Mental Health Professionals Conference
Join NBA on Saturday, June 25, 2022, for our Mental Health Professionals Conference. This one-day virtual gathering will bring together expert speakers and professionals focused on decreasing the stigma of mental illness in the church, improving access to care, and strengthening our community of mental health professionals.
This conference is open to Disciples of Christ-affiliated mental health professionals, chaplains, and graduate students who are pursuing a degree to become mental health professionals (including seminarians).
Speakers
Keynote Speaker: Dr. LaVerne Collins
LaVerne Collins is a National Certified Counselor who holds credentials as a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in North Carolina and as a Licensed Professional Counselor in Georgia. She has a dual bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University, and an M.S. Ed in Community Counseling from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. She holds a Ph.D. in Christian Counseling from South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary. She is certified in coaching, clinical supervision, grief, trauma, integrative nutrition coaching, tele-mental health, and addictions counseling.
Joselyn Spence, LPC, ATR, RYT-200
Joselyn serves as the Director of the NBA’s Mental Health & Wellness Initiative. She is passionate about mental health care, holistic wellness, communal care ethics, and spirituality. As a holistic wellness specialist, she has worked at the intersection of these passions to develop research and provide empathic care to all she is called to serve. As a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Registered Art Therapist (ATR), she received advanced education and training to provide trauma-informed services to diverse groups of people. She has worked in community agencies, school systems, and psychiatric hospitals working in acute adult mental health and with forensic patients in the prison system. She also has several years of teaching and supervising experience as an adjunct teaching faculty member in two graduate art therapy and counseling programs.
Rev. Dr. Nicole Z. Robertson
Dr. Robertson is the Director and an Assistant Professor of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at Christian Theological Seminary, in Indianapolis, IN. She received her training as a clinical mental health therapist and as a counselor educator and supervisor from the CACREP accredited program in the Pastoral Counseling Department at Loyola University Maryland. Her research and teaching interests include spiritually integrated counseling, religiousness, and spirituality in the African American community, African Americans’ amenability to mental health therapy, and exploration and examination of coping strategies employed when psychological distress is encountered among African Americans. Dr. Robertson is an ordained minister in the Baptist church affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., and holds a Master of Divinity degree with an emphasis in Practical Theology from Regent University.
Rev. Melissa Bauzo
Rev. Bauzo is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has a passion for working with all forms of diversity. Melissa completed her Undergraduate education in 2007 from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She received her BA in Psychology, BA in Religious Studies, and a BA in International Relations. Melissa moved to Indianapolis, IN to obtain a double Master’s in Divinity and Marriage and Family Therapy. In 2011, Melissa completed her Master’s program and immediately joined a Community Mental Health Organization as a School-Based Life Skills Specialist. During her time at this organization, Melissa eventually moved into the role as a School-Based Therapist and one of two Cultural Competency Officers.
Rev. Orlando Scott
Orlando Scott, M.Div. is the Lead Chaplain at Northside Hospital, Duluth, Georgia specializing in trauma and critical care. He is active in the general church ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and for the past six years, he has served as the Clinical Site Supervisor for first and second-year Seminarians at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. In March of 2020, Orlando felt the call to community-based ministry and launched AMPLIFY Christian Church, a church plant located in Snellville, Georgia with the vision of practicing holistic ministry to include gardening and sustainable food sourcing.
Dr. Bernie Lyon
Dr. Bernie Lyon is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Indiana, a Certified Group Psychotherapist, and a National Certified Counselor. He is currently a member of the Indianapolis Center for Contemporary Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and a Clinical Member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association. He received his Ph.D. in religion and psychological studies from the University of Chicago in 1982.
Register for the Mental Health Professionals Conference
Registration is now closed. Please contact us at NBA@NBAcares.org if you are registered and need assistance accessing the conference.
