Join Us This December for Mental Health Connections: Fostering Community, Propelling Peace

NBCC and the NBCC Foundation are proud to present the fifth Mental Health Connections global virtual conference. This year’s conference theme is Fostering Community, Propelling Peace. We hope you will join us Dec. 4–6, 2024.

Mental Health Connections brings together presenters and attendees from around the world to share discoveries and experiences of counseling practice and professionalization. The conference offers 26 sessions totaling 33.5 continuing education hours. Attendees can participate virtually in live sessions or receive continuing education credit for viewing the recorded sessions.

When planning began for this year’s conference, NBCC’s Global Capacity Building Department staff wanted a theme that not only NCCs and other counselors in the United States but mental health professionals everywhere can relate to, explains Eugenie Yang, Manager.

“There has been a lot of division and unrest on a global scale, and we feel that needs to be addressed—within the confines and means of mental health professionals and counselors, of course,” says Yang. “This led to the idea of how we find community and build that community within our role as counselors and mental health professionals. How can we find it within our own power to foster peace?”

The Mental Health Connections global virtual conference began in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the virtual format was originally a necessity, the convenience and accessibility have proven practical and popular with attendees and presenters.

“We invite presenters from all over the world,” says Yang. “They talk about mental health developments in their regions, their cities, their countries, as specifically or broadly as makes sense for them. Other conferences may touch on global topics or international engagement, whereas that’s the focus of what we are doing here. For people who have a specific interest or drive, this is a great opportunity to see what that looks like and see if this is something they want to pursue.”

The inaugural Mental Health Connections conference in 2020 had six sessions equal to 7 continuing education hours. The response and participation from attendees and presenters have allowed the conference to grow without sacrificing quality. One priority, Yang explains, is to present a meaningful experience. An example of this is that conference fees help support the Mental Health Facilitator (MHF) program. In addition, the conference presents a microfunding opportunity, in which attendees can donate to a specific program partner.

“The microfunding recipient tells us about what they are doing and how they are involved with MHF, and people can choose whether they want to donate,” says Yang. “Any amount is impactful. In more developing areas, a couple of thousand dollars can support a full MHF training for 20 people. That’s how far it goes for our partners.”

Dr. Wendi Schweiger-Moore, Director of Global Capacity Building, added, “When designing each conference, staff take into account feedback from participants and speakers from previous years. This feedback is why we moved to 2-hour keynote sessions several years ago, and for the first time this year, have available both 90-minute and 60-minute sessions. We want to provide as many diverse sessions as possible while also continuing to assess and expand the quality of each session.”

The conference offers many other meaningful opportunities for counselors at any stage of their career, in countries at any stage of professionalization. The nature of a global counseling conference readily supports the theme of creating community, Yang explains.

“While people may seem worlds away with so much distance, we often face similar issues,” says Yang. “Maybe it’s limited funds or resources, or too few counselors, or different obstacles because other professions are more commonly known. I think it’s helpful to see this larger scale to normalize the idea that we aren’t alone in facing these issues. That, in itself, builds community.”

You can register now for Mental Health Connections: Fostering Community, Propelling Peace.