Rewired by Grace
NEUROSCIENCE-INFORMED. RELATIONALLY GROUNDED. SPIRITUALLY ROOTED.
Discover how God uses safe relationships to heal what information alone cannot.
September 18–20, 2026 • LaFontaine, Indiana
5 Keynotes • 30+ Workshops • Life Growth Groups • CE Credits
Why Insight and Willpower Alone Fail to Create Lasting Change
Many people know what they should do differently.
They have insight.
They’ve read the books.
They’ve heard the sermons.
Yet under real stress, the same patterns return. Why?
Because the deepest drivers of behavior are often implicit emotional learnings formed through relational experience. Until those emotional learnings are updated, insight alone rarely produces durable change.
Where Neuroscience and Grace Meet
The NeuroRelational Change Model offers a framework for understanding how transformation actually occurs.
Rather than focusing only on thoughts or behaviors, the model addresses the deeper emotional learnings that organize how a person experiences themselves, others, the world, and God.
Lasting change happens when those emotional learnings are updated through corrective relational experiences, then stabilized through meaning and practice.
At the Summit, you will learn the model and experience it in action.
Beyond Your Typical Conference…
Beyond Information
Most conferences deliver content. This summit creates experiences that help insight become embodied and relationally grounded.
Beyond Psychology
The summit integrates neuroscience, relational psychology, and Christian theology into a coherent model of transformation.
Beyond Professional Training
Many participants come for professional development—and leave with deep personal growth as well.
Who This Conference is For…
Helping Professionals
- Counselors
- Therapists
- Executive coaches
- Social workers
- Pastors and ministry leaders
- Educators and organizational leaders
Individuals Seeking Deep Growth
Christians who want:
- more than surface-level change strategies
- a clearer understanding of how the brain and heart transform
- a relational pathway for lasting growth
What You’ll Experience…
- 5 Keynote Presentations
- 30+ Workshops
- Pre-Conference Immersive Seminars
- Relational Learning Experiences
- Optional Life Growth Group Track
- Continuing Education Credits
Keynote Speakers
Scott Makin, MA
Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Executive Coach, and Consultant Co-Founder of the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling, Concordia University Irvine; Founder of the Friends Counseling Center and the Makin Institute for NeuroChange. Developed the curriculum for the NeuroRelational Change Model Certification. Led hundreds of process groups, workshops, and leadership trainings for family businesses to million-dollar companies.
Gregg Makin, PhD
Executive coach, neuroscience expert, and co-founder of the Makin Institute for NeuroChange Gregg has a PhD in Organizational Leadership, is a NeuroChange Certified Specialist, and an ICF Professionally Certified Coach. Gregg brings decades of transformative coaching and relational neuroscience experience, having trained hundreds of coaches globally and led hundreds of process groups.
Jules Wilhelm
Founder of Jules Wilhelm Inc., Licensed Professional Counselor, Founder of EQ-niversity™ and the Impact Program Jules designs and delivers practical, habit-based emotional intelligence training for leaders, teams, and organizations. EQ-niversity is an emotional intelligence education platform that teaches leaders how to build skills they can practice, apply, and pass on. The Impact Program is a leadership development experience designed specifically for senior living organizations navigating high turnover, leadership strain, and culture fatigue.
Leslye Taylor
Organizational Development and Leadership Architect at Performance Research Lab and creator of Loving Leadership Studio™ Mission-driven organizations often operate in complex and rapidly changing environments. In this keynote, Leslye introduces The Loving Leadership Advantage™, a leadership framework grounded in neuroscience, organizational psychology, and strategic alignment that helps leaders cultivate Joyful Work, multiply God-given gifts, and build high-trust teams capable of delivering lasting Kingdom impact together.
NeuroChange Summit 2026 Schedule
Friday, September 18
Pre-Conference Immersive Seminars and Skill Labs
8:30 – 11:30 a.m., 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
NeuroRelational Change Skills Lab – Counseling, Social Worker, Helping Professionals
Dr. Karen Thacker is a licensed professional counselor, supervisor, adjunct professor, and NeuroChange Certification Trainer
Come to the playground, where participants will learn NeuroRelational Change Model (NRC) skills that create neural-network-level change and replace toxic Implicit Core Emotional Learnings (ICELs) with healthy ICELs. Time will be focused on defining the neurochange strategies and neurorelational skills, where they fit in the NRC model pathway, skill demonstrations, and lots of safe space to practice. The workshop will encompass both cognitive and experiential learning.
The Neurobiology of Character Change: Mastering Experiential Process Groups – Counseling, Social Worker, Helping Professionals
Madeline Spring is an expert in character-level transformation who integrates her clinical licensure and ICF coaching certificate with 250+ hours of psychodrama and sociometry training to lead high-impact groups as a TLP (Townsend Leadership Program) Director and professor at the Townsend Institute for Counseling & Coaching.
Stop managing groups and start facilitating breakthroughs with confidence. This 6-hour pre-conference intensive is designed for facilitators who want to bring deep, character level healing to the group setting and feel confident in the transformational work they provide. Blending psychodrama, sociometry, and high-impact experiential activities, this training is designed for the clinician who wants to master the art of deep process work. In this dual track experience, you will learn the “why” and “how” of character-level change while experiencing your own personal growth. Participants will walk away with ready-to-use techniques for both group, and individual sessions to create deep character level healing in your clients (as well as some personal breakthroughs yourself!)
8:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Attachment Focused EMDR within the NeuroChange Model – Counseling, Social Worker, Helping Professionals
Cathy Laub is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who has her own private practice. She specializes in complex trauma and has significant experience in EMDR and group therapy
The NeuroChange Model describes four core developmental domains—attachment, separation, integration, and authority—that shape how people experience relationships, boundaries, identity, and agency. These character patterns are not primarily cognitive beliefs but implicit core emotional learnings stored in attachment memory networks, formed through repeated relational experiences early in life. The power of EMDR lies in its ability to directly activate and update those memory networks through memory reconsolidation, facilitated by corrective relational experiences. When an attachment memory is reactivated in therapy and paired with new, contradictory relational experiences – held within a safe therapeutic relationship – the brain can revise the meaning encoded in that memory. This allows the underlying attachment learning that shaped core character domains to be updated at the neural level, facilitating deep-level change at a much faster pace: instead of only helping clients understand their patterns, EMDR helps rewrite the implicit core emotional learnings that created them, enabling long-lasting character transformation.
The Trust Lab: Building Capacity to Have Hard Conversations That Transform Team Dynamics – Executive and Life Coaching, Leadership
Julia LeFevre is a leadership coach and speaker who helps leaders become regulated leaders so they can build trust, navigate hard conversations, and create healthier team cultures
This lab will help leaders develop the capacity and skills required for trust-building conversations. Most leaders know which conversations they need to have. The challenge is to have them in a way that strengthens trust rather than damages it. The missing piece is often not a communication technique. It is internal capacity. When leaders enter difficult conversations with empty relational tanks, the nervous system shifts into protection mode. Curiosity narrows, defensiveness rises, and even well-intentioned conversations can escalate or stall. But when leaders proactively fill their relational “brain tanks” through connection and support, they are far more capable of staying grounded, clear, and collaborative under pressure. This interactive skill lab helps leaders develop the capacity and skills required for trust-building conversations. Participants will explore how relational connection fuels regulation, practice simple ways to refill their relational reserves before tension arises, and learn practical tools for navigating difficult conversations with honesty and care. Through guided exercises, live practice, and structured feedback, participants will learn how to stay regulated during tension, express what matters clearly, and turn conflict moments into opportunities for stronger collaboration. Participants will leave with practical strategies to proactively meet their relational needs, approach hard conversations with greater internal capacity, and lead discussions that strengthen trust across their teams.
1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Leading Change That Works: Engaging People Through the Loving Leadership Advantage™ – Executive and Life Coaching, Leadership
Leslye Taylor is an Organizational Development and Leadership Architect at Performance Research Lab and creator of Loving Leadership Studio™, helping mission-driven organizations lead complex change and build high-trust cultures that multiply talent and drive lasting impact.
This lab will help leaders develop the capacity and skills required for trust-building conversations. Most leaders know which conversations they need to have. The challenge is to have them in a way that strengthens trust rather than damages it. The missing piece is often not a communication technique. It is internal capacity. When leaders enter difficult conversations with empty relational tanks, the nervous system shifts into protection mode. Curiosity narrows, defensiveness rises, and even well-intentioned conversations can escalate or stall. But when leaders proactively fill their relational “brain tanks” through connection and support, they are far more capable of staying grounded, clear, and collaborative under pressure. This interactive skill lab helps leaders develop the capacity and skills required for trust-building conversations. Participants will explore how relational connection fuels regulation, practice simple ways to refill their relational reserves before tension arises, and learn practical tools for navigating difficult conversations with honesty and care. Through guided exercises, live practice, and structured feedback, participants will learn how to stay regulated during tension, express what matters clearly, and turn conflict moments into opportunities for stronger collaboration. Participants will leave with practical strategies to proactively meet their relational needs, approach hard conversations with greater internal capacity, and lead discussions that strengthen trust across their teams.
The Art of Attunement: Building a Safe Relationships that Lead to Transformation – Executive and Life Coaching, Leadership
Joy Schulteis serves with Cru as a Leadership Development Coach, helping leaders and teams across 30+ ministries grow spiritually and expand their Kingdom impact.
In this interactive workshop, you will learn the powerful coaching skill of attunement and how it creates safety and meaningful connection with clients. Using biblical relational principles, you will learn to identify where clients are stuck and facilitate deeper growth. We will also explore the 18 types of attunement and practice applying them through role-play and real coaching examples so you can build stronger relationships and lead clients toward lasting transformation.
Summit Begins
5:30 – 6:45 p.m.
KEYNOTE: Rewired by Grace: Why “Try Harder” Doesn’t Work — and What Actually Changes Us
Scott Makin is founder of the Makin Institute, Friends Counseling Centere and Co-Founder of the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling at Concordia University Irvine, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Executive Coach, & Consultant
Most of us were taught that change happens by trying harder, changing our thinking, focusing on the positive, getting more information, moral pressure, or self-disciplined behavior plans, yet many of us still feel stuck in the same cycles of anxiety, shame, anger, or loneliness. These change strategies can help in the short term, but often collapse under stress or over time. In this session, you’ll discover why they fail: they treat the symptoms while the deeper “neural wiring” underneath stays the same. You’ll learn how to spot the most common outdated change engines and reposition them in their proper role — support tools, not the source of transformation. Rewired by Grace shows a different path — how God designed our brains to change through safe relationships, honest emotions, and genuine relational experiences that replace old messages like “I’m not enough.” “I am not desirable.” “I am too much.” You’ll leave with simple, practical next steps to build the kind of connection — with God and others — that makes real change not just possible, but sustainable when life gets hard.
7:15 – 8:30 p.m.
WORKSHOP 1 (Choose 1 of 5)
8:30 p.m.
Relational Time with coffee and desserts available
Saturday, September 19
8:30 – 9:45 a.m.
KEYNOTE: Love That Rewires: The Apostle Paul’s Relational Blueprint for Lasting Change
Gregg Makin has a PhD in Organizational Leadership, is a NeuroChange Certified Specialist, and a Professionally Certified Coach. Gregg brings decades of transformative coaching and relational neuroscience experience, having trained hundreds of coaches globally.
We live in a world of “go it alone” strength – yet many of us quietly pay for it with isolation, stuck patterns, and a nervous system that never fully exhales. We will explore how the deepest kind of change doesn’t come from more insight, casual connections, or willpower, but from real relationships that carry love all the way into the places we keep hidden. Through Paul the Apostle and his “band of brothers,” we’ll trace a simple, unforgettable pathway: Acknowledge, Ask, and Accept.
9:45 a.m.
Relational Time & Refreshment Break
10:15 – 11:30 a.m.
WORKSHOP 2 (Choose 1 of 5)
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch: Food Trucks available
1:00 – 2:15 p.m.
WORKSHOP 3 (Choose 1 of 5)
2:15 p.m.
Relational Time & Refreshment Break
2:45 – 4:00 p.m.
WORKSHOP 4 (Choose 1 of 5)
4:15 – 5:15 p.m.
KEYNOTE: Rewiring Workplace Relationships: Practical Emotional Intelligence for teams
Jules Wilhelm is the CEO and Founder of Jules Wilhelm Inc. and EQ-niversity™, bringing 25 years of experience as a licensed therapist and the past decade of translating clinical psychology into practical leadership strategy. She is the creator of the Impact program and Next Level Leadership™ trainings.
In the business world, emotional intelligence is often misunderstood. Leaders worry that addressing emotions at work will take too much time, require therapy-level skills, or create relational messes they do not know how to manage. As a result, many teams stay stuck in reactivity, disconnection, and costly communication breakdowns. In this keynote, Jules Wilhelm shares a practical, neuroscience-aware approach to building emotional intelligence in the workplace one skill at a time. Drawing from her EQ Roadmap™ and Known, Matter and Measure Culture process, Jules demystifies how relational change happens in everyday business conversations and shows how simple, repeatable language shifts can create meaningful corrective relational experiences at work. Making the world a better place, one conversation at a time!
Sunday, September 20
8:00 – 9:00 a.m.
KEYNOTE: The Loving Leadership Advantage™: Building High-Performing Teams in Mission-Driven Organizations
Leslye Taylor is an Organizational Development and Leadership Architect at Performance Research Lab and creator of Loving Leadership Studio™, helping mission-driven organizations lead complex change and build high-trust cultures that multiply talent and drive lasting impact.
Mission-driven organizations often operate in complex and rapidly changing environments. In this keynote, Leslye introduces The Loving Leadership Advantage™, a leadership framework grounded in neuroscience, organizational psychology, and strategic alignment that helps leaders cultivate Joyful Work, multiply God-given gifts, and build high-trust teams capable of delivering lasting Kingdom impact together. Participants will gain fresh insight into how leaders create environments where people thrive, gifts are multiplied, and teams unite around meaningful mission outcomes.
9:00 a.m.
Relational Time & Refreshment Break
9:30 – 10:45 a.m.
WORKSHOP 5 (Choose 1 of 5)
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
KEYNOTE: Carry It Home: A Relational Goodbye for Lasting Change
Scott Makin is the founder of the Makin Institute, Friends Counseling Centere and Co-Founder of the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling at Concordia University Irvine, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Executive Coach, & Consultant
This closing session is a meaningful NeuroRelational sending experience that helps you reflect on what became real for you during the summit, deepen the connections formed along the way, and carry that growth into everyday life. Through guided reflection, attuned interaction, and one final relational experience, you will name what God has been doing, anchor it more deeply in your story, and leave with one clear next step. This is not just the end of a conference—it is a grace-filled moment of closure, connection, and commissioning. Come ready to leave not only informed, but seen, strengthened, and sent.
Experience the Life Growth Group Track
One of the most distinctive elements of the Summit is the Life Growth Group Experience. These are not discussion groups. They are guided relational growth experiences designed to create Corrective Relational Experiences (CREs)—moments where new relational realities update old emotional learnings that keep people stuck.
Participants explore how they relate to themselves, others, God, and the world around them within a safe, attuned environment. Process Groups are led by experienced facilitators, and you stay with the same people in each session.
Through honest sharing, presence, and relational attunement, many people discover that change happens not merely by learning new information but by experiencing something different in relationships.
Reserve your spot when you register today!
3 opportunities to experience a Process Group
Pre-Conference 5-Session Process Group
Friday, September 18: 2 sessions in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and the final one during the 7:15 pm workshop.
9-Session Process Group
Friday, September 18: 2 sessions in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, one during the Friday evening workshop, 5 during each workshop time on Saturday and Sunday.
5-Session Process Group
During each workshop session starting Friday, September 18 at 7:15 pm and continuing each workshop time on Saturday and Sunday.
Come for the ideas. Stay for the experience.
Leave with a deeper understanding of how people truly change—and a lived taste of that change yourself.
NeuroChange Summit Locations
Friday & Saturday
La Fontaine Christian Church
202 Bruner Pike, La Fountaine, IN 46940
Sunday
Charley Creek Inn
111 West Market Street, Wabash, IN 46992