Striking A Balance Caregiver Conference

The 21st annual Striking a Balance Caregiver Conference will be held on Saturday, August 20th, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Austin (6505 N Interstate Hwy 35, Austin, TX 78752) . Hosted by AGE of Central Texas and the Area Agency on Aging of the Capital Area, this annual event is the largest, longest-run free caregiver conference in Central Texas.

During this free annual conference, family caregivers discover local resources, learn new skills to meet the needs of their caregiving situation, and connect with other caregivers and local experts on aging.

Program:

9:00 – 10:00 am: Registration, Breakfast, Resource & Information Fair

10:00 – 11:00 am (select from one of two sessions – the sessions repeat during the next hour):
– “Emergency Preparedness for Caregivers” with Olivia Hemby, Homeland Security Regional Planner for the Capital Area Council of Governments
– Powerpoint Presentation (PDF)
– “Hands-On Caregiver Tools”

11:00 am – 12:00 pm (select from one of two sessions, which are repeats of the previous hour’s sessions):
– “Emergency Preparedness” with Olivia Hemby, Homeland Security Regional Planner for the Capital Area Council of Governments
– Powerpoint Presentation (PDF)
– “Hands-On Caregiver Tools”

12:00 – 1:00 pm: Lunch and Keynote Presentation: Keynote Speaker: Lacy Alana, LCSW
“It Isn’t About the Bubble Bath: Departing from Conventional Self-Care Wisdom to Take Better Care of Yourself”
– Presentation Powerpoint (PDF)
– Presentation Handout (PDF)

1:00 – 2:00 pm (select from one of three sessions):
– “Positive Approaches to Caregiving” with dementia and caregiving expert Sarah Hyde Williams, CADDCT, CMDCP, CDCM; Founder of Senior Living Advisors of Austin
– Presentation Powerpoint (PDF)
– “Advance Directives” with Anton C. Leeper, Licensed Preneed Counselor and Funeral Director at A Life Celebration by Franklin
– “What I Have Learned” Caregiver Panel

Keynote Speaker: Lacy Alana, LCSW

“It Isn’t About the Bubble Bath: Departing from Conventional Self-Care Wisdom to Take Better Care of Yourself”

While we all know the virtues of self-care and understand the need to take care of ourselves – especially when caring for others – making it happen is often significantly harder than it feels like it should be. In this keynote, you’ll learn why conventional self-care wisdom is often impossible to apply (or doesn’t bring the promised relief) – and what you can do instead. Through nervous system basics and experiential learning, you’ll walk away with new ways to understand and take care of yourself within the complex and multi-layered realities of caregiving.

About Lacy Alana:
Lacy Alana, LCSW, is psychotherapist, trainer, and multi-disciplinary artist who specializes in interpersonal neurobiology, trauma, autism, and communication science.
As Lacy spent time in the clinical, educational, corporate, and expressive arts world during the last decade and a half, she recognized that she was having great success blending facets from each discipline into the others.
When colleagues asked her to teach them tools to mimic her work, she founded “Yes And Brain” to provide trainings in the corporate, non-profit, and arts worlds. (www.yesandbrain.com)
Lacy has a varied professional history, including working in the corporate world (with a communications/advertising degree), working in residential treatment with youth in foster care, with youth who were adopted out of foster care and their families, as a family therapist in a homeless shelter, providing corporate trainings and keynotes, running specialized circus and improv theatre programs for neurodivergent and marginalized youth, training helping and medical professionals, as a psychotherapist specialized in trauma and autism – and more.
Lacy provides one-of-a-kind trainings that fuse Interpersonal Neurobiology (the relational neurosciences and nervous system knowledge), therapeutic frameworks, applied improvisation, business communication, and pedagogy from improvisational theatre and the circus arts.