Speaking Engagements & Presentations
Presenter
Helping Hands Psychotherapy | Online Live Instruction CE Offering May 2026
Cyclical Gardening Therapy® - The Loam Between Us: Cultivating Depth in Therapy and Supervision
This session introduces Cyclical Gardening Therapy® (CGT), a nature-based therapeutic framework that aligns personal growth and professional development with the seasonal cycles of planting, tending, pruning, and harvesting. Rooted in Dr. Hudson’s original dissertation and clinical work, CGT nurtures emotional regulation, introspection, and a sense of empowerment for clients. It also provides supervisors with a soulful yet structured approach to support supervisees at various stages of their development. With an audience of clinical therapists, counselor educators, supervisors, and graduate students in mind, this 60% client-focused and 40% supervision-infused session explores how CGT’s metaphorical tools can deepen therapeutic and supervisory insight, ethical practice, and connection. Participants will engage in grounding and experiential moments throughout the session, including a CGT-guided meditation and reflective activities using a downloadable mini journal. These hands-on elements demonstrate the power of seasonal metaphor and introspective prompts, offering immediate, soulful applications for both clinical and supervisory practice.
"I really appreciated the visual aids in the presentation. It helped make my vision for working with clients come to life. It also helped to connect the content to real life interactions in a garden."
~ Session Attendee
"The presenter was lovely and embodied the principles shared. I enjoyed the grounding exercise and reflections."
~ Session Attendee
Co-Creator | Presenter
A signature offering by Zen’n’ish® | Loam Kaya™ and The Butler Brief™ | April / May 2026
In Balance & In Bloom: 4-Part Women’s Wellness Series
In Balance & In Bloom is a transformative 4-part women’s wellness series designed to support women in understanding their mental load, regulating emotional responses, and reconnecting with themselves beyond the demands of daily life. This series is intentionally inclusive of all women who find themselves in roles of care, support, and responsibility for others.
In a world where women are often expected to carry it all: mentally, emotionally, and physically, this series creates a space to pause, reflect, and reset.
Whether you are navigating motherhood, career demands, relationships, or simply the weight of “doing it all,” this experience offers practical tools, meaningful conversation, and a supportive community of women who understand.
This series is educational and supportive in nature and is not a substitute for therapy or clinical care.
"I truly enjoyed the experience! Not only was it informative, it made me really reflect on my actions see how I could improve my life be implementing these small tools."
~ Session Attendee
Speaker:
American Counseling Association | 2026 Ethics of Counseling Virtual Summit
Ethical Allyship in Telehealth: Grounded Care with LGBTQIA+ Clients
The American Counseling Association Ethics of Counseling Virtual Summit is a national professional development event designed for clinical supervisors, counselor educators, and mental health professionals working in agency, school, academic, and private practice settings.
Telehealth expands access to care, but it also concentrates ethical and legal risk. This skills-focused session equips counselors to practice ethical allyship with LGBTQIA+ clients while safeguarding privacy, dignity, and licensure in digital environments. Participants examined common high-risk moments in telehealth practice and translate ACA ethical principles into practical, immediately usable workflows. Topics included identity-affirming informed consent language, intake practices that honor names and pronouns, session-by-session location checks, and documentation strategies that meet legal and payer requirements without unnecessary disclosure. Through brief case drills, participants applied a structured telehealth risk audit, planned responses to subpoenas and records requests, and evaluated digital platforms and messaging systems to prevent inadvertent outing or harm. The session emphasized grounded, ethical care that reduces risk while elevating clinical practice.
"LaKisha displayed very good communication. Her language was clear and concise. I enjoyed that she gave case related examples. I appreciated her repetition of phrases/examples. Her tone of voice is soothing when presenting material."
~ Session Attendee
Domestic Violence Awareness Speaker:
Northeast Conference Branch Women’s Missionary Society Breast Cancer & Domestic Violence Virtual Observance 2025
Hidden Hurts, Silent Strengths: Understanding Harm, Supporting Healing
Domestic violence reaches far beyond the walls where it occurs — touching emotional, spiritual, and communal wellbeing. This presentation created space to name the often-hidden realities of abuse, shift the focus from judgment to safety, and deepen our understanding of how compassion becomes intervention. Through trauma-informed awareness, participants were encouraged to recognize the many forms domestic violence can take, why leaving is not always safe or immediate, and how to support survivors without causing unintentional harm. The message brought attendees back to dignity, voice, and healing — affirming that awareness is a pathway to restoration, not resignation.
"Not only was this presentation informative, it gave us resources and actionable steps to implement starting today."
~ Session Attendee
Speaker:
American Counseling Association | 2025 Supervision in Counseling Summit
Supervision as Soil: Applying Cyclical Gardening Therapy® to Grow the Whole Counselor
The American Counseling Association Supervision in Counseling Virtual Summit is a national professional development event designed for clinical supervisors, counselor educators, and mental health professionals working in agency, school, academic, and private practice settings.
In this session, participants are introduced to Cyclical Gardening Therapy® (CGT)—a holistic, nature-based framework adapted for clinical supervision. Drawing from the natural stages of plant growth, CGT offers a nourishing model for supporting supervisee development through reflection, pruning outdated patterns, cultivating strengths, and harvesting professional insight. This approach encourages deeper emotional regulation, ethical grounding, and self-awareness—especially valuable when supervising neurodivergent clinicians or those at risk of burnout. Attendees explore how to incorporate CGT’s seasonal metaphor into supervision meetings, evaluations, and documentation.
"My goodness, what a wonderful, metaphor-rich and encouraging presentation! Not only are you a wonderful, patient and informative speaker, but your wisdom and richness of creativity and encouragement is abundant! I really appreciate the creative and nourishing approach to our work as supervisors, and your ability to teach and translate gardening and growth concepts into clinical supervisory concepts and behaviors is phenomenal! The cycling of the seasons, the phases of growth, and the encouragement to "blend it in" were helpful and dynamic. "Small organic insights" and "cultivating whole humans" are keepers! Thank ~ thank ~ thank you for such a thoughtful, kind and creative presentation."
~ Session Attendee
Publication:
American Counseling Association | Counseling Today Magazine, March 2025
Case Study: Gardening as Therapy: Cyclical Gardening Therapy can cultivate resilience and empowerment.
"This hypothetical, composite case study of Joseph illustrates how Cyclical Gardening Therapy can offer a unique, nature-based approach to emotional growth and resilience.
By combining gardening with journaling and intention setting, Joseph experienced the powerful effects of self-nurturing and reflection. For mental health professionals, this case underscores the potential for integrating nature-based and reflective practices to create a synergistic and holistic horticultural therapeutic process that fosters empowerment and personal transformation.
Co-Presenter:
DoDEA Wide Student Support Services Summit
DoDEA Europe West: BSEL Through a Collaborative Lens
This week long summit held in Georgia focused on the awesome work of all Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools' Student Support Services team leaders worldwide. It was informative, inspirational and gave clear, forward thinking next steps in order to continue to educate, engage, and empower military-connected students to succeed in a dynamic world.
In this session, participants met the DoDEA Europe West Student Support Services team and listened as we discussed how we collaborated and aligned student support services through an MTSS lens to break down previous barriers to providing services to students. The team discussed providing behavioral, social and emotional learning (BSEL) from the school-wide services, of which a Comprehensive School Counseling Program is an integral component, to the individual student while describing the roles of the school counselor, school psychologist, and special educators.
Keynote Speaker:
1st Annual Illinois Association for Couples and Family Counseling Conference | Nourishing Families in Crisis: From Devastation to Unification
S.U.G.A.R., We Can Get Through This: Creating a space for families to heal and learn to thrive
As therapists and counselors, we know how important it is to create a safe, supportive space for our clients as they work through their individual therapeutic journeys. The same need for acceptance, understanding and sustained healing holds true when working with families. Within family therapy sessions lies an opportunity to listen deeply and increase each family member’s capacity for creating stronger bonds while working on the deeper issues that can tear them apart. Acknowledging all voices within a family and helping them heal together – something we excel at in the counseling profession – opens up doors of knowledge that foster resilience and ultimately allow families to learn how to thrive despite any tumultuous life circumstances they may encounter. This presentation will be a re-centering in and reminder of the framework we need to provide in order for every other aspect to align and fall into place.
"Loved the sugar!! You are amazing."
~ Session Attendee
Co-Presenter:
Introduction to Transpersonal Psychology: Exploring Developmental Models and Transformative Practices Weekend Course
This 2-day workshop for counselors, therapists and other practitioners explored the integration of spirituality and transpersonal psychology in therapy and self-of-the-therapist. Participants examined transpersonal development models and the therapist’s role in facilitating the meaning-making process, as well as how this process might help clients cultivate their own spirituality through adverse experiences. Furthermore, this workshop discussed and explored the clinician’s spiritual identity and self-of-the-therapist transpersonal practices; to include Cyclical Gardening Therapy.
6 CEUs
"The material was presented clearly and piqued my interest and curiosity to learn more!"
~ Workshop Participant