Conference Schedule

As artificial intelligence rapidly becomes an integral part of students’ daily lives, college counseling centers are encountering new clinical, ethical, and practical questions. This keynote will explore how AI is shaping student mental health, including the growing use of chatbots, AI companions, and digital tools for emotional support. The session will provide a practical framework for college counselors to evaluate and integrate AI into their work while maintaining strong ethical standards, clinical judgment, and a focus on the therapeutic relationship. The session will also review concrete strategies for responding to student use of AI, incorporating AI into documentation and workflow, and navigating the evolving role of technology in campus mental health.

Abstract:

Students' mental health and sense of belonging are increasingly shaped by social media, digital platforms, and algorithm-driven systems. In this interactive workshop, More Than Data Points: Reimagining Student Mental Health Beyond the Algorithm, participants will explore how these digital influences affect student well-being and identity, particularly among marginalized populations. Drawing on 11 years of school-based social work experience and evidence-based research, the session highlights ethical, trauma-informed, and equity-centered strategies to reframe technology as a tool for fostering empathy, connection, and belonging. Participants will engage in hands-on activities to translate relational and culturally responsive practices into digitally mediated educational settings.

Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze how social media and algorithmic systems influence student mental health, identity development, and sense of belonging.
2. Identify ethical, cultural, and equity-based concerns related to data-driven and social media-mediated mental health practices in higher education.
3. Apply trauma-informed, human-centered, and liberation-oriented social work principles to digitally mediated student mental health care.
4. Reframe social media and data-informed interventions into relational, student-centered approaches that preserve agency and dignity.
5. Develop actionable strategies for supporting student well-being and belonging while mitigating harm from digital comparison, surveillance, and algorithmic bias.

Abstract:

Recent research highlights the profound impact of digital media on college students' mental health, academic performance, and overall well-being. Studies show that frequent social media use is associated with anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, social isolation, and academic challenges (Osman, 2025; Nazari et al., 2023; Fruehwirth et al., 2024; Shiraly et al., 2024; Mou et al., 2024; Gong et al., 2025). While digital tools and mental health apps can provide support, their effectiveness is enhanced when combined with human-centered counseling (Lattie et al., 2019; Richards & Richardson, 2019; Bautista & Schueller, 2023; Melcher et al., 2020). Additionally, emotion regulation, coping strategies, and supportive relationships (e.g., teacher-student connections) can buffer the negative effects of online engagement (Han & Xu, 2024; Gong et al., 2025; Frontiers in Psychology, 2025). This body of evidence underscores the need for counseling approaches that move "beyond the algorithm," addressing the psychological, social, and academic consequences of digital life while empowering students with skills and strategies to navigate the digital world safely and resiliently.

Learning Objectives:

1. Highlight digital stressors: Frequent social media use can negatively affect mental health and academic outcomes.
2. Emphasize the limits of technology: Digital tools are helpful but need integration with human support.
3. Guide counselor interventions: Strategies should include emotion regulation, coping skills, and fostering supportive relationships.
4. Address student resilience in a digital era: Understanding both benefits and risks of online engagement is essential for holistic mental health support.

Abstract:

College counseling professionals are increasingly supporting students navigating constant connectivity, academic pressure, sociopolitical stress, and ongoing exposure to distressing information. This always-on culture can contribute to nervous system dysregulation, burnout, identity stress, and relational disconnection. This three-hour interactive workshop equips college counseling staff with trauma-informed, resilience-focused clinical strategies to support student regulation, recovery, and sustainable coping.

Grounded in culturally responsive practice, the training integrates current research, campus-relevant case vignettes, experiential regulation exercises, and applied clinical tools appropriate for brief and ongoing counseling contexts. Ethical considerations are woven throughout, including attention to professional competence, boundaries, student autonomy, ethical decision-making, and clinician self-care. Participants will leave with practical strategies to support student well-being while maintaining ethical, sustainable counseling practice in an always-on campus environment.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain how constant connectivity, digital saturation, and collective stressors impact emotional regulation, trauma responses, and identity development in college students
2. Apply trauma-informed principles to promote safety, empowerment, and nervous system regulation within campus counseling settings
3. Implement resilience-focused clinical strategies that support students in boundary-setting, coping, and recovery
4. Integrate culturally responsive and equity-informed considerations when addressing exposure, access, and systemic stressors on college campuses
5. Identify ethical considerations related to digital exposure, boundaries, and clinical decision-making in college counseling practice
6. Recognize signs of clinician exposure fatigue and develop sustainable wellness strategies within counseling departments

Abstract:

This session explores how digital culture, COVID-19 related developmental disruption, and ongoing neurodevelopment shape body image and eating behaviors in today's college students. Emerging adulthood (ages 18-26) is a critical neurodevelopmental window marked by identity formation, heightened reward sensitivity, and continued maturation of the prefrontal cortex, all of which increase vulnerability to comparison, perfectionism, and maladaptive coping. These risks have been amplified by algorithm-driven social media, wellness culture, and pandemic-era isolation.

This presentation integrates neuroscience, clinical research, and trauma-informed practice to support early recognition of eating disorders, including atypical and subclinical presentations. Participants will learn practical, campus-feasible tools for assessment, compassionate conversations about food and body image, use of the body image spectrum, and brief Internal Family Systems informed and DBT informed interventions. Innovative supports including virtual groups, early-intervention retention strategies, and referral pathways to specialized care will be discussed. Attendees will leave equipped to intervene earlier and reduce stigma in college settings.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how digital culture, COVID-19 related developmental disruption, and ongoing neurodevelopment in emerging adulthood contribute to increased vulnerability for eating disorders and body image distress in college students.
2. Identify early warning signs and atypical or subclinical presentations of eating disorders, including binge-restrict cycles, atypical anorexia, and orthorexia, within a college counseling setting.
3. Apply developmentally attuned, weight-inclusive screening strategies and trauma-informed language to assess eating disorder risk and engage students in compassionate conversations about food and body image.
4. Utilize practical, campus-feasible interventions, including the body image spectrum, brief Internal Family Systems informed inquiry, and DBT-informed skills, to reduce shame and increase insight into the protective function of eating disorder behaviors.
5. Implement early-intervention and referral strategies, including virtual support groups and retention-focused care pathways, to support continuity of care and reduce escalation to higher levels of treatment.

Abstract:

Project Empathy is a research-based workshop that dismantles stigma around substance use and behavioral addictions through neuroscience, positive psychology, and evidence-informed practice. It connects current brain research to practical application, explaining why many traditional models fall short and how person-centered, empathy-driven approaches improve outcomes.

The session highlights how addiction alters reward, motivation, and stress systems, especially in adolescents. It also addresses digital addictions, including gambling, pornography, gaming, and social media, which exploit the same dopamine-driven learning systems in new and increasingly powerful ways.

Participants learn solution-focused and strength-based strategies they can immediately apply in group settings, clinical care, schools, and community systems. The training reframes "resistance," reduces blame, and emphasizes connection, accountability, and evidence-based empathy as core mechanisms of recovery.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the Neuroscience of Addiction
   1. Examine how substance use affects brain function, including reward circuitry, executive functioning, and emotional regulation. Learn to explain these changes clearly to clients, families, or stakeholders.
2. Examine Digital Addiction and Emerging Behavioral Trends
   1. Analyze how gambling, pornography, gaming, and social media exploit the same dopamine-driven reward systems as substances. Review current adolescent trends and identify systemic barriers, stigma, and outdated models that limit effective response.
3. Apply Strength-Based and Evidence-Informed Counseling Approaches
   1. Learn how to use positive psychology, solution-focused methods, systems theory, client-centered strategies, and accurate empathy to support lasting recovery and build rapport with diverse clients.

Abstract:

Finding Meaning and Purpose in a Frightening and Digital World: Clinical & Ethical considerations, includes reflections on suffering and ways of supporting responsive-relatedness in clinical work (Domrzalski, 2023; Goodman et al., 2004; Lewis, 2022). This workshop/presentation will offer attendees the opportunity to consider existing theory and examine how educators, scholars, and counselors can develop enhanced skills and strategies to address contemporary societal struggles, including sociopolitocal issues, digital media, and news and information streams.

Learning Objectives:

1. Share and examine available relational and ethical theories and the potential applications for Logotherapy and the work of Victor Frankl with regard to clinical strategies as well as ethical principles and practices for clinicians in today's world.
2. Share and examine relational, multicultural, social justice, and ethical theories, such as those of Emmanuel Levinas, Baumeister, Logotherapy, the work of Victor Frankl, as well as the Counselor-Advocate-Scholar model (Ratts & Greenleaf, 2018) and "principles of engagement" (Goodman et al., 2004) with regard to using appropriate clinical, supervision, and teaching strategies, ethical principles, and practices for clinicians in today's frightening world.
3. Demonstrate how clinical concepts of "empathy, attunement, and responsiveness" relate to sensitive, efficacious, ethical practice in a 'Frightening and Digital World' for new and experienced clinicians and educators and how new and developing clinicians can begin to wrestle with these concepts. (Domrzalski, 2023; Lewis, 2022)