Neuroplasticity: The Yin and Yang of Addiction and Recovery

Wednesday, December 4, 2024 @ 3:00-4:30pm ET (2CT/1MT/12PT)

Description

This presentation, centered on hope and resiliency, will discuss brain neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change itself through thought and activity. The presentation will also cover brain functioning, specifically focusing on the regions of the brain implicated in both addiction and recovery. The presentation will highlight the importance of understanding addiction not as a brain disease, but rather as an injury which the brain can learn how to heal from. Lastly, the presentation will address techniques and activities that addiction professionals can employ to assist the brain in recovering from an addiction injury.

Presenter

Rommel Johnson, PhD, LPC, CRC, CAADC, is an assistant professor in the School of Rehabilitation Services and Counseling at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. He received a Doctoral degree in Counselor Education and Supervision from Western Michigan University. Johnson is a licensed professional counselor (LPC) in the states of Michigan and Texas, and is board certified in general counseling (NCC), addiction counseling (CAADC) and rehabilitation counseling (CRC). Johnson has over 14 years of clinical mental health and addiction counseling experience, including assessment, treatment, advocacy, job training, relapse prevention and many other services. His research interests include brain neuroplasticity in addiction and recovery and the intersectionality of race, gender, disability, addiction, and mental health within Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latinx populations. Johnson's background also includes training and supervising graduate and doctoral level early career clinicians in the areas of clinical mental health and addiction counseling.

Learning Objectives

• Participants will obtain an overview of the brain and brain functions implicated in addiction and recovery.

• Participants will be able to explain how addiction happens in the brain as well discover how addiction can be understood as a brain injury.

• Participants will be able to summarize techniques that can help the brain heal from an addiction injury.