Betting on Trouble: The Rise of Online Gambling in Teenagers (Virtual)
2026-01-08 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Detroit)
Presenter: Thad Shunkwiler, LMFT, LPCC, ACS, CCMHC — Associate Professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato
Date & Time: Virtually over Zoom on Thursday, January 8, 2026 | 1:00 – 3:00 PM CST | 2 CEHs
Price: $60 ($30 per CEU)
This presentation is expected to be approved for 2 hours of clinical content
Description of Presentation: In an era where online sports betting is more accessible than ever, teenagers are increasingly drawn into the high-risk world of gambling. This presentation explores the factors fueling this growing trend, including social media influence, targeted advertising, and the allure of quick financial gains. We’ll examine the psychological and financial risks, legal implications, and the role of technology in enabling underage betting. Finally, we’ll discuss strategies for clinicians, parents, and educators to mitigate harm and promote responsible digital behavior. Join us as we uncover the hidden dangers of online sports betting and what can be done to protect young minds from its grip.
Learning Objectives:

Identify key risk factors contributing to the rise of online sports betting among adolescents, including the role of technology, social media, and targeted marketing strategies.
Describe the psychological, developmental, and financial consequences associated with adolescent gambling behaviors, as well as the legal and ethical considerations surrounding underage access.
Apply prevention and intervention strategies that parents, educators, and community stakeholders can use to promote digital literacy, reduce harm, and support responsible behavior among youth.

Level: Basic | For: Everyone | Ages Addressed: 12-18
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Pop-up: Supporting Children During Immigration Enforcement Operations
2026-01-16 12:00 - 13:00
Presenter: Hopewell Hodges, MA, PhD Candidate — Predoctoral Psychology Internat the University of Minnesota
Date & Time: Virtual over Zoom on Friday, January 16, 2026 from 12:00 AM – 1:00 PM CST | 1 CEHs
When our communities experience violence and fear, children and the adults who care for them carry that weight. At Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health, our values remain clear and unwavering: every child, caregiver and family deserves safety, dignity, and care. We know trauma has ripple effects in our communities, and it is our collective responsibility to respond with accountability, compassion, and support.
Registration for this training will follow a pay-what-you-can model. Contributions will go directly to supporting reflective practice groups for professionals, many of whom are supporting and holding space for the children and families impacted by immigration enforcement operations.
Description of Presentation:
Many children from immigrant and refugee families have loved ones at risk of deportation. For these children, immigration enforcement operations in a community can pose a risk to mental health and development. Fortunately, supportive adults in a child’s life can play a large role in protecting children’s mental health and promoting positive development.
This training offers concrete strategies that adults can use to support children during periods of uncertainty and fear. Drawn from the field of developmental resilience science and informed by clinical practice, these strategies leverage ordinary resources around a child — most importantly, the presence of caring adults — and can be applied by anyone in service to children, including parents, educators, clinicians, and community leaders. Attendees will learn skills for communicating with children about immigration enforcement, restoring predictability and safety, promoting agency, and, most importantly, listening well.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this training attendees will be able to:

Articulate children’s core developmental needs amid fears of a loved one’s detention or deportation
Implement practical strategies to support children who are afraid of a caregiver’s detention or deportation, as well as those whose caregiver has been arrested
Advocate for the needs of children and families affected by immigration enforcement operations

About the Presenter: Hopewell R. Hodges is a PhD candidate in the University of Minnesota’s joint-track doctoral program in developmental psychology and clinical psychology, advised by Drs. Ann Masten and Saida Abdi. She conducts community-engaged research focused on positive development in young people exposed to multisystem adversities like forced displacement and housing loss. Because young people’s health depends to such a large extent on the functioning of surrounding systems, Hopewell focuses much of her attention on building the capacity of the adult world to respond sensitively and creatively to children’s needs using locally effective resilience mechanisms. Her clinical work with children and families exposed to trauma often relies on a similar lens of multisystem resilience. With Dr. Charles Oberg, she co-authored a book, Global Impacts on Childhood Social Development: Building Resilience Amid Conflict, Environmental Degradation, and Climate Change, published December 2025.
Hopewell holds both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in literature from Yale University, both of which focused on communities’ responses to collective trauma like war, genocide, and colonization. She is completing her clinical internship at the Indian Health Board of Minneapolis.
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Treating OCD in Children and Adolescents: An Overview for Clinicians (Virtual)
2026-02-05 12:00 - 14:00
Presenter: Sam Marzouk, PhD, LP, Pediatric Psychologist — Promethean Psychology
Date & Time: Virtual over Zoom on Thursday, February 5th, 2026 from 12:00 – 2:00 PM CST | 2 CEHs
Price: $60 ($30 per CEU)
This presentation is expected to be approved for 2 hours of clinical content
Description of Presentation: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can derail a child’s world. This training offers a clear, comprehensive overview of OCD, equipping participants with effective strategies for diagnosis, assessment, and treatment planning. Participants will learn how to adapt Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for children using practical, kid-friendly techniques and real case examples that bring each concept to life. The training also emphasizes how clinicians can partner with and guide parents and caregivers to strengthen progress throughout the OCD treatment process.
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify common signs and symptoms of OCD in children and differentiate from anxiety disorders
2. Apply treatment strategies from Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) with children and adolescents
3. Describe ways to collaborate with and guide parents/caregivers in supporting their child’s treatment
Level: Basic | For: Everyone | Ages Addressed: 6-18
About the Presenter: Dr. Sam Marzouk is a clinical child psychologist who works with organizations that want to invest in youth by combining science, storytelling and concrete tools to help children grow into healthy, resilient adults. Dr. Marzouk is the owner of Promethean Psychology, a private psychology practice in the Minneapolis area. As a specialist in pediatric mental health, Dr. Marzouk works with children and adolescents with a variety of psychosocial concerns. As a professional speaker, Dr. Marzouk regularly provides workshops and trainings on pediatric mental health to psychologists, schools, parents, pediatricians and other pediatric medical providers.  He is also a contributing author to the Minnesota Pediatrician, a quarterly educational newsletter of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  He also runs a biweekly blog titled “Kids These Days” where he provides commentary on various topics relevant to childhood including social media, depression, ADHD, and more. Originally from Northern Virginia, Dr. Marzouk has lived in Minnesota for almost a decade and is not ashamed to admit that he loves the cold, snowy winters here!
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Pop-up: In the Eye of the Storm: Caring for Ourselves and Young Children When Our World Feels Unsafe
2026-02-20 12:30 - 13:30
Presenter: Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD — Associate Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at University of California, San Francisco; Director of Dissemination and Implementation for Child-Parent Psychotherapy.
Date & Time: Virtual over Zoom on Friday, February 20, 2026 from 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM CST | 1 CEH
Price: Our Pay What You Can pricing is rooted in our commitment to equity, accessibility, and community care. We want everyone to feel welcome to join this popup training—no one should be excluded because of cost.
Continuing Education: Pop-up trainings will receive a certificate of attendance, for official CE approval attendees will need to submit to their board directly.
Description of Presentation:
This session will explore how experiences of threat—such as fears related to immigration enforcement—can affect the well-being of young children and the adults who care for them. We will review core concepts in stress, trauma, and regulation to ground our understanding of what children and providers may be experiencing.
Together, we will consider two central questions:

How can we support our own regulation while working with children in times of uncertainty and fear?
How can we effectively support young children who may be experiencing stress, anxiety, or trauma related to threats in their families or communities?

Q&A if time permits

About the Presenter: Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD, is Associate Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at University of California, San Francisco, and Director of Dissemination and Implementation for Child-Parent Psychotherapy.
Dr. Chandra Ghosh Ippen is the author and co-author of over 20 publications and manuals related to trauma and diversity-informed practice, including Don’t Hit My Mommy (2005), and Losing a Parent to Death: Guidelines for the Treatment of Traumatic Bereavement in Infancy and Early Childhood (2003). She has worked on seven longitudinal studies and has conducted treatment outcome research on the effectiveness of psychosocial intervention programs with Spanish-speaking children and parents. Dr. Ghosh Ippen is also the director of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Measure Review Database, and producer and director of Vale la Pena Recordar, a Spanish language video on childhood traumatic grief.
As a first-generation East Indian/Japanese American, Dr. Ghosh Ippen is committed to examining how culture and context affect perception and mental health systems. She authored the chapter “The sociocultural context of infant mental health: Towards contextually congruent intervention,” which is part of the 3rd edition of the Handbook of Infant Mental Health, and co-authored the chapter “Rainbow of tears, souls full of hope: Cultural issues related to young children and trauma,” which discusses the importance of incorporating a cultural focus when working with young children who have experienced trauma. She also serves as the co-chair of the Cultural Competence Consortium of the NCTSN.
Dr. Ghosh Ippen received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Southern California in 1999 and completed pre- and postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco.
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Video Gaming Disorder: Signs, Symptoms, and Help (Virtual)
2026-03-05 10:00 - 12:00
Presenter: Zachary Hansen, EdD, NCC, LADC, Associate Professor — Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School
Date & Time: Virtual over Zoom on Thursday, March 5th, 2026 from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST | 2 CEHs
Price: $60 ($30 per CEU)
This presentation is expected to be approved for 2 hours of clinical content
Description of Presentation: For many, playing video games is an enjoyable and harmless pastime. For others, gaming can become a problematic preoccupation. Increasing numbers of adolescents and adults are experiencing significant negative consequences as a result of excessive video gaming. Join educator and clinician Zachary Hansen, EdD, LADC, NCC, to learn about video gaming trends, technology advances that increase addictive potential, criteria for internet gaming disorder, and treatment approaches for problem gaming. Dr. Hansen will also discuss the potential co-occurrence of problematic gaming with other behavioral health issues.
Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the criteria for internet gaming disorder
2. Identify trends in video gaming culture and technology that contribute to addictive behaviors
3. Learn strategies for conceptualizing and treating video game addiction
Level: Basic | For: Everyone | Ages Addressed: 2-25
About the Presenter: Dr. Hansen is a counselor educator specializing in addiction counseling and treatment of co-occurring disorders. His academic and research interests include: process addictions, social media and video game disorders, clinical intuition, adolescent counseling, and existential psychotherapy. Dr. Hansen currently serves as an Associate Professor for the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for the Alcohol and Drug Studies Program at Minnesota State University, Mankato. His clinical experience includes adult and adolescent addiction counseling in inpatient and outpatient settings, and outpatient adult mental health counseling. Dr. Hansen is a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor and National Certified Counselor, and enjoys presenting on a variety of topics at regional and national conferences.
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Pop-up: Sensory-Based Regulation Strategies for the Classroom
2026-03-23 12:00 - 13:00
Presenter: Alyssa Mason — occupational Therapist at M Health Fairview
Date & Time: Virtual over Zoom on Monday, March 23rd, 2026 from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM CST | 1 CEH
Price: Our Pay What You Can pricing is rooted in our commitment to equity, accessibility, and community care. We want everyone to feel welcome to join this popup training—no one should be excluded because of cost.
Continuing Education: Pop-up trainings will receive a certificate of attendance, for official CE approval attendees will need to submit to their board directly.
Description of Presentation:
Amidst acute stress, trauma and uncertainty this training aims to provide useful information and strategies to increase regulation for students in the classroom. A brief overview of the impacts of these situations on sensory processing will be provided as well as functional strategies that can be implemented immediately. The training will be focused on strategies that can be used in group settings but they may also benefit individuals, families or other service providers and caregivers.
Three Learning Objectives:
1. Attendees will understand a high level overview of the 8 sensory systems
2. Attendees will feel confident identifying at least 2 signs of dysregulation in a
group setting
3. Attendees will be able to implement at least 3 sensory based strategies to
increase sensory regulation in a group setting
Time permitting, we will open space for participants’ questions.

About the Presenter: Alyssa Mason — occupational Therapist at M Health Fairview
Alyssa Mason is a pediatric occupational therapist with over 15 years of experience working with children. She received her undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Studies with a focus on child development and a master’s degree in occupational therapy with certificates in equity and diversity, and disability and policy. Alyssa has experience working as an early childhood educator, and a Children’s Mental Health Targeted Case Manager before starting work as a pediatric occupational therapist across multiple settings including schools, inpatient hospitals and outpatient clinics. She completed 2 years as a fellow with MNLEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities) which consisted of interdisciplinary leadership, policy and advocacy training.
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No First Thursday Training in May
2026-04-17 08:00 - 17:00

No First Thursday or Pop-up Webinar in April - Join us at our Conference April 26-28
2026-04-26 07:00 - 2026-04-28 17:00
30th Annual Child & Adolescent Mental Health Conference (VIRTUAL)
April 26–28, 2026
Register Here
