2025 Annual Spring Conference
Louisiana Psychology: Exploring the Bayous of the Mind
Join us for our Annual Spring Convention! There will be opportunities to learn from nationally renowned speakers, connect with colleagues, and celebrate psychology in Louisiana.
Important Dates:
March 12, 2025: Call for Proposals Deadline
April 11, 2025: Early Bird Registration Begins
Keynote Speaker: Stephanie Nelson, Ph.D., ABPdN, ABPP-CN
Dr. Stephanie Nelson is a pediatric neuropsychologist who specializes in complex differential diagnosis. She is board certified in both clinical neuropsychology (ABPP-CN) and pediatric neuropsychology (ABPdN). She is currently the president-elect of the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology.
Dr. Nelson earned her undergraduate degree at Williams College and her doctorate degree in clinical psychology at the University of Vermont. She completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Minnesota Medical Center.
Dr. Nelson has a private practice in Seattle, Washington. She also has a consultation practice called The Peer Consult through which she provides consultation to psychologists and neuropsychologists who specialize in pediatric assessment.
Friday Presentation: Advanced Report Writing
Problem:
You wrestle every day with your reports. Your reports are thoughtful and eloquent, yet they take you forever to write. They’re too long, too hard, and too complex. You worry that clients and families don’t understand all the jargon and numbers. You’ve seen people skip straight to the end, ignoring much of what you wrote. And you’ve read that 73% of referral sources say slow report turnaround time affects patient care. You know this needs to change. But how do you write reports that are leaner, better, and faster?
Solution:
In this presentation, we’ll explore the research on effective communication. We’ll discuss ‘technical writing’ and learn how this style creates a profoundly better user experience. We’ll use metaphors, data, and exercises to dive deep into what makes a report readable and useful. We’ll challenge ourselves to connect with our readers and write a report geared to their needs.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this presentation participants will be able to:
- Identify and name your MVP: The Most Valuable Part of your reports
- Demonstrate two ways to break down the components of your reports in order to reduce, refine, or use technology on the less valuable material, so you can focus on your MVP
- Describe the research, art, and science of making that MVP readable, useful, and unique
Saturday Presentation: Difficult Feedbacks: What to Say When You Don't Know What to Say
Presentation Overview:
The ability to provide feedback to caregivers about their child’s assessment results is one of the most integrative, most therapeutic, and most rewarding tasks we undertake as pediatric neuropsychologists. It can also be one of the most challenging. We must balance compassion with clarity, emotion with cognition, and empathy with expertise. We must also carefully consider the complexity of the information we’re conveying, the family’s cultural context, and caregivers’ emotional resources.
Providing feedback can become even more difficult when the results are upsetting, confusing, or surprising. Families can become overwhelmed or defensive, and clinicians may not know how to support caregivers during these emotionally-charged interactions. Adding to the daunting nature of this task is that neuropsychologists often receive scant formal training in providing feedback. In comparison to our medical colleagues, we have few formal protocols for delivering difficult news to families, and our field rarely engages in wider conversations around mistakes made or lessons learned during challenging feedback sessions. Many of us feel we are steering through these fraught situations entirely on our own.
This presentation is an invitation to start a larger conversation about difficult feedbacks. In our time together, we’ll discuss clinically rich yet empirically-based ways to navigate complex feedbacks. Case examples for providing difficult feedbacks to adults will also be included. We’ll define the conditions under which feedbacks are most likely to be difficult. We’ll explore strategies for compassionately providing feedback to families that are struggling with complex dynamic issues. We’ll talk about techniques we can use when families respond with strong emotions or challenging behavior during the feedback session. We’ll also consider how to respond to ruptures in rapport and breaks of the “unspoken rules” of the assessment process. This presentation will feature several case examples and numerous practical tools.
Learning Objectives:
After this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Categorize the conditions under which feedbacks to caregivers are likely to be difficult
- Articulate at least 3 research-based techniques for providing difficult feedback to caregivers about their child’s assessment results
- Choose 1 or more feedback techniques to adapt to their practice
Thank you to our Sponsors!
Discounted Room Rates
We are pleased to offer discounted room blocks at SpringHill Suites New Orleans Downtown/Canal Street, available from June 5 to June 7, 2025. Enjoy a special group rate of $115.00 USD per night. Be sure to secure your accommodations by Wednesday, May 7, 2025, to take advantage of this offer. Book your stay now through the dedicated link for the Louisiana Psychological Association below. We look forward to welcoming you to an enriching event!
Schedule of Events:
Friday, June 6
7:30 – 9:30 – Registration/Breakfast
8:30 – 9:30 – LSBEP Presentation Breakfast
9:45 – 11:45 – Keynote Speaker – Stephanie Nelson, Ph.D., ABPdN, ABPP-CN – Advanced Report Writing
12:00 – 1:00 – Lunch – Business meeting, awards, election results
1:00 – 1:30 – 30-minute break – networking/visit sponsors
1:30 – 3:00 – Breakout Session 1
- A – Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD
- B – Contemporary Projective Assessment
- C – Reproductive Mental Health
3:15 – 4:45 – Breakout Session 2
- A – Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD (continued)
- D – Anxiety and Related Disorders
- E – Evidence Based Parent Coaching
5:00 – 6:00 – LPA Happy Hour – networking and live music
Saturday, June 7
7:00 – 8:00 – Registration and Breakfast
8:00 – 9:30 – Science Café
9:45 – 11:45 – Keynote Speaker – Stephanie Nelson, Ph.D., ABPdN, ABPP-CN – Difficult Feedbacks: What to Say When You Don’t Know What to Say
12:00 – 1:00 – Lunch – Legal Landscape 2025: Key Legislative Updates Impacting Psychology in Louisiana – Jesse Lambert, PsyD, MP, LPA Immediate Past President, Legislative Committee Chair and Amy Henke, PsyD, LPA President (1 L/E CPD)
1:00 – 1:30 – 30-minute break – networking/visit sponsors
1:30 – 3:00 – Breakout Session 3
- F – Law & Disorder (L/E)
- G – Work is Therapeutic
(L/E = Law or Ethics CPD; M/D = Multiculturalism or Diversity CPD)
Conference Registration
Early Bird Registration April 11-May 9.
LPA MEMBERS – Please log in to your account to register with member pricing.
Cancellation/Refund Policy: Cancellations up to 72 hours prior to the beginning of the conference will be refunded in full. Please contact the LPA administrator for any unavoidable emergency that may arise within 72 hours prior to the event.
Volunteer Opportunities
LPA Conference Student Volunteer Application – Please fill out the volunteer application below. Volunteers will be chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis. We will need two volunteers each day who will receive free registration in exchange for volunteering.
Regular Pricing:
2-DAY MEMBERS – $300
2-DAY NON-MEMBERS – $350
2-DAY STUDENTS – $60
2-DAY STUDENTS NON-MEMBER – $70
1-DAY MEMBERS – $175
1-DAY NON-MEMBERS – $225
1-DAY STUDENTS – $35
1-DAY STUDENTS NON-MEMBER – $40
2-DAY VIRTUAL TICKET – $120**
1-DAY VIRTUAL TICKET – $60**
**Virtual ticket includes the keynote presentation for that day only and does not include breakout sessions.
Early Bird Pricing:
2-DAY MEMBERS – $250
2-DAY NON-MEMBERS – $300
2-DAY STUDENTS – $50
2-DAY STUDENTS NON-MEMBER – $60
1-DAY MEMBERS – $150
1-DAY NON-MEMBERS – $200
1-DAY STUDENTS – $25
1-DAY STUDENTS NON-MEMBER – $30
2-DAY VIRTUAL TICKET – $120**
1-DAY VIRTUAL TICKET – $60**
**Virtual ticket includes the keynote presentation for that day only and does not include breakout sessions.
Become a Convention Sponsor Today!
Connect directly with psychologists from diverse professional settings across Louisiana at our premier two-day spring conference. Your sponsorship creates a win-win relationship, increasing awareness of your organization while providing you with networking opportunities and multiple avenues of advertising. Showcase your services to mental health professionals who can refer clients and boost your business visibility within this influential community.
Become a Convention Exhibitor Today!
Promote your government or non-profit agency’s valuable services to psychologists who can benefit from awareness about what you offer their clients. Take advantage of our relatively low price point for exhibitors while connecting directly with mental health professionals during multiple scheduled breaks at our two-day spring conference. Build meaningful relationships with psychologists from hospitals, private practices, academic institutions, and various other settings across Louisiana.
