The ADTA’s 60th annual conference kicked off on November 6, 2025 in Raleigh, NC. After a full day of intensives, this conference officially opened with a plenary entitled “Anatomy of a Disaster Response”. Four of the Carolina chapter members performed a dance that expressed their lived-experience of the devastating flooding in Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene and shared about their collective healing through the creation process. The performance was followed by a presentation of therapists who had participated in similar disaster responses. They advocated for the unique benefits of expressive arts therapies in healing communities following large scale crises. Friday morning, our chapter, the PA chapter, sponsored a lively movement warm-up which was attended by 25-30 participants. The Carolina chapter presented their site-specific work “crossing the tracks”, also on Friday, and a noon-time walk the following day. These chapter sponsored events result from chapter leaders’ desire to make the work of chapters more visible at the national conference. I noted a renewed vitality in chapter activity at this year’s chapter leaders meeting (as well as a big increase in the number of research posters). The keynote address address followed, in the form of an interactive discussion between Amber Gray PhD, MPH, LPCC, BC-DMT, NCC and Steven Porges PhD about their years-long collaboration on Polyvagal-informed Dance/Movement Therapy. Porges strongly validated our body-based experiential approach, with Gray adding “this is our time”! The annual business meeting was next, with a report of good financial health and announcements of new board members and annual awards made during a luncheon. I followed an education track for myself this year in attending presentations by the education committee (Holding the Collective: Embodied, Trauma-Informed and Justice-Oriented Approaches to DMT Education in Times of Crisis on Friday afternoon), Eri Millrod (Safety in Experiential Learning that Centers the Body and Dance/Movement in DMT Education on Saturday morning) and a Drexel research team (Expanding International Connections: A US-India Global DMT Classroom Initiative on Sunday morning). I am grateful for the many new perspectives and skills these presenters offered. Meg Chang EdD, BC-DMT, LCAT, NCC delivered the annual Marian Chace Foundation Lecture on Saturday morning. She spoke of her own experience as a biracial DMT and challenged us to think through, in small groups, how well our organization is doing in terms of diversity and inclusion. Look for the entire transcript of her talk in the next ADTJ. I joined the Drexel alumni meeting on Saturday evening—please see the photo of the large group that attended! There is not much more to say about the Saturday night banquet and rocking dance party other than we rocked! Congratulations to all our chapter members who have earned their credentials this year—Mandy Weatherill and Gracie Metcalf earned their R-DMT and Victoria Hecker and yours truly earned their BC-DMT and we were there to accepted the honor on your behalf. The Ethics committee offered the plenary on Sunday morning. They introduced a new process for submitting ethics complaints (see https://adta.memberclicks.net/ethics-info) and challenged us to resolve peer-to-peer conflicts directly when possible. An update of the code of ethics is in process and we participated in small group brainstorming around what needs to be changed or added to reflect the way our profession and the world are evolving. The closing ceremony offered goodbyes to those who passed as well as reflections of learnings and connections forged during the convention. I hope to see you all there next year as we gather in Long Beach, CA, on November 5-8, 2026.