Build a Better Brain: Tools to Empower Clients and Enhance Therapy Outcomes - 3 CEUs

To access the discount form for registering for multiple workshops or participants, please click here.

When & Where:

• Date: Wednesday, September 10, 17, AND 24, 2025
  • If you cannot attend this workshop as a live webinar, you can pre-register for the on-demand version here: https://www.theknowledgetree.org/p/build-better-br...
• Time: 9:00am - 10:00am Eastern Time EACH DAY
• CE Hours Included: 3 Core total - 1 per day (please see below for details)
• Location: Live Interactive Webinars ("Synchronous") on Zoom
• Investment: $89.99 before Friday, August 29th at 5:00pm Eastern Time, $99.99 after
• Presented by: Helena Popovic, MBBS (see bio below)
• Workshop Recording: A recording of this workshop is available to review for 60 days after the presentation. However, participants must attend live to receive the "Synchronous" CE Certificate.
• Instruction Level: Intermediate
• Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Psychotherapists, Other Mental Health Professionals

Learning Objectives:

In this workshop, you will learn how to:

• Apply current findings from neuroplasticity research to clinical practice to enhance clients’ cognitive functioning and engagement in therapy.
• Assess client-specific risk factors for cognitive decline, including lifestyle, psychosocial stressors, and thought patterns, using evidence-based frameworks.
• Discuss the connection between cognitive health, emotional well-being, and long-term mental resilience with clients of varying ages and backgrounds.
• Illustrate the neurological and psychological effects of menopause-related brain fog and demonstrate strategies to mitigate its impact on therapy.
• Design a customized brain-boosting plan that integrates nutrition, exercise, recovery, mindset shifts, and daily habits for clients at every age and stage of life.
• Outline evidence-based practices for reducing clients’ long-term risk of depression, anxiety, and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s.

Workshop Description:

What if your greatest asset isn’t your bank account, but your brain?

Most people focus on building their financial wealth, yet few invest in strengthening their most powerful and irreplaceable asset: their mind. Grounded in the revolutionary science of neuroplasticity, this dynamic, high-energy seminar series reveals how the brain can be rewired and revitalized throughout the course of our lives. We are not prisoners of our genes, past, or circumstances — we can actively shape the health, function, and future of our brain. Participants will explore how daily habits, mindset, and intentional actions can grow new brain cells, forge stronger neural connections, and dramatically enhance cognition, performance, and emotional resilience. Through engaging content and practical, immediately usable strategies, mental health professionals will learn how to help clients eliminate brain fog (including in menopause), sharpen memory and creativity, boost focus and learning, and reduce their risk of anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline, including Alzheimer’s dementia. Discover how to empower clients to think and feel better, engage with therapy more effectively, and age with physical and mental vitality — by building a better brain.

Workshop Agenda:

Week 1

• Introduction to neuroplasticity and the importance of brain health – 15 minutes
  • Definition of neuroplasticity and its clinical significance.
  • Why brain health is relevant to everyone at every age: dementia is not a disease of old age but develops over the course of a person’s life, beginning in childhood.
  • Overview of brain-based therapeutic work across the lifespan.
  • Addresses learning objectives: 1, 3
• How a person’s beliefs affect their biology – 25 minutes
  • The physical and mental harms of negative ageist stereotypes.
  • How confirmation bias and expectations influence how we age.
  • The power of curiosity, thought patterns, and habits to reshape neural architecture.
  • The role of focus and attention in shaping brain function.
  • Addresses learning objectives: 2, 3, 6
• Physical Risk and Resilience Factors on Cognition and Mental Health – 20 minutes
  • Evidence-based physical risk factors for cognitive decline and depression (e.g., sleep, sedentary behavior, sensory impairment, and gingivitis).
  • Movement as medicine, and the implementation of precision-exercise therapy.
  • Olfactory training to improve mental health and cognition.
  • Treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and poor sleep can reverse cognitive decline.
  • Addresses learning objectives: 2, 5, 6

Week 2

• Psychological Risk and Resilience Factors Influencing Cognition and Mental Health – 30 minutes
  • Cognitive reserve versus cognitive debt.
  • Does stress really kill brain cells?
  • The role of cognitive bias modification in improving cognition and mental health.
  • Can breath work, meditation, and gratitude practices boost cognition and engagement with therapy, or do they just make people feel better?
  • Addresses learning objectives: 1, 2, 3, 6
• Social and Environmental Influences on Cognition and Mental Health – 30 minutes
  • Psychosocial stress and trauma as accelerators of aging and cognitive deterioration.
  • Why is loneliness as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day?
  • Can you really die of a broken heart?
  • What does conflict have to do with cognition?
  • How do air and noise pollution impact neuroplasticity and brain health?
  • Addresses learning objectives: 2, 3, 6

Week 3

• Dietary Factors Influencing Cognition and Mental Health – 20 minutes
  • Why is every soft drink a bullet to the brain?
  • Does eating processed foods influence mental and cognitive health?
  • Beyond the Mediterranean diet: the neuroscience behind customized nutritional interventions.
  • Do supplements just produce expensive urine, or do they have a place in cognitive enhancement?
  • Addresses learning objectives: 5, 6
• Brain Fog, Menopause and Hormones – 15 minutes
  • Why do twice as many women as men develop Alzheimer’s dementia? (Spoiler alert: it’s not because women live longer.)
  • Menopause-related changes in memory, focus, and mood.
  • Therapeutic tools and lifestyle strategies to reduce brain fog and increase clarity.
  • Addresses learning objectives: 4, 5, 6
• Overcoming Client Barriers to Implementation of Brain-Boosting Strategies and Therapeutic Interventions – 20 minutes
  • How to uncover what is stopping your client from implementing your advice.
  • Focus on your client’s want-power rather than their willpower.
  • Is there a role for visualization in improving brain health?
  • Which medicines might be messing with your client’s mind?
  • What do awe, wonder, music, and meaning have to do with cognition and mental health?
  • Addresses learning objectives: 1, 3, 6
• Wrap-Up and Q&A – 5 minutes
  • Recap of principles, tools, and application areas.
  • Open Q&A.
  • Further resources, references, and follow-up material.

Presented by: Helena Popovic, MBBS

Dr. Helena Popovic, MBBS (Australian equivalent to an MD in the US), is an internationally recognized expert in brain health, positive aging, and dementia prevention. She shows people how to boost their brain and master their mind at any age or stage of life so they can:

• Improve mental health by addressing stress, anxiety, and depression
• Eliminate brain fog in menopause
• Perform at their peak throughout their career
• Avoid Alzheimer’s and other dementias in retirement.

Discovering how to boost our brain is the single most important thing we can do to achieve our goals, solve complex problems, promote mental wellbeing, and create a fulfilling life.

With over 30 years of research and practice as a medical doctor, Dr. Helena is passionate about helping individuals and organizations dramatically improve brain function, prevent cognitive decline, and grow bolder rather than older. She believes that education is more powerful than medication, and that our decisions are more important than our DNA.

Dr Helena is the best-selling author of three books:

• In Search of My Father — Dementia is no match for a daughter’s determination. This is an uplifting handbook for people caring for someone with dementia.
• Can Adventure Prevent Dementia? A guide to outwitting Alzheimer’s. This is the Bible of brain health for anyone seeking to enhance their cognitive function.
• NeuroSlimming — Let your brain change your body. This book shows yo-yo dieters, emotional eaters, and people who are sick and tired of contradictory nutritional advice how to shed excess body fat without dieting, deprivation, or drugs.

Dr. Helena's extensive training includes a medical degree from the University of Sydney and specialized training in Alzheimer’s prevention from Weill Cornell Medicine. She is a TEDx Fast Ideas finalist, an ambassador for the Australian Gut Foundation, and a speaker at global conferences, including Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), Alzheimer Europe (AE), the American Society on Aging (ASA), and the Australian Dementia Research Forum (ADRF). In June 2025, she chaired the National Dementia Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

3 Core CEs Included - Details by License Type Below:

• PSYCHOLOGISTS: The Knowledge Tree is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Knowledge Tree maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For more detailed information on the current CE ruling in Georgia, or if you are licensed in another state or country, please click here.
• COUNSELORS: The Knowledge Tree has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP), ACEP No. 7153. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Knowledge Tree is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Please click here for more detailed information.
• SOCIAL WORKERS: TKT has applied for approval for this workshop through the Georgia Society for Clinical Social Work (GSCSW). If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.
• MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPISTS: TKT has applied for approval for this workshop through the Georgia Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (GAMFT). If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.

To view our various workshop policies, including our multi-workshop discount & refund policy, please click here.

We are an approved vendor for the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs for easy reimbursement of educational expenses for VA employees.

Neither the Knowledge Tree nor its speakers have received any commercial support for this program or its contents and will not receive any commercial support prior to or during this program.