Live, four-hour CE training
Queering Therapeutic Conversations
Critical Approaches to the Coming Out and Parental Grief Narratives
Presented by Julie Tilsen, MA, LP, PhD, author of the AASECT award-winning Queering Your Therapy Practice
An interactive, practice-based workshop on working with trans and queer clients and their families beyond the coming out and grief stories, using queer theory to question the narratives that shape therapy and to practice conversations that center justice.
Register for $115Date
Friday, January 22, 2027
9:00 AM to 1:30 PM Pacific
Format
Live on Zoom
Interactive and practice-based
CE credit
4 NBCC hours · 4 AASECT credits
NBCC ACEP No. 7776
Price
$115 $145
Early bird through December 18
Learn directly from the author of Queering Your Therapy Practice
Julie Tilsen’s Queering Your Therapy Practice: Queer Theory, Narrative Therapy, and Imagining New Identities (Routledge, 2021) brings queer theory and narrative therapy together for clinicians, and it received the 2022 AASECT Book Award.
In this live workshop, Julie takes those ideas off the page and into practice, with case vignettes, reflexive questions, and time to try the conversations yourself.
Also by Julie: Therapeutic Conversations with Queer Youth (2013), Narrative Approaches to Youth Work (2018), and Personal Responsibility, Inc. (2026).
Registrants get 20% off the book. Your Routledge discount code for Queering Your Therapy Practice comes in your registration confirmation email, good through March 31, 2027.
Register for $115Why This Training
Critical Approaches to the Coming Out and Parental Grief Narratives
Trans and queer people are facing legislative, existential, and physical threats. For therapists who want justice-doing at the center of their practice, this is a time to build practices that refuse the cultural norms so often built into conventional therapy.
Two stories show up again and again in therapy with trans and queer people and their families. One says coming out is a single, dramatic disclosure every queer person owes the world. The other says that when a child comes out as trans, parents must grieve the child they thought they had. Both sound compassionate. Both can quietly reinforce the norms our clients are pushing against.
In this interactive, practice-based workshop, Julie Tilsen introduces queer theory as a conceptual resource for culturally and relationally responsive approaches to gender and sexuality. Through case vignettes, reflexive questions, and practice-based activities, you will examine the discourses that shape your own ideas about gender, sexuality, identity, and family, and practice conversations that make room for more possibilities.
Register for $115
Your Facilitator
Julie Tilsen, MA, LP, PhD
Julie Tilsen is a therapist, supervisor, author, and educator whose work brings queer theory, narrative therapy, and social construction into everyday clinical practice. She holds a PhD from Tilburg University in Social Construction (Queer Studies/Cultural Studies emphasis) and an MA in Counseling and Psychological Services from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. She is a Licensed Psychologist in Minnesota and a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist-Supervisor Mentor in Canada.
Julie is the author of Queering Your Therapy Practice: Queer Theory, Narrative Therapy, and Imagining New Identities (Routledge, 2021), winner of the 2022 AASECT Book Award, as well as Narrative Approaches to Youth Work (Routledge, 2018), Therapeutic Conversations with Queer Youth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), and Personal Responsibility, Inc. (OR Books, 2026). Her work is featured in counselor training videos from Alexander Street Press and UPG Media.
She has taught graduate courses in family therapy, human sexuality, and counseling queer and trans youth, and has presented internationally on queer theory and therapy. Julie received the Minnesota Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Distinguished Service Award in 2011.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest: Julie Tilsen is the author of books referenced in this training and receives royalties as a published author. Any relevant financial relationships are disclosed at the start of the session.
In This Training, We’ll Explore
Queer Theory as a Clinical Resource
- Concepts and terms fundamental to queer theory and related theoretical resources
- Why affirming practice needs more than acceptance
- Using theory to open up, rather than fix, ideas about gender and sexuality
The Stories That Shape Us
- How medicine, psychology, religion, and media shape clinicians’ ideas about gender, sexuality, and family
- Self-reflexive activities that make those influences visible
- Implicit bias in assessment and diagnosis, and strategies to reduce it
Queering Coming Out
- Critiquing the prevailing discourses around coming out
- Identity as ongoing and relational rather than a single disclosure
- Conversations that follow the client’s preferred story
Beyond the Grief Narrative
- Resisting the parental grief and loss narrative when a child comes out as trans
- Attending to parents’ feelings without centering loss
- Deconstructing discourse, decoupling gender, and articulating parental mission
Relationally Responsive Conversations
- Intersectional conversational practices with trans and queer young people, adults, and families
- Case vignettes and practice-based activities
- Integrating a queer theory-informed practice into your own setting
What You Will Leave Able to Do
Four continuing education hours, four measurable objectives. You will leave with a working grasp of queer theory, a clearer view of the stories shaping your own practice, and conversational practices you can use the next week.
Who It’s For, and How It Runs
Who This Is For
- Marriage and family therapists, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and sex therapists
- Clinicians who work with trans and queer young people, adults, couples, and families
- Supervisors, educators, and graduate-level clinicians who want an affirming practice that goes deeper than acceptance
No background in queer theory is needed. Julie introduces the concepts you need, then you put them to work.
Level: Intermediate. Open to licensed and pre-licensed mental health professionals. It is the responsibility of the attendee to determine whether their licensing board accepts NBCC or AASECT continuing education.
Continuing Education and Credential Fit
NBCC Continuing Education
Lovewell Initiatives, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7776. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Lovewell Initiatives, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
This training is eligible for 4 NBCC continuing education hours. Participants must attend the full session and complete the required evaluation to receive a certificate of completion. It is the responsibility of the attendee to determine whether their licensing board accepts NBCC continuing education hours.
AASECT Continuing Education
This program meets the requirements of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and is approved for 4 CE credits. These CE credits may be applied toward AASECT certification and renewal of certification. Completion of this program does not ensure or guarantee AASECT certification. For further information please contact [email protected]. Lovewell Initiatives is an AASECT Organizational Provider, No. 25-0609-LI. It is the responsibility of the attendee to determine if their state licensing board will accept AASECT CE credits.
Cultural Competency and Implicit Bias
This training addresses implicit bias in assessment and diagnosis and culturally responsive practice with trans and queer clients. Many states and licensing boards set their own cultural competency, implicit bias, or health equity requirements, so check with your board about whether this training counts toward yours.
Full CE policies, refund terms, accommodation requests, and the grievance process are at livelovewell.co/ce-compliance-page.
Registration & Pricing
EARLY BIRD · SAVE $30
$115
Early bird through December 18, 2026. Standard $145 starts December 19.
Register for $115Bringing four or more from your practice?
We offer a group rate for teams. Shared language about gender, sexuality, and family changes how a whole practice works with trans and queer clients, and the case conversations afterward are the point.
Email [email protected] to ask about group pricing and tell us how many you are sending. We register each clinician under their own name and email address so every one of them receives their own CE certificate, and we invoice you once for the group.
Equity Seats
A limited number of pay-what-you-are-able seats are held for clinicians for whom the full rate is a barrier. You receive the same training, the same materials, and the same CE certificate, and no one will know which seat you registered through.
Email [email protected] and we will send you the link. No explanation required, and we do not ask for documentation.
What clinicians say about learning with Lovewell
These reflections come from participants in other 2026 Lovewell Initiatives trainings, shared with their permission. Julie's January workshop is new, so it has no participant feedback yet.
This workshop was a good reminder that holding our own beliefs and making space for a client's, especially when they differ greatly, requires ongoing self-checking. Knowing that validating someone's experience isn't the same as agreeing with them makes that space a lot easier to occupy honestly.
The Reflexive praxis idea was awesome and I believe I do quite a bit of this in my practice and now have a way to latch on to that practice and make it even more intentional and meaningful.
This training challenged me to think deeply about how power and consent show up in my role as a therapist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a background in queer theory?
Is this only for therapists who identify as queer or trans?
Does this training offer AASECT CE credits?
Does this meet a cultural competency or implicit bias requirement?
What license types can attend?
Is the session recorded, and can I watch it later?
What if the cost is a barrier?
What accessibility accommodations are available?
What are the refund, grievance, and certificate policies?
January 22, 2027 · 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM Pacific · Live on Zoom
Better questions make room for better stories
Four hours with Julie Tilsen on queer theory, the narratives that shape our work, and conversations that help trans and queer clients and their families live the lives they prefer. We would love to have you with us.
Register for $115Continuing education compliance
Lovewell Initiatives is an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider™ (ACEP No. 7776). Lovewell Initiatives, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7776. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Lovewell Initiatives, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. It is the responsibility of the attendee to determine whether their licensing board accepts NBCC continuing education hours.
This program meets the requirements of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and is approved for 4 CE credits. These CE credits may be applied toward AASECT certification and renewal of certification. Completion of this program does not ensure or guarantee AASECT certification. For further information please contact [email protected]. AASECT Provider No. 25-0609-LI. It is the responsibility of the attendee to determine if their state licensing board will accept AASECT CE credits.
This program complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Lovewell Initiatives is committed to creating accessible and inclusive learning environments. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request. Please contact [email protected] as early as you can, ideally two weeks before the event, to discuss accessibility needs.
Lovewell Initiatives, LLC · PO Box 6841, Tacoma, WA 98417 · (253) 470-8246 · [email protected] · www.livelovewell.co
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