My Insights and Takeaways from the 2025 CCPA Conference
- Remy
- Jun 4
- 7 min read
The 2025 Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) Conference in Calgary, Alberta was a fantastic experience. The conference was packed with valuable insights and discussions that were outstanding for my professional development and community connections. As a counsellor, art therapist and a dedicated member of the CCPA, I was excited to attend my first national conference. They not only offered a chance to network, but also provided a unique opportunity to learn from peers and experts. In this post, I will share the sessions I attended and my takeaways from each. These sessions covered emerging trends, best practices, and innovative strategies in counselling.
Sessions and Insights
Thursday May 29, 2025
An Interactive Creative Arts Therapy, Animal Assisted Self-care Experience
by Nicola Sherwin-Roller
This session invited us to explore self-care and various therapy modalities through creative arts, nature based and animal assisted therapy. Within the session we got to explore with bi-lateral drawing and self-care journalling. I thoroughly enjoyed the community-based feeling of this session, and although I took away learnings from the presentation, my biggest takeaways were from the discussion between attendees. There were three quotes stated by audience members that stood out to me and I would like to share.
"In therapy we're moving heavy things -- we can't move it all at once, but we can move in incrementally and in pieces"
"Instead of feeling like we have to stop the boulder rolling down the hill, sometimes we have to know when step aside and let it roll"
"It's not just about the stars in the sky, but the space in between"
Experience Based Connection: Nature And Movement, For Client Wellbeing
by Nicholas Cardone and Caroline Elson
This workshop introduced us to “Free Range Therapy,” a therapeutic approach that brings nature, movement, and experiential learning into the healing process. I learned so much about this therapeutic modality that was previously foreign to me. The presenters gave such insightful and important information surrounding ethical considerations, logistical nuances, and cultural sensitivity. They also provided an opportunity for experiential role-play style learning, which I haven't done since grad school and felt so rewarding. This session really imparted the power of metaphor in the client's healing journey and I cant wait to incorporate more metaphor into my practice.
Friday May 30, 2025
Mental Health and Spirituality
by Furkhan Dandia
This session examined the intersection of mental health and spirituality, and explored how beliefs, practices, and experiences can influence well-being. The biggest insight for me is realizing that therapy itself is a spiritual practice. Therapy invites contemplation, meditation, and awareness that are essential in a healthy spiritual practice. I most enjoyed learning about the core elements of a spiritual practice -- intentional living, gratitude, purpose through a uniting principle, acts of service, adventure, and restraint and discipline, and what each of these elements promotes within healthy spirituality.
Healing the Whole Person: Spiritual Integration in Counselling
by Dr. Deepak Mathew
This workshop offered us practical insights into integrating spirituality into therapeutic practice. I was particularly drawn to the reflection that we are inviting clients to explore their whole self in therapy. Elements from the presentation that I hope to bring into my practice are integrating ritual and sacred space, fostering existential clarity, acknowledging witnessing as sacred, utilizing symbolism and metaphor for reflection, and promoting community connection.
Drama Therapy Mask-Making: A Neurodivergent-Affirming Intervention
by Amanda Marra and Laura Shearer
This workshop introduced drama therapy as a creative, neurodivergent-affirming approach to therapy, focusing on inclusivity and sensory adaptability. The presenters integrated Sonny Jane’s Neurodiversity Affirming Practices principles with drama therapy’s core techniques of active witnessing, embodiment, distancing, and role exploration. I found the presenters to be highly passionate and knowledgeable about the subject matter, and I found my own knowledge base growing in regards to the true power of non-verbal modalities. Offering an embodied, symbolic opportunity for expression. In this session we got to explore mask-making hands-on to create a narrative based on a character-card we drew -- my character was "The Storyteller".
CACP Chapter Mixer
Creative Arts Counselling and Psychotherapy
I joined the CACP Chapter for an evening mixer following day 2 of the conference. The group consisted of art therapists, music therapists and drama therapists, and we had an amazing opportunity to get to know each other better, share similarities and differences in our modalities, exchange ideas, and discuss topics of ethics, legislation and regulation.
Saturday May 31, 2025
Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other
Keynote Address by Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
I wasn't sure what to expect coming into the keynote address, but I left pleasantly surprised and renewed. Sophie was gracious, stepping into a room of counsellors and psychotherapists to share her knowledge of mental health advocacy and emotional literacy. She combined experiential grounding, personal anecdotes, and research-based insights to bring together a presentation that was authentic and enlivening.
Navigating the Mental Health Landscape: The Role of Private Practitioners
by Paul Yeung, Corrine Hendricken-Eldershaw, Linda Storm, and Veronica Loffreda
This session was designed around clinicans in private practice in the hopes of providing fresh insights into cultural diversity, client care, and practical strategies for navigating the private practice journey. The session was hosted by the Private Practice Chapter, to which I am a member. It gave an opportunity to increase our knowledge-base, share ideas, network, and develop private practice goals.
Exploring Identity: The use of Creative Arts in Therapy
by Hildy Bennett
This workshop offered an introduction into creative art therapy and included two interactive activities. I was expecting a bit more detail in the presentation but I stilled enjoyed getting a moment to explore values, purpose, and priorities within my therapeutic practice. We had the opportunity to create a reflective piece about the therapeutic relationship and then we created an anagram about our therapeutic values. I decided to create my anagram from my business name:
A -- Accessible
N -- Nuanced
O -- Openness
T -- Togetherness
H -- Healing
E -- Empathetic
R -- Reflective
D -- Discovery
A -- Aesthetic
Y -- Yes to exploration, discovery, experimentation
Finding Light in the Dark: Working with Suicide in a Hopeful Way
by Chelsea Hobbs and Jonathan Dubue
This was the most impactful session I attended during the conference. The session explored the way clinicians work with suicidal clients and discussed how hope plays a protective role against suicide. The researchers (both PHD candidates), emphasized the value of prevention over prediction in terms of risk assessment. I was drawn to the emphasized need for empathy, connection and collaboration when working with suicidal clients. When incorporating hope, we're not trying to replace hopelessness entirely, but to aid the client in discovering that hope and hopelessness can co-exist. Just going to therapy, trying to get help, is an act of hope and as clinicians we need to recognize that the suicidal person is the only one who can prevent suicide. Following the presentation I was refelcting on the difference in the ability to conceptualize hope between clients with a fully developed or not-yet-developed prefrontal cortex.
Sunday June 1, 2025
How to Respond when Suicide is a Concern
by Martine Lopez
This lecture focused on identifying, assessing, and responding to individuals
experiencing suicidal thoughts. It was a complete contrast to the previous suicide-based session, in the way that this presentation vehemently emphasized the importance of a risk assessment. After hearing the two presentations, and considering my role in private practice, I think I need to modify my approach to suicidal clients to fall somewhere in between the two modalities.
The "S" Word: Working with Suicidal or Self-Harming Teens
by Kim Leifso
This interactive session helped to better equip us to recognize and respond to self-harm disclosures. The presenter addressed common ways self-harming behaviours are communicated, important questions to ask, how to present with affect, tone, and expressions, and the beginnings of a treatment plan. This was another of my favourite sessions, as the presenter was incredibly knowledgeable and approached the difficult subject matter with grace and acceptance towards the audience. I increased my knowledge base surrounding what questions to ask and how to ask them, and about next steps following a self-harm disclosure.
Return to Center: Simple Strategies to Navigate Distress, Depression and Disconnection
by Patricia Morgan
This session discussed the Polyvagal Theory, and how clinicians can recognize signs of emotional discomfort and safety within the Charged, Give Up, and
Centered states of the nervous system. The presenter used personal experience, humor, and research to guide audience members through the Polyvagal Theory in order to foster resilience and strength in our clients. This theory offers a lens through which to view healing, and supports the development of self-regulation, psychological safety, minimization of guilt, improved vagal tone, and insight.
Listen to the Body's Wisdom: Exploring Mandala Drawing as a Path Beyond Talk Therapy
by Dr. Dawn McBride
The final keynote address encouraged the audience to reconnect with themselves beyond traditional talk therapy. The presenter offered attendees an opportunity to explore the body’s innate wisdom as a path to emotional regulation, insight, and renewal. I was especially drawn to the idea of pendulation as significant in the healing realm -- the ebb and flow, constraint and expansion -- that clients experience within counselling. We were able to experiement with various repetitive drawing techniques with different emotional interactions, which I found really valuable to emphasize the importance of meaning over content.
Networking Opportunities
The networking opportunities at the conference were outstanding. I connected with fellow professionals who shared stories about their practices, community engagement and approaches that added significant value to my experience. Engaging in informal discussions about private practice, creative arts, legislation and regulation, we found common ground on shared successes and challenges. I found opportunities to connect before, during and after sessions, during breaks and lunches, at exhibition tables, and even in the elevator. I found the most beneficial networking opportunities to be at tables during sessions and the CACP Chapter mixer. Overall, the pre-conference offered the best opportunities for connection as the session durations were longer and the presenters encouraged both table discussions and socializing in between sessions.
Reflecting on My Experience
The 2025 CCPA Conference not only met my expectations but surpassed them with its diverse range of sessions. Each discussion was unique, yet they all shared themes of being client-centered, innovative, and exploratory , which reignited my passion for counselling.
It is essential for counselors to keep evolving and adapting to serve our clients effectively. I highly encourage everyone in the field to prioritize attending events like the CCPA annual Conference. These gatherings are critical for enhancing our skills and fostering a sense of community that strengthens our profession. Let’s continue our journey of learning and growth together!
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