VIRTUAL PERINATAL MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE

NOVEMBER 3–5, 2021

This virtual 3-day conference took place on November 3–5, 2021. Purchase access to watch session recordings through November 30, 2021.
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Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are detectable, treatable, and even sometimes preventable.

Yet, screening is not universal.

We invite you to be a part of Montana’s solution.

This conference is recommended for all professionals who work with new and expecting parents including medical providers, mental health professionals, lactation consultants, doulas, and other social support providers, such as home visitors.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

CONTACT HOURS

This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the Montana Nurses Association, an accredited approver with distinction by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

A total of 16 Contact Hours are available for full participation.

PSI ADVANCED TRAINING HOURS

This conference is approved by Postpartum Support International to be applied toward the six advanced training hours required by Perinatal Mental Health Certification (PMH-C) training requirements.

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE AGENDA

SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

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NOVEMBER 3–5, 2021 

VIRTUAL

$99 – STUDENT REGISTRATION
$149 – GENERAL REGISTRATION
$225 – EXHIBITOR RATE
*Eventbrite processing fees apply

 2021 SPEAKERS

MELISSA BANGS (she/her/hers)

Melissa Bangs grew up in Missoula, Montana, mostly barefoot and surrounded by farm animals. Melissa is no spring chicken. Over three decades, she has worked as a union organizer in sweatshops, the development director of an international human rights organization, and an organizational consultant focused on strategic planning and board development. 

Over the past seven years, Melissa has worked as a maternal mental health consultant in partnership with HMHB and as a storyteller/director/writer/facilitator, focused on healing perinatal trauma and loss through our stories. Her workshop model, funded by the California Healthcare Foundation, is currently being replicated in partnership with Maternal Mental Health NOW.

In 2021, Melissa threw herself into writing her first book, MAMA. She will be reading a section of this emerging work at the end of the conference.

D’SHANE BARNETT (he/him/his)

D’Shane Barnett (Mandan/Arikara), MS, is the Health Director & Health Officer for the Missoula City-County Health Department. Before his current role, he served for three years as the executive director of All Nations Health Center in Missoula. He has worked in the American Indian health field for more than two decades and is the former executive director of the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH) in Washington, D.C. D’Shane received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Sociology, with an option in Inequality and Social Justice, from the University of Montana and has a Master of Science (MS) degree in Healthcare Administration and Interprofessional Leadership from the University of California, San Francisco. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in Public Health at the University of Montana, where his research focuses on the protective role of American Indian ceremony in behavioral health care.

ROBERT CALDWELL (he/him/his)

Robert Caldwell, MD, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music, an M.S. and M.D. degree from the University of New Mexico. He completed his residency training in psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, Sacramento Medical Center. Dr. Caldwell practiced psychiatry in California, New Mexico, and Oregon before moving to Montana in 1992 and Helena in 1995. He has worked in many areas of psychiatry, including inpatient units, private practice, addiction psychiatry, mental health centers, PACT programs, and consultation-liaison psychiatry. For the past three years, he has been Medical Director at the Florence Crittenton Home in Helena and has specialized in perinatal psychiatry, working with mothers with trauma, substance use disorders, and other psychiatric conditions.

SARAH CORBALLY (she/her/hers)

Sarah Corbally, JD, has a diverse background in law and social work. She is currently an attorney in private practice in Helena who specializes in cases involving family and children’s issues. She also serves as a consultant for Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, The Montana Coalition, where she works on advocacy issues involving supporting and improving the health and well-being of Montana babies and their caregivers.

Sarah is also the former administrator for the State of Montana’s child protection system, where she oversaw a division of nearly 400 employees focused on the safety and well-being of children. In addition, Sarah has previously served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Montana and Deputy County Attorney in Cascade County, representing the state in civil and criminal cases involving child abuse and neglect.  

Sarah graduated from the University of Denver College of Law in 2003, where she participated in the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center’s Child Advocacy Clinic and worked part-time as a law clerk for a pediatric attorney at the Kempe Children’s Center at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.  Before becoming an attorney, Sarah worked with youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and obtained her Bachelor’s in Social Work Degree from the University of Montana.

ARIELA FRIEDER (she/her/hers)

Ariela Frieder, MD, is double board-certified in Adult Psychiatry and Consultation Liaison Psychiatry. She is originally from Argentina, where she trained as an OBGYN. Upon arriving in the US she completed her Residency in Adult Psychiatry and Fellowship in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY. Dr. Frieder’s expertise is in women’s mental health, including emotional and psychological problems during the different stages of the woman’s reproductive life cycle, such as pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, perinatal losses, and infertility. Dr. Frieder previously served as the Director of Psychiatry at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Hospital and as the Physician in Charge of the Perinatal Program at Zucker Hillside Hospital in NY. Dr. Frieder has experience teaching and supervising residents, fellows, and medical students. Her passion is helping women of reproductive age and their partners deal with mental illness and emotional problems associated with this particular time of their lives. She has presented in numerous conferences on this subject and authored articles about perinatal psychiatry. She joined Frontier Psychiatry, a tele-psychiatry practice, in May 2021. She is the Medical Director of PRISM for Moms.

DIANA E. GARRETT (she/her/hers)

Diana E. Garrett, JD, specializes in the practice areas of family and domestic violence law at Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA). Ms. Garrett often handles complex legal and emotionally challenging cases in the court system. In addition, she provides state-wide technical legal assistance on domestic-violence related issues to criminal justice agencies, domestic violence programs, the courts, and pro-bono attorneys.

She also helps supervise the clinical program at MLSA for the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana. Ms. Garrett received her undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She received her J.D. in 2002 from the University of Montana School of Law (now the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana).

Ms. Garrett is based in MLSA’s Missoula office. She serves on the Montana Attorney General’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, the Planet Kids Supervised Visitation Center Advisory Council, and the JUST RESPONSE (Missoula Justice System Coordinated Team Response to Intimate Partner Violence).

NIKKI GROSSBERG (she/her/hers)

Nikki Grossberg, MS, is the Deputy Division Administrator for the Child and Family Services Division (CFSD) within the Department of Public Health and Human Services. She has worked within child welfare for over 25 years with 17 of those years specifically with CFSD. She has done front-line investigations and case management, as well as supervision and regional management. The past three years she has been the Deputy Division Administrator. Nikki has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminology and a Master’s of Science in Management.

GABRIELLE KAUFMAN (she/her/ella)

Gabrielle Kaufman, MA, LPCC, BC-DMT, NCC, PMH-C, is a dance/movement therapist and licensed professional clinical counselor with over 25 years of experience in the healing profession. Currently, she is the clinical director of Maternal Mental Health NOW. Prior to this, she served as director of the New Moms Connect Program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, providing services to new parents, particularly those suffering from symptoms of postpartum depression. Ms. Kaufman has worked extensively with new families and aided in providing solutions to many parenting concerns. She has run several programs for high-risk children and teens, taught classes to parents of newborns and toddlers, and currently runs support groups for single parents and women with postpartum depression. Ms. Kaufman has spoken widely, published articles on mental health and parenting, and served as editor for Bringing Light to Motherhood. She is on the faculty of PSI/2020 Mom and the UCLArts and Healing Institute and Drexel University. Gabrielle serves on the advisory boards for Hasidah, an organization helping families struggling with fertility, and Love, Dad, a non-profit supporting fatherhood. She has served as Los Angeles coordinator for Postpartum Support International has a private practice in Los Angeles providing services in both English and Spanish languages.

ANNA KING (she/her/hers)

Anna King, LCSW, PMH-C, is a licensed clinical social worker and certified perinatal mental health specialist who uses an integrative, trauma-informed approach in her work grounded in reproductive and transformative justice.

Anna serves as Clinical Training Specialist at Maternal Mental Health NOW, where she curates training events and curriculum and facilitates live and online training to educate providers on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). Prior to joining the MMH-NOW team, she served as a full-time social worker in the emergency department and eventually found her home when she transitioned to serving in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and birth center of Emanate Health.

Throughout her experiences, Anna has realized the significant barriers to care for birthing people, especially for Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), and queer, trans, and gender diverse individuals. Her work centers on the embodied liberation of marginalized groups in reproductive spaces.

She is also currently a part-time psychotherapist with ARC Counseling and Wellness and a third-year Ph.D. student in the integral and transpersonal psychology program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Her research interests include spiritual activism, the highly sensitive person (HSP) trait, birth and postpartum tradition, and the transition to parenthood as a rite of passage.

KALI LINDNER (she/her/hers)

Kali Lindner created and founded Oula in 2010 in Missoula, MT. Turning to her background in ballet and jazz, living room dance parties, and her deep connection to music, Kali developed this unique dance fitness class. When her son was stillborn in 2013, Oula became the vessel in which Kali found her own healing, and at that point, Oula as a modality also shifted its mission to healing, empowerment, and connection. Kali certified over 1,000 Oula instructors around the world and recently sold Oula Fitness to focus on herself, her husband, and their 3 daughters. 

KATIE LOVELAND (she/her/hers)

Katie Loveland, MSW, MPH, is the owner of Loveland Consulting LLC and brings over a decade of experience working with programs in Montana, including numerous projects with State, Local and Tribal Agencies designed to assess needs, evaluate programs and optimize operations. Her areas of expertise include mental health, substance use, chronic disease, human services, and evidence-based practice. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work and a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan.

BRIE MACLAURIN (she/her/hers)

Brie MacLaurin, RN, is the Executive Director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, The Montana Coalition, Inc. (HMHB), a statewide non-profit with a focus on improving the health, well-being, and safety of children aged 0-3, including pregnancy. She brings deep experience working with pregnant women, young children and their families, and the systems that support them in the work of HMHB. She has received numerous commendations for her dedication to improving maternal and child health in Montana. Brie worked for more than a decade in the field as a public health home visiting nurse and lactation consultant, who most recently managed the maternal and child health program at Lewis and Clark Public Health, before she came to work at HMHB. Brie was born and raised in Helena, Montana, graduated with honors from the College of Nursing at Montana State University and is a proud mom of three.

LINDA MAYES (she/her/hers)

Linda Mayes, MD, is the Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology and Director of the Yale Child Study Center. She is also Special Advisor to the Dean in the Yale School of Medicine. Trained as a pediatrician, Dr. Mayes’s research focuses on stress-response and regulatory mechanisms in young children at both biological and psychosocial risk. She has especially focused on the impact of prenatal substance use on children’s long-term outcomes. She has made contributions to understanding the mechanisms of the effect of prenatal stimulant exposure on the ontogeny of arousal regulatory systems and the relation between dysfunctional emotional regulation and impaired prefrontal cortical function in young children. She has published widely in the developmental psychology, pediatrics, and child psychiatry literature.

BRITTANY PATTERSON (she/her/hers)

Brittany Patterson is a mother of 2 boys, 2-year-old Ro, and 4-month-old Reign. She holds a B.S. in Human Development & Family Studies. Brittany is a doula, trained through Birthing People Foundation, and a graduate of the BreastfeedLA Lactation Educator Specialist program. She is an advisory board member to NATAL, a speaker with Maternal Mental Health Now, and a member of SPA 2 African American Infant & Maternal Mortality Prevention Initiative (SFV/SCV AAIMM). She is the founder of Birthwrite Diaries and facilitator of Birthwrite Diaries Storytelling Group.

NAFISA REZA (she/her/hers)

Nafisa Reza, MD, completed an accelerated B.S/M.D. program through Northeast Ohio Medical University. She completed her Psychiatry residency and was a chief resident at Zucker Hillside Hospital, New York, until 2019. She recently graduated from the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine, California, in 2020. She is an attending and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and affiliate NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Hospital. She is passionate about medical education.

HELENA RUTHERFORD (she/her/hers)

Helena Rutherford, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Yale Child Study Center with appointments in Yale’s Department of Psychology, Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, and Combined Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences. She is also faculty at University College London and the Anna Freud National Center for Children and Families. Dr. Rutherford directs the Before and After Baby Lab, where her research focuses on the psychology and neurobiology of the perinatal period.

AMY STIFFARM (she/her/hers)

Amy Stiffarm, MPH, is a member of the Aaniiih (White Clay) Tribe of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana. She also is a descendant of the Chippewa Cree and Blackfeet Tribes of Montana. Her ceremonial name is ‘MAHS-KWAH KAH-WI-CHE-WAH-T’, which translates from the Cree language to English as ‘Goes With the Bear Spirit’. Amy received her B.S. in Life Sciences at Salish Kootenai College and went on to receive her MPH at the University of Montana. Amy is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Indigenous Health at the University of North Dakota, where she is studying Maternal Mental Health issues in American Indian communities. After graduating, Amy plans to continue to work on research and other projects related to Indigenous health, pregnancy, and motherhood. Amy currently lives on the Flathead Reservation in Polson, MT.  In her spare time, Amy enjoys having fun with her daughters, Tahmya (7) and Kisiah (5).

PAULINE WALFISCH (she/her/hers)

Pauline Walfisch is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in New York State. Through personal and professional experience she found a passion in helping others with reproductive mental health issues. Pauline is the owner of a group psychotherapy practice
in New York which specializes in reproductive mental health. She provides individual and group psychotherapy – working with both the individual and as needed the couple. She is certified in Perinatal Mental Health (PMH-C) by Postpartum Support International and certified in EMDR by the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA).  

Pauline is a member of Resolve: the national infertility association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine- Mental Health Practitioners Group, and EMDRIA-EMDR. Pauline is also on the executive advisory board for the Nassau County Department of Health Perinatal Services Network and is chair of the county’s maternal mental health work group.

KINSLEY WALKSALONG (she/her/hers)

Kinsley WalksAlong is an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, born and raised on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. She attended Lame Deer Public Schools and obtained her associate’s degree from Chief Dull Knife Community College. In 2012, Kinsley relocated to Billings, Montana, to seek better opportunities for her and her daughter. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Communications at Montana State University – Billings. 

A single mother of two beautiful children, Jaxon James (4 yrs old) and Sadie Blu (9 yrs old), every day is an adventure. Kinsley enjoys spending time with her children doing outdoor activities or staying safe at home in these precious times. She also enjoys various hobbies, including hiking, cooking, beading and quillwork, and sewing native regalia.

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