To be a Volunteer

“What you pay attention to matters.” Shauna Shapiro

Curious about what mindfulness is and why it is being mentioned more in more in self-help? Mindfulness is a key element in transforming your relationship with yourself and managing your internal world. The goal of the presentation is to help demystify mindfulness and explore it alongside the skill of self-compassion. Self-compassion is the key in changing how you respond to yourself internally in emotionally painful moments. This session will assist in giving you the basics of mindfulness and self-compassion skills by exploring research, definitions of the practices and application of the skills to take home with you.
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Holly Anderson is Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist with over a decade of experience in helping individuals, couples and families. She is a Certified Daring Way and Rising Strong Facilitator through Dr. Brené Brown’s research on shame resiliency. Holly enjoys teaching on her certifications exploring topics such as mindfulness, self-compassion, and vulnerability.
Holly is a curious, adventurous and creative individual who loves to travel, read, and has an appreciation for art, color and texture. She uses her artistic eye to compassionately see people as they are and is passionate in partnering with others to help them thrive and find lasting Joy.
For more information on Holly:www.handersontherapy.com
-Holly Anderson

Having the Strength to do IT. As an immigrant thirteen year old girl I didn’t know if I had it in me to learn a new language. Would I feel comfortable in my own skin knowing that I was a minority? What would it take to navigate my life through a culture that I was not familiar with? Would I lose my identity trying to fit in? All this questions for a thirteen year old seemed overwhelming and how would I have the courage. I needed to connect the dots of who I was with what my future would look like living in a new country.
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Meet Whitney Brianne Mayer, devoted wife to Keith Mayer and loving mother of four children, Koltan (15), Treytan (13), Blake (4) and Tytan (1). After being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia while 27 weeks pregnant in 2018, her faith has grown immensely, and she is in awe of His timing and His works! While navigating cancer, being pregnant and undergoing a bone marrow transplant, she is now cancer free. God has shown her things that seem impossible, but there was not a moment when she faltered or let go of His embrace. She is so excited to share her story and her love for God and His word through her. Come listen, embrace and grown in your faith and love for Him.
-Whitney Mayer

Our world has an epidemic of loneliness. Many of us may not even realize that we feel isolated or
recognize what loneliness is: simply, loss of meaningful connections. We all need close friends, yet we all can make excuses for why we don’t need/want them. Have you ever found yourself saying some of the following sentences before?
“I’ve been burned/hurt by friends and I’m not doing that again!”
“I’m an introvert, I like being alone and not having friends.”
“I don’t know how to make or where to meet friends at my age.”
“I just don’t like other women. They’re so drama-filled and catty!”
“Friends? I barely have time to take a shower!”
“My best friend is my spouse/partner, I don’t need anyone else.”

Friendship is vulnerable, which makes it both very difficult and very rewarding. In this session we will talk about:

• Breaking down emotional walls and building trust
• Impact of friendship on physical, emotional, and mental health
• Energy-giving and Energy-draining friends

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Tysha Osborne, MS, LCMFT, LPC is a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist and licensed professional counselor (Illinois). Tysha is a graduate from Benedictine University (Lisle, IL) where she earned a Master’s of Science Degree in Clinical Psychology. In addition, Tysha is a certified Prepare Enrich Counselor. Tysha joined Andrews & Associates Counseling in Manhattan, Kansas in 2016. Her prior experience includes working with at-risk youth at a non-for-profit, Community Mental Health Counseling, In-home Counseling to older adults, and private practice. Tysha provides individual, family, marriage, and pre-marital counseling. She works with adolescents and adults. Tysha helps those dealing with a variety of concerns including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, trauma, faith issues, and relationships.

Tysha moved to Manhattan from the western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois in July 2016. She enjoys spending time with her husband and three cats, volunteering at church (plays Bass Guitar), painting, and reading.

Tysha is passionate about her work as a therapist and is humbled to be a part of an individual’s healing journey.

Tysha

In today’s social media society it’s easy to fall into the comparison trap and begin feeling we don’t quite measure up. Many women wonder if their life has meaning… if it has purpose. They find themselves focusing on perceived weaknesses, striving to do more. . . to be more. . . to be “enough.” This is not what God intended.
Chrissie challenges you to:
• Reject insecurity by realizing you’re a cherished masterpiece of God.
• Replace unhealthy comparison with the celebration of your unique gifts.
• Realize contentment by letting go of who you’re not and embracing who you’re created to be.
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Chrissie Angell is a native Kansan turned Army-wife and boy-mom whose passion is pouring into the hearts of women.
As an Army wife, Chrissie has been blessed to meet women from all ages, stages, and walks of life. Those experiences have taught her that we are all so very similar in our humanness. We want to be seen, to be supported, to be loved. We long to find fulfillment, to live out our calling, to feel like our life has purpose. She is passionate about equipping, empowering and enabling women to fulfill their God-given purposes as they learn to walk alongside Him.
Chrissie has spent years serving women through both Army volunteer opportunities and women’s ministry roles. Through of all these experiences she has fallen in love with her call to serve to women. She has been a speaker and teacher at MOPS, PWOC, and women’s ministry events across the nation.
Chrissie is an ordinary, small-town girl who hates exercise but loves chocolate and potato chips. She is married to Brian the sweet boy turned love-of-her-life from her high school French class. They have two energetic boys, Brock and Chase, who share in the adventure of Army life with them.
-Chrissie Angel

Briana S. Nelson Goff, Ph.D, is a professor in the School of Family Studies and Human Services. Dr. Nelson Goff’s clinical experience and research specialization is with primary and secondary traumatic stress symptoms in trauma survivor couples, families and children, with a specific focus on military- and disaster-related traumatic events. Since 2010, Dr. Nelson Goff and a colleague at Texas Tech University have conducted research, workshops and educational programs at their universities, collaborating on a national research study on the positive aspects of having a child with Down syndrome titled, “My Kid Has More Chromosomes than Yours!: The Journey to Hope and Resilience in Parenting a Child with Down Syndrome.”
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Dr. Nelson Goff is a fourth-generation K-Stater. She and her family live outside of Wamego, Kansas, where her husband, Craig, is the general manager at KanEquip, a farm implement dealership. They have two children, Dalton and Gracyn, who take up much of her spare time.
-Briana S. Nelson Goff

Older adults report improved contentment as they age despite increasing losses. The accumulation of loss is overemphasized byyounger people who then develop ageist beliefs. This ageism can be internalized by older adults leading to poorer performance on cognitive tests, poorer health and even shorter lives. This presentation is meant to enlighten participants to age-stereotyping and ageism and can be used as a score sheet for owning one’s own age.
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Dr. Gayle Doll is an associate professor and director of the K-State Center on Aging in the College of Health and Human Sciences. Dr. Doll teaches students enrolled in gerontology programs and was recently awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Gerontological Society of America. Her research interests include culture change in nursing homes, physical functioning in older adults and sexuality in long term care. She recently turned 65 and is trying to practice what she preaches.
-Gayle Doll

Dr. Brett Baxter received his Doctor of Chiropractic from Cleveland University-Kansas City in 2017, after receiving his Bachelor of Science Degree in Field Biology from Friends University in 2013. Dr. Baxter, a native of Park City, Kansas, is passionate about helping people function at their optimum capacity. Choosing to be a chiropractor was his natural niche as he always “asks the next question” and enjoys the challenge of finding the root cause of disease, rather than just masking the symptoms.
His advanced chiropractic training spans several disciplines, but his passion lies in nutrition and functional medicine. Due to Dr. Baxter’s extensive training in diagnosis and management of chronic health conditions, his primary focus is on the prevention and management of chronic disease such as: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, thyroid/adrenal dysfunction, bowel issues, autoimmune conditions, anxiety, depression, the mind-gut connection and others.
He analyzes the human body as a complete system – first by listening to his patients tell their story, then a focused exam and state of the art lab testing allow him to identify the underlying disease processes that are driving symptoms. He strives to meet the patient at their current level of health and maximize potential well-being to reach their specific goals and ultimately regain the life they know they are made to live.
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Dr. Brett Baxter is an integral part of the Nichols Chiropractic team right here in Manhattan. He and his wife Kristin are enjoying settling into their new home outside of town. They like to spend time with their dogs, friends and family.
-Dr. Brett Baxter

What percentage of your day would you say you spend thinking about food or body image concerns? If you’re like many women, it’s more (maybe much more) than 50%. Guilt and shame around food have become commonplace, dominating conversation, social media, and even healthcare. Instead of connecting deeply with their values, women everywhere are distracted by obeying the latest food rules. In this session, we’ll talk about the false promises made by diet and wellness culture and how to free yourself from restriction, guilt, and shame around food so you can pursue the things you truly value.
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Sydney Cochran, MS, RD, LD is a non-diet registered dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor at Rethink Nutrition in Manhattan, KS. She loves bringing hope to people who are at the end of their rope with food rules and helping them find freedom to enjoy food and life again.
-Sydney Cochran

Our struggles in life can feel daunting but viewing ourselves as Heroines on a journey of growth, can transform struggles into invigorating challenges possible to surmount. The Heroine’s Journey (different from the Hero’s Journey) is a mythical pattern in folktales across the world and leads women to find ways to balance their feminine and masculine qualities and discover their unique strengths. With paper, markers, and colored pencils participants will create a map of their own Heroine’s Journey and identify their place on it. Your map may provide insights into your past and current struggles and prepare you for those ahead.
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Sally Bailey, MFA, MSW, RDT/BCT is Professor of Theatre and Director of the Drama Therapy Program at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS. Her book Barrier-Free Theatre received the American Alliance for Theatre in Education’s 2011 Distinguished Book Award. Previous to K-State she worked for 13 years in the Washington, DC area as a registered drama therapist with recovering addicts and people with disabilities.
A past president of the North American Drama Therapy Association, Sally Bailey is the recipient of the 2006 NADTA Gertrud Schattner Award for distinguished contributions to the field of drama therapy in education, publication, practice, and service and the 2018 NADTA Teaching Excellence Award.
-Sally Bailey

Jurdene Coleman LCMFT will engage participants in a conversation about how she came to lead a community that she isn’t native to. Attendees will learn ways to engage in their community by rethinking their own strengths and gifts in terms of public service.
Attendees will be able to identify how their passions can positively impact their communities and leave with concrete steps they can take towards leadership roles.
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Jurdene Coleman is a licensed clinical couple and family therapist. She has been practicing for almost ten years in a Manhattan Kansas. Originally from Cleveland Ohio, Jurdene has made Manhattan her home over the last decade. She is a regional supervisor of the outpatient therapy department at Pawnee Mental Health Services, the local community mental health center, where she oversees 15 therapists in three counties who provide services to adults, kids and families from ages 3 and up. Her clinical specialties are trauma in children and families along with transitions across the lifespan. She is trained in EMDR a trauma informed therapeutic approach. In 2017, Jurdene was elected to her local school district’s board of education for a four year term. She also sits on several city committees and advisory boards where she uses her skills at facilitating discussions and active listening to bring about change within her city. This fall Jurdene will begin a doctoral program in Leadership Communication at Kansas State University. Jurdene is married and has two step children and a 4yr old puppy named Lady. She enjoys audiobooks, spending time with her friends and going to the movies at least twice a week.
-Jurdene Coleman

The Alexander Technique is a foundational practice focusing on how we use our minds, bodies, emotions, and spirits. Excess tensing in any one of these areas, negatively influences all the areas and interferes with our optimum use.

Stopping tensing and moving into easing (in any part of ourselves) improves our overall use.

This improved use filters into all our activities allowing us to live with more Grace and Ease.

This work benefits any activity from parenting to presenting, to caregiving, to artistic performance, to public speaking, to decision making, to collaboration, to driving, walking, or athletic competition.
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Laura Donnelly is a teacher, life coach, choreographer, dancer and writer. She teaches people to move through life with more ease, balance, and flow through AT-Ease: Body-Brain Balance.
Laura offers AT-Ease online and has students across the US, in Canada and Europe. She’s been teaching the Alexander Technique privately, in community classes, and at the university level since 1992. She trained extensively with Mio Morales who studied with Frank Pierce Jones and Marjory Barstow (one of the first Alexander Technique teachers trained by founder FM Alexander in the 1940s).
-Laura Donnelly

“Knowledge is power.” But sometimes, even with a lot of knowledge, experience, and even confidence, we find ourselves feeling less empowered than we’d like in our personal and professional relationships. So how much of power imbalances are due to gender? How much can be changed? And can the distribution of power be accurately measured? This breakout session will discuss four key ways to take inventory of the way power is experienced in your relationships, along with applicable tips for ways to discuss these with significant others, friends, family members, employers, etc.
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Michelle Washburn-Busk is a licenced Marriage and Family Therapist and specializes in working with couples. Michelle is in the final year of her doctorate program at K-State, and her program of research focuses on helping couples navigate unbalanced power dynamics, especially those that are gender-based. Michelle also researches the ways sexism shows up in hard-to-detect ways that leave a lasting imprint on women’s self-concept and beliefs about women as a whole. Michelle feels passionate about helping women navigate the disempowerment that happens in unexpected ways in our everyday lives as women. Michelle hopes that many more women and men will join in the world’s ongoing efforts to make the world more equitable for all who live in it.
-M’ichelle Washburn-Busk

Too often women avoid facing their own personal weaknesses, but He clearly conveys to each of us that His grace is sufficient for us, and that, His strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). In this 60 minute session, Dr. Brown will seek to guide participants through a journey of self-reflection in which attendees will take personal assessments, via technology, to identify targeted strengths and weaknesses, in order to compare/contrast themselves to the women in the Bible, and conclude with a plan of action for continued daily personal growth. In order to fully engage in this session, participants will need to bring a device to access the Internet and will need to be prepared to move about the room as requested. Please come prepared to interact with other participants.
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Jennifer Brown is a National Board Certified Teacher who has a deeply embedded passion for personal learning and growth. As an unfinished work in progress, Jennifer utilizes every personal endeavor, be it positive or negative, as a means from which to seek an even stronger purpose in God. With a growth mindset, she has tackled education (as an educator) at the elementary, middle school, and college level.
Dr. Brown has not only guided three individuals through to successful completion of their doctorates, but she has also worked diligently to encourage young girls through efforts such as Project Self-Esteem. Though imperfect in every way, but confident in herself nonetheless, she strives to utilize each given day as a new opportunity to become a better version of herself for the sake of helping others when called upon by God.
-Jennifer Brown

Mothers and young families in the early childhood years face numerous challenges: adding the role of parent to the partner relationship, feeling hurt and disappointed when our partners don’t live up to our expectations, changes to how we feel about and in our bodies, our self-confidence and our sex drives. Yet for most new mothers, none of these challenges are as disruptive as the difficulty of discovering who we are now that we are mothers. In this session, Sarah Siders will discuss the myriad changes mothers go through adapting to motherhood, tools for developing realistic expectations and how we can learn to love the women we’ve become, no matter how new or experienced you are at motherhood.
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Sarah Siders is a mother of two boys, a therapist and a writer. As someone who has suffered with and healed from postpartum depression and anxiety, she has been championing maternal mental health for nearly a decade since becoming a mother.
Mothers and young families in the early childhood years face numerous challenges: adding the role of parent to the partner relationship, feeling hurt and disappointed when our partners don’t live up to our expectations, changes to how we feel about and in our bodies, our self-confidence and our sex drives. Yet for most new mothers, none of these challenges are as disruptive as the difficulty of discovering who we are now that we are mothers. In this session, Sarah Siders will discuss the myriad changes mothers go through adapting to motherhood, tools for developing realistic expectations and how we can learn to love the women we’ve become, no matter how new or experienced you are at motherhood.
-Sarah Siders

Dr. Suess famously said, “There is no one alive that is youer than you.” What are you supposed to do with that? Fitting the mold may be bland and painful, but blazing your own trail is hard and scary. If only there was a pattern for reaching a unique destiny of our own potential. Welcome to this class, a class in which the ‘where’ and ‘why’ are left to you, but the HOW is revealed! We will investigate various methods of making changes to make your dreams comfortably come true.
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I live in a land of make-believe, except it is real. Birthdays happen everyday, glitter is a business expense, and some of my best clients are three years old. It all started in a lonely overpopulated childhood, through making all the right choices for all the wrong reasons. Hoop-jumping and mold-fitting led to blinding spotlights but no personal closeness. Between a husband with a different perspective on life and a national recession that left me jobless, I broke away from the cradle-to-grave life map and started my own artistic business in 2010. After a decade of personal and professional development, I am pleased to report the grass is actually greener!
-Laura Pennock

This session will help you to discover all that you are and the value that you bring to the world! You will be provided with tools to identify self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors and replace them with resources that will enable you to step into the greatness of who you are and to live out your unique purpose here on this earth. Regardless of your life circumstances, you can choose to live a life of purpose and make a difference each and every day just by being who you are. Join us as we celebrate the beauty of YOU!
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Bethany (Connor) McCormick is passionate about awakening authentic leaders. Through speaking, facilitating, & coaching she supports the transformation process of individuals and organizations in creating culture change from the inside out. Author of the book, “Cherished: One Woman’s Journey to Love and Be Loved,” Bethany inspires others to discover and live out who they were created to be!
Bethany struggled through her own journey of finding her authenticity. She suffered through two years of severe depression and a life time of low self-worth and co-dependency hidden behind the mask of perfection. Through that struggle her strength was born. Now a transformed woman, her passion is to support others in their journey of self-discovery and in re-kindling the latent dreams buried deep within their hearts.
Bethany is a Colonel in the United States Army Nurse Corps and a Registered Nurse with an advanced degree as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is currently the Chief Nursing Officer at Irwin Army Community Hospital, Fort Riley Kansas. She also serves as a certified coach, speaker and trainer for The John Maxwell Team. She is trained as a Life Coach through Coaching Cognition. She is a graduate of Klemmer & Associates, the Premier Leadership & Character Development Company. She has been trained in Transformational Leadership and workshop facilitation through Seminar Systems. She is also a trained mentor and leader in Celebrate Recovery.
When she is not busy changing the world, you can find her spending time with her husband and two cats, crafting or enjoying the mountains of Colorado!
-Bethany McCormick