WAMFT EVENT ARCHIVE
SUMMARY OF PAST CONFERENCES
The WAMFT 2023 Annual Conference, Entering into Fullness: Self of the Therapist was held September 22-23 in Spokane. We were excited to present Dr. Harry Aponte’s work around being “wounded healers” in the Person of the Therapist model as the heart of our conference. Aponte believes that helping professionals need to commit to their own personal journey of growth to relate to what it takes for clients to engage in the daunting journey of change. Providers must resonate with the pain their client’s experiences and personally engage through the therapeutic relationship, the family and associates, and any aspect of the client’s personal, institutional, governmental, and personal spirituality community. To learn more about Aponte’s model, visit https://harryjaponte.com.
Along with our overall conference theme, we offered four tracks from which attendees can choose during the breakout sessions:
General Person of the Therapist - Explores ways to engage fully through person of the therapist techniques, self care, and cultural attunement.
- Provider Burn-Out: Symptom of Lacking Fullness - This track will consider ways providers can manage burnout through person of the therapist techniques, innovative self-care, and culturally attuning client centered care to enable therapist authenticity and effective client care.
- Side Hustle: Creative Ways to Enter into Fullness - This track will include sessions where attendees will learn from others’ experiences of starting new career paths beyond the typical borders of therapy such as starting a therapy podcast, a consultation group, or creating dance battles for therapists. Ethical and practical considerations will be addressed.
- Topic Spotlight: Integrating Sex Therapy & Self of the Therapist - Focuses on how the self of the therapist can be integrated with sex therapy modalities.
2021 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
2021 Annual Conference
September 24th & 25th
Thank you to our 2021 Conference Sponsors
For more information about workshop presenters & panelists, click here!
Check out these articles deconstructing theory. To learn more about topics like these, join this year's annual conference.
2020 Annual Conference
Crisis Across the Lifespan: Systemic Assessment and Intervention in Marriage and Family Therapy
Held virtually, Friday Sept 25th - Saturday Sept 26th
WAMFT hosted our annual fall conference to support the continuing education of its members. This year so as not to miss out on this important learning and networking opportunity due to COVID, we hosted the entire annual conference virtually! The theme of this year’s conference was Crisis across the Lifespan: Systemic Assessment and Intervention in Marriage and Family Therapy, with a pre-conference workshop on the topic of Suicidality.
With the current COVID-19 pandemic, we were more acutely aware and reminded of how crisis, including a global crisis, affects individuals, couples, and families. We hoped to bring our community together to learn more about how crises, like COVID-19, affect people across the lifespan and how we as MFTs and other mental health professionals can work effectively with clients during these times.
The annual conference was a great opportunity for continuing education, especially for those who had anticipated earning CEs at spring events that were canceled due to the pandemic. Participants had an opportunity to earn up to 13 CEs during the event if a person participated in the Pre-Conference workshop and Main Conference! WAMFT also hosted virtual networking events and other ways to connect with colleagues online throughout the event.
Event Highlights
2020 Annual Conference Keynote Highlights & Breakout Previews
2020 Annual Conference Keynote Highlights & Breakout Previews
Dr Diamond Snippet
Dr Ashley Hicks Snippet
2020 WAMFT Annual Conference - Qainlu Ma
WAMFT 2020 Conference - Jennifer Sampson - Mixed Reality Simulation: Relational Hours & COVID
Summary from the 2019 Conference
2019 Annual Conference
WAMFT hosted its 2019 Fall Conference to support the continuing education of our members. The theme of the conference was “Expanding Relationship Paradigms: Practicing Inclusivity in Couple and Family Therapy.” The conference included a pre-conference workshop, in addition to the full conference event.
The event included 7 CEs for the main conference event, including two “tracks” for attendees- an ethics track and a sex therapy track. The conference planning committee applied for CE approval from the American Association for Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), which allowed the CE credits to count toward AASECT Sex Therapy Certification and Renewal.
The keynote presenters were Dr. Steve Harris, who spoke on the topic of discernment counseling, and Dossie Easton, LMFT co-author of The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love.
We received such positive reviews from our members and we are thankful for everyone’s participation.
Our goal is to continue to offer a pre-conference option and curate content that our members can immediately apply in clinical practice.
