INTEGRATIVE GENDER & SEXUALITY:
A Somatic Perspective
Register NOW to receive the early bird discount – that's $60 off! Choose early bird pricing at checkout. Members receive an additional $60 off. This special member code was emailed directly to our members. You can become a member or renew your membership (if it expires before 9/21) HERE and the code will be sent to you in your membership confirmation email.
FOR ONE INCREDIBLE DAY…
The diversity of gender- and sexuality-expansive communities is flourishing. Healing and helping professionals need to learn from experts and each other how to better support their LGBTQ+ clients and embrace intersectional perspectives. Join us in conversation and exploration!
This one-day, virtual conference is designed for practitioners, clinicians, bodyworkers, and other professionals serving a diverse client base. It will feature an incredible keynote by the author Hari Ziyad, as well as presentations led by key thinkers and leaders from the SE community. Topics range from non-binary identity and gender dysphoria, to LGBTQ+ youth, non-monogamy–and so much more!
With speakers like Alex Iantaffi, Dedeker Winston, Zaza Sakhat, and many others, you won't want to miss out!
EARN CE'S
By attending, you're eligible to receive continuing education credits as a psychologist, social worker, and other licensed practitioners. We'll even cover the cost! Boards covered include APA and ASWB.
Why Attend?
- Gain valuable insights into the impact of gender and sexuality on your clients' lives, and learn new techniques and approaches to address these complex issues effectively.
- Learn ways to create a safe and inclusive space for your clients to explore their relationship with gender and sexuality.
- Understand best practices in the field to be better equipped to offer your clients the support and guidance they need.
Who Should Attend?
- Anyone interested in gender and sexuality from a SE lens!
- Mental Health Professionals: psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, expressive arts therapists, etc.
- Medical and Alternative Medicine Professionals: medical doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, emergency medical workers, surgeons, obstetricians, midwives, acupuncturists, naturopathic doctors, etc.
2023 Gender & Sexuality Conference
Live Online – Recordings will be available to all registrants
Secure your spot today – just $189 for members and $249 for non-members!
Early Bird Pricing: $189 for non-members and $129 for members!
Thursday September 21, 2023
9am – 4pm MT
speakers
Hear from Emily Jaworski Koriath, Grabriela Gomez, Coral Short, and other experts in the field!
Schedule
Keynotes, discussions, and presentations covering a myriad of essential topics in gender and sexuality.
Register
Just $189 for members and $249 for non-members. Early Bird pricing: $129 for members and $189 for non-members for a full day of presentations, discussions, and chances to connect with your colleagues!
SPEAKERS
Hari Ziyad
Hari Ziyad (he/they) is certified death doula, screenwriter, the bestselling author of Black Boy Out of Time (Little A, 2021) and the creator and former Editor-in-Chief of RaceBaitr. Originally from Cleveland, OH, they received their BFA in Film and Television from New York University, and they currently reside in Los Angeles, CA. Their writing has been featured in Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Gawker, Out, Ebony, Mic PasteMagazine, AFROPUNK, in the peer-reviewed academic journal Critical Ethnic Studies, and in the anthology The Future is Black: Afropessimism, Fugitivity and Radical Hope in Education, among other publications. They are currently at work developing a few television and film projects, and were previously a staff writer on The Neighborhood (CBS), a script consultant on David Makes Man (OWN), as well as Managing Editor of Black Youth Project, and an Assistant Editor of Vinyl Poetry & Prose.
Dedeker Winston
Dedeker Winston is a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, relationship coach, author, podcast host, and outspoken advocate for polyamory and non-traditional relationships. She is the co-creator of the Multiamory podcast, a research-backed relationship advice show with over 400 episodes. She is the author of The Smart Girl's Guide to Polyamory: Everything You Need to Know about Open Relationships, Non-Monogamy, and Alternative Love, as well as Multiamory: Essential Tools for Modern Relationships. Her work has been featured in NPR, Oprah Daily, BBC News, Vice, and more. She has written on non-monogamy for the Gottman Institute blog and has presented on non-monogamy in the workplace at the Google campus in Seattle.
Akilah Riley-Richardson, MSW, CCTP is a published researcher, Relational Healing Facilitator, couples therapist and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. She has been in clinical practice for sixteen years and has experience working with couples and persons practicing consensual non monogamy, both in the Caribbean and internationally. Akilah also specializes in work with sexual minorities and racial minorities. As an educator and facilitator, she has provided consultancy services to organizations such as NASTAD (National Alliance for State and Territorial AIDS directors), I-TECH (International Training and Education Center for Health) and CVC (Caribbean Vulnerable Communities). She has presented in various spaces including the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, the Academy of Therapy Wisdom and the Black Mental health Symposium. She has been a Social Work Educator at the University of the Southern Caribbean since 2012. She is the founder of the BIPOC Relational Healing Institute and creator of the P.R.I.D.E model.
Emily Jaworski Koriath (DMA, RYT-200, PSEP) is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In her private practice, she combines her training in Somatic Experiencing with body awareness and functional pedagogy to help artists find more joy and creativity in their work and in their lives. Prior to her appointment at UAB, she taught diction, vocal pedagogy, and conducted mainstage musicals at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.
Through her work as a Unitarian Universalist music minister, she has completed training in Systems Theory, Ethics, Multicultural Competency, and Examining White Supremacy Culture. She participated in “Undoing Racism for Community Organizers” presented by the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond in New Orleans. During her doctoral coursework at Boston University, she worked closely with choral conductor and human rights activist Andre de Quadros, studying his method of Empowering Song for choral organizations and disenfranchised populations, teaching music to incarcerated youth in Massachusetts.
Emily is the editor and primary author of “Trauma and the Voice: A guide for singers, teachers, and other practitioners,” published by Rowman & Littlefield in conjunction with the National Association of Teachers of Singing and scheduled for release in September 2023.
Rebecca Christ
Rebecca Christ, LMSW, MPA, is passionate about supporting health professionals and those they serve in building a holistic,
trauma-informed approach to well-being. She has worked in the field for 15 years in direct practice and community advocacy
positions and macro-level work in the federal government and higher education sectors. As faculty at Arizona State University’s School of Social Work, she has taught and developed coursework for the Integrative Health Initiative since 2014. Rebecca also founded Be ThySelf, LLC, which provides holistic wellness and mindful embodiment skills training.
Coral Short
Coral Short is a non binary white settler. They completed their SEP in February 2023 with Dea Parsanishi. Their specialities are LGBTI, recovery, creativity, and radical sexuality. They are a graduated Community Dharma Teacher at True North Insight in Montréal, Tiohtià:ke, and co-lead Queer Sangha. Coral has also worked with the Stretch Festival in Berlin for several years at the Somatische Akademie Berlin. They run anti-racist courses and groups for their meditation, somatic, and queer communities. They have been an international queer organizer, activist, and artist for the last two decades.
Sarah Smith, LCSW, MS is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Willow Center for Integrative
Health PLLC. She is a therapist who specializes in exploring gender and sexuality as well as helping family
systems and couples navigate how identity and trauma can impact the system. Sarah provides individual,
couples/relational, and family therapy, and somatic experiencing. She also engages in training and
consulting in schools, churches, and organizations around gender and sexuality, trauma, and
neurodivergence.
Gabriela Gomez is a queer Latinx femme, a healing practitioner and facilitator who holds a Master’s in Educational Psychology and has completed her advanced level training in Somatic Experiencing. Her training has taken place largely in community settings that center youth and the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. She has particular expertise in the migrant experience, intergenerational trauma, gender identity development and diverse sexuality. She is consistently amazed and inspired by the wisdom and intelligence of the body and nervous system, and deeply honored to guide her clients in becoming more aware of their innate capacities and gifts through somatic exploration.
Alex Iantaffi
Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT (they/them) is a family therapist, WPATH certified gender specialist and mentor, AASECT certified sex therapist and supervisor, Somatic ExperiencingⓇ practitioner, AAMFT approved clinical supervisor, and author. Alex is a Founding Member and Past Chair of the Trans and Queer interest network of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and the current President of the Minnesota Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (MAMFT). They have researched, presented and published extensively on gender, disability, sexuality, relationships, and HIV. They are a trans masculine, nonbinary, bi queer, polyamorous, disabled, Italian immigrant and parent who has been living on Dakota and Anishinaabe territories, currently known as Minnesota since 2008. Alex is the author of award-winning book “Gender Trauma: healing cultural, social, and historical gendered trauma” and co-author of the books “How to UnderstandYour Gender: a practical guide for exploring who you are”, “Life Isn’t Binary”, “How To Understand Your Sexuality”, and “Hell Yeah Self-Care: a Trauma-Informed Workbook”. They also host the podcast Gender Stories.
Victoria Giles-Vazquez
Victoria Giles-Vazquez, LPC, RYT is a licensed professional counselor and owns her private practice, Calma Counseling and
Wellness LLC, in Denver, Colorado. She loves working with individuals and families across the lifespan. Victoria focuses on
implementing culturally relevant skills for the LGBTQ+ and Latin/e and other BIPOC communities.She is a trainer for
Envision: You, a non-profit focused on addressing health disparities in the LGBTQ+ community. Victoria teaches behavioral
health professionals culturally relevant skills when working with LGBTQ+ identified individuals. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, where she teaches within the Department of Counseling Psychology.
Zaza Sakhat
Zaza Sakhat (she/her), LICSW, SEP is the founder and owner of Chrysalis Therapy & Wellness,
a psychotherapy private practice that provides integrative, holistic clinical treatment for
promoting child, adolescent, and family mental health and well-being since 2015 in Worcester,
MA. The mission of the practice is to foster the healing process of children, adolescents, and
families as they transform through experiencing safe and therapeutic relationships to overcome
adversity, trauma, and maladaptive behaviors. The practice provides effective
psychotherapeutic treatment models needed for clients to achieve their goals through accessing
individual, group, and family therapy.
Why Somatic Experiencing?
“I have patients who are off all of their medications….who no longer suffer from panic attacks….who are no longer haunted by traumatic visions. SE is the only method I have found that consistently helps people reorganize their nervous systems and greatly reduce, if not completely erase, trauma symptoms. Although I understand that the SE™ techniques are grounded in biology, the results are nothing short of miraculous.”
“I’ve found SE to be the most fundamental work I do with clients. I’m a clinical psychotherapist, dance therapist, Craniosacral therapist, pre- and perinatal practitioner and I have two masters degrees. But what SE offered me has worked more than any other skill I’ve been trained in. It’s so basic, intuitively supportive and safe for clients. No matter what happens I know I can resort to slowing down and resourcing. SE is wonderful work.”
“SE provides the basic natural healing and core nervous system skills for all the work I do, and its natural mindfulness as well. It helps clients attune to what's happening in their bodies, slow down and pause fast energies, wake up and balance sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. These basic and natural SE practices and tools help clients re-enter a traumatized or dissociated body slowly, at their own pace, and gradually (for some) more safely.”
Schedule
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2023
All times are listed in US Mountain Time
9:00am – 10:45am | Keynote: Hari Ziyad –
Somatic Healing, Gender Identity, and Intersectionality: Navigating the Path to Wholeness
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Learning Objectives:
Participants will explore how to make connections between bodily sensations and gendered emotional and psychological experiences.
Participants will learn how embracing and affirming gender identity can be a catalyst for healing and self-discovery, and how somatic practices can facilitate this transformative journey.
Participants will explore strategies and techniques to ensure that somatic practices and healing approaches are inclusive and welcoming to individuals of diverse gender identities.
Participants will gain insights into how somatic practices can support activists in navigating the emotional and physical challenges of advocating for gender diversity, inclusion, and equity.
Participants will uncover how these insights can be used as part of a fully intersectional approach to somatic healing and applied to experiences such as race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.
11:00am – 12:30pm | Individual Presentations –
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How to Talk About Gender Identity with Caregivers of Trans & Gender-Expansive Youth with Rebecca Crist & Victoria Giles-Vazquez
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Learning Objectives:
Participants will apply cultural relevancy tools while working with Trans and Gender Expansive Youth and their caregivers in clinical settings.
Participants will expand knowledge focused on terminology and gender affirming language.
Participants will learn how to create affirming and inclusive clinical environments for LGBTQ+ clients.
Participants will utilize somatic practices for personal distress tolerance, especially while engaging in difficult conversations around marginalized identities.
Participants will apply tools for increasing attunement between Trans & Gender Expansive Youth and their families through the lens of gender affirmative care.
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Listening to our bodies: Mapping Preferred Territories of Identities with Raji Manjari
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Learning Objectives:
Participants will begin to identify the connections between gender, gender essentialism and ableism.
Participants will be able to compile language that is identity affirming of themselves and those around, at work/community etc.
Participants will be able to identify their own lineage of who taught them to question gender, examples of how they might have subverted gender at different times in their lives.
Participants will learn about history of gender non-conforming activism and the current work especially online which we believe can aid in further education.
Participants will learn language to engage in a compassionate journey towards unlearning gender binary by creating grounding and orienting practices.
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Gender Affirming Voice Care with Emily Jaworski Koriath
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Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to describe some common challenges in aligning voice and gender.
Participants will be able to Explain the roles of various care providers for clients seeking more support in their voice care.
Participants will be able to Utilize tools from SE to support clients experiencing vocal dysphoria.
Participants will be able to Identify some of the ways that clients may attempt to modify their own voices, especially behaviors that might result in decreased vocal health.
Participants will be able to Analyze what elements of gender-affirming voice care feel applicable in the participant’s current practice.
12:45pm – 2:15pm | Individual Presentations –
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Treating Systemic Trauma in Couples Therapy: Building Relational Privilege with Akilah Riley-Richardson
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Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to explain the concept of Responsible Externalizing and the value of this in therapy with LGBTQI couples.
Participants will be able to apply at least one tool for assessing the degree of Relational Privilege and the impact of systemic trauma on LGBTI couples.
Participants will be able to explain how systemic trauma can be specifically treated in couples therapy.
Participants will be able to define and understand the concept of a liberatory connection.
Participants will be able to implement at least one strategy for building liberatory connections in couples therapy.
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The Embodied Identity: Advanced Concepts using Somatic Experiencing in Gender Affirming Care working with LGBTQ+ Youth and their Families with Zaza Sakhat
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Learning Objectives:
Participants will deepen their understanding of gender identity in children and adolescents including current language and terminology.
Participants will become more knowledgeable of the particular issues facing transgender and non-binary youth.
Participants will learn best practices by using Somatic Experiencing to help build efficacy in working with LGBTQ+ youth and their families.
Participants will learn how to work with families who struggle with acceptance.
Participants will build advocacy skills through a case study presentation.
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Non-Monogamy for Non-Majors: Supporting Clients in Non-Traditional Relationships with Dedeker Winston
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Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to identify at least 2 barriers to care facing CNM clients.
Participants will be able to explain the differences between multiple types of CNM practices.
Participants will be able to identify at least 3 ways in which trauma can uniquely present for CNM clients.
Participants will be able to integrate multiple, different SE interventions when working with CNM clients.
Participants will be able to analyze their own own biases and assumptions that may present obstacles to supporting CNM clients.
2:30pm – 4:00pm | Individual Presentations –
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Supporting Clients Struggling with Gender Dysphoria with Alex Iantaffi
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Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to explain what gender dysphoria is.
Participants will be able to list the various aspects of gender dysphoria.
Participants will be able to identify at least 2 somatic principles and interventions that can be used to address gender dysphoria.
The Path of Gender: Somatics and Gender as Journey with Gabriela Gomez & Coral Short
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Learning Objectives
Participants will build a foundational understanding of the process of gender socialization and acculturation and its impact on bodies and cultures.
Participants will learn new exercises that they can use with clients to explore gender at a somatic level, that can be particularly helpful when working with trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse clients.
Participants will develop an awareness of their own embodied reactions to gender as a construct and experience the fluidity and flexibility of gender beyond social construction.
Participants will gain new insight into their own gendered experiences, including how they are gendered, how they might like to experience gender differently, and how gender may evolve through the lifespan.
Participants will learn how to expand capacity in their own nervous systems to support their trans, nonbinary and gender diverse clients.
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No More Overriding and Overcontaining: Using SE to Challenge Gender Binary Expectations with Sarah Smith
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Learning Objectives:
Participants will identify and define language specific to the gender spectrum and gender binary expectations.
Participants will learn ways that people across the gender spectrum are socialized to mask vulnerabilities and impulses to comply with rigid binary expectations.
Participants will review SE skills that could help clients begin to notice how gender expectations have limited their emotional expression – what they have been overriding or overcontaining.
Participants will review SE skills that can help clients regain access to their natural impulses to express anger and vulnerability.
Participants will review SE skills that could help clients complete motor plans connected to the fight, flight, freeze responses.
REGISTER TODAY
Thursday September 21, 2023
9am – 4pm MT
SPONSORS
We'd like to thank our incredible sponsors, without whom this event wouldn't be possible!
Your Dogtor – Bronze Level Sponsor
Providing fluffy wisdom to heal trauma, be mindful, and build resilience. Follow @yourdogtor to awaken joy in your heart and see me in beautiful Oregon.