ISPS-US 2025 Annual Conference: Bridging the Divides

CONFERENCE WEBSITE: www.isps-us.org/conference

Conference Description: Ours is a fractured time. Splits and fissures run through every aspect of our experience, internal and external, personal, familial, and social. In the realm of mental health, and particularly in the understanding and treatment of psychosis, these divides are especially palpable. There are widening clinical ideological rifts, disconnection between the realities of those experiencing symptoms and those providing care, and a chasm between what we dream to be possible in the mental health system and what currently exists.

As we face the deepening divides in our country and in our world, and witness the impacts of concentrations of wealth, power, and control upon our daily lives, we recognize the process of healing is not only personal but collective. Individuals working to integrate or recover from experiences of extreme states have often led the way in confronting fragmentations — psychical, racial, economic, gender-based, cultural — and in formulating responses that are both creative and effective.

The ISPS-US 24th Annual Conference will offer an opportunity to hold these responses together in community, and to explore ways to address and transcend their interlocking reverberations in psyche, family, and society. Through dialogue, collaboration, and advocacy, we will work to bridge the gaps between perspectives, disciplines, and lived realities in psychosis care and beyond.

We hope you will join us to celebrate ISPS-US as a growing hub for transformative thought and action.

See you in Chicago!
Featured Sessions

• From Outreach to Overreach? Contextualizing and Critiquing Assertive Community Treatment - Lindsay Doyle, PsyD, Lauren Hersch, LCSW, Nancy Burke, PhD, Matt Perry, MPPA, JD.
• A New Paradigm for Psychoanalysis - Françoise Davoine, PhD
• From Psychosis to Spiritual Emergence: Bridging Mental Health and Spirit World Through Decolonizing, Culturally Informed Therapy - Marijosephe (Mija) Bradford, MBA, MA, LCPC, Gillian Taylor, MA, LCPC, ATR, PMH-C.
• Mapping the Knots: Systemic Family Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and the Fractal Nature of Psychosis (Experiential Workshop) - Sascha Altman DuBrul, MSW
• Coordinated Specialty Care as "Bridge" - Marie Brown, PhD, Danielle Frank, LCSW, Nicole Havas, LMHC, Kimia Pourrezaseai, DO, Farah Wimonchat Wadolowski, MA, Adam Weg, LCSW.
• The Art and Science of Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal - And a Psychosocial Approach to Psychosis - Anders Sørensen, PhD
• Phenomenologies of Voice Hearing: Perspectives from Experience, Practice and Research - Murphy Halliburton, PhD, Peri Zarrella, MA
• Bridging Realities: Peer-Clinician Collaboration for Meaningful Change - Jeannie Bass, CPS, Carina A. Iati, PsyD
• Why Do Well-Meaning Psychiatrists Fail to Appreciate the Meaning of Psychotic Symptoms? - Michael Garrett, MD
• Open Dialogue Inspired Interventions at Grady Health System - Rafae Alam, Emily Griner, MPH, Justin Palanci, MD, Beth Broussard, MPH
• Recovery Oriented Cognitive Therapy: Living Well With Psychosis - Aaron P. Brinen, PsyD
• Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Track - Nancy Burke, PhD, ABPP, and colleagues.

Sessions are subject to change.

We are the US Chapter of The International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS-US.) We have a global, almost 70-year legacy of reimagining psychosis care. Our community encompasses people with lived experience, service providers, family members, activists, and researchers.
Bundle your 2025 conference ticket withwith our Conference & Community Package to join us. This gives you:

• A series of pre-and-post-conference virtual networking sessions to generate and sustain momentum
• Access to ISPS-US's listserv and member-only groups including our Advocacy Committee, Book Club, Creative Sharing Spaces, Spiritual Wellness, Family Support Group, and Community Chat
• Online access to our journal Psychosis: Psychological, Social, and Integrative Approaches
• 20% discount for our book series with Routledge with 33+ titles on psychosocial approaches and perspectives on psychosis
• Discounts to ISPS-US's ongoing Educational Courses and free access to our recorded webinar library
• Learn more about us at www.isps-us.org

We have a block of rooms reserved at the new Hampton Inn & Suites next to UIC. The discounted conference rate of $219/night will be available until October 1st, 2025. After this date, the discounted room rate is not guaranteed.

Hampton Inn & Suites Chicago Medical District University of Illinois Chicago

710 S. Seeley Ave

Chicago, IL 60612

Booking Link: https://group.hamptoninn.com/v3mcpg

Please note: The link must be copied in its entirety in order to work. Guests will need to utilize the “Edit Stay” calendar option at the top of the landing page to adjust their check in/check out dates.

Don't forget to secure your place for the Saturday evening conference dinner! The conference dinner is always a great opportunity to sit down with other conference attendees for an informal "get-to-know-you" time around good food and drinks. This year's dinner will be held at Time Out Market located in the historic Fulton Market District just 2 miles from the conference location and easily accessible by public transportation. Time Out Market has 15 of the best Chicago eateries and three bars to choose from. (https://www.timeout.com/time-out-market-chicago)

The price of your ticket includes a $25 Event Card Voucher that can be used to purchase food and drinks and is inclusive of all gratuities and tax. You will find these tickets as an "add-on" after you have selected your conference registration type.

Come join us for a great time and get to know your fellow conference attendees!

Please note, space is limited, so it is recommended that you purchase your dinner voucher sooner rather than later.

Time Out Market, 916 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607

We would also like to give a special thank you to Candice and David NunnTelfort for sponsoring the Saturday Conference Supper and Social event !

Only 50 spaces available

Michael Garrett, MD, Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and author of Psychotherapy for Psychosis: Integrating Cognitive-Behavioral and Psychodynamic Treatment, will lead the 2025 ISPS-US Pre-Conference Workshop on Friday, November 7 from 1:00 to 5:00 PM.

His session, Psychosis, Trauma, and Psychotherapy, will explore the integration of trauma-informed care and psychodynamic therapy in work with people who experience psychosis.
Description
Not only is childhood trauma associated with psychosis, but psychotic symptoms often contain fragmented de-contextualized memories of trauma. Symptoms frequently embody narrative themes that echo the person’s trauma history. These findings mark psychosis as a trauma-related disorder in which psychotic symptoms constitute disguised representations of a person’s trauma history. This presentation expands the definition of trauma to include the symbolic meaning of events and relates psychosis to a neuropsychoanalytic model of the mind as a self-organizing system in which affect plays a central role, a conceptual lens through which delusions can be seen as meaningful adaptive attempts to maintain affective homeostasis in the face of traumatic experiences. The presentation also includes a neuropsychoanalytic developmental model of the origins of the particular cast of characters and plot lines often encountered in delusional narratives, commonly the patient beset by a persecutor. The paper offers suggestions about how clinicians might add a neuropsychoanalytic perspective to their work which might improve outcomes for some patients.

Cost:
Conference attendees: $120 (includes CEs)
Non-conference attendees: $150
Limited number of $50 scholarship spaces.
Conference attendees will receive a discount code in their confirmation email when they register for the conference.

For registration visit:

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

UIC Student Center West, 828 S. Wolcott Ave., Chicago, United States