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Learn how the brain becomes addicted to alcohol, drugs, and other high-risk behavior. This presentation will reviewed the effects of substance and process addictions on the brain, how the disease of addiction creates an alcoholic psyche, and strategies for healing.

Dr. Collier offers keynote presentations for substance use prevention, recovery, or professional education conferences. A variety of topics can be offered for keynote and break-out sessions including the neuroscience & genetics of addiction, neurodevelopmental effects of high-risk behavior, executive functioning effects, and prevention & treatment solutions for parents, caregivers, and clinicians. See the link below for an example of a full day of CEU programming Dr. Collier offered to the University of South Alabama.  

The Neuroscience of High-Risk Behavior teaches staff, students, and parents how substances and other high-risk behaviors such as alcohol/drugs, food addiction, depression/anxiety, and technology overuse affect healthy brain development. Participants learn how to protect brain development and prevent children and adolescents from engaging in such risky behavior. Fun, interactive student presentations tailored to audiences Grades 5-12.  To preview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8gMkJezgh0

Sponsored by Every Brain Matters, this presentation provides families with valuable information that relates specifically to using the Stages of Change concepts as a tool for assisting family members when approaching loved ones who are struggling with ambivalence toward goal achievement.

Learn how to identify the stage and use the appropriate motivational interviewing technique with loved ones. View the video by clicking the link below.

Dr. Collier offers an online or in-person book study for parent organizations, churches, or schools. The NeuroWhereAbouts Guide puts at parents’ fingertips the developmentally appropriate prevention science they need to set children up for success from elementary school to college. In this 12-week book study, Dr. Collier will empower parents with information to prevent or treat risky behavior and tools to protect and build healthy brain development! 

The vaping and electronic cigarette craze has swept through our nation’s middle and high schools. Promoted as a “healthy” alternative to smoking, our children are subject to advertising that is simply false and misleading. In this presentation, parents and students will have the opportunity to learn what the current scientific literature says about the real and unknown health effects of vaping. Emphasis will be placed on effective analysis of advertising messages as well as the risks associated with nicotine addiction.

Technology is shaping how our brain develops with positive and negative effects. More teens are suffering from depression and anxiety than any other time in our history due to too much screen time. Video game manufacturers hire teen testers to study the addictive nature of games in order to increase sales. Dating sites are teaching youth that the “hook-up” is the norm. This presentation elucidates how screen exposure affects mood, learning, memory, sleep, and relationships as well as setting healthy tech limits.

Learn and create a brain-based, prevention science tool to protect and grow healthy brain development! Dr. Crystal Collier, author of The NeuroWhereAbouts Guide, will teach families how to identify their children’s neurowhereabouts or what stage of brain development they are in. Parents and caregivers will learn how to use the family code during everyday interactions and how to integrate brain-based parenting and prevention science scripts into their daily communication. Participants will engage in a family code building activity! Event appropriate for parents alone or families with children age 7 and up.

Promoted as medicine, our children and lawmakers are subject to advertising that is simply false and misleading about marijuana products. In this presentation, participants learn what the current, global scientific literature says about the real and unknown health effects of marijuana and hash oil. Emphasis will be placed on the deleterious effects of marijuana on the developing brain and a growing body of evidence that these effects rival those of alcohol. The case will be made for the basis of sound parenting, prevention in schools and legislative policy to be built on the neuroscience of marijuana.

This staff training elucidates how substances and other risky behavior, such as technology overuse, affect healthy neurodevelopment and how these effects impair adult functioning as well as implications for prevention and treatment. The training includes prevention science best-practices and teaches the steps necessary to create a comprehensive prevention program tailored to an individual school campus. Best-practice prevention science is discussed in regards to daily school staff application for selective, indicated, and universal programming.

Life today is full of a new variety of obstacles and risks for our children. Facing these challenges can be confusing and exhausting. Rates of anxiety and depression are on the rise as the technology age adds stressors and reduces face-to-face play time. Performance anxiety and perfectionism seem to be the new norm and children are experiencing these issues at younger ages than their parents did. Students will learn how anxiety affects their brain development and healthy coping strategies to reduce toxic anxiety and perfectionism. Parents will learn what the children did as well as tools for cultivating anxiety management skills and active coping in their children.

This presentation elucidates how substances and other risky behavior affect healthy neurodevelopment, the role of genetics in addiction, and implications for prevention and treatment. How the brain becomes addicted and the role of genetics will be highlighted including a discussion regarding the implications for treatment and recovery. This class can be used as a foundation for teaching students and their families about the process and effects of addiction and recovery in youth treatment and collegiate programs. A discussion regarding the benefits of genetic testing for addiction in order to create tailored prevention plans will be included.

Family of Origin and Culture of Origin wounds can create a lifetime of negative core beliefs, intense shame, and maladaptive coping mechanisms. Mapping these events offers a window into their origin and sheds light on the path of healing. This workshop will teach family systems theory, how unhealthy roles and rules get created, and how the negative effects of negative patterns manifest in adulthood. Participants will learn how to do their FOO Mapping and map these wounds including negative core beliefs, negative affective triggers, and maladaptive coping mechanisms through a guided image exercise.

Navigating adolescent relationships can be difficult for both teens and parents. Understanding adolescent brain and sexual development will help guide parenting decisions regarding teen relationships. This presentation will discuss what healthy teen relationships could look like, the pitfalls such as dating violence, healthy adolescent sexuality, consent issues, signs of unhealthy teen relationships, the healthy dating continuum, and what positive dating guidelines and rules should be. The effects of technology such as cyberbullying and pornography exsposure will be included.

For 5th-8th grade students, this play is a developmentally appropriate way to teach children the effects of drugs and alcohol on the growing brain. Children will learn the basics of neurodevelopment in order to set the stage for the big challenge: to protect your frontal lobes from the villian ‘Addiction’. In an interactive way, students have the opportunity to be enticed by the villian and devise creative ways of saying ‘No’ in order to practice refusal skills. A superhero saves the day in case someone succumbs and says ‘Yes’. Discussions about the proper use of prescription medications, why students say yes, and what types of recovery are involved when people ask for help. This presentation is best presented to students in conjunction with the Neuroscience of High-Risk Behavior for parents.

Trauma bonds with critical/abusive parents can create a lifetime of negative core beliefs, intense shame, and maladaptive coping mechanisms. Mapping when these events occurred helps to understand how the developmental period affected the experience of the events. It also helps uncover what specific maladaptive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors were created which offers a window into their origin and sheds light on the path of healing. This workshop will describe how attachment wounds and trauma bonds are created as well as elucidate the mechanisms of healing through family-of-origin mapping. This material can be presented in 1-4 hours with or without experiential exercises such as guided imagery and worksheet activities.

Understanding attachment styles and attunement to others can increase the ability to empathically connect. This workshop will assist participants in the identification of their attachment styles and the origin of negative cognitive, affective or behavioral patterns that disconnect them from others. A guided imagery exercise or yoga asana practice will serve to identify where this negative energy lives in the body to assist in the creation new patterns that serve in positive ways. This workshop is an excellent way to train employees in the art of customer service or as an in-service for teachers to learn how to become secure attachment figures for their students.

Are you tired of yelling at your kids! Are you sick of watching them defy your behavior requests? Are your teenagers engaging in high-risk behavior and you feel powerless? In this presentation, parents will learn the principles of shaping or conditioning children’s behavior, the best tools for achieving behavior change, and creating a simple behavior modification plans that alters yours and your child’s negative behavior patterns. In addition, parents will learn the definition, beliefs, and behaviors of a mentoring parent. The tool box of a mentoring parent will be described. Bring your questions and behavior scenarios!

Technological developments have given rise to new forms of gambling enticements that pull youth in via the internet, smartphones, and interactive TVs.  Despite the fact that underage gambling is illegal, the prevalence rate for adolescent gambling is higher than that for adults. Teens may engage in magical thinking and inaccurately predict that gambling will have immediate gains while simultaneously exaggerating the low probability of negative outcomes. Youth gambling is associated with tobacco, alcohol, illicit drug use, and greater psychiatric symptoms. In this presentation, Dr. Crystal Collier will discuss the warning signs and teach brain-based prevention tools to keep youth safe from the negative effects of gambling.