Earn 2 CEUS!*

Miriam Cornell, MA LMFT (they/them), is a therapist currently based in Minneapolis. After leaving the religious cult in which they were raised, they spent time exploring their relationship to religion, rewriting the narrative of their life, and learning everything they could about religious harm (They are still learning!). Their experience of being raised in a cult, subsequent exploration of self and healing, and their continual exploration of this topic informs their work as a therapist. They primarily work with individuals and couples around experiences of religious harm, gender, sexuality, and neurodivergence often exploring the intersecting connections of all these things.

Description

Religious harm has far-reaching relational impacts. To better meet our clients where they are, it is vital to understand the unhelpful side of religious experiences. It comes in many forms and can be experienced in many different contexts. Many folks report feeling lost, even years after de-identifying with religion, and can struggle to imagine a way forward. They sometimes have great difficulty navigating the world without religion. They often describe difficulties around knowing who they are, how to make choices, how to relate to others, and feeling a sense of autonomy. For those raised in those settings, the impact on identity development can be difficult to painful. This workshop will offer you ways to work with your client to explore the layers of their religious experience and create an expansive path of relational healing.

This workshop will offer language to better understand our client and help them name their experiences. We will explore the ways that narratives formed in the context of high control religion or associated with fundamentalist religious beliefs impact clients’ ways of existing in this world. The impact of religious harm on relationship to self and other will be presented from an attachment perspective. We will also begin to explore how the self of the therapist can impact clients in helpful and unhelpful ways around this issue.

The presenter's experience is in a fundamentalist christian cult and the workshop will primarily focus on high control experiences in the christian church. However, the idea of working with your client to create new and empowering narratives as an expansive path to healing may be helpful to explore within other contexts of religious harm.

Objectives:

1. Learn terminology essential to understanding layers of religious harm
2. Begin to understand the impact of religious harm on clients’ development over the life span
3. Learn about the relational harm within high control religion and the value of relational healing
4. Be able to explore how the relationship of the therapist to both religion and to the self can impact the therapeutic work in the sessions

* This CE activity offered by Minnesota Association of Marriage and Family is approved by the Minnesota Board of Social Work as an approved CE Provider (approval valid through July 25, 2026).

This CE activity is pending CE approval with Minnesota Board of Behavioral Health and Board of Marriage and Family Therapy.

Earn 1.5 CEUS!*

Umme Kawser is a doctoral candidate in the Couple and Family Therapy program at the University of Minnesota. Her research and clinical work focus on culturally responsive systemic therapy, couple relationships, and therapeutic processes within South Asian contexts. She has conducted qualitative and applied clinical research on divorce decision-making, emotion processes, and therapeutic engagement in Bangladesh. Her clinical practice integrates systemic and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) principles with cultural attunement to support couples and families navigating relational distress. She also provides workshops and training on cultural adaptation in therapy for practitioners working with diverse and international populations.

Description

Systemic therapy models, including Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), offer powerful frameworks for understanding relational processes, emotional needs, and interactional patterns. However, applying these models within South Asian contexts requires careful cultural adaptation. South Asian families often navigate layered cultural expectations, collective decision-making structures, strong interdependence, extended family involvement, and norms around emotional restraint. Without cultural attunement, therapeutic processes may not align with clients’ lived realities or relational logic.

This training offers an in-depth exploration of how systemic and EFT-based practices can be effectively adapted to work with South Asian couples and families, with a particular focus on clinical work in Bangladesh. Drawing on research and applied clinical experience, the session examines how cultural values such as hierarchy, familism, community reputation, and gendered expectations influence therapeutic engagement, alliance-building, and emotional processing. Participants will learn how these cultural dynamics intersect with systemic concepts such as interactional cycles, attachment needs, and relational positioning.

Through detailed case examples, the presentation illustrates how therapists can modify their interventions while maintaining the integrity of systemic and attachment-based models. Topics include adjusting language and metaphors, pacing emotional exploration, navigating indirect communication styles, integrating extended family perspectives, and using culturally relevant reframes. Emphasis is placed on strengthening therapists cultural humility, recognizing culturally shaped emotional expressions, and responding in ways that support safety and accessibility for clients.

The training also considers common clinical dilemmas that arise when working with South Asian populations, such as navigating family boundaries, addressing stigma around therapy, working with couples considering divorce, and balancing cultural sensitivity with evidence-based practice. Throughout the session, participants will be encouraged to reflect on their assumptions, broaden their cultural formulation skills, and consider how contextual awareness enhances therapeutic effectiveness.

By the end of the training, participants will have a deeper understanding of how to apply systemic and EFT principles within the cultural frameworks of South Asian families. They will be better equipped to provide culturally responsive, relationally attuned care. This session is well-suited for clinicians working with South Asian immigrant communities, international populations, or any clients whose cultural values significantly influence relational processes.

Objectives:

1. Identify key cultural and contextual factors that shape couple and family therapy processes within South Asian contexts, with a focus on Bangladesh.

2. Analyze how Systemic and Emotionally Focused approaches can be culturally adapted to improve therapeutic engagement and intervention fit.

3. Apply culturally attuned clinical decision-making through case-based examples illustrating therapy with South Asian couples and families.

4. Evaluate how the therapist's cultural humility, relational attunement, and contextual awareness influence treatment outcomes in cross-cultural systemic work.

*This CE activity offered by Minnesota Association of Marriage and Family is approved by the Minnesota Board of Social Work as an approved CE Provider (approval valid through July 25, 2026).

This CE activity is pending CE approval with Minnesota Board of Behavioral Health and Board of Marriage and Family Therapy.

Earn 2 CEUS!*

Kei Skeide, MS, LMFT, C-DBT, CCTP (they/them) is a marriage and family therapist licensed in Minnesota and Wisconsin and a PhD candidate in Couple and Family Therapy at Antioch University New England. They direct KWS Consulting & Wellness, providing trauma-informed, gender-affirming care, clinical supervision, and consultation on AI ethics, digital mental health, and decolonizing practice. Kei has presented nationally and internationally on technology, relational ethics, and systemic care, including at the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) 2025 Conference and the upcoming International Family Therapy Association (IFTA) Congress 2026 in Bergen, Norway.

Description

AI now mediates help-seeking, triage, documentation, and even “companionship” across borders, often without meaningful, culturally legible consent. This session introduces a practice-ready, tech-pessimist framework grounded in my SHIFT model to support equitable, context-sensitive care in diverse settings. We focus on how clinicians can examine their tools and geopolitical context, protect the right to refuse AI without penalty, and craft consent processes that are trauma-aware, multilingual, and plain-language.

We attend to the real conditions that shape consent across regions: cross-border data transfers, hosting location and third-party access, data retention, vendor incentives, and uneven enforcement of privacy and anti-discrimination laws. Rather than celebrating optimization, we center relational accountability, name the limits of confidentiality with AI tools, and preserve authentic human connection, especially where clients face surveillance, criminalization, or infrastructural barriers.

Using common clinical scenarios, including intake chatbots, predictive flagging, AI-generated notes, and “AI companions,” participants will practice drafting globally aware consent language that specifies where data live, who can see them, what harms are plausible, and what non-AI alternatives are available. The session equips therapists, supervisors, and organizational leaders with adaptable decision rubrics and de-implementation checklists that translate tech pessimism into everyday ethics, linking moment-to-moment clinical choices with governance, audit, and policy actions.

The aim is straightforward: safeguard autonomy, connection, and safety for clients and communities worldwide, and prioritize equity and collective well-being over speed, scale, and data extraction.

Objectives:

1. Analyze & Evaluate the ethical and relational challenges posed by technology, specifically AI, in the practice of systemic therapy, particularly through the lens of tech-pessimism and psychopolitics.

2. Explore the intersection of identity, race, ethnicity, gender, and technology in shaping client experiences and systemic approaches to therapy.

3. Develop a framework for balancing technological innovation with skepticism to ensure equity, relationality, and meaningful therapeutic outcomes in diverse clinical and research settings.

*This CE activity offered by Minnesota Association of Marriage and Family is approved by the Minnesota Board of Social Work as an approved CE Provider (approval valid through July 25, 2026).

This CE activity is pending CE approval with Minnesota Board of Behavioral Health and Board of Marriage and Family Therapy.