FFTA Conference

August 1, 2025

FFTA Conference

Each year, FFTA brings together leaders, practitioners, and partners in the health and human services sector to share their collective knowledge and proven solutions for advancing wellness in youth, families and communities. Pressley Ridge is an active member of FFTA and a proud sponsor of the annual conference. 16 staff members from Pressley Ridge and Texas Family Care Network attended this year’s conference “Rhythms of Resilience: Energize, Elevate, Engage” held in New Orleans, LA.

Pressley Ridge sponsored a very successful Kinship Networking Event on the first night of the conference. Under the leadership of Kim Young, members of the FFT Kinship Committee shared information about their mission and invited others to become engaged with the committee through the FFTA Connect app. The event was well attended and truly set the stage for the rest of the conference.

Pressley Ridge staff also led several workshops at the conference.

  • Kimberly Lohrfink (Org Performance), Karen Celedonia (Org Performance) and Rachel Duvall (Treatment Foster Care) hosted a workshop entitled “When Grandma becomes Mom: Navigating Role Shifts in Kinship Care”. This presentation discussed not only the benefits of kinship care but also the difficulties that family members might face when taking on the role of kinship caregiver. The results of a series of focus groups with kinship parents conducted by Org Performance were shared, along with the perspective of adults who had been raised in a kinship care situation.

  • Paul Wolfe, Patti McLoud, Mike Kaelin, and Jennifer Benner from Pressley Ridge’s External Training and Consultation department presented a session on “Responding to Trauma Using the 6R’s to Enhance Self-Soothing & Relaxation”. This presentation focused on teaching caregivers how to use the 6 Rs of Neurosequential development (Relational, Relevant, Repetitive, Rewarding, Rhythmic, Respectful) in their interactions with children to respond to them in a regulating way.

  • Mike Kaelin also presented with Alex Hamler (Recruitment and Certification Specialist) and Stephanie Law (Bender Leadership Academy) on the topic “Communities Must be Experienced to be Understood!”. In this interactive workshop, the presenters explored the why, what, and how of community engagement. Participants developed a community enablement plan for a fictional youth in their care that included accessing a needed service that may not currently exist in their community.

All three presentations were well attended and spurred a lot of discussion among participants. For more information on any of these topics, feel free to contact the presenting staff members.