Shawn Giammattei, PhD

I personally feel called to be a bridge that helps people heal their separations: separations from themselves, from each other, from their communities, from their environment, and from the world/universe. It is in service of this mission that I teach, write, and speak on the subject of gender health, couples, youth, and families. I have had the honor of serving the transgender community for over 20 years.

While it was never my intention to become a” professional queer,” it appears I was called to it. I am a member of the LGBTQ+. I identify as a queer male with a transgender history. I also have had the honor of a being in a relationship with my amazing spouse for over 29 years. We are one of those couples that not only survived, but thrived through a medical transition that started ten years into our relationship. I also walked through all of this with my family, who had their own struggles, but we all became stronger through the process. It can and does happen!

As a clinician and educator, I have gone on the journey to being a Gender Affirmative Therapist. Just because I am a part of the community, doesn’t mean I was automatically a good gender therapist. I had a lot to learn, uncover, and discover about myself, the models I use, and how I approached clients to get to where I am today. And I am always learning.

Needless to say, I bring a lot of knowledge and personal, true-life experience to the trans conversation. I have been on the journey and have helped many clients, families, romantic partners, and providers navigate their own journeys and heal their separations.

Through the Gender Health Training Institute (GHTI), I provide live trainings & workshops, digital interactive courses, coaching, mentorship, and resources to help providers gain confidence in serving trans youth, couples, and families. GHTI represents my still ever-culminating endeavor to bring healing, knowledge, & real solutions to the problems affecting the trans community and their families, as well as guiding providers on their own self-discovery gender journeys along with data driven trainings that will move them from uncertainty to confidence in their gender affirmative practices.

We’re all on a gendered journey. I believe that being able to provide our clients with sincerity and gender-affirming solutions, we as clinicians must become aware and informed about our own journey.

For information on Shawn Giammattei visit genderhealthtraining.com!

Check out other conference recordings from Shawn Giammattei here!

Rick Miller, MSW

Rick Miller, LICSW, is a psychotherapist with over 37 years of clinical experience whose career has evolved beyond practicing psychotherapy into becoming an acclaimed expert in interpersonal dynamics.

Clients and institutions he works with report tremendous satisfaction with their results as a result of his focus on the experiential aspects of day-to-day life and the enhancement of interpersonal connections. Attendees at his speaking engagements consistently rate him higher than most speakers based on his approachable style and inspiring messages.

He is also an author, business consultant, public speaker, and teacher working with individuals and groups across the globe.

He helps clients and audiences learn how to make life more fulfilling by paying particular attention to feelings and using one’s internal body experiences to achieve success. He emphasizes that everyone has every resource they need within themselves by utilizing this awareness rather than pushing it aside.
As a gay man, Rick uses a warm, relational style drawing on his own experiences to create a distinctive model for his clients emphasizing a practical, holistic approach. This paradigm gives attention to the unique ways gay men experience pain, their shared developmental challenges, and experiential opportunities to build comfort and alignment between mind and body. Not only has he written extensively on this topic, he has taught and inspired psychotherapists and medical professionals all over the world.

Rick is a pioneer in creating mind/body and hypnotic scripts for gay men, has trained medical and mental-health providers how to create and use them, and wrote the first-ever book on the topic.

Rick has brought this same model of enhancing richness in interpersonal interactions to the nonprofit organization he founded and of which he is executive director, Gay Sons and Mothers, educating groups, businesses, and individuals about the unique and powerful influence mothers have on their gay sons.

He’s also founded a series for clinicians, Secrets of the Masters, in which he interviews noted authorities in informal settings.

For information on Rick Miller visit rickmiller.biz!

Check out other conference recordings from Rick Miller here!

Lilian Borges, MA, LPC

Lilian Borges, LPC, is an experienced therapist, teacher, presenter, and
podcaster who has treated individuals and couples for more than thirty years.
Being binational herself, she can understand multicultural issues naturally, and
perform and teach psychotherapy in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.

She’s an expert in Ericksonian Hypnosis, which she teaches both nationally and internationally and uses with individuals and couples to become and live their higher selves, and she’s trained professionals in hypnosis around the world for more than two decades. Lilian is part of the Milton Erickson Foundation Intensive Hypnosis Training faculty since 2001 where she trains other mental health professionals in Ericksonian Hypnosis.

She is Certified PACT therapist, and uses her dynamic, experiential, and hypnotic work with couples.

She currently has a private practice in Arizona, where she uses an array of techniques to help her patients with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, pain management, weight management, smoking cessation, etc.

She is co-host (with Rick Miller, LICSW) of the popular podcast Modern Couples.

Check out other conference recordings from Lilian Borges here!

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. & Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D.

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D., partners in life and work, are authors of three New York Times best sellers (Getting The Love You Want; Keeping The Love You Find; and Giving The Love That Heals), Making Marriage Simple, and six other books. Harville is a couple’s therapist with more than 40 years’ experience as an educator, clinical trainer and lecturer whose work has been on Oprah 17 times.
They also are co-creators of Imago Relationship Theory & Therapy, which has spread globally through Imago Relationships International, an organization that has trained over 2,500 therapists in over 62 countries.
In addition to Helen’s partnership with her husband in the co- creation of Imago, she is sole author of Faith and Feminism and And the Spirit Moved Them. She was installed in the Women’s Hall of Fame for her leadership in the global women’s movement.
Harville and Helen believe that how we interact with each other, in all contexts – family, workplace, schools etc. – is the key to our emotional, physical and economic well-being and to the well-being of our children and society. Together, they are committed to the transformation of relationships and to the evolution of a relational culture. To that end, they co-created, with other relational therapists, scientists, and business professionals, a non-profit organization called Quantum Connections that contributes to the creation of a relational culture through the distribution of new insights from the relational sciences, and through Safe Conversations® – a global social movement with the goal of teaching Dialogue to 3.2 billion persons in the next 30 years to help usher in a new, relational civilization.
Helen and Harville have been married for over 40 years, have six children, eight grandchildren and reside in Dallas, Texas and NYC.
www.harvilleandhelen.com
www.safeconversations.com
www.imagorelationships.org

Check out other conference recordings from Harville Hendrix here and from Helen LaKelly Hunt here!

Cristine Toel, LPC

Cristine Toel is a Licensed Professional Counselor at Psychological Counseling Services, Ltd. She is an EMDRIA Certified EMDR therapist, and an EMDRIA Approved Consultant. She is also a member of the ongoing Psychodrama Group at the Arizona Psychodrama Institute, and a specialist in Problematic Sexual Behavior (SASH). She works with adults, adolescents, couples, and families and specializes in cases of complex trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, problematic sexual behavior, betrayal, crisis and difficult life transitions, adult children of alcoholics (and other family of origin dysfunction), and cases involving divorce, remarriage, and blended family concerns.
PCS offers a weekly intensive program (30 hours of individual therapy and 25 hours of group therapy), which provides a therapeutic team approach for clients looking to mend difficult trauma, crisis, and addiction. Cristine finds it fulfilling to work with intensive clients, because it allows her to pursue and help heal deep, historic traumas that are sometimes challenging to address in weekly therapy.
Cristine has a nurturing, down-to-earth approach, and she is passionate about healing trauma, recognizing strengths, and developing an “I-Can” approach to living.  She encourages her clients to trust their ability to handle struggles in life, including conflict, stress, anxiety, depression, boredom, and overall messiness, by adopting healthy coping rather than maladaptive habits, addictions, and escapes. As a result, she has seen many clients experience significant shifts and begin to engage in deeper intimate relationships with the people who love them.

For information on Cristine Toel visit pcsintensive.com/therapist/cristine-toel/!

Cristine Toel is new to our conference! Check out other Couples Conference recordings here!

Terry Real, LICSW

Terry has been a practicing family therapist for more than thirty years, and his
work has been featured on NBC Nightly News, Today, Good Morning America,
the CBS Early Show and Oprah, as well as in The New York Times, Psychology
Today, Esquire, and numerous academic publications.
His most recent book Us: Getting Past You & Me to Build a More Loving
Relationship is a New York Times Bestseller. In 2007 his first book I Don’t Want
to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression quickly
became a National Bestseller.
Terry founded the Relational Life Institute (RLI), which is dedicated to teaching
the general public how to live relational lives and to teaching mental health
professionals the practice of Relational Life Therapy. RLI uses Terry’s work to
advance the concept of “Relational Living” to help people address relational and
psychological health in three critical relationship areas: parenting, coupling, and
workforce effectiveness. The institute offers workshops for couples and
professional trainings around the country as well as support services, books, CD’s
and other products.

For more information on his work, please visit his website, www.terryreal.com.

Check out other conference recordings from Terry Real here!

Lori Weisman, MA, LMHC

Lori Weisman MA LMHC is a trainer, psychotherapist, and coach with over four decades of experience helping thousands of people struggling to rebuild their lives and their relationships.
Her background as a therapist, relationship coach, speech pathologist, and clinical director of brain injury centers gives her a unique understanding of the brain’s functioning and the nuances of couples relationships.
During this time, she crafted and refined her skills to develop a specific method of marriage coaching that is fast, effective, and lasting. She now specializes in offering Couples Intensives because of how well they work.
Lori has turned the Developmental Model into a winning curriculum for couples doing 2 day intensives. She is passionate about this model and has partnered with Ellyn Bader to train therapists and coaches worldwide to learn this innovative and effective model of couples therapy.

For information on Lori Weisman visit loriweisman.com!

Lori Weisman is new to our conference! Check out other Couples Conference recordings here!

Ari Tuckman, PsD

Ari Tuckman, PsyD is a psychologist, certified sex therapist, and ADHD expert. He is a popular and dynamic presenter who routinely earns excellent reviews for his ability to make complex concepts understandable and useful. He has given more than 450 presentations, across America and in nine other countries. He is the author of four books on adult ADHD, including his most recent book, ADHD After Dark: Better Sex Life, Better Relationship.

For information on Ari Tuckman visit adultADHDbook.com!

Check out other conference recordings from Ari Tuckman here!

Stan Tatkin, PysD, MFT

Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, holds a degree in clinical psychology. He is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of A Psychobiological Approach To Couples Therapy® (PACT) which has training programs both nationally and internationally. In addition to his private practice, he teaches and supervises first through third-year family medicine residents at Kaiser Permanente, Woodland Hills, through which he is an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine.

He is co-author with Marion Solomon of “Love and War in Intimate Relationships: Connection, Disconnection, and Mutual Regulation in Couple Therapy” from Norton’s Interpersonal Neurobiology Series. He has also authored “Wired for Love: How Understanding Your Partner’s Brain Can Help You Defuse Conflicts And Spark Intimacy” from New Harbinger, and most recently “We Do: Saying Yes to a Relationship of Depth, True Connection and Enduring“, published by Sounds True.

For information on Stan Tatkin visit thepactinstitute.com!

Check out other conference recordings from Stan Tatkin here!

Tammy Nelson, PhD

Tammy Nelson, PhD, is a renowned expert in the field of sex and couples therapy. She is a TEDx speaker, the host of the podcast The Trouble with Sex, and the author of six books, including Getting the Sex You Want and Open Monogamy: A Guide to Co-Creating Your Ideal Relationship Agreement. She is a Board Certified Clinical Sexologist, a Certified Sex and Couples Therapist, and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and Certified Imago Relationship Therapist and the founder and Executive Director of the Integrative Sex Therapy Institute. She has been featured in hundreds of press articles including in the NY Times, Washington Post, NY Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and a guest on radio, podcasts and on television in the US and around the world. She can be found at www.drtammynelson.com

Check out other conference recordings from Tammy Nelson here!