Explain and demonstrate how sensory-system engagement can downregulate nervous system threat and reduce symptom amplification in neuroplastic conditions.
2. Describe and demonstrate how neuro-based movement strategies using visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive input can recalibrate prediction error and modify threat perception.
3. Identify the role of graded motor imagery (left/right discrimination, visualization, and mirror therapy) in refining cortical maps, reducing nervous system threat, and supporting safe re-engagement with movement.

Workshop Summary:

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Empathy, the ability to understand another person’s thoughts, feelings and emotions, is central to connection and to a supportive therapeutic relationship. Research suggests a supportive relational approach is essential to a successful outcome in the treatment of neuroplastic symptoms. Traditional medical training tends to focus on technical and factual learning, and health care providers may not have had the opportunity to develop empathic skills. Additionally, empathy is notoriously hard to teach. One successful approach, however, is to use movement to develop interoception, proprioception, grounding and body vocabulary to enhance empathy. Somatic insight is an intuitive route to empathy. This workshop is experiential.



Learning Objectives:

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After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Demonstrate greater empathy by increasing their body awareness;
2. Recognise different ways of translating emotional sensations within the body;
3. Employ more experiential methods to create a kinaesthetic sense of safety and mind-body connection, particularly grounding as per recent sensations & trauma research.
4. Identify subtle phenomenological shifts within the body;
5. Use a refined somatic epistemology including affective, attunement, compassion and relational skills to develop a successful empathetic clinical approach.