In-Person Pre-Conference Workshops

This Advanced SAR serves an important purpose in providing space for professionals who have already begun their reflective journey and done some of their own work in previous SARs where they can dig deeper. The growing visibility of relationships and families outside of the monogamous structure has led many practitioners and educators to seek more information so that they may become more culturally attuned with clients who are engaged or want to engage in consensual nonmonogamy.

SARs are instrumental in a sexuality educator, counselor, or therapist’s training because we know that all of the information in the world will only serve us to a point, if we have not looked within ourselves to understand our own biases and narratives as well. Noting the increased demand for information and training around consensual/ethical nonmonogamy and polyamory, this Advanced SAR serves a similar purpose by inviting participants to look within themselves to identify their own biases, values and beliefs. Through media viewing, reflective and experiential exercises, and small and large group discussions and dialogues, this space will get to the core of what we have been told about relationships and intimacy and how those messages might influence us when we work with our clients as educators, counselors or therapists.

We will explore what structures and systems have informed these narratives and how compulsory monogamy is pervasive in the overculture. As we critically examine these messages, we also hope to foster and facilitate imagination and autonomy as individuals and as a collective.

What do we want relationships to mean, rather than what we’ve been told?
What can partnership and commitment be, rather than what it’s looked like before?
Does ethical non-monogamy offer us new possibilities regardless of whether we intentionally choose monogamy or not?

Must have completed a previous AASECT SAR to participate.

8 AASECT CE Credits (AASECT CE Credits Only)

Member $550
Rate increases to $650 after 4/21/23

Non-member $600
Rate increases to $700 after 4/21/23

Student Member $450
Price increases to $550 after 4/21/23

Non-member Student $500
Rate increases to $600 after 4/21/23

Coltan J. Schoenike, MS, MFT-IT, LAMFT (they/them) is a training marriage and family therapist based in Ho-Chunk, Menominee, and Dakota lands colonially known as Menomonie, Wisconsin working under the supervision of Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT. Coltan received their Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development & Family Studies with a concentration in gender and sexuality education, their Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, and their Graduate Certificate in Sex Therapy, all from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Coltan is also a first-year PhD student in the Couple and Family Therapy program at Antioch University New England. As a queer, trans, and nonbinary therapist, much of Coltan’s work is focused around social justice, affirming care for clients of gender, sexual, erotic, and relational diversity (GSERD), and inclusive sex therapy and education. Outside of their clinical work and their doctoral studies, Coltan also works as Instructor Support for the University of Guelph Intensive Sex Therapy Training Program, Editorial Assistant for the journal, Sexual and Relationship Therapy: International Perspectives on Theory, Research and Practice, and adjunct teaches in the Sex Therapy Graduate Certificate Program at their alma mater, UW-Stout.

Jeong Eun Park, MS, LMFT (Zie/He) is a licensed marriage and family therapist living on stolen land on Turtle Island. Zie is occupying Anishinaabe and Dakota territories known by the colonizer name Minnesota since zie was brought to Turtle Island as a commodity in 1971 as a Korean adoptee.

Currently, Jeong Eun is a doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with the goal of a Doctorate in Education (EdD) with an emphasis on Diversity and Equity. Jeong Eun also is a show producer of Transcendence Cabaret, a primarily BI&POC trans/non binary/two spirit troupe, one of a handful of such on Turtle Island. Jeong Eun is a state trainer with the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI MN) with their In Our Own Voice (IOOV) program. Jeong Eun works within zir communities which includes trans/non binary, kink and leather, polyam, fellow adoptees, and sex workers.

To follow him, his Twitter handle is @ridingburritos, Instagram is @bab5mom, and his troupe page is transcendencecabaret.com

Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT (they/them) is a family therapist, WPATH certified gender specialist, AASECT certified sex therapist, Somatic ExperiencingⓇ practitioner, clinical supervisor, and author.

Alex is Chair of the Trans and Queer interest network of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and 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.

You can find out more about them at www.alexiantaffi.com or follow them on Twitter and Instagram @xtaffi and @genderstories

Markie L. C. Twist, PhD, LMFT, LMHC, CSE-S (she/they) was born and raised in a small village on the road-system in the state of Alaska. They are Teaching Faculty in the Department of Applied Psychology in the Doctoral and Master of Arts Programs in Couple and Family Therapy at Antioch University New England. Dr. Twist is a licensed marriage and family therapist and mental health counselor, as well as a clinical fellow and approved supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and certified sexuality educator and supervisor through the American Association for Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists.

Dr. Twist is co-author of the books, The Internet Family: Technology in Couple and Family Relationships and Focused Genograms: Intergenerational Assessment of Individuals, Couples, and Families (2nd ed.). Markie also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Sexual and Relationship Therapy: International Perspectives on Theory, Research and Practice and is co-editor of the book Eco-Informed Practice: Family Therapy in Age of Ecological Peril. In addition, Markie serves as a session instructor at the University of Guelph. To learn more about Dr. Twist visit: drmarkie.com.