Sunshine from Darkness, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding mental health research and local mental health services and programs, will present its "Journey to Wellness Symposium" on Saturday, Nov. 13. National and local mental health scientists will discuss new treatments, discoveries, and insights on mental health issues. Topics will include better treatments for childhood disorders, creating a trauma-informed community, the impact of Covid-19 on young people, childhood and adolescent anxiety, and the nature of depression. A question-and-answer period will follow the program.

Speakers include Jennifer Katzenstein, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, director of psychology and neuropsychology at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital; Joyce Carter, Psy.D., LMHC, director of wellness at Resilient Retreat; Dr. Myrna Weissman, Diane Goldman Kemper Family professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University; Eli Lebowitz, Ph.D., director of the Program for Anxiety Disorders at the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center; and Dr. Michael Bloch, co-founder of the Pediatric Depression Clinic at the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center. The panel moderator is Andrea Blanch, Ph.D., consultant for the Here4Youth initiative of the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation and Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

The symposium will take place from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota. The event is free and open to the public. Three Continuing Education (CEU) credits will be available at no charge for LCSWs, marriage and family therapists, and mental health counselors.