Join us again for another year for our powerful and enlightening virtual conference dedicated to exploring the complexities of anxiety and depression. The Anxiety and Depression Conference brings together top experts and mental health professionals committed to advancing mental well-being. Engage in meaningful discussions and discover innovative strategies for understanding, preventing, and managing anxiety and depression.
REGISTRATION
$399
Register by May 31st for $199
Date/Time
Sep 27, 2025 thru Sep 28, 2025
Starts at 8:45am Pacific Time on Sep 27th
What’s Included?
12 CE credits, conference recordings and transcripts
Are you a student?
Reach out to support@erickson-foundation.org for more information about our student discount
The Anxiety and Depression Conference
is looking for volunteers!
Faculty
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Lilian Borges, MA, LPC
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David Burns, MD
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Lilian Borges, LPC, is an experienced therapist, teacher, presenter, and podcaster who has treated individuals and couples for more than thirty years. Being binational herself, she can understand multicultural issues naturally, and perform and teach psychotherapy in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.
She’s an expert in Ericksonian Hypnosis, which she teaches both nationally and internationally and uses with individuals and couples to become and live their higher selves, and she’s trained professionals in hypnosis around the world for more than two decades. Lilian is part of the Milton Erickson Foundation Intensive Hypnosis Training faculty since 2001 where she trains other mental health professionals in Ericksonian Hypnosis.
She is Certified PACT therapist, and uses her dynamic, experiential, and hypnotic work with couples.
She currently has a private practice in Arizona, where she uses an array of techniques to help her patients with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, pain management, weight management, smoking cessation, etc.
She is co-host (with Rick Miller, LICSW) of the popular podcast Modern Couples.
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David D. Burns is an adjunct professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the author of the best-selling books Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy and The Feeling Good Handbook. Burns popularized Aaron T. Beck's cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) when his book became a best seller during the 1980s.
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Lynn Lyons is a psychotherapist in Concord, New Hampshire specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders in adults and children for over 30 years.
Lynn speaks about anxiety, its role in families, and the need for a preventative approach at home and in schools. She is a featured expert in the 2023 documentary Anxious Nation and has appeared in the New York Times, Time, NPR, Psychology Today, Good Morning America, Today, and other media outlets.
She is the co-host of the popular podcast Flusterclux.
Lynn has authored several books and articles on anxiety, including The Anxiety Audit, Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents, and the companion book for kids, Playing with Anxiety: Casey’s Guide for Teens and Kids (with Reid Wilson.)
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Dan Short is a licensed psychologist and the current Director for the Phoenix Institute of Ericksonian Therapy. He is the former Assistant Director at the Milton H. Erickson Foundation and has nearly thirty years of experience training members of the helping professions, which include medical providers, psychologists, counselors, life coaches, educators, and para-professionals. Dan is the author of numerous books and book chapters on the competency-oriented strategies of Milton H. Erickson, including the 2005 classic, Hope and Resiliency, which he co-authored with two of Erickson’s daughters. Dan maintains a private practice in Scottsdale, AZ, where he provides hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, and life coaching. Dan has conducted field work in the poorest regions of the world and is an affiliate of Hypnosis Without Borders. He conducts consultation groups for local professionals, provides supervision and training for professionals inside and outside the United States, as well as serving as visiting faculty at Ericksonian institutes across France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Japan.
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REID WILSON, PhD is a psychologist in Chapel Hill, NC. He has spent 40 years developing treatment protocols for anxiety disorders and OCD. In 1991 he co-authored with Dr. Edna Foa the first-ever self-help book on exposure and response prevention (ERP), Stop Obsessing! How to Overcome Your Obsessions and Compulsions. He is author of Stopping the Noise in Your Head: The New Way to Overcome Anxiety and Worry and the classic self-help book Don’t Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks, as well as Facing Panic: Self-Help for People with Panic Attacks (ADAA). He is co-author, with Lynn Lyons, LICSW, of Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous & Independent Children and Playing with Anxiety: Casey’s Guide for Teens and Kids. He directs www.anxieties.com, celebrating 26 years this year as the largest, privately-run free self-help site on anxiety and OCD. He designed American Airlines’ first national program for the fearful flier and served as the expert on anxiety for WebMD’s Mental Health Community. He is a Founding Clinical Fellow of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) and is a Fellow of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT). In 2014 he received ADAA’s highest service award, and in 2019 he received the highest service award from the International OCD Foundation.
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Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and marriage and family therapist residing in Southern California. He is internationally recognized for his work in advancing clinical hypnosis and outcome-focused psychotherapy, routinely teaching to professional audiences all over the world. To date, he has been invited to present his ideas and methods to colleagues in more than 30 countries across six continents, and all over the United States. His presentations are well known for being practical as well as enjoyable.
Dr. Yapko has had a special interest for nearly five decades in the intricacies of the clinical applications of hypnosis and directive methods, especially in the treatment of depression. He is the author of 16 books and editor of three others, as well as dozens of book chapters and articles on the subjects of hypnosis and the use of strategic psychotherapies. These include his most recent book, Process-Oriented Hypnosis: Focusing on the Forest, Not the Trees, the 5 th edition of his widely used hypnosis text, Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis, as well as Depression is Contagious and Breaking the Patterns of Depression. He is the only 5-time winner of the Arthur Shapiro Award for the “Best Book on Hypnosis” from the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. His works have been translated into ten languages. He also served as Guest Editor for two special issues of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis on “Hypnosis and Treating Depression” in January and April of this year. More information about Dr. Yapko’s teaching schedule and publications can be found on his website: www.yapko.com.
Dr. Yapko is the recipient of numerous major awards for his innovative contributions in advancing the fields of hypnosis and brief therapy, including lifetime achievement awards from The American Psychological Association’s Division 30 (Society of Psychological Hypnosis), the International Society of Hypnosis (the Pierre Janet Award), and The Milton H. Erickson Foundation.
Schedule
Saturday, September 27th
Convocation
8:45 am to 9 am Pacific Time
To Be Determined
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Keynote 1 - 9 am to 10 am Pacific Time
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Workshop 1 - 10:15 am to 12:15 pm Pacific Time
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To be determined
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Workshop 2 - 10:15 am to 12:15 pm Pacific Time
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This fast-paced training for intermediate and advanced clinicians will teach you the latest innovations of a treatment model that Reid has continually evolved over his 40-year career. Leading from a metacognitive perspective of the disorder, you will learn the step-by-step strategies, supported by paradoxical tactics and persuasive techniques, in a brief-treatment model for this often-complex disorder. You will study how clients can activate the strategies and tactics immediately, moment-by-moment, and use them whenever OCD intrudes, throughout their life. For clients who remain symptomatic after previous exposure and response prevention treatment, you will learn how to offer them a fresh start, with renewed optimism and with determination to push into the territory that is currently controlled by OCD.
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1. Instruct a client in logically dismantling the common dysfunctional metacognitions of OCD
2. Apply a new, internally-consistent paradoxical frame of reference
3. Explain and encourage “approach” emotions toward anxious uncertainty during exposure
4. Demonstrate how to activate the therapeutic strategy moment-by-moment during obsessions or urges to ritualize
Lunch
12:15 pm to 1:30 pm Pacific Time
To Be Determined
Keynote 2 - 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm Pacific Time
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There’s no escaping the dire reports about the high rates of anxiety and depression in teens and young adults. The theories about what is driving the increase are multiple and overlapping, from the pandemic to social media to parenting to the state of the world. And while therapists obviously want to help, are we truly doing what works? Or are we buying into the same mental health trends and assumptions as the young people we’re trying to help? In this keynote, Lynn encourages mental health providers to question the myths, trends, and sometimes surprising approaches to addressing youth mental health and to focus our efforts on treatment based on action, connection, and accurate psychoeducation.
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Describe the impact of self-labeling on adolescents.
Create at least 2 interventions that support social connection in adolescents and young adults.
Identify three cognitive patterns that increase risk of anxiety and depression.
To Be Determined
Workshop 3 - 2:45 pm to 4:45 pm Pacific Time
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Applying Hypnosis in the Treatment of Depression is a short workshop that will emphasize the importance of utilizing proactive and well-targeted interventions when treating depression. How therapists think about the nature of depression and answer fundamental questions - such as what causes depression - naturally determine what treatment approach they are most likely to take. Likewise, how therapists think about the nature of hypnosis and its potential merits in treatment will shape their use of hypnotically based approaches. As we will discuss and you will observe in a video case presentation, there are some very compelling reasons to want to include hypnosis in the treatment of depressed individuals, couples, and families. There are things that no amount of medication can possibly address, hence the emphasis here will be on skills, not pills.
In this program, some of the topics Dr. Yapko will discuss include:
• How the global pandemic turned the world into a “living laboratory” and highlighted vulnerabilities to depression
• The “earthquake” in the depression world regarding the serotonin hypothesis
• How one factor - expectancy - influences every phase of treatment
• How our feelings can misguide us when making decisions, leading to poor decisions that make depression worse
• The importance of experiential learning in treatment
• Hypnosis as a vehicle for promoting automaticity: The merits of dissociation
• The role of hypnosis in fostering emotional self-regulation skills
• How global cognition affects perceptions, depression, and responses to hypnosis
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Attend Applying Hypnosis in the Treatment of Depression and enhance your ability to:
Identify key personal and interpersonal patterns that exacerbate and maintain depression
Identify the structure of two specific hypnotic intervention strategies for promoting recovery
Utilize structured homework assignments to build skills needed to recover and reduce the risk of relapse
To Be Determined
Workshop 4 - 2:45 pm to 4:45 pm Pacific Time
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After decades of working with anxious families, schools, and mental health providers, Lynn is clear about two things: parents are a critical part of therapy with anxious kids and offering long lists of “coping skills” is not enough to interrupt anxiety’s powerful generational patterns. In this workshop, Lynn will describe 1) why plans often fail, 2) how to create process-based plans for families and schools that go after the demands of the anxiety disorder, and 3) how to shift away from the practice of creating certainty and comfort. Short-term elimination strategies and long- term accommodation plans that address the “content” of the worry are all too common, so let’s instead give parents and educators the information and “big picture” instruction they need!
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Describe four traps that increase the likelihood of impairment in functioning, including school avoidance.
Explain to families how the goals of elimination and avoidance increase anxiety.
Use front loading with families as a key part of a process-based plan.
Create resources and homework assignments that promote a process-based approach to anxiety.
Sunday, September 28th
To Be Determined
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To Be Determined
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1. To Be Determined
Keynote 3 - 9 am to 10 am Pacific Time
To Be Determined
Workshop 5 - 10:15 am to 12:15 pm Pacific Time
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In the general consideration of Eating Disorders, anxiety symptoms have often been valued only as secondary aspects or even as a non-relevant issue. On the contrary, clinical experience and some recent findings demonstrate that anxiety plays an important role at various critical moments of the disorder and in its treatment process.
The incidence of anxiety in ED patients is four times higher than in the general population. A higher anxiety level corresponds to greater severity of the illness. ED symptoms are more intense when accompanied by forms of anxiety. Greater anxiety contributes to poorer outcomes, and follow-up results are less positive.
Particularly in BN and AN-B, the tendency toward impulsivity is stronger in accordance with higher levels of anxiety, and If the patient’s body dissatisfaction is high, there is a greater risk of self- injurious behavior and even of suicidal attempts. Considering all these factors that significantly affect the course of Eating Disorders, there should be more serious attention dedicated to the presence of anxiety at different moments of therapeutic intervention.
Hypnosis proves to be an excellent treatment for lowering anxiety levels and reducing the disorder severity along with preventing the risky behaviors that frequently accompany the course of ED.
Particular attention will be dedicated to special strategies and tailored hypnotic techniques that van be used at different stages of the therapeutic process.
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1. Understand the relevance of the anxiety role in Eating Disorders and in increasing the risk of chronicity.
2. Describe the critical situations of Eating Disorders that activate high levels of anxiety and require therapeutic interventions
3. Learn how to prevent binge and impulsivity reducing anxiety with specific hypnotic interventions, including self-hypnosis
4. Utilize five different hypnotic techniques that can be applied to the most common forms of anxiety in Eating Disorders
To Be Determined
Workshop 6 - 10:15 am to 12:15 pm Pacific Time
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Attachment theory is an integrative theory that can be used as a cognitive-interpersonal framework for understanding the development of depression, and anxiety. The development of attachment theory and neuroscience had offered ways of understanding how interpersonal experience affects neurobiological processes. It created much impact in psychotherapy allowing for new ways for treating issues like marital problems, relational trauma, depression, and anxiety. Our early relationships shape our neurophysiology, and how we relate to others and ourselves. This workshop will address the relational aspects of depression and anxiety, and ways to treat them in psychotherapy.
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Name three ways that insecure attachment can contribute to cognitive vulnerability of depression and anxiety
Describe at least two techniques to treat depression and anxiety relationally
Describe three relational dynamics that can lead to anxiety and depression
Lunch
12:15 pm to 1:30 pm Pacific Time
To Be Determined
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The four primary anxiety disorders— panic, specific phobias, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety—control people by generating an absolute standard for certainty and comfort. They inject rules into consciousness, then use that set of rules to take over mental territory. Assigning various exercises and techniques is the least effective way to promote change. We need to go after these disorders at the metacognitive level to take on anxiety’s process and overall laws. Any directives we might offer clients should consistently be driven by a set of five therapeutic goals that can be expressed to the client as “attitudes.” Lynn and Reid will present each of these attitudes and demonstrate how they can be delivered to clients in a persuasive manner. You will learn ways your clients can employ these principles in specific threatening circumstances.
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1. Defend the advantage of personifying the disorder and perceiving treatment as a mental game
2. Describe and justify the therapeutic sequence of detachment and absorption
3. Identify the benefits of an intervention which is arousal congruent
4. Illustrate how a shift in attitude belongs in the therapeutic skillset
Dialogue 1 - 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm Pacific Time
To Be Determined
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Perfectionism (“I’m not good enough!”) is one of the most common beliefs that patients and therapists alike struggle with. It plays a key role in depression, inadequacy, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse, relationship conflicts and more. In this exciting workshop, David Burns, MD and Jill Levitt PhD will present cutting edge techniques to deal with perfectionism. Join us and learn how to heal your patients—AND yourself!
Workshop Goals
In this workshop you will learn how to :
Pinpoint the self-defeating beliefs associated with perfectionism
Use Positive Reframing to reduce the perfectionist’s intense resistance to change
Challenge perfectionistic thoughts with the Cost-Benefit Analysis, Externalization of Voices, Acceptance Paradox, Self-Disclosure, Feared Fantasy, and more.
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After completing this course, you will be able to:
Identify two self-defeating beliefs frequently seen in perfectionistic individuals
Describe two cognitive distortions that trigger perfectionism
Name two techniques you can use in the treatment of perfectionism
Keynote 4 - 2:45 pm to 3:45 pm Pacific Time
To Be Determined
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Patients with relationship problems often complain about others, blaming them for the difficulties in their relationship. This nearly always creates intense barriers to effective treatment because if therapists try to "help,"they suddenly run into a wall of resistance.
In this panel, two therapists will discuss research on therapeutic resistance as well as treatment techniques from the attachment and TEAM-CBT perspectives. Outcome Resistance and Process Resistance will be described, and therapeutic strategies will be discussed.
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Describe Outcome Resistance and Process Resistance.
Describe three ways to handle relationship resistance in therapy.
Dialogue 2 - 4 pm to 5 pm Pacific Time
Closing
5 pm to 5:15 pm Pacific Time
CONTINUING EDUCATION ACCREDITATION
The Anxiety and Depression Conference is open to professionals in a health-related field with a master’s degree or higher, and students currently enrolled in an accredited graduate program in a health-related field.
The Anxiety and Depression Conference provides 12.0 hours of continuing education credit. Registrants of the Anxiety and Depression Conference will receive one certificate after the conference is completed. Partial credit will be issued to sessions attended, registrants will need to attend every session in order to receive full credit on certificates. CE credit will not be given for any time spent watching videos. CE Credit is only given for sessions attended via live webinar and all sessions must be attended.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation encourages attendees to contact their individual state licensing board if you have questions regarding eligibility of a course for continuing education credit prior to registering.
A.C.C.M.E.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc. is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
A.M.A.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc., designates this live activity for a maximum of 16.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ per level. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
A.P.A.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc. is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc. maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
A.S.W.B.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc, #1489, 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. The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc. maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 5/2/2024-5/2/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 16.0 continuing education credits per Level of training.
B.R.N.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc., is approved by the Board of Registered Nursing in California to offer continuing education for nurses (Provider no. CEP 9376). This program is eligible for a maximum of 16.0 contact hours per level.
CA B.B.S.
Licensees with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc is approved to provide CE’s by the NBCC and the APA in the state of California. As of 7/1/15, California BBS accepts CE hours from CE providers approved by either the NBCC or the APA for all license types per Title 16 California Code of Regulations (16CCR) § 1887.4.1 and § 1887.4.3
Florida L.C.S.W., L.M.F.T., L.M.H.C.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc. is approved by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling as a provider of continuing education (CE Provider #: 50-2008).
N.B.C.C.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc. has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 5056. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc. is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
NY L.C.S.W. and L.M.S.W.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0304.
New York L.M.H.C.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0116.
New York L.M.F.T.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists. #MFT-0052.
New York Psychologists
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0069.
NOTE: Please tell us if you are physically challenged and about any accommodations you require.
CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION POLICY ON DISCLOSURE
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation is justifiably proud of the conferences and other educational opportunities it sponsors, taking care that the conduct of these activities conforms to the standards and principles of behavioral and medical sciences, thus insuring balance, independence, objectivity and scientific rigor in all its individually sponsored or jointly sponsored educational activities. All faculty participating in a sponsored activity and those who review and therefore are in control of content are expected to disclose to the activity audience all financial interest or relationships with ineligible companies. Ineligible companies are those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. Financial interest or relationships can include such things as grants or research support, employee or ownership, consultant, stockholder, member of speaker’s bureau, etc. The Foundation’s compliance with these standards assures that potential conflicts of interest are identified prior to our educational activities. The intent of this disclosure is to provide listeners with information on which they can make their own judgments. It remains for the audience to determine whether there are interests or relationships that may influence the presentation with regard to exposition or conclusion.
The Milton H. Erickson Foundation Board of Directors, Administrative Staff and the following presenters have indicated they do not have any financial relationships with an ineligible company to disclose.
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Commercial Interest: Defined as any entity producing, marketing, reselling, or distributing healthcare goods or services, used on, or consumed by patients. Providers of clinical service directly to patients are not considered to be commercial interests.
Conflict of Interest: Circumstances that create a conflict of interest when an individual has an opportunity to affect CME content about products or services of a commercial interest with which he/she has a financial relationship.
Financial Relationships: Relationships in which the individual benefits by receiving a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, consulting fee, honoraria, ownership interest (e.g., stocks, stock options or other ownership interest, excluding diversified mutual funds), or other financial benefit. Financial benefits are usually associated with roles such as employment, management position, independent contractor (including contracted research), consulting, speaking and teaching, membership on advisory committees or review panels, board membership, and other activities from which remuneration is received or expected. An accreditation agency considers relationships of the person involved in the CME activity to include financial relationships of a spouse or partner.
Relevant Financial Relationships: Defined as financial relationships in any amount occurring within the past 12 months that create a conflict of interest. They are considered relationships with commercial interests in the 12-month period preceding the time that the individual is being asked to assume a role controlling content of the CME activity. There is not a set minimal dollar amount for relationships to be relevant. Inherent in any amount is the incentive to maintain or increase the value of the relationship.
Role or Activity: Employment, management position, independent contractor (including contracted research), consulting, speaking and teaching, membership on advisory committees or review panels, board membership, and other activities.
Compensation: Salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, research grant, consulting fee, speaker fee, ownership interest (e.g., stocks, stock options or other ownership interest, excluding diversified mutual funds), or other financial benefit.
DISCLAIMER
If the Milton H. Erickson Foundation (hereby referred to as MHEF) cannot hold the Intensive Training seminars due to acts of nature, war, government regulations, disaster, civil disorder or curtailment of transportation facilitating other emergencies making it inadvisable, illegal, or impossible to provide the facilities or to hold the meeting, each prepaid attendee will receive a copy of related handouts and any other materials that would have been distributed. Fixed expenses will be paid from the pre-registration funds. Remaining funds will be refunded to pre-registrants. MHEF is not responsible for any other costs incurred by pre-registrants in connection with the Intensive Training.
The views and opinions expressed by presenters are their own and do not necessarily represent those of MHEF.
MHEF disclaims any responsibility for the use and application of information presented at this training.
CANCELATION POLICY
Cancellations submitted on/or before August 20th will be given a full refund. Cancellations submitted after August 20th but before before August 2, 2025 will receive a full refund, with a $50 service fee. Those who cancel after September 3 and before September 10, 2025, will receive a 50% refund. We will not issue refunds for cancellations made after September 11, 2025. Please allow 8-10 weeks processing. If paying by check, please note that those who submit a non-sufficient fund check will be charged a $20 service fee. Cancelations received that are NOT postmarked by Friday, August 23rd, will NOT be eligible for a refund. You must notify the Foundation of any changes by emailing support@erickson-foundation.org or calling 602-956-6196.
CONTACT
Please contact support@erickson-foundation.org for inquiries.