Please be aware that the schedule reflects the Eastern Time Zone. The programming schedule will be continuously updated leading up to the event.
Breakout Sessions 10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Systemic Queer Training in an Era of Anti-DEI Policies
Mary Nedela, LMFT
Evan Thomas, PhD
This workshop is a call to action for MFT program administration in an era of anti-DEI legislation and will provide a framework to guide MFT faculty in their program governance to reinforce expectations of sociocultural attunement toward queer and trans clients among MFT trainees.
Employee Assistance Programs: A Winning Partnership
Julie A. Fabik-Swarts, MS, CFRE, CAP, CEAP
Today’s EAPs are evolving from reactive support services to strategic tools that enhance employee well-being, engagement, and organizational performance. This presentation explores how modern EAPs, when integrated effectively, can reduce absenteeism, support mental health, and align with corporate goals—positioning them as essential assets in building resilient, productive, and healthy workplace cultures.
Preparing for AI: The Blessings and the Curses
Dale E. Bertram, PhD in MFT, LMFT
This workshop will examine the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence in clinical, educational, and research contexts. Benefits such as increased access and efficiency will be explored alongside ethical risks, algorithmic bias, and threats to therapeutic relationships. Participants will gain frameworks for ethical evaluation, practical integration strategies, and an overview of emerging research on AI in behavioral healthcare.
Clinical Integration of 9 Theories of MFT with Christian Spirituality
Andrew Mercurio, D.Min., LMFT, CST
This presentation will focus on leveraging client's spiritual resources to meet clinical goals. Specific application of 9 MFT Theories with Christian clients will be explored.
Supervising Systemically: SUD through a Family Therapy Lens [SUAOD Network Track]
William Northey, PhD
This session equips supervisors in substance use disorder (SUD) programs with systemic tools to support clinicians treating individuals and families impacted by SUD. Drawing from family therapy models, participants will explore supervisory strategies that address relational dynamics, resistance, and ethical complexity. Emphasis is placed on parallel process, clinician self-awareness, and creating a family-informed culture within SUD treatment settings.
Therapist Accountability and the Myth of Resistance
John Robbins, PhD LMFT
Heather J. Ambrose, PhD, LMFT
Reimagine resistance as relational information rather than opposition. This interactive session invites therapists and supervisors to explore therapist accountability, challenge traditional assumptions, and engage with self-of-the-therapist strategies. Grounded in relational ethics and systemic theory, the workshop offers practical tools to deepen engagement—particularly with adolescents and marginalized clients—and reframe stuck moments as opportunities for connection.
Don’t Settle for Wooden Nickels: Another Look at Premarital Therapy
Latonya Stephens, PhD
This workshop will challenge the therapist in authenticity and creatively discerning communication styles that trigger distress with relationships through dancing.
AI and Relational Interventions [Telehealth and Technology Network Track]
Daniel Puhlman, PhD, LMFT
This workshop explores AI's role in relationship interventions, highlighting both opportunities and critical risks. The workshop will define AI concepts, including NLP, interpretability, and HILT, and examine practical hurdles like data scarcity and ethical dilemmas (privacy, bias, de-skilling). Participants will gain a balanced perspective on AI's potential and limitations in family science, fostering responsible innovation. Based on published research.
The Art with Heart: Bringing Systemic Therapist Common Factors to Life [Couples Network Track]
Eli A. Karam, PhD
This workshop will examine therapist-level common factors contributing to systemic therapy effectiveness, building on Sprenkle, Blow & Karam's work. We will explore specific therapist characteristics and practices that enhance client outcomes. Participants will identify their own therapeutic strengths while developing understanding of multiple variables influencing treatment success.
The Experience of Commitment in Gay Relationships
Nickolas Summa, PhD, LMFT, LPC
This presentation will explore original research on how gay men in long-term relationships experience commitment and how identity development influences relational dynamics. Participants will gain tools to assess and support commitment in same-sex couples using systemic and identity-informed approaches, while considering sociocultural risks and the limitations of traditional commitment models.
Breakout Sessions 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Systemic Strategies in Chronic Illness Care [Family Therapists in Healthcare Network Track]
Brittany Huelett-Lyons, PhD
Gunnur Karakurt, PhD
David J. Johnson, PhD
This workshop explores chronic illness through a systemic lens, integrating family dynamics, illness features, and healthcare systems. Clinicians will examine how onset, progression, and treatment impact coping and adaptation, using examples like sickle cell disease, diabetes, and sleep apnea. Strategies for tailored assessment and intervention by integrated care teams will support systemic case conceptualization in clinical practice.
Working with Minors in Outpatient Eating Disorder Treatment
Jennifer I.S. Kendrick, MSSW, MFT
Outpatient treatment for eating disorders brings particular challenges and opportunities, particularly when working with children and their families. This session will address how to incorporate families into outpatient therapy, with particular attention paid to blended and/or high-conflict families.
Therapy as Peacebuilding: Healing Across Cultures and Generations [International Insights]
Daniele Tedesco, Psychologist and FMT in Brazil
This workshop will introduce a systemic-spiritual model for transforming intergenerational trauma into resilience and cohesion. Drawing from clinical case studies, trauma research, and symbolic interventions, the session will explore methods for integrating spirituality, addressing cultural sensitivity, and applying systemic tools to foster healing, leadership continuity, and peacebuilding across families, cultures, and organizations.
Spiritual Direction in Family Therapy
Debbie Manigat, DMFT, LMFT
By attuning to both the sacred and the relational, therapists can support families in constructing shared narratives of purpose, resilience, and connection. This workshop explores the integration of spiritual direction and spiritual disciplines within family therapy, emphasizing spirituality as a vital aspect of cultural identity and holistic well-being. Participants will examine how spiritual health—rooted in practices like prayer, meditation, simplicity, solitude, lectio divina, and many others—can support emotional resilience, family cohesion, and post-traumatic growth. This training provides insight to spirituality as an essential dimension of the human experience and how therapists can create culturally responsive, ethically grounded spaces that honor clients' beliefs, ancestral wisdom, and deepen healing. Overall, this training equips trainees with an introductory overview to explore what is soul care in support of clients journey in somatic, psychological, and spiritual discovery.
Counseling Individuals and Families Bereaved by Suicide Loss
Joy Giorgio, LMFT
Michael Weinberg, PhD
This session equips clinicians to support individuals and families bereaved by suicide. Presenters will outline unique aspects of suicide grief, share safety assessment tools, and introduce a comfort and safety plan for at-risk survivors. Attendees will gain practical interventions to manage compassion fatigue while fostering healing in both acute and prolonged grief.
Advocating for MFT Students: From Surviving to Thriving
Nikki L. Ray, MFT Intern
This presentation will explore how advocacy and access to research-informed resources can support MFT students in their early professional development. A systemic perspective will be placed on strengthening relational subsystems to reduce impostor syndrome, enhance professional identity, and foster long-term growth in the MFT field.
Intersections of Trauma, Relational Therapy and Spirituality
Danielle Vriend-Fluit, PhD, RMFT, Registered Psychotherapist (Ontario)
Kristin Mouttet, PhD, LMFT, LPC
Tracey Duncan, PhD
This workshop explores how trauma, relational therapy, and spirituality intersect. Participants will learn a model for assessing and treating clients when spirituality is either a resource, a source of harm or both. Emphasis is placed on using a relational lens, spiritual narratives, and culturally sensitive practices that support healing across diverse spiritual backgrounds. Suitable for clinicians working with trauma-affected individuals and families.
Rewriting the Father Wound Through Secure Attachment
Christian Jackson, LPC, LPC/S
This workshop will explore the impact of the father wound on adult attachment and relational health. Attendees will learn how to apply The GRACE Method™ to foster secure attachment, reduce re-traumatization risk, and support intergenerational healing through culturally responsive, research-informed practices. Ideal for clinicians, educators, and advocates seeking relational tools grounded in attachment theory and trauma recovery.
MI CVLTVRE: A Cross-Cultural Systemic Approach in Working Sensitively with People from Diverse Cultures
Deisy Amoran-Woods
In this session, Deisy Amorin-Woods will present a cross-cultural systemic approach to appropriately (sensitively and respectfully) work with people from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
“We have an essential responsibility, as practitioners, educators, researchers, and clinical supervisors, to be culturally sensitive to the diverse needs of people from different backgrounds. (Amorin-Woods, 2016, Amorin-Woods et al., 2020). “Mi Cvltvre is designed to challenge practitioners’ myopic views from the dominant “white” perspective of seeing, being, feeling, learning and relating to the world. This approach is used as a prompt for practitioners to be cognisant of the multi-layered influences and elements involved in working with cultural diversity” (Amorin-Woods, 2020; Amorin-Woods et al., 2021).
The presentation will include:
• MI CVLTVRE Rationale & Development
• MI CVLTVRE in Practice
• Unpacking the model: CASE STUDY with a Client from a CaLD background
• Practical experience: Cross-cultural conversations
Updated Best Practice Guidelines for Telehealth in Couple and Family Therapy
Sheila Addison, LMFT
Stephanie Zepeda, PhD, LMFT-S
Online Therapy is growing in utilization and the early research on its effectiveness is promising. However, many MFTs still wonder about professional considerations and ethical obligations when providing telehealth services, particularly as the context and delivery of these services is rapidly evolving. This webinar will introduce the 2025 Best Practice Guidelines for Telehealth in Couples and Family Therapy, the product of an AAMFT Work Group that examined emerging research and professional recommendations for mental health providers.
Breakout Sessions 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Mirror Mirror Upon Thy Face: Who is to Blame for Thy Shame? [International Insights]
Rehema Nyambura Gathumbi, MA-MFT
This workshop will explore how toxic shame disrupts couple dynamics, particularly around intimacy and emotional connection. Participants will learn the MEA model, integrating Mindfulness, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy,to identify and interrupt shame-blame cycles, promote healing, and apply culturally responsive interventions while considering risks associated with retraumatization and conflicting views on the adaptive role of shame.
Beyond Parental Controls: Parental Anxiety and Teen Social Media Use
Tina Pham, MA
This workshop will explore the complex relationship between adolescent social media use and parenting and enumerate the benefits and risks of social media use for adolescents. Participants will learn how parenting styles, attachment, and communication strategies influence teen behavior. Parental interventions will be reviewed, and evidence-informed strategies to foster healthy digital habits and mental well-being will be introduced.
Reflections That Matter: The Ethics of Seeing Ourselves [Advancing Supervision]
John M. Robbins, PhD, LMFT
Mathew C. Withers, PhD
This session will explore how layered feedback strategies—grounded in the POTT model and the AAMFT Code of Ethics—can ethically deepen Self-of-the-Therapist work in supervision. Feedback mechanisms such as video review, client input, and in-the-moment responses will be used to promote therapist integrity, cultural responsiveness, and accountability while supporting ethical growth through awareness of values and triggers.
Asking for Things & Listening to Criticism: Targets for Couple Therapy, Part 1
Arthur C. Nielsen, MD
Few of us are good at asking for what we want or at listening to criticism. Helping partners to meet the challenges of asking for what they want and listening to criticism from their partners are central to success in couple therapy. This talk explores the many reasons why this is so and provides suggestions for helping clients do better.
Clinical Intuition Meets Artificial Intelligence, Part 1
Jina Uyeda, Psy.D, LMFT, CSAC
Abby Go, PsyD
This workshop will explore how artificial intelligence can enhance documentation, treatment planning, and psychoeducation in clinical practice. Ethical considerations, real-world examples, and decision-making frameworks will be presented to guide responsible use. Participants will gain tools to integrate AI while maintaining professional standards, reducing burnout, and preserving therapeutic presence.
The Role of Relationships in Refugee Trauma: A Systemic Approach
Tanya Elez, PhD
This session will provide a focused introduction to systemic, relational perspectives on refugee trauma, with practical strategies and case examples for clinicians and systemic therapists.
Critically Conscious Learning Environments in MFT and MSW Education
Dana J. Stone, PhD
Deborah Buttitta, PhD
Jose M. Paez, Ed.D
This presentation will include the research findings of our ployethnographic study in which we centered our experiences as MFT and MSW educators dedicated to fostering and maintaining critically conscious learning environments in today's highly polarized sociopolitical climate. We will highlight three strategies that emerged from our study to support educators implementing diversity and multicultural curricula in graduate programs.
Family Systems: Theory, Diagnosis, and Intervention, Part 1
Jacob B. Priest, PhD, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor
This session introduces Family Systems Theory as a dynamic framework for understanding and intervening in relational dysfunction. Emphasizing triangles as systems of constraint and cohesion, it explores how power, identity, and boundaries shape family dynamics. Participants will learn to diagnose systemic patterns and apply targeted interventions that promote flexibility, robustness, and adaptive change in complex family systems.
From Hurt to Healing: Navigating Relational Destructive Entitlement, Part 1 [Couples Network Track]
Manijeh Daneshpour, PhD, LMFT
This workshop explores destructive entitlement, a key concept in contextual therapy, through a clinically grounded and culturally attuned lens. Destructive entitlement emerges when individuals seek compensation for past relational injustices in ways that unintentionally harm current relationships. Drawing on the work of Boszormenyi-Nagy (1986), Hargrave (2012), and recent contributions to Family Process, this session offers practical strategies to help therapists recognize and transform these patterns into constructive entitlement, the earned right to receive care through fairness and accountability.
Participants will learn to use genograms and relational mapping to identify loyalty binds, legacy burdens, and transgenerational injustice. The workshop also addresses cultural humility, gendered expressions of entitlement, and working with marginalized populations. Risks and critiques of contextual therapy, such as overemphasis on fairness or potential for retraumatization, will be critically examined. Attendees will leave with deeper insight, clinical tools, and ethical awareness for applying contextual concepts in diverse relational contexts.
Narrative Exposure Therapy for Treatment Complex PTSD, Part 1
Elizabeth Wieling, PhD
Émilie Ellis, PhD
Amber Kelley, PhD
Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) is a treatment for trauma-spectrum disorders in survivors of multiple and complex trauma. NET builds on the theory of the dual representation of traumatic memories (Schauer, Neuner & Elbert, 2011). It is thought to contextualize the particular associative elements of the fear network, the sensory, affective and cognitive memories of trauma to understand and process the memory of a traumatic event in the course of the particular life of a client. NET is consistently reviewed as the best supported intervention for the treatment of refugees and people who have been exposed to multiple traumatic events over their lifetime (Nose et al., 2017). The training workshop will: (a) introduce the theoretical underpinnings of NET; (b) summarize the evidence of NET for adults and children; and c) discuss clinical implications for using multi-component NET + systemic models to work with populations affected by traumatic stress.
Breakout Sessions 2:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Utilizing a Therapeutic Apology to Repair Family Relationships
Allen Sabey, PhD
Betsy Scott, PhD
This presentation will introduce a therapeutic apology intervention from Emotion-Focused Family Therapy that can be used to work towards repairing relational injuries in families. A step-by-step process of the intervention will be provided, including examples, relevant research, and how therapists can support and guide family members (e.g., parents, partners) to deliver and receive this type of apology.
2 forms of Sensory Processing Challenges in Neurodivergent Clients
Jordan C. Smelley, MHPS
This presentation will explore how Proprioceptive and Tactile Dysfunction can drive misunderstood behaviors in neurodivergent individuals. Through clinical insight and the presenter sharing their personal lived experience around challenges with Proprioceptive Dysfunction and Tactile Dysfunction, participants will learn to recognize sensory-seeking and avoidant behaviors, reduce stigma, and apply trauma-informed strategies to support emotional regulation and strengthen relationships.
Family Systems: Theory, Diagnosis, and Intervention, Part 2
Jacob B. Priest, PhD, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor
This session introduces Family Systems Theory as a dynamic framework for understanding and intervening in relational dysfunction. Emphasizing triangles as systems of constraint and cohesion, it explores how power, identity, and boundaries shape family dynamics. Participants will learn to diagnose systemic patterns and apply targeted interventions that promote flexibility, robustness, and adaptive change in complex family systems.
Clinical Intuition Meets Artificial Intelligence, Part 2
Jina Uyeda, Psy.D, LMFT, CSAC
Abby Go, PsyD
This workshop will explore how artificial intelligence can enhance documentation, treatment planning, and psychoeducation in clinical practice. Ethical considerations, real-world examples, and decision-making frameworks will be presented to guide responsible use. Participants will gain tools to integrate AI while maintaining professional standards, reducing burnout, and preserving therapeutic presence.
Asking for Things & Listening to Criticism: Targets for Couple Therapy, Part 2
Arthur C. Nielsen, MD
Few of us are good at asking for what we want or at listening to criticism. Helping partners to meet the challenges of asking for what they want and listening to criticism from their partners are central to success in couple therapy. This talk explores the many reasons why this is so and provides suggestions for helping clients do better.
Hidden Stakes: Understanding Problem Gambling in Couples Treatment [SUAOD Network Track]
Meri Shadley, PhD
Jennifer C. Ross, PhD
This presentation explores problem gambling's impact on couples through a family systems lens. Participants will learn how gambling creates cycles of deception, financial betrayal, and homeostatic patterns while examining current prevalence trends. The session covers evidence-based couple interventions, assessment strategies for systemic patterns, and practical tools for rebuilding trust and financial stability.
Telehealth in Practice: Realities, Challenges and Future Directions [Telehealth and Technology Network Track]
Jacob B. Priest, PhD, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor
Rebecca Cobb, PhD
Jennifer Sampson, PhD
This session features four TIN leaders sharing case-based insights on teletherapy in diverse contexts, including rural care, cultural responsiveness, supervision, and high-risk populations. A facilitated discussion will follow, inviting attendees to explore current challenges and collaboratively shape future TIN training priorities. Join us to connect, reflect, and contribute to advancing telehealth practice.
From Hurt to Healing: Navigating Relational Destructive Entitlement, Part 2 [Couples Network Track]
Manijeh Daneshpour, PhD, LMFT
This workshop explores destructive entitlement, a key concept in contextual therapy, through a clinically grounded and culturally attuned lens. Destructive entitlement emerges when individuals seek compensation for past relational injustices in ways that unintentionally harm current relationships. Drawing on the work of Boszormenyi-Nagy (1986), Hargrave (2012), and recent contributions to Family Process, this session offers practical strategies to help therapists recognize and transform these patterns into constructive entitlement, the earned right to receive care through fairness and accountability.
Participants will learn to use genograms and relational mapping to identify loyalty binds, legacy burdens, and transgenerational injustice. The workshop also addresses cultural humility, gendered expressions of entitlement, and working with marginalized populations. Risks and critiques of contextual therapy, such as overemphasis on fairness or potential for retraumatization, will be critically examined. Attendees will leave with deeper insight, clinical tools, and ethical awareness for applying contextual concepts in diverse relational contexts.
Narrative Exposure Therapy for Treatment Complex PTSD, Part 2
Elizabeth Wieling, PhD
Émilie Ellis, PhD
Amber Kelley, PhD
Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) is a treatment for trauma-spectrum disorders in survivors of multiple and complex trauma. NET builds on the theory of the dual representation of traumatic memories (Schauer, Neuner & Elbert, 2011). It is thought to contextualize the particular associative elements of the fear network, the sensory, affective and cognitive memories of trauma to understand and process the memory of a traumatic event in the course of the particular life of a client. NET is consistently reviewed as the best supported intervention for the treatment of refugees and people who have been exposed to multiple traumatic events over their lifetime (Nose et al., 2017). The training workshop will: (a) introduce the theoretical underpinnings of NET; (b) summarize the evidence of NET for adults and children; and c) discuss clinical implications for using multi-component NET + systemic models to work with populations affected by traumatic stress.
The Five Love Languages and Relationship Quality: An Empirical Test
Sharon Flicker, PhD, LMFT
Chapman's claim that the key to marital happiness is “speaking” your partner's primary “love language” has been incorporated into therapeutic practice. However, the theory has not yet been empirically validated. This webinar will focus on recent attempts to validate the theory and what the findings suggest about the utility of incorporating the theory into therapeutic practice.