I speak to clinicians, ministry leaders, and the people who train them. Thirty years of practice sit underneath every talk — hospice, psychiatric, residential, employee assistance — so the room gets someone who has done the work, not only studied it.

Sessions can be built as a conference plenary, a half-day or full-day workshop, a staff training, or a continuing education course. Host organizations have offered CE credit.

Speaking

Signature Topics

The Digital Couch: The Ethics of AI in Mental Health Counseling

AI is already in your building—in documentation, in triage, and in what your clients bring to the session. This session gives practitioners a way to decide, tool by tool, what to adopt, pilot, revise, or refuse. Built around the Stewardship Triad. For clinicians, ministry staff, and administrators. Half-day to full-day. Handouts and a discernment tool are provided.

When Language Opens What Silence Closed

Trauma often can't be approached head-on. This session shows how metaphor, narrative, and figurative language give clients a safer way to process, with case examples and the ethical boundaries that come with the work. For counselors, therapists, and clinical supervisors. 90 minutes to a half day.

Drowning for Jesus: Compassion Fatigue in Ministry

The difference between burnout and compassion fatigue, why ministry leaders are at particular risk, and what recovery actually requires. Draws on the book of the same title. For pastors, chaplains, lay counseling teams, and denominational gatherings. 60 minutes to a full day.

Recent Engagements

  • American Counseling Association, Columbus, OH

  • Saint Francis Health System, Tulsa, OK

  • Zarrow Mental Health Symposium, Tulsa, OK

  • CAPS International, Denver, CO

  • Laureate Psychiatric Conference Center, Tulsa, OK

  • Pathways of Hope, Mid-America Christian University, Oklahoma City, OK

Invite Me

Tell me about your group, your date, and what you're hoping people leave with.

Upcoming Events

  • Friday, 12/4, 8:45 am - 10:15 am 2026 OKMHCA Winter Conference, Mid-America Christian University, OKC

Kathy B. Hoppe, EdD, DMin, LMFT, is chair and associate professor of psychology at Oral Roberts University and a licensed marital and family therapist with more than thirty years of clinical practice in hospice, psychiatric, and employee-assistance settings. She is the author of Trauma and Crisis Counseling (Routledge), Drowning for Jesus, and the forthcoming God, AI, and the Mind (Wipf and Stock, 2027).