Innovation Behavioral Health Solutions, LLC

04/08/2026

This is true for high masking men too. Autistic masking, or camouflaging, is positively correlated with autistic burn out which feels like depression and anxiety. When we mask, we also self-abandon by hiding our social and sensory differences, and we don’t allow ourselves to stim as needed. Meeting social demands according to neurotypical standards at school/work increases our risk of burnout and has a negative impact on our overall wellbeing. It also takes us much longer to come out of autistic burnout compared to neurotypicals.

Here’s 3 tips to implement during autistic burnout that will also help you learn more about how autism shows up for you:

1. Start unmasking in different areas of your life. Unmasking can look like requesting accommodations at work/school, including wearing glasses, noise cancellation headphones or earplugs, not forcing eye contact, etc.

2. Allow yourself to engage in restricted interests that nourish and leave you feeling full rather than drained. This also looks like being around people you can fully unmask around and feel safe.

3. Identify sensory input that is soothing and do more of that. This can look like allowing yourself to engage in repetitive behaviors that allow your body to release, a cozy weighted blanket, smells and sounds you enjoy. You can use a sensory processing checklist (many available online) which can also help you understand the type sensory input you avoid.

04/03/2026

Registration is now open! 🔗 https://www.innovationbhs.com/registration

Join us for this live workshop with Dr. Jennifer Mullan Decolonizing Our Sacred Rage 🔥❤️‍🔥✨

Workshop Description:

Frequently, we are discouraged from embracing and learning from our rage. The negative connotation that continues to be associated with rage, inhibits us from utilizing it as a righteous tool on the path to healing and decolonizing our lives. Sacred Rage is a barometer and an indicator of lack of safety and deep rooted frustration at present day & ancestral experiences. It is not a problem to be solved, it’s not an emotion to be stuffed down, nor is it a collective experience to be feared. This workshop will be an invitation for participants to get curious, lean into, and explore their relationship to sacred rage. In the same breath, participants will be guided in connecting to their inner world, their ancestral knowledge, and the collective shadow. Join us in taking back our rooted power and deep love for one another!

Learning Objectives:

1. Unlearn and define what you know about Rage in a colonial, Eurocentric sense.
2. Describe how Sacred Rage may be speaking through you and create space to feel this Rage.
3. Design processes that honor and create space for your Ancestry and how it may speak through your Scared Rage.

References

Hickling, C. (2019) Owning Our Madness: Contributions of Jamaican Psychiatry to Decolonizing Global Mental Health. Sage Journals 57(1) https://doi.org/10.1177/136346151989314

Alemu, R. E. G., Osborn, T. L., Wasagna, C. M. (2023) The Network Approach: A Path to Decolonize Mental Health Care. Frontiers in Public Health 11 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1052077

Uehara, S., Tamura, T., Nakagawa, T. (2018) The Positivity of Anger: Non-Expression of Anger Causes Deterioration in Relationships. Scientific Research 9(6) https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2018.96088

03/19/2026

Join us this Friday, Spring Equinox for our CE program launch with .ofina of .wellness ‘s workshop: Death to the Blank Slate. Earn 2 CE hours. 🔗: https://www.innovationbhs.com/ce-events

Stay tuned for more details on our upcoming CEs with Dr. Jennifer Mullan of helping us Decolonize our Sacred Rage in May, and helping us meet our ethics requirement for license renewal with The Ethical Use of Imposter & Infiltrator Experiences in June! 🙌🏽✨

03/04/2026

It’s official!! Dr. Ana Olivares & Dr. Sandra Leon-Villa are launching the Innovation continuing education (CE) program with live virtual CE workshops and on demand CEs rooted in liberatory praxis✨🤲🏽

We are kicking off with Dr. Madeline Ofina’s workshop this Spring Equinox!

Visit our CE events page and look out for new offerings starting off every other month. https://www.innovationbhs.com/ce-events

03/03/2026

Join Dr. Madeline Ofina for this powerful 2-hour live virtual workshop she first presented at the 2nd annual Reclaiming Identity for Collective Liberation conference in Negril, Jamaica. The workshop focuses on the intersection of provider lived experience, mental health stigma, the impact of racial discrimination, and spirituality. In this exploration, Mental Health professionals will learn about their own biases, the biases of our patients when we discuss mental health and the impact of self-disclosure from the perspective of our clients and our peers. The role of spirituality, a sense of belonging, and outcomes from integrating spirituality will be discussed. Through recovery-oriented care, decolonial mental health, and liberation psychology, we will learn alternative ways of relating to our clients in the therapeutic space.

Learning Objectives:

1. To discuss decolonial mental health, liberation, and integrating frameworks to support the acknowledgment of lived experience and spirituality in the therapeutic space.

2. To demonstrate awareness of mental health self-stigma, stigma amongst providers with lived experience, and the factors that influence self-disclosure in the therapeutic space with the BIPOC community.

3. To identify the impact of spirituality, a component of indigenous knowledge in
the therapeutic space, and its benefits of acknowledging spiritual practices with BIPOC communities.

Learn more here or register now: https://www.innovationbhs.com/ce-events

Facilitator: Madeline Ofina, Ph.D.

Location: Zoom (live event).

Time: 10 am PST, 12 pm CST, 1 pm EST

Cost: $88.88 + 3% processing fees

Zoom link sent 72 hours before the training.

Cameras required to be on for CE credit.

**MUST ATTEND LIVE FOR CE CREDIT. SEE OUR CE POLICIES

01/13/2026

12/31/2025

May these last two days of 2025 find you resting and preparing the soil for the spring equinox and the true new year.

12/12/2025

11/25/2025

Now earn up to 18 CEs!! Join us! Registration is Open! We will gather at Majestic Mirage Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 02/6/26-02/8/26 for the 4th Annual Reclaiming Identity for Collective Liberation conference 🌬️💨✨🔥💚✨

Payment plans for registration are available on the conference website!

✅The speaker line up is 🔥🔥🔥
✅Earn up to 18 CEs!
✅Business expense!
✅ Payment plans available!

✨Keynote Speaker:

✨Workshop Speakers:
evan.auguste
pizarro maalouf bshabazz


✨Our 1-hour Indigenous medicine CE workshop will be facilitated by Taino Studies founder Alfonso Peralta.

Also join is for a sound bath with and creating your Love Journal with

Check out our 🔗 in bio for past conference speakers and testimonials ✨

Book travel by scanning the QR code to request a quote! Ask about travel payment plans!

10/09/2025

So much gratitude for our 2026 Conference sponsors! Community—we still need your support!

Support the 4th annual Reclaiming Identity for Collective Liberation: An Evidence-Based BIPOC Mental Health & Healing conference that will be held from February 6-8, 2026 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. This conference, a vision of Dr. Sandra Leon-Villa, was created to amplify and elevate the knowledge and expertise that we know has existed in Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) communities for millenia, but often does not gain recognition, is demonized, and/or is stolen by western psychology. We have selected speakers who are thought leaders, social justice advocates, award winning clinicians, authors, and influencers in the mental health field. The conference is geared toward mental health professionals in private/group practice, academic, and research settings who are interested in decolonizing and reindigenizing mental health, as well as deepening strategies to integrate evidenced-based research into culturally responsive care through liberatory praxis.

In addition to the amazing line-up of speakers, we have partnered with three organizations that are elevating mental health issues in BIPOC communities: InnoPsych an Innovation Behavioral Health Solutions and the conference’s fiscal sponsor, Empower LV, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

As members of the global majority, we are a powerful force, and our attendees are predominantly BIPOC (i.e., 99%) and consumers that can, in turn, support your business. If your business is aligned with our values, we invite you to advertise with us through our sponsorship packages. We currently offer six (6) sponsorship packages (also attached) for you to consider. Don’t see the amount you’re able to support with? Please reach out to us.

We welcome community partners interested in supporting this conference through monthly donations, and of course, the sharing of conference information (i.e., conference brochure, flyers, etc.) to your networks, including social media, listservs, and contacts.