MEACO Wellness Conference 2026 Registration
August 14–15, 2026, at the Fordson Hotel in Oklahoma City
Registration Now Open
The MEACO Wellness Conference 2026 “COMPASSION” invites thought leaders, innovators, practitioners, scholars, artists, clinicians, and community leaders who are committed to advancing wellness through evidence-informed practice, creative process, and embodied experience.
❋ Collaborative Energy
Exploring Mental Wellness, grounded in COMPASSION as the guiding force that connects research, creativity, and practice in service of collective well-being.
Learn from and connect with thought leaders, innovators, and practitioners who explore the intersection of psychology, mental health, music, mindfulness, and expressive arts.
❋ Expert Facilitation
What to do next
View the conference details
Register
Book your hotel room
View the keynote speaker
Learn about events and activities in OKC
Conference Speakers
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SPEAKER
AZA Stephen Allsop, MD, PhD
Innovator, Artist, Neuroscientist, Psychiatrist
Dr. AZA is a first-generation American who grew up in Trinidad before living in a number of different states on the East Coast. He studied Biology, Philosophy, and Jazz Studies at North Carolina Central University before carrying out social neuroscience research training in the Tye lab at MIT as part of the Harvard Medical School-MIT MD PhD program.
Click the link below to learn more about Dr. AZA
Featured Speakers & Presentations
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Speaker: Lindsey Sherwin, MSC, CMHC-LP, RDT, EXAT
CEU Hours: 1.5 CEUsDescription: Licensed mental and behavioral health professionals, including expressive therapists, counselors and educators working with youth and young adults operate within a uniquely high-stakes professional environment — one in which the self functions as both instrument and medium.
This session explores the specific burnout profile that emerges at the intersection of clinical expertise, creative identity, and sustained empathic presence.
Participants will examine the input/output imbalance that underlies clinician and educator exhaustion, identify early body-based and creative warning signs, and apply evidence-informed strategies for sustainable practice — including Radical Intentional Acceptance and the Ritual of Transition. Attention will
be given to the systemic conditions that amplify occupational risk across foster care, public health, nonprofit, and private practice settings.
Participants will leave with a concrete framework for holistic identity diversification, reflective tools, and a renewed orientation toward their own creative life as a source of inspiration designed to support long-term clinical effectiveness and professional resilience.Objectives:
Identify the unique stressors and enmeshment risks inherent to therapeutic expressive arts practices, and state why sustainable aesthetic empathy is important for maintaining mental clarity and emotional well-being.
Apply at least two proactive preparation strategies — Radical Intentional Acceptance and the Ritual of Transition — as sustainable boundary practices in clinical and educational settings.
Recognize the early somatic and creative warning signs of burnout, including the loss of a shared atmosphere, improvised or impromptu movement, creative spontaneity, multimodal expression, collaborative projects, and interpersonal connection caused by standardized, screen-based interfaces, as well as sensory overload, and integrate these within their broader systemic context.
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Speaker: Dr. Piper Hart, EdD
CEU Hours: 1.0 CEUExplores neuroinclusive arts practices that support regulation, belonging, and mental wellness.
Learning Objectives:
Identify three ways neuro inclusive expressive arts practices can support emotional regulation, belonging, and mental wellness.
Apply a sensory mapping framework to design more compassionate, accessible wellness experiences.
Translate neuroaesthetic and expressive arts concepts into practical strategies for clinical, educational, or community settings.
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Speaker: Shahram Heshmat, PhD
CEU Hours: 1.0 CEUExplores aesthetics as a tool for emotional wellbeing.
Learning Objectives:
Discuss the mental benefits aesthetic pleasure.
Describe aesthetic living - taking a genuine interest in all details of daily life.
Discuss the making of aesthetic elements
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Speaker: Dr. Jeff Mims, Ph.D., M.S.
CEU Hours: 1.5 CEUs
Session Description
Music has the unique ability to foster connection, self-expression, and emotional exploration in ways that transcend traditional verbal communication. This experiential workshop invites participants to deepen their understanding of person-centered principles through the intentional use of music and creative engagement. Drawing from humanistic and expressive arts approaches, attendees will explore how music can facilitate empathy, authenticity, emotional awareness, and meaningful connection within clinical, educational, and community settings.
Participants will engage in guided musical experiences, reflective exercises, and group discussion designed to enhance presence, strengthen relational skills, and deepen person-centered practice. No musical experience is required. This session is ideal for counselors, social workers, educators, wellness professionals, and helping professionals seeking innovative approaches to engagement and healing.
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Speaker: Lindsey Sherwin, MSC, CMHC-LP, RDT, EXAT
CEU Hours: 1.5 CEUsDescription: Grounded in Expressive Arts and Experiential Therapy frameworks, this session goes beyond theory. Participants will engage in hands-on creative exploration designed to reawaken compassion, deepen empathetic attunement, and reconnect them to the heart of their work with diverse clients. Through embodied empathy, the practice of tuning into another’s inner world through rhythm, resonance, and shared creative experience—attendees will discover how the arts unlock what words alone often cannot.
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Speaker: Terri Goslin-Jones, PhD and Cyra Sweet Dumitru, MA, PPM
CEU Hours: 1.5 CEUsDescription: Experiential 90 minutes: Max 20 people
This 90-minute session welcomes participants into a vibrant Creativity Circle, weaving together visual art, gentle movement, and the healing practice of poetic medicine. Attendees will be invited to embark on a journey inward—exploring emotion, intuition, and imagination—using color, form, gesture, and word. Together, we will actively enter into the heart’s threshold, drawing forth images and language that reveal our authentic selves and unique stories.
Through artistic exploration and reflective poetry writing, participants will expand their capacity for self-compassion and nurture a mindful awareness of their embodied experience. The process of sharing creative work in a nonjudgmental, supportive environment invites vulnerability, courage, and connection—transforming individual discovery into a tapestry of collective empathy. This workshop seeks to foster trust, belonging, and a renewed sense of wholeness, empowering each participant to carry these practices of compassion and creative expression back into daily life.Objectives:
Introduce participants to poetic medicine principles blended with other expressive arts modalities such as visual art and movement.
Introduce participants to ways of listening to their hearts, enhancing self-awareness and self-compassion.
Participants will explore creativity through imagery, language, and movement to enhance sensory awareness.
Participants will engage in multidimensional, creative processes building an atmosphere of trust and connection within our circle.
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Speaker: Cyra Sweet Dumitru, MA, PPM and Terri Goslin-Jones, PhD
CEU Hours: 1.5 CEUsDescription: This session explores the transformative power of poetry and expressive arts in guiding the journey from trauma to healing. At the intersection of poetic inquiry, trauma recovery, and creative expression, participants are invited to discover how art can guide individuals from a fractured sense of self toward integration, wholeness, and compassionate spiritual expansiveness.
The presenters highlight how poetry and the expressive arts create sacred spaces—where "Words Make a Way Through Fire" and life unfolds as a "Concerto"—allowing art to become not only a form of expression, but also an emergent pathway of recovery that reconstructs traumatized identity. Furthermore, when the expressive arts become a sustained practice over many years, the individual journey can widen into offering Circles of compassionate care for the larger community.
Drawing from their foundational works, authors Cyra Dumitru, Words Make a Way Through Fire: Healing After My Brother’s Suicide, and Terri Goslin-Jones, Life’s Concerto: Wholeness through Poetry and Expressive Arts, share their individual journeys of poetic inquiry. Together, they discuss how poetry and expressive arts serve as catalysts for both personal and social transformation, offering practical insights and inspiration for participants seeking creative approaches to healing and growth.
Objectives:
Introduce participants to the therapeutic benefits of poetry and expressive arts, emphasizing creativity as a form of compassion for navigating experiences of grief, loss, trauma, longing, change, and life transitions.
The presenters will share their poetry and creative process, revealing how poetic inquiry has been vital to their personal growth and ongoing healing.
Presenters will discuss how poetic inquiry, trauma recovery, and expressive arts circles foster wholeness, resilience, and personal transformation, with an emphasis on compassionate community-building.
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Speaker: Christine Brooks, PhD
CEU Hours: 1.5 CEUsExplores creativity as a wellbeing and clinical practice.
Learning Objectives:
Articulate the evidence base supporting everyday creative practice as a contributor to personal and collective wellbeing, drawing on research from arts and health, social prescribing, and human-centric skills frameworks, and distinguish this fuller wellbeing frame from narrower wellness-as-behavior models.
Identify at least two personal barriers to consistent creative practice (including internal resistance and structural constraints) and apply the Resistance-to-Persistence reframe to develop a sustainable, individualized approach.
Distinguish between high-skill artistic production and low-skill / high-sensitivity everyday creative engagement, and explain why this distinction is clinically and programmatically significant in healthcare, coaching, and community-based settings.
Evaluate the six Everyday Arts principles in relation to their own professional practice and identify at least one actionable integration point for their personal wellbeing praxis or client/community programming.
Articulate a personal call to action for extending Everyday Arts outward to the people they serve, their wider communities, and unknown others.
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Speaker: Gregory Jerome
CEU Hours: NoneDescription: Music and fashion are two of the most powerful cultural forces shaping identity. Both influence how we see ourselves — and how the world sees us. This interactive session explores how sound and style work together to formulate personal expression, emotional states, and executive presence.
Participants will learn how musical energy translates into visual identity — and how intentional styling can positively influence confidence, mood, and influence.
Learning Objectives:
Understand how music and fashion co-create identity.
Explore the psychological effects of color, texture, and rhythm.
Learn how to align personal style with desired emotional impact.
Conference Highlights
Attendees can look forward to a powerful keynote address by Dr. AZA, a Yale trained psychiatrist whose work brings depth and clarity to the evolving landscape of mental health and integrative care.
The conference will also feature a compelling fireside chat, “In the Mind of a Musician,” featuring Dr. Jeff Mims, MEACO Operations Lead, alongside Elijah Rock of the Global Brain Institute. This conversation will explore the cognitive, emotional, and creative processes that shape musical expression and its therapeutic potential.
Together, these featured sessions and the broader speaker lineup reflect MEACO’s commitment to advancing evidence-based practice, fostering human connection, and inspiring innovation across disciplines.
Participants can expect engaging dialogue, practical tools, and transformative insights, all grounded in opportunities to earn CEUs while deepening their professional and personal growth.
Earn Up to 6 CEUs at the MEACO Wellness Conference 2026
The MEACO Wellness Conference 2026 offers attendees the opportunity to earn up to 6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) through a powerful lineup of sessions focused on mental health, expressive arts, mindfulness, music, trauma-informed practice, and whole-person care.
This year's conference features a dynamic and multidisciplinary group of speakers working at the intersection of mental health, creative expression, and human development. Each CEU-eligible session is designed to provide meaningful learning, practical tools, and evidence-informed strategies that professionals can apply in their work.
Please Note: Due to final conference scheduling adjustments, attendees will be eligible to earn up to 6 (general) CEUs during the 2026 MEACO Wellness Conference.
Ticket Pricing
Participant registration is $129. Click here to get a special discount registration price of $89!
The student discount pricing is available for just $75, making it a great deal for students!
Register today to secure your spot and maximize your CEU value.
Conference Schedule
Day One
Arrive & Meet
Join us as you hear from the MEACO Team, enjoy a live band, and engage in authentic social networking with fellow professionals, creatives, and leaders from across the field.
Opening Reception4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Day Two
Learning & Wrap Up
We explore the possibilities beyond this moment, making space for growth, action, and forward momentum. As we end our time together, we honor the experience, the growth, and the connections made along the way.
Tibetan Sound Bowls7:00 a.m.
Registration & Breakfast Provided8:00 a.m.
Opening Remarks8:30 a.m.
Breakouts in Gallery 2, 3, & 410:00 a.m.
Expressive Arts Youth Spotlight12:00 p.m.
Lunch Provided12:10 p.m.
"In The Mind of a Musician" musical performance by Elijah Rock of the Global Brain institute followed by a fireside chat with Dr. Mims, MEACO Operations Lead12:10 p.m.
Conference Sessions1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Keynote Dr. AZA Allshop "Music & Mindfulness"8:50 a.m.
Book your stay in the heart of OKC
Use the booking link to book your hotel room at the Fordson Hotel and receive a special discount.
900 West Main Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73106
Events & Activites Happening in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City pulses with a mix of culture, outdoor adventure, and energetic events that make every stay memorable. Explore the revitalized Bricktown Entertainment District for riverboat rides, live music, and vibrant dining; catch a Thunder game or a concert at the Paycom Center; stroll the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum for a moving historical experience; enjoy world-class art at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and contemporary installations in the Plaza District; spend a sunny afternoon at Myriad Botanical Gardens and the Devon Boathouse on the Scissortail Park lakeside; and for family-friendly fun, visit the Science Museum Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City Zoo. Whether you’re seeking live performances, culinary adventures, arts and culture, or outdoor recreation. Oklahoma City offers a dynamic calendar of activities to suit every interest.