Interest Session Descriptions

The Answers Are Within – But What Are The Questions, A Spiritual Self-Exploratory Life Mission Pilot - Stephanie Alvarez, LMFT, LPC, NCC - 1.5 Clock Hours
Various methods utilized to engage the person of the counselor’s current, personal beliefs.  Opportunities will be provided for self-reflection on their own values, spiritual/religious beliefs, and how those may impact their various applicable life systems.

Ethical Considerations while Integrating Spirituality into the Counseling Session - Heather Tustison, LCPC, NCC - 3.0 Clock Hours
It is significant that all counselors are ethically responsible and aware of the competencies that are recognized by our profession.  ACA has endorsed ASERVIC’s spiritual competencies as an ethical component for counseling. This program hopes to bring awareness of these competencies as well as discuss their impact on the counseling session.

Using Art Therapy to Create a Safe Place for a Gestalt Journey - Heather Tustison, LCPC, NCC -  3.0 Clock Hours
A major focus of Gestalt Therapy is to help clients become aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and how they can change themselves, and at the same time, to learn to accept and value themselves. Using a multitude of art therapy techniques can set up an environment of the client’s choosing can bring insight and awareness into the present.  This new content can be then expounded and analyzed by the client as they explain and interpret their artistic piece. 

Poetry and Journaling as a Creative Tool for Greater Awareness - Heather Tustison, LCPC, NCC - 1.5 Clock Hours
Expressive Therapy is today’s cutting edge in counseling & therapy. Long recognized as a superior teaching approach in education, experiential learning is equally powerful in therapy. With growing evidence from neuroscience, therapists are discovering that personal change is promoted when clients have experiences above and beyond talk therapy. With this comes a new appreciation for creative healing therapies: writing, poetry, art, music, play, drama, and photography .
     
The Power of the Breath – Sharon Hammer - 1.5 Clock Hours
Learning to breathe well is one of the most powerful ways to revitalize your body, mind and emotions. The benefits of breathing well are far-reaching.  Maximizing intake of oxygen and ridding the body of waste products boosts everybody system helping to maintain a calm mind.

Improve Your Sleep, Improve Your Life – Sharon Hammer - 1.5 Clock Hours
Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our life, health, and longevity and yet it is increasingly neglected in our society and culture with devasting consequences.

Workshop Presenters

Lianna Erickson-Trembath, LCPC, ACADC
Lianna is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Registrered Clinical Supervisor. She earned her Master of Arts in Counseling with an addiction and school emphasis from Boise State University. She is a Qualified Professional with an Advanced Certified Alcohol and Drug certification. Lianna is also a Nationally Certified Counselor through the National Board of Certified Counselors. Her undergraduate degree is in Communication from Minnesota State University, Mankato, which infuses her counseling practice with a quality of skillful mastery, allowing her clients to feel understood and valued. Because Lianna believes strongly in excellent self-care, she is able to easily transmit to those in her care numerous effective methods of elevating body, mind, and spirit. She passionately pursues leading-edge therapeutic modalities and continues to advance her education and ability. Lianna feels extremely connected to nature and loves to travel with her husband, daughter, and family pets enjoying the outdoors while camping, hiking, and riding her motorcycle.

Heather Tustison, LCPC, NCC
Heather Tustison is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor.  She has been a professional counselor for twelve years and in Private Practice for the last 11 years.  She is the Clinical Director at her practice supervising graduate student interns from area universities as well as professionals seeking clinical licensure.  Heather specializes in marriage and family counseling.  Her passion is to improve satisfaction in all relationships – with self, with another, and socially.  She has further honed proficiency in communication skills, conflict management, and identification of primary needs.  She has experience working with individuals, couples, families and groups.  Heather regularly integrates creativity, art, and Gestalt techniques into her counseling.  She frequently teaches workshops on Art Therapy for professionals and Gestalt intervention techniques to utilize in the counseling session.

While counseling is her main passion, leadership and service to her profession is another.  She trains regularly on Leadership Development skills and mentors fellow counseling organizations on a national level.  Heather has served Idaho Counselors proudly over the last 14 years with the Idaho Counseling Association, served two years as the Idaho Counseling Association President, served as ACA Western Region Chair, ACA Branch Development Committee, and is Past-President of the Idaho Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling.

Sharon Hammer, JD, MPA, LPC and RYT 500
Sharon is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a 500 hour Registered Yoga Teacher. She has a Juris Doctorate degree and Master’s in Public Administration and worked in law and local government, managing social service agencies and full-service municipalities for over twenty years. She received her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Idaho State University in 2017. She is a 500 Hour Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance and an iRest Yoga Nidra Level 1 Teacher-in-Training. She is a member of the senior teaching staff of the Shanti Yoga Teacher Training Program in Boise. Sharon teaches regular yoga classes and specialty workshops on topics including yoga history and philosophy, trauma, sleep and the breath workshops.

Sharon is in private counseling practice where she integrates mindfulness into talk therapy and when useful educates the client on the physical and psychological effects of distressing events and trauma in our lives. Sharon works with clients to recognize challenges in life and to take a wider perspective, view opportunities for growth, celebrate accomplishments and develop an authentic feeling of self-compassion. Through these tools’ clients can experience, some for the very first time in their lives, a sense of empowerment and the ability to overcome obstacles to improve their lives.

Stephanie Alvarez, LMFT, LPC, NCC
Stephanie Alvarez currently works for Methodist Counseling Center, a non-profit, client-centered agency, in Kuna.  She is dual-licensed as both a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor.  

Growing up in a family of addictions, trauma and crisis, this is her specialty areas.  Thus her involvement in KAD (Kuna Against Drugs) coalition, President.  She is Past-President of Chi Sigma Iota Counseling Honor Society and Idaho Association of Marriage and Family Counseling.  She strives to make a difference in communities, utilizing Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system model. 

She continually strives towards self-improvement, seeing that as the basis for personal and professional integrity.  To provide an opportunity for self-reflection on one’s own values and beliefs in this busy profession we have chosen.  To have “entertaining thoughts” on a personal level, utilizing fables, discussions, and self-assessment tools for the person of the counselor.