AAMFT JMFT Webinar Series: Bangladeshi Couple Therapists’ Perspectives of Divorce Decision-Making

Umme Kawser is a Ph.D. candidate in Couple and Family Therapy at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Family Social Science and a founding faculty member of Bangladesh’s first university-based family therapy clinic at the University of Dhaka, where she served as Assistant Professor in Educational & Counseling Psychology. She was program executive for the nation’s inaugural suicide prevention and emotional support helpline, Kaan Pete Roi. Trained in systemic family therapy, EMDR, play therapy, discernment counseling, and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, she pioneered the cultural adaptation of Doherty’s Marital First Responder program for Bangladeshi contexts and led parent-education initiatives within local families. Her scholarship appears in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy (2025) on divorce decision-making, The American Journal of Family Therapy (2024) on therapist-supporting and -undermining behaviors, and the International Journal of Systemic Therapy (2024) on parent–child relationships. She currently serves as Summer Graduate Instructor and External Clinical Supervisor for the Marriage & Family Therapy program at UW–Stout and has been a guest faculty at the University of Liberal Arts, Dhaka. A Gold Medalist in Educational and Counseling Psychology (2013), she has received the Mental Health First Aid Best Performance Award (2016), Waller Awards (2023–25), the Frances Dunning Scholarship (2023), the Ruth S. Brown Scholarship (AY 2024–25), and the Jeanette Paul Scholarship (2024–25). Kawser remains dedicated to developing evidence-informed, culturally responsive interventions that empower couples and families across diverse contexts.

This 60-minute webinar, grounded in the qualitative study by Kawser et al. (2025), will explore how couple and family therapists in Dhaka—operating within a South Asian, collectivist milieu—support clients navigating divorce decisions. Drawing on thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 15 seasoned practitioners, we will: Situate divorce in its socio-cultural context. Examine how notions of shame, religious precepts, and gendered roles influence both clients’ decision-making and therapists’ interventions. Illuminate four central therapeutic themes. Discuss the dual role of therapists as perceived experts versus collaborative facilitators, the imperative of honoring client autonomy, the maintenance of professional neutrality, and techniques for fostering decision clarity. Offer culturally attuned strategies. Present evidence-informed approaches for sustaining a non-judgmental stance, empowering client agency, and addressing familial and community pressures endemic to collectivist societies.