Programming – 5th International Single Session Therapies Symposium (SST5)

SST5 Schedule: June 27-29, 2025

Coming soon! Day 1 will include clinical trainings and workshops; days 2 and 3 will contain research, clinical, and practical presentations. If you are interested in presenting at SST5, see our call for submissions.

2025 Invited Speakers

Workshops (Friday, June 27th), Add-Ons to Registration

Single Session Supervision: Making the Most of Every Session! (10 am – 12 pm CT)

Pam Rycroft

Pam is a psychologist and family therapist with experience over four decades in clinical practice, teaching and supervision, the majority of that time at The Bouverie Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Since reading Moshe Talmon’s first book in the early 1990s, an SST approach has always spoken to her as good, ethical practice. A strong professional partnership with Jeff Young led to the development of training, writing, co-editing and presenting in the SST field, as organising the first SST symposium. With a concurrent interest in supervision that goes back to her own first experience of “bug-in-the-ear” – style supervision, she has also played a strong role in the evolution of Bouverie’s 6-day core supervision training. More recently she has been involved in developing online trainings in Single Session Therapy, co-editing as well as writing and narrating an extended online introduction to family therapy.
To learn more about Pam’s work/professional background:
https://shortcourses.latrobe.edu.au/single-session-thinking
https://wwww.latrobe.edu.au/research/centres/health/bouverie/courses/pd/self-paced/sst
https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/prycroft/publications

The Single Session in School Counseling (10 am – 12 pm CT)

Deborah Healy, PsyD, LP: Chair, Department of Psychology (Former PsyD Training Director), Professor of Psychology, Our Lady of the Lake University – San Antonio, Texas

Dr. Healy is a Licensed Psychology, Licensed Professional Counselor, Texas Certified School Counselor, Reading Specialist K-12 & English teacher 6-12. Dr. Healy was the Director of Guidance & Counseling for the Northside Independent School District the 4th largest district in the State of Texas with over 124 campuses and 100,000 students. NISD is a Hispanic Serving School District (HSSD)
To learn more about Deborah’s work/professional background:
www.ollusa.edu/cps/profiles/deborah-healy.html

Grazia Raineri Acosta, M.A: 3rd-year PsyD Counseling Psychology Student, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas

Grazia is a 3rd year doctoral student at Our Lady of the Lake University, who holds a certificate in One-at-a-Time Single Session Therapy Counseling and completed 5 semesters of live supervision in the university-sponsored clinic. Grazia is currently working with children at Santa Rosa Hospital’s Center for Miracles and Adul Inpatient at San Antonio State Hospital. Grazia has earned two master’s degree in psychology one in the USA and one in Italy, and she is also a faculty adjunct at San Antonio College.

No Bullshit Therapy: Single Session Therapy for people who don’t like you, don’t want to work with you, don’t think they have a problem and hence don’t want to change. (1 – 3 pm CT)

Jeff Young, PhD

Jeff Young, PhD (He/Him) is Emeritus Professor, Family Therapy La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He was Director of The Bouverie Centre between 2009 & 2022 and has delivered workshops and keynote addresses in Scotland, England, America, Canada, Sri Lanka, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
Jeff won the Morawetz Research prize in 2007 and was awarded the ANZJFT Special Award for Distinguished Contributions to Family Therapy in 2017 and the THEMHS exceptional contributions to mental health in 2022.
His latest book is No Bullshit Therapy: How to engage people who don’t want to work with you (Routledge, 2024).
To learn more about Jeff’s work/professional background:
https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/jwyoung
Book link: “No Bullshit Therapy: How to engage people who don’t want to work with you”

Single Session Therapy in 3 Acts (1 – 3 pm CT)

Monte Bobele, PhD: Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas

Monte is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. He and Arnie Slive co-edited When One Hour is All You Have and published (with others) Single-Session Therapy by Walk-In or Appointment. Recently, he and Michael Hoyt published Creative Therapy in Challenging Situations. Arnie and Monte are working on a new book, Open-Access/Single-Session Therapy, to be published early in 2025. He has taught graduate courses and workshops in Walk-in/SST in the US, Canada, México, and Australia.
Links to learn more about Monte’s work/professional background:
www.SingleSessionSolutions.com

So, How Do You Design a Single-Session Intervention? A Guide to Developing SSIs from Existing Interventions (3:30 – 5:30 pm CT)

Dr. Atina Manvelian: Assistant Professor, Counseling Psychology, Santa Clara University

Dr. Atina Manvelian (she/her) is an Armenian-American licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University in the Counseling department. She trained at the University of Arizona for her PhD then completed her postdoctoral training at Stony Brook University and Stanford University focused on digital single-session interventions. Dr. Manvelian specializes in relationship psychology and youth mental health. Her mission is to teach people how to feel more confident and connected by developing scalable interventions.
To learn more about Atina’s work/professional background:
www.atinamanvelian.com

Monika Neff Lind, PhD: Postdoctoral Scholar

Monika Neff Lind is a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral scholar in the CERES Network at UC Irvine. Monika earned her Bachelor’s degree in Film & Television Production from the University of Southern California and worked in the movie business for about a decade before pursuing her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Oregon with Dr. Nick Allen. Monika’s research focuses on adolescent digital mental health. She was part of the team that developed the passive mobile sensing tool, EARS, which she presented at the White House. Monika’s recent work focuses on the development of brief digital interventions to meet the needs of young people who seek help online.
To learn more about Monika’s work/professional background:
https://linktr.ee/MonikaNLind
www.linkedin.com/in/monika-neff-lind-phd

Keynotes (Saturday, June 28th & Sunday, June 29th)

Single Session Therapy: Past, Present, and Future

Michael F. Hoyt, PhD

The speaker has been involved in the field of Single Session Therapy for forty years. He was one of the originators of the SST approach (with M. Talmon & R. Rosenbaum) that resulted in the groundbreaking book, Single Session Therapy: Maximizing the Effect of the First (and Often Only) Therapeutic Encounter (Talmon, 1990). He has been an editor of the four published volumes resulting from previous SST symposia, as well as the author of Brief Therapy and Beyond: Stories, Language, Love, Hope, and Time, Brief Therapy Conversations (with F. Cannistrà), and Single Session Therapy: A Clinical Introduction to Principles and Practices.
To learn more about Michael’s work/professional background:
Google ‘books by Michael F. Hoyt’

Agility and Lived Experience in Scaling up SSI for Population Mental Health

Theresa Nguyen, LCSW: Chief Research Officer, Mental Health America

As MHA’s Chief Research Officer, Theresa leads MHA’s Center for Research and Innovation. In this role, Theresa works to improve access to mental health care through data and digital-based innovations. Theresa oversees MHA’s National Screening and Prevention Program that serves 10 million users annual seeking early screening and treatment options. Through this program, MHA’s research and innovation team explores the integration of peers into digital mental health care, the use of AI technology in digital SSI, the value of crowdsourcing to build skills and validation, strategies to build motivation and engagement to increase use of SSI, and how large-scale data provides insight into gaps in support systems across the country. As a licensed clinical social worker, she has over 20 years of experience in mental health as a clinician, educator, and advocate. Her clinical experience focused on working with children and adults with serious mental illness, those experiencing homelessness, dual diagnosis treatment, and early intervention of psychosis. As an advocate, she works to build a consumer-based mental health workforce, improve access to treatment through community-based and recovery-oriented mental health programs, and address the needs of underserved communities. Before joining MHA National, Theresa worked at MHALA (Los Angeles) and MHAOC (Orange County, California). Theresa is also currently a Board Member of Project Return Peer Support Network, a member of the Mental Health Research Network Advisory Committee, and a PCORI Ambassador.
Links to learn more about Theresa’s work/professional background:
https://mhanational.org/cri/current-research
https://mhanational.org/mha-state-county-data
https://screening.mhanational.org/screening-tools/
https://screening.mhanational.org/diy-tools/

Why Single Session Consultations could be a key part of state behavioral health strategy

Jay Chaudhary: Senior Fellow for Mental Health and Wellness, Sagamore Institute

Jay Chaudhary has the unique experience of simultaneously creating policy for and executing a successful state behavioral health strategy. During his five year tenure as Director of the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction and Chair of the Indiana Behavioral Health Commission, Jay led a significant overhaul of Indiana’s behavioral health system, resulting in a significant jump in the state’s overall mental health rankings.
Jay has recently begun a new journey as Senior Fellow for Mental Health and Wellness at the Sagamore Institute, an Indianapolis, Indiana based research institution. Jay’s work at Sagamore focuses on continued advocacy for equitable behavioral health care access and exploration of strategies for improving overall community well-being
To learn more about Jay’s work/professional background:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-chaudhary-3378b42a/

Brainstorming Panel Discussion: How to Expand Availability of Single-Session Psychotherapy in the United States

Arnold Slive, PhD: Clinical Psychologist, Independent Practice

Arnold Slive, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and AAMFT clinical fellow and approved supervisor. He has founded walk-in counseling services in Canada (the first in Canada) and the U.S. He is co-editor (with M. Bobele) of When One Hour is All You Have: Effective Counselling for Walk-in Clients and (with Hoyt, Bobele, Young and Talmon) Single-Session Therapy by Walk-In or Appointment. Currently in press: Single-Session/Open-Access Psychotherapy: When no appointment is necessary (co-edited with M. Bobele)
Link to learn more about Arnie’s work/professional background:
https://singlesessionsolutions.com
Other panel members:
Jeff Young: jyoung@latrobe.edu.au (He will speak to his work in spreading access to SST in Australia)
Nancy McElheran: nancymcelheran@shaw.ca (Nancy is Wood’s Homes in Calgary where we started Canada’s first walk-in SST service. She has researched and spoken and at a previous SST symposium about the now widespread access to SST across Canada
Peter Cornish: peter.cornish@steppedcaresolutions.com (Peter is the founder of Stepped Care 2.0 and is the Director of the University Counseling Center at UCalifornia/Berkeley. He has had a longstanding interest in expanding access to these services.)

Designing for Scale: Bringing Digital Single-Session Interventions to Millions Worldwide

Rob Morris, PhD: CEO, Koko

Rob Morris, PhD is the co-founder and CEO of Koko — a tech nonprofit for mental health. Koko addresses the youth mental health crisis by meeting young people where they are — online — and providing free digital interventions. Dr. Morris earned his AB in psychology from Princeton University and his master’s and PhD from MIT.
To learn more about Rob’s work/professional background:
www.robertrmorris.org
www.kokocares.org

How to Train a Single Session Therapist: Guidelines, Tips and Experiences for Building an SST Training

Dr. Flavio Cannistrà, PsyD: Co-Founder of the Italian Center for Single Session Therapy

An expert in brief therapy, Flavio is co-founder of the Italian Center for SST and co-director of the postgraduate school in psychotherapy “ICNOS Institute”. His interests concern how to make psychotherapy effective and efficient, in private and public contexts. For this reason, in addition to being certified in different types of brief therapy and continuing clinical practice for over 15 years, he has continuously organized various training courses around the world for therapists. To this he adds the writing of articles for international journals and books published in different languages, such as “Single Session Therapy. Principles and Practices” and “Brief Therapy Conversations”.
Links to learn more about Flavio’s work/professional background:
www.flaviocannistra.it
www.singlesessiontherapies.com

A Perfect Match: SST and Primary Care Behavioral Health

David Bauman,PsyD: PCBH Education Director, Community Health of Central Washington

Bridget Beachy, PsyD: Director of PCBH, Community Health of Central Washington

David Bauman, PsyD is a licensed psychologist and principal member of Beachy Bauman Consulting. He also is the Primary Care Behavioral Health Education Director at Community Health of Central Washington. Dr. Bauman enjoys speaking, presenting, and writing on topics related to primary care, contextualism and compassionate healthcare, and the integration of behavioral health into medical settings.
Bridget Beachy, PsyD, a licensed psychologist, is dedicated to the integration of BHC services into medical settings. Dr. Beachy is currently the Director of Primary Care Behavioral Health at Community Health of Central Washington (CHCW; FQHC in Washington state), where she practices as a BHC and enjoys delivering clinical services to patients of all ages. Dr. Beachy has a passion for consulting and presents internationally, nationally and at the state and local levels.
Links to learn more about their work/professional background:
www.youtube.com/@pcbhlife
www.chcw.org/pcbh
www.beachybauman.com